Australian Telco Optus To Drop 5,000-Strong Apple Desktop Fleet

Australian telco Optus is planning to can its 5,000-strong Mac desktop fleet, citing iinvesting in platforms for growthi as a reason for a move to Windows. The change is part of an overall revamp of the telcois IT infrastructure and follows various cost-cutting measures introduced after Optusi acquisition by Asia-Pacific giant SingTel. An article in News Interactive today has the details:

Optus was now in the process of moving all its users to Windows-based machines, insiders said.

In recent years, the Windows machines have started to push aside Apple in Optus, grabbing about 50 per cent of its 10,000 desktops.

Key to the "IT transformation" project is an acceleration of the move to bring Optus software platforms together with those of its parent SingTel, a process that began this year when the two groups joined their SAP financial systems together.

These are now run from Singapore and similar projects are under way across the main software platforms in the two companies.

"Now that we have cut costs, we are looking to invest in platforms for growth," one senior Optus manager said.

Optus uses Oracle for database management, Siebel customer relationship management software, Teradata for business intelligence software, middleware provider BEA and Microsoftis Exchange for its email systems.

Optus has used the Mac since its beginnings in 1992, and at one point had been Appleis largest corporate customer in the world. You can read the article in full at NEWS.com.au.