UN seeks over $5bn

The United Nations (UN) secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has proposed a budget of just over $5 billion to cover the work of the UN Secretariat for the next two years, states Xinhua Net.

Ban highlighted the continuing costs of implementing a new ICT system to help the world body better plan and manage its resources, personnel needs and reporting process. He also drew attention to the expense of training related to International Public Sector Accounting Standards.

Ban says: "Without this kind of capital budgeting arrangement for ICT, it will be impossible to overcome systemic under-investment in ICT, which has seen the Secretariat fall far behind other organisations in overall effectiveness and efficiency.”

Fujitsu has been awarded a £66 million (R836 million) deal to manage ICT for The Highland Council in the UK, as well as ICT for surrounding schools, reports Public Technology.net.

The new ICT systems and infrastructure aims to be energy-efficient and will achieve annual efficiency savings for The Highland Council of 2.5% per year.

Councillor Carolyn Wilson, chairman of The Highland Council Resources Committee, says: “This new contract will offer the council and all the staff a number of interesting opportunities for new, improved and flexible ways of working in the future and allow significant investment in new ICT systems and infrastructure for both corporate and school curriculum ICT.”

Wyse Technology has integrated its desktop provisioning software with the NetSupport School software to develop effective ICT management for learning and teaching, says Reuters.

From an ICT support point of view, Wyse provides classroom computers that are automatically

updated and maintained centrally and supports all of the latest curriculum software including multimedia applications and peripherals such as whiteboards, Web cams and projectors.

"By combining Wyse WSM and NetSupport School the two companies will be able to offer a much more robust and complete solution to education institutions," says Chris Lovesey, marketing manager at NetSupport.