Listed recruiter Candle Australia Limited (ASX:CND) has forecast its full year net profit after tax for the year ending June 30, 2005 to increase by about 50% to approximately $6.9 million.

Melbourne-based software company Agent Oriented has won a contract to supply the US Air Force with intelligent agent software that allows military personnel to evaluate different rules of engagement.

Global Health, a subsidiary of software group Working Systems Solutions (ASX:WSS) has launched an online breast cancer database for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Sites across every state in Australia and New Zealand are now linked to provide one of the world's largest resources for investigating familial breast cancer.

The mobile content market in Australia is set to explode, according to a new study.

IDC has recently released the results for the Australia total PC monitor market in Q1 2005. IDC found that the market recovered from the previous quarter, posting a 3% sequential growth, and declining 2% from the same time last year.

The Australian economy is softening but demand for IT executives continued to rise in May, according to a new report. However, the demand for senior IT people still lags way behind demand for executives from all other sectors.

Yahoo! Australia & NZ today has announced the beta release of a new email photo-sharing feature called PhotoMail (http://au.photomail.mail.yahoo.com) which is available for free from Yahoo! Mail.

It is with great sadness and trepidation but, unfortunately, not surprise that we greet the news of a massive ICT trade deficit blowout in 2004 to $19 billion. The greatest tragedy, however, is the deafening silence with which our policy makers have responded.

Australian IT supply chain services specialist, Dowling Consulting, has appointed four consultants. Mike Andrews, Fred Lorensini, John Wise
and Russell Murphy join the company as it enters a growth phase.

Linuxvendor Red Hat plans to release  a directory server based on Netscape technology within weeks.

The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) has selected the ManageSoft software management suite to automate its security patch management, software deployment and IT business intelligence.

In an unusual strategy of openly belittling a competitor's technology, Sun Microsystems has enlisted the aid of a new client, using a small contract win in Canberra as a platform to issue an extraordinary attack on the hardware products of Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

Job vacancies in the ICT sector jumped upwards by a massive 8.69% in May, according to a recent survey of internet advertisements.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has called for creation of a new body to represent ICT interests, after the release of a report showing a massive ICT trade deficit blowout.

Last year proved to be a challenging year for outsourcers as Australian organisations moved towards adopting a selective outsourcing approach, according to research group IDC.

Networking software supplier, eServGlobal Limited (ASX:ESV), has forecast a more than $37 million revenue, representing 30% growth over the FY04 figure of AUD$28.95million.

A new cut price IT recruitment firm has launched a recruitment fee war, promising to chop around $7,000 off the fee for companies recruiting a permanent IT worker.

We wish to issue a clarification to our article of 2 June, 2006, titled "Multimedia Vic Report says Australian IT Lacks Direction". Our statement that the report was called the ICT Skills Snapshot was in fact not correct. The report, produced by the Centre for Innovative Industry Economic Research (CIIER), was in fact titled ICT Skills Workshop and its conclusions will be used to support the ICT Skills Snapshot to be produced by Multimedia Victoria.

Web and email content security provider Clearswift has appointed two new sales personnel. Joining the company are Trevor Laughton as enterprise relationship manager and Edward Sawkins as presales engineer. Laughton has extensive experience in IT sales, planning and business development for products such as Citrix, Microsoft and Network Security infrastructure. Sawkins has worked in a range of IT security positions including test analyst with the Commonwealth Bank, internet analyst with British Energy and positions with Integralis Ltd and Renishaw PLC.

VPN technology company, Aventail Corporation has appointed Peter Watson as systems consultant for Australia and New Zealand. Watson joins Aventail from Fortinet where he was the regional sales engineer for Australia and New Zealand.  He previously worked at Telstra for 15 years where he had key involvement in the design and roll-out of the first digital dialup remote access network in Australia. He has also held engineering and sales support positions at Ascend Communications/Lucent Technologies and Cosine Communications.

A report called the ICT Skills Snapshot, produced under the auspices of Victorian Government agency, Multimedia Victoria, concludes that ICT in Victoria and Australia is currently lacking direction.

ISP Chariot Limited (ASX:CTI) has continued its growth through acquisitions strategy with an agreement to purchase part of the business of Adelaide-based ISP, AirNet Commercial Australia Ltd.

US-based mobile workforce solutions provider ViryaNet,has established a subsidiary in Australia, ViryaNet Pty Ltd (ViryaNet Australia), with the acquisition of mobile software provider e-Wise Solutions, based in Melbourne.

More than half of a sizeable sample of North American firms, both large and small, have indicated that they have no plans to offshore their IT functions.

Worldwide network security appliance and software revenue was up 5% between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005, and is forecast to grow 27% to US$1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2006.

Oracle Australia today announced that it will re-launch the JD Edwards brand and lead its manufacturing and distribution go-to-market strategy with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

Open Source service provider, Cybersource has launched an Open Source Fundraiser CD Project for charities and non-profit organisations.

Dimension Data has made three new appointments in Australia, David Solsky, Ronnie Altit and Colin Andersen, in the area of storage and managed services.

ERP and software devlopment recruiter GuruSearch has appointed Alison Bucknall as operations manager, online businesses. Bucknall has been appointed to manage sales, development and deployment of GuruSearch's new web based employment sites including www.resumewriter.com.au, www.erp.com.au, and www.softwaredevelopers.com.au. Bucknall brings to the role a number of years experience in the IT and Human Resources industries, a Bachelor's degree in HR and Marketing, as well as her strong industry experience working in a senior rRecruitment position at GuruSearch.

Communications solutions provider LongReach Group (ASX:LRX) has announced a healthy pre-tax profit in the company’s full year results for the year ending 31 March 2005.

Broadband provider, Datafast Telecommunications Ltd (ASX: DFT) has announced that it is on track to post a record operating EBITDA for the year with a surge in earnings for the June half.

National ICT Australia Ltd (NICTA) founding chairman, Neville Roach AO, has announced his decision not to seek reappointment and to retire from the position.Roach has held the position of Chairman since NICTA’s incorporation in September 2002.

IT salary increases have been relatively modest over the past year, despite growing skills shortages, according to a new survey.

Wireless broadband provider Unwired Group (ASX:UNW) today announced it had signed its 25,000th subscriber.

Food giant Campbell Arnott's has implemented a $4 million network-based IP virtual private network (VPN) using AT&T as the solution provider.

The Catholic Education Office, Parramatta, is deploying a high speed wireless network from Cisco Systems to its 75 schools in the western Sydney.

Microsoft enterprise solutions integrator Avanade has appointed Matt Crowe asf practice director, technology infrastructure. Having joined Avanade in 2001, Crowe has had a number of positions within the company including project management, pre-sales support and senior architect. Before joining Avanade, Crowe spent four years with Unisys as network implementation manager. Crowe has also run his own technology business, Western Australian-based technology integrator, Total Support Services.

Maxtor has appointed Edwin Tien as country manager for Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney. Tien has previously held positions as marketing manager of ViewSonic Australia; product manager at TechPacific Australia; and product manager at Ingram Micro Australia. Craig Davis, the former ANZ country manager for Maxtor since 2000, will take on the role of sales and marketing manager, Asia-Pacific for the branded products group at Maxtor, based in Maxtor’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore.

Telecommunications vendor, Ericsson Australia and New Zealand has appointed Rob Donato as key account manager and head of the Ericsson Telstra and TelstraClear business units.  He replaces Mark Williams, who led the unit for the past 12 months and has left to join Amdocs. Donato joined Ericsson Australia in 1996 as account director in the enterprise division. In 1999 Donato took up the role of general manager services within the Telstra business unit, and in September 2004 he was appointed director 3GIS.  Prior to joining Ericsson, Donato held executive roles with Optus, Fujitsu and Unisys.

The ACS (Australian Computer Society) today released the results of its annual ICT Employment Survey for 2004 - indicating jobs in the local ICT industry are picking up but unemployment levels remain above the national average.