With online banking there are costs to be cut and profits made. One wonders why business seems so slow on the uptake, despite extensive marketing and education programmes embarked on by financial institutions.

The spate of profit warnings, including one from Oracle, made international IT headlines last week, while locally Aqua Online bucked the trend.

The egg, one of the most perfect protein sources, is a good analogy for training, an issue that is becoming ever more pivotal to companies` competitive-edge.

It is increasingly the duty of business users to distil their business experience into user requirement specifications for e-commerce and other IT-enabled solutions.

IBM`s aggressive push through the channel has its benefits and downfalls, and it`s reassuring to see that the IT powerhouse is not immune to its own problems.

BTG Business Solutions, formerly known as Usko Software, has initiated a campaign to target the high-end corporate market.

Oracle SA says the local version of the Oracle Human Resources Management System (HRMS) has been accepted for incorporation into the global release of Oracle`s HRMS Product Suite.

Integrated Card Technology (ICT) says it has changed the way in which it initialises or formats a microchip for use in a smart card.

This week: Metamorphic viruses are a nightmare waiting to happen, and hackers would have us believe they are really just nice, misunderstood people who are plying their trade in our best interests.

Following M-Web`s loudly proclaimed restriction of its content and services, it would appear that most other local Internet service providers are confident in their ability to sustain loyalty in their customer bases.

Siltek`s disastrous interim numbers, and the associated massive drop in its share price, dominated local IT headlines last week.

M-Web`s plan to close its portals to non-M-Webbers is either a brilliant business move, or one of the dumbest we have seen in a while.

This week: Things get spicy after portal 192.com publishes the Beckhams` address, the creator of the destructive I Love You virus insists he`s not a bad person, and the Valentine`s Day virus massacre is averted.