CFO Expectations of IT


Follow us





Co-operative Group targets £2m saving through application compatibility testing

New software brings greater control over apps, and more efficiency

The Co-Operative Group is targeting a £2 million saving through better application compatibility testing.

The company, which has businesses in food, insurance, funerals, banking and pharmacy, said it had implemented the App-DNA compatibility testing system from AppTitude.

By implementing the system it was able to drive a Citrix-based application and desktop virtualisation project, as well as a flexible and remote working scheme as it schedules a move to a new head office building within Manchester, it said.

Registration is free, and gives you full access to our extensive white paper library, case studies & analysis, downloads & speciality areas, and more.

Ian Cawson, technical architect at the Co-operative Group, told Computerworld UK: “A couple of years ago there was an IT sprawl all over the place. We needed to make some key upgrades, including to Microsoft Server 2008 and Windows 7, alongside the virtualisation, and we had to know the potential impact.”

The company implemented the AppTitude system in 2008 and has been extending it across the business since then. “The software gives us a clear green, amber or red light for any application project, so we know exactly where we stand and what action needs to be taken,” Cawson said.

The virtualisation project has seen 200 applications virtualised, and 80 legacy applications retired. Cawson said that using a more centralised setup, the company requires fewer resources and less time for any upgrade, and can apply patches more easily.

The company expects to cut carbon emissions by 35 percent over the next six years, aided by the virtualisation project.



Email Updates

CIO Newsletters: Expert insight, advice and tools for technology, business, leadership and the CIO career.


Send to a friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.


CIO White Papers

The cloud 2015 vision

Cloud computing is an important transition and a paradigm shift in IT services delivery - one that promises large gains in efficiency and flexibility at a time when demands on data centers are growing exponentially. The tools, building blocks, solutions, and best practices for cloud computing are evolving and challenges to deploying cloud solutions need to be considered.

The consumerisation of technology

iPads are the must-have fad. Android is the rising mobile platform -- Everywhere you turn, the news is about personal, smart, mobile devices and their impact on business and on IT.

Big data analytics

Broadly, there are two ways to think of Big Data technologies. The first is as an extension of what many organisations are already doing with business analytics. Gaining insight from business information is something that has been happening for decades, but the challenges and opportunities are now greater than ever before.

Virtualisation: benefits, challenges and solutions

The majority of organisations have already implemented server virtualisation and most intend to implement additional server virtualisation during the next year. The primary factors driving the movement to deploy server virtualisation are cost savings and the ability to dynamically provision and move VMs among physical servers. There are however, a number of significant challenges associated with server virtualisation.


CIO UK - Business - Technology - Leadership

On Demand Webcast
Analyse Data In Real Time


Increasingly businesses require the ability to analyse information quickly. Find out how to handle growing data volumes more efficiently while reducing the cost of managing your organisation's IT landscape

Watch now

SAP Logo

What do CFOs expect from IT?


Watch our sister publication's latest webcast.
Hear a case study from the Guardian News and Media's Technology Director, Andy Beale, and join the discussion on the role of the CFO in technology innovation.

Watch Discussion

CFO World webcast in assocation with Google

On Demand Webcast:
Maximising business flexibility with virtualisation


Register for this on demand webcast and find out how technologies can enable cost effective and secure virtualisation from your server deployments.



Watch now

Dell VMware logo


CFO Expectations of IT


* *