Assorted Australian Business News

With all the things happening in Australia, business visa holders are now raring to learn about the latest developments. After all, their investments are the ones in the line here. Anything that happens here will certainly have a big impact on them.


And as it turns out, there are indeed a lot of things happening in the Australian business scene. Over the past few months, there has been several major upheavals in some of the countrys biggest companies. Also there have been several major deals that were made in the business arena. All of these are expected to affect both big and small businesses alike.


One of the major news makers here would be still be unresolved deal between information technology giant IBM and Australias largest banking firm Westpac. IBM has been providing IT outsourcing services for the banks operation for over ten years now. The contract between the two companies is estimated to be in the vicinity of .3 billion in the initial years of operations alone.


However, since late last year, it was hinted by some Westpac insiders that the contract with IBM might not be renewed by the company. They pointed out several misunderstandings that the two entities have gone through in the past few years as some of the things that might affect Westpacs decision. One such misunderstanding occurred in 2006, when Westpac and IBM had a disagreement over security concerns.


Another event that observers say might be a hint of an eventual split between the two was the development of Westpac of its own information system. The new system was tested by the bank in March of this year, with successful results. The banks officials said that, based on the results, they are now considering to utilize the new infrastructure for the banks operations. Some believe that this may serve as a fall back in case the deal with IBM indeed doesnt go through.


On the other hand, Australias largest telecommunications provider Telstra is also making it to the business news lately. This occurred after they inked a deal with the National Broadband Networks main managing company NBN Co. to serve as a reseller of the networks services. It should be noted that Telstra was one of the companies that bid for the development of the network in 2008. However, their proposal was eventually scrapped by the government. Analysts say that Telstras moves can be considered a wise one, as they will be able to take advantage of the set up more.




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