Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS) has appointed high profile industry analyst Dr Kevin McIsaac to a senior research role. Dr McIsaac was formerly research director Asia Pacific with META Group, prior to its take-over by Gartner. Dr McIsaac is an expert in infrastructure, operations and vendor management and works with CIOs and IT management teams on strategy development and the key issues associated with running IT as a business. His first report, entitled:" Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) – Who Dares Wins" examines the impact of the SAS communication protocol on the storage market.

Online training and recruitment company TodayCorp Pty Ltd, has acquired privately held Impart.

Business performance software vendor, Hyperion, has appointed Thomas Palmer as director of sales for the company's Australia and New Zealand operations. Palmer, who the company considers one of its top 5 sales executives worldwide, joined Hyperion Solutions in 1999 as strategic account manager in Atlanta. Prior to joining Hyperion, Palmer held senior business development, sales and marketing positions at Cap Gemini Insurance. His experience also includes stints as director of sales & marketing at Business Intelligence and e-business consulting firm Blackstone and Cullen Inc., account manager at National Education Training Group, and business systems consultant with the Atlanta office of Arthur Andersen S.C.

Business intelligence vendor, Business Objects, has named John Schwarz chief executive officer. Company founder, Bernard Liautaud, continues as chairman of the board and assumes the new role of chief strategy officer. Schwarz joins the company from Symantec Corporation, where he held the position of president and was responsible for leading the company's six lines of business. At Symantec, Schwarz played a key role in the recent combination of Symantec and VERITAS. Previously, he spent 25 years at IBM Corporation working in development, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. He was general manager of IBM's Industry Solutions unit, a worldwide organization focused on building business applications and related services for IBM's large industry customers.

Business solutions consulting firm, Votar Partners, has appointed Laurie Ward as NSW/ACT strategic business development Manager. Ward joins Votar Partners after a career of more than 20 years in the IT industry, working for companies such as ICL Australia, NCR, Seagate, Aspect and most recently Advanced Data Integration.

Research group, Gartner, has issued a warning that the current shortage of skilled labour is negatively affecting the Indian call centre industry.

Privately held telco, Arrow Voice & Data, has appointed James T Dominguez as chairman of the board. Formerly founder and chairman of Dominguez Barry Samuel Montagu, and later SBC Dominguez Barry investment bank — now UBS Australia — Dominguez has considerable experience at board level. He holds advisory roles for a number of technology companies, including Cisco Systems Australia and Fuji Xerox. Dominguez also serves as non-executive director of a number of companies including ETrade Australia, Nestle Australia, O'Connell Street Associates, Tat Hong (Singapore) and WESBEAM Holdings.

Content management vendor, Vignette, has appointed Carl Jones as senior pre-sales engineer, based in Melbourne. Jones has previously worked with content management company Fatwire Software. He has also held down successful stints at Candle Corporation, Opus Group Australia and San Francisco based Ipsys Software.

Network security vendor, Fortinet, has appointed data security specialist Steve Clack as manager, Australia and New Zealand. Clack was previously channel director ANZ for Trend Micro and he is a former UK sales director for McAfee. He was also director of a secure networking company in the UK, and UK managing director of a web-based customer service solutions provider.