'Bringing Lasata into the business intelligence division means that we can accelerate the growth of the combined MIS and Lasata products to the existing customer base, and to users of other business applications,' said Systems Union CEO Paul Coleman. Lasata's joint owners and co-founders, Tony Farrell and Steve Wall, have joined the division's executive management team.

And in other IT news, UK businesses are being told to 'beware of IT vendors' that offer the promise of compliance solutions, according to Eclipse Computing MD Shabbir Osman. 'When it comes to interpreting (compliance) guidelines it is compliance expertise that is required first and foremost, not IT expertise,' Osman told Accountancy Age.

'Once the right procedures and checks have been designed, then IT systems can play a role in monitoring and reporting on business transactions, but only then. Existing systems should be more than capable of meeting that need.'