Computer Weekly articles from April 2002

Computer Weekly archives from April 2002

Businesses should be looking at O2 location-based services.
April 2, 2002... e-commerce: As the technology matures, new markets are being opened up to UK firms doing business online Daniel Thomas Companies should be examining the opportunities created by new location-based services from BT spin-off O2,...

The air traffic chief, EDS, and dirty linen.
April 2, 2002... Nats told a Commons committee that all was well with a PFI deal that was facing serious contractual problems. Last week Bill Semple, its former chief executive, was questioned in the High Court about whether he was economical with the truth....

Content providers trial BT micropayments system.
April 2, 2002... Daniel Thomas A number of Internet content providers are planning to trial a new micropayment service from BT which allows consumers to buy online content and services on a "pay-as-you-go" basis via a single relationship with BT. The...

New rules put more money in e-wallets.
April 2, 2002... Nick Huber Consumers who use electronic wallets will be able to spend more money when shopping online under new regulations governing the use of e-money. The rules, which were announced last week by City regulator the Financial...

letters.(Letter to the Editor)
April 4, 2002... Council Web sites for sore eyes From Dave Thomson At last we have words of wisdom. The Society of IT Management hit the nail on the head in its report on local government Web sites when it said, "E-government is about much more than...

How do I get into development?
April 4, 2002... For three years I worked at a large IT services provider, mainly with financial systems and databases. I found myself exposed to various different technologies, but only gained a cursory knowledge of specific areas. I have just returned from a...

Free up your corporate energy.
April 4, 2002... TheconceptofIT outsourcing is familiar toITdirectorsbut fewerwillhaveencountered the growing phenomenon of outsourcing an entire business function, such as human resources or financial administration, writes Julia Vowler. Business process...

Balancing IT performance and IT cost.
April 4, 2002... rakesh kumar opinion During the next three years IT directors will need to make the most of shrinking budgets, while delivering ever improving levels of service. Projects need to be prioritised both within the IT department and...

inside the bcs.
April 4, 2002... n An extreme programming group has been formed by the BCS Sussex Branch. "Extreme programming is a simple set of common-sense practices that, used together, really can help projects hit targets," says group chairman Peter Lappo. "How much...

Worklink helps employers find the IT skills they need.
April 4, 2002... A service that matches employers with undergraduates seeking work placements has gone live on the BCS Web site, writes John Kavanagh. The Worklink service, launched by the BCS Young Professionals Group, has been through trials and has now...

strategy clinic consult the experts.
April 4, 2002... The success of the Internet and the World-Wide Web is mainly due to the fact that it is based on open standards. By the same token, the success of the important next phase (global e-business and Web services) will be reliant on being based on...

A Web of learning opportunities.
April 4, 2002... People in Hillingdon can now get information about adult education 24 hours a day, writes Karl Cushing An e-government pilot scheme being run by the London Borough of Hillingdon is providing local people with 24x7 access to information on...

Support your local PDA.
April 4, 2002... Your workforce might use handhelds, but does your business have a mobile strategy? Karl Cushing and Daniel Thomas take a look at what you need Personal digital assistants (PDAs) have reached the stage in popularity and development where...

Avoiding the chop.
April 4, 2002... It will always be a fraught time for staff when a firm announces it will be making redundancies. Roisin Woolnough considers the best ways to survive the cutbacks When people around you are losing their jobs, it is hard not to worry that...

Web services: the case for?
April 4, 2002... mark colan opinion Web services have arrived to help make your business become more agile and flexible, as well as helping to reduce costs. In fact, there's increasing evidence to show that companies which seriously investigate...

?and the case against.
April 4, 2002... richard wall opinion Web services: the latest and greatest invention from the IT industry to form the backbone of application components? an ocean of companies providing widgets to be used by subscribers? where the little guy can...

The digital divide.
April 4, 2002... Does the term "digital divide" have any real meaning for the feet-on-the-ground IT director? Julia Vowler finds out what it is and where Digital divide is a term often used by politicians and futurology pundits, but does it have any real...

Take a top-down approach to SLAs.
April 4, 2002... Armed with a wad of service level agreements (SLAs) from his suppliers, an IT manager may feel that every ingredient in the cocktail of IT systems under his command is safe from harm. But, according to Mark Darvill, technology director at IT...

From soldier to ITer to mountain climber.
April 4, 2002... Acareer in IT offers few of the same challenges as being a soldier, so when army physical training instructor turned techie Charlie Quinn heard about the Vanco Three Peaks Challenge he saw it as a perfect opportunity to test his mettle, writes...

Nominate your IT Personality of the Year.
April 4, 2002... Have you sent in your nomination for the IT Personality of the Year? If you can think of a colleague who adds some sparkle to the nine-to-five grind we want to hear from you, writes Nathalie Towner. We are not looking for the next Bill...

Users warn of hidden costs of upgrades.
April 4, 2002... Nick Huber IT directors are warning of the effect frequent hardware upgrades have on software costs. This follows a corporate backlash last year over Microsoft's controversial changes to its software licensing charges. The latest...

Will e-voting replace crosses with clicks?
April 4, 2002... In next month's local elections, several councils will be testing how electronic voting works in practice. James Rogers looks at some of the complexities of opting out of the traditional polling booth E -voting has no shortage of...

Dell builds in power and speed.(Product Announcement)
April 4, 2002... James Rogers Dell's new server range could help users with little space to accommodate more hardware, to expand their computing power. Analysts have welcomed the new server architecture from hardware giant Dell based on high...

Public sector needs 3,000 CRM experts for e-government target.
April 4, 2002... James Rogers Some 3,000 customer relationship management (CRM) application specialists are needed as the public sector in the UKattempts to meet Labour's 2005 e-government target, according to a report from European CRM analyst Hewson...

Glaxo IT chief heads Tif user group.(Jonathan Mitchell)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2002... Ross Bentley In an exclusive interview with Computer Weekly, Jonathan Mitchell, vice-president of global services at GlaxoSmithKline and the new chairman of The Infrastructure Forum (Tif), said he hopes to see the user group take a lead in...

Census site to get 'soft' relaunch.
April 4, 2002... James Rogers The Public Record Office's troubled 1901 census Web site is still unavailable, and Government officials have confirmed that it will receive a "soft launch" when it eventually goes online for a second time. Speaking last...

New Java tools for Web services are unveiled at the JavaOne conference.
April 4, 2002... At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco last week, Java supporters were shoring up the language following Microsoft's successful launch of Visual Studio .net and the announcement that Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) version 1.4 will not...

Silverstream claims XML server first.(Product Announcement)
April 4, 2002... Silverstream is claiming to be the first company to produce an XML integration server based on IBM's Web Services Flow Language (WSFL), writes Eric Doyle. The new elements of the Silverstream Extend suite were launched at JavaOne in San...

Firewall protects remote office networks.(Product Announcement)
April 4, 2002... Swiss security appliance manufacturer Lightning has launched an enterprise firewall to complement its Speedsurf and Ethernet II and III remote office systems, writes Eric Doyle. The Multicom Enterprise Ethernet firewall appliance employs...

Four goals of security.
April 4, 2002... mike barwise security for free Most people who have gone beyond the mistaken assumption that anti-virus equals the totality of information security will have found that the market is full of niche products offering solutions to...

Corporate NHS approach to get records online faster.
April 4, 2002... A standard national specification is being written for NHS electronic patient records systems, but will it speed up their implementation? Jon Hoeksma reports Electronic patient records are supposed to be a cornerstone of NHS modernisation,...

Gartner finds more evidence in Oracle database licence row.
April 4, 2002... Mike Simons CW360.com leading analyst firm Gartner Group has added its weight to the attack on Oracle's database pricing methods that was launched last week by rival Meta Group. In a recently published report, three Gartner...

Bank uses AI to spot laundering.
April 4, 2002... Nick Huber Global financial services company UBS is to invest millions of pounds in "intelligent" software to combat money laundering. The software, from Searchspace, automates systems to detect money laundering. It uses artificial...

M-business firms must move fast to capitalise on consumer interest.(AT Kearney survey)
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas Companies in the mobile commerce market need to move quickly to provide mobile payment capabilities that will allow them to capitalise on increasing consumer interest, industry experts have warned. The advice follows the...

MP calls for broadband committee.
April 4, 2002... Antony Adshead Labour MP Derek Wyatt has written to the leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook to argue the case for setting up a special select committee on broadband. Wyatt believes a special select committee is needed because...

SMEs get security guidance.
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas The Alliance for Electronic Business (AEB) is offering small and medium-sized UK companies guidance on how to implement and monitor Internet security policies. Now that increasing numbers of SMEs are becoming Web-enabled,...

Young mobile users grow mutant thumbs.
April 4, 2002... Astudy by Warwick University has found that the prolonged use of handheld technologies such as mobile phones and PDAs is causing physical mutations in the under-25s. The study, which was carried out in nine cities around the world, found...

Cost control is top public sector IT fear.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2002... James Rogers IT managers in the public sector feel they are increasingly losing a grip on how and where money is spent, according to a report from ICM Research. The study, which surveyed 100 IT managers and directors in UK councils,...

Slough given e-government cash.
April 4, 2002... Nick Huber Slough Borough Council has become the first local authority to receive cash from a new e-government funding project. The cash will allow it to digitise its paper records and conduct property searches electronically. The...

Don't hurry to change channel.
April 4, 2002... Last week's news that ITV Digital has been placed into administration by its owners Granada and Carlton Communications dented the growth of interactive television (iTV) in the UK. And the subsequent admission by NTL, the UK's largest cable...

Wireless networks are a security time bomb.
April 4, 2002... Bill Goodwin Exclusive Businesses are facing a security time bomb from unencrypted wireless networks, a survey of 1,000 UK businesses due to be published later this month has revealed. The DTI Information Security Breaches survey...

Voluntary work helps keep staff.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2002... Antony Adshead The largest outsourced call centre in the North East has slashed staff turnover and absenteeism by allowing employees to get involved in community projects during working hours. Chey Garland, chief executive of Garlands...

Easter cash shortage at Barclays.
April 4, 2002... Antony Savvas CW360.com Barclays is investigating technical problems with its online Bacs payment system that left thousands of people without cash for the Easter weekend. Barclays said "several thousand" business users of its...

Direct marketeers slam data protection Catch 22.
April 4, 2002... Bill Goodwin Marketing companies claim that new restrictions on the use of the electoral register will risk putting them in breach of their obligations under the Data Protection Act to maintain accurate databases. Councils are refusing...

The collapse of ITV Digital will undermine Tony Blair's targets.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas The possible collapse of ITV Digital will hit the Government's plans for digital TV harder than it will hit the retailers that provide interactive TV services, analysts have warned. The terrestrial pay-TV platform was...

Government delays could harm IT skills initiatives.
April 4, 2002... Bill Goodwin Fears are growing that employers could withdraw their support from government-backed IT training initiatives following serious delays to the Government's plans to reform the its flagship national training organisations (NTOs)....

BSA names another software licence offender.(Bausch and Lomb)
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas The Business Software Alliance last week released the name of the latest company to have paid a fine for illegal software use, as it continued its controversial "name and shame" policy. The licensing watchdog, which...

Nats court case sets new record.(National Air Traffic Services case against EDS in 3rd month)
April 4, 2002... Mike Simons National Air Traffic Services (Nats) is facing new financial pressure as a High Court battle against IT services supplier EDS runs into its third month. The case, which began in earnest in February, was not expected to...

Northampton to trial banking industry's 'chip and Pin' initiative.
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas The first wide-ranging public trial of the UK banking industry's billion-pound smartcard initiative, which aims to combat card fraud, will be held in Northampton, it emerged this week. The UK "chip and Pin" initiative,...

IT chiefs doubt broadband claims.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2002... Daniel Thomas Of the IT managers responding to this week's Computer Weekly/ Harvey Nash Big Question poll, 85% do not believe the Government's claim that the UK will have the most advanced broadband infrastructure of the G7 nations by...

Whitehall departments 'find reasons for inaction'.
April 4, 2002... Tony Collins Government departments have a "tendency to find reasons for inaction" and a reluctance to invest in Internet-based technologies because they fear an IT disaster, according to a National Audit Office report. Although the...

Whitehall wasted ?5m before deal was signed.
April 4, 2002... Tony Collins The Government wasted ?5m on an IT project before it had agreed a contract with the supplier, a National Audit Office report reveals today (Thursday). The report says the Cabinet Office wasted nearly ?4.77m by paying...

in brief?
April 4, 2002... Airbus manufacturer outsources to HP Hewlett-Packard has won a ?66m outsourcing contract to run computer systems for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), the joint French, German and Spanish company which owns 80% of...

Post Office opts for EDS to avoid Pathway fiasco.
April 4, 2002... Nick Huber The Post Office claims it has learnt the lessons from the ?1bn Pathway fiasco as it signed a landmark outsourcing contract with EDS to allow benefits to be paid electronically through bank accounts. The eight-year deal,...

dpm's diary; c p bound.
April 4, 2002... Monday "Lisa, put that post down a moment, I want to talk to you? Er, do you normally open the letters with a Bowie knife? Oh never mind, but please don't throw the thing through the air and impale it in my roll-top cupboard like that? Yes...

Spammers may force you to change your e-mail address once a month.
April 4, 2002... jack schofield tech talk Soon, you may no longer need to nag users to change their passwords every few weeks - they will have to change their e-mail addresses instead. The Government's idea of giving every child an e-mail address...

A racing certainty.
April 4, 2002... The Jordan Formula One racing team is depending on IT to change its fortunes on the track by improving its organisational effectiveness, design process and supplier management. Julia Vowler reports In the corporate world, companies can hide...

Open source's future is secure.
April 11, 2002... ed darnell opinion There is no advantage to keeping proprietary solutions secret and as we enter an era of Web-based collaborative effort it is increasingly obvious that open source is the answer We are entering one of the most...

inside the bcs.(Brief Article)
April 11, 2002... n The BCS Management Awards Dinner, which gives industry people the chance to hear about the best in IT management, will take place on 11 June at the Langham Hilton Hotel in London. The awards recognise achievement, improvement and...

Cisco beats universities to lift the BCS coding trophy.
April 11, 2002... Cisco Systems has become the first industry team in three years to win the BCS Programming Competition, writes John Kavanagh. The four-man team from the network equipment specialist's Glasgow office swapped the lead several times with...

Think big, start small, get online.
April 11, 2002... Tameside Council is on track to get 767 services online two years ahead of schedule, writes Karl Cushing Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in Greater Manchester has embraced e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and portal...

Programmed to fail?(Column)
April 11, 2002... martyn hart opinion What could the reason be for the failure of some outsourcing projects? Just skim through the press and you'll see headlines like, "CGNU scraps seven-year ?124m outsourcing contract with IBM after only two...

When a merger doesn't work, split up.
April 11, 2002... The experience of mergers and demergers was so traumatic for Joan Herbig, the chief executive and president of XcelleNet, a US management solutions provider for remote systems and mobile devices, that she plans to use the lessons she learned to...

Journalists last hope of fair play.
April 11, 2002... john riley groundswell With the whiff of Enron still strong and other scandals in the air - including one very big one about to break soon, we hear - there are times when IT directors need to blow the whistle. If IT directors are...

A racing certainty.
April 11, 2002... The Jordan Formula One racing team is depending on IT to change its fortunes on the track by improving its organisational effectiveness, design process and supplier management. Julia Vowler reports In the corporate world, companies can hide...

Skills training is constantly evolving.
April 11, 2002... The term "e-learning" means many things to many people. Mike Maunder, vice-president for alliances at e-learning supplier Saba, says that until four years ago, e-learning used to refer to the delivery of training content via the Web, writes...

What has the budget ever done for IT?
April 11, 2002... As the chancellor Gordon Brown prepares to deliver his latest budget speech, Mark Vernon looks back at what this Government has given the IT industry, and to the future to see what might be coming Gordon Brown's budget speech on 17 April...

Computastars goes Dutch for grand final.
April 11, 2002... The cream of the IT industry's sportsmen and women from across Europe will be flocking to Bergen op Zoom in Holland on 14 September to take part in the Computastars international final, writes Nathalie Towner. Although there are no...

Peoplesoft releases online CRM software.(Peoplesoft has released version 8.4 of its Web-based CRM software)(Product Announcement)
April 11, 2002... Peoplesoft has released version 8.4 of its Web-based CRM software, writes Antony Adshead. The new version includes mobile, collaborative selling and marketing modules, but analyst firm Gartner has warned that the mobile synchronisation...

Looking after the simpletons.
April 11, 2002... IT support staff are constantly rescuing dim-witted users, but don't expect any thanks, writes Nick Langley What is it? Support covers a range of activities, from highly skilled systems administration to acting as a human answerphone...

SAP extends Enterprise Portal to enable unified architecture.(version 5.0)(Product Announcement)
April 11, 2002... ERP giant SAP has released version 5.0 of its Enterprise Portal, bringing the company's mySAP vision of merging people, information and processes closer to reality, writes Antony Adshead. SAP said its new offering will provide a unified...

Sendmail adds virus scanner.
April 11, 2002... Sendmail is adding Network Associates' McAfee Security anti-virus scanner to its Mailstream Manager software, writes Eric Doyle. This will put anti-virus protection at the network gateway to offer a greater degree of protection at the...

Unisys joins battle for the datacentre.(Product Announcement)
April 11, 2002... Unisys is fighting the challenge of IBM's 16-way x440 server with a 32-way server that also uses the new Intel Xeon chip, writes Eric Doyle. IBMclaims that its server is more cost-effective than the Unisys ES7000 - dubbed the "Intel...

ITers with supplier qualifications are commanding higher salaries.
April 11, 2002... IT workers with supplier-certified qualifications are commanding higher salaries than those without, according to a study of 29,100 IT workers in North America and Europe, writes Nathalie Towner. The study, by consulting firm Foote...

competition.
April 11, 2002... Xtra! has teamed up with IT solutions provider and Harlequins sponsor CSF to offer one lucky rugby union fan two tickets for the Powergen Cup Final at Twickenham on 20 April. The winners will be treated to lunch in the corporate hospitality...

Do you know what to do in an emergency?
April 11, 2002... Only one in 10 people know what to do should a colleague be badly injured at work, writes Roisin Woolnough. A recent study carried out by St John Ambulance shows that nine out of 10 people do not have basic first aid skills. And, of...

Hunting for jobs.
April 11, 2002... The boom is over, work is scarce, Roisin Woolnough offers some advice on enhancing your job prospects Since the recruitment market went into freefall last year, ITers who once were fending off job offers every day are now struggling to...

Surfers ogle Jordan bird sitting on chicks.
April 11, 2002... If any readers want to see a bird called Jordan giving birth on the Internet, they should hurry to log on to www.eagleheights. co.uk. However, the site will be of more interest to ornithologists than gynaecologists, because the Jordan in...

letters.(Letter to the Editor)
April 11, 2002... SLA advice that works From Jay Edmonds Dominic Monkhouse's article (Computer Weekly, 21 March) highlights the fact that a service level agreement (SLA) can be worthless. However, even though your company may have an SLA with a network...

Only a third of UK firms put IT plans on hold, despite downturn.
April 11, 2002... Mike Simons CW360.com Despite tough economic conditions, barely a third of UK businesses have put IT projects on hold during the last six months. In a survey by research firm Vanson Bourne, 63% of companies reported no delays in...

Telecoms meltdown continues.
April 11, 2002... The downturn in the telecoms sector could hit businesses harder than the dotcom crash, so IT directors must plan for the worst, writes Antony Adshead This week's announcement that telco Energis is to sever its European operations in a bid...

Microsoft creeps up on Apache.
April 11, 2002... Eric Doyle Microsoft-driven Web servers are gaining ground on the open source servers from the Apache Software Foundation, according to a survey by Netcraft, a UK Internet security and network management consultancy. Of the 38 million...

Sign up to our online petition.
April 11, 2002... Lock down the law, Computer Weekly's campaign to persuade the Government to prioritise a review of the UK's archaic computer crime laws, shifts up a gear this week with the introduction of an online petition enabling our readers to offer their...

dpm's diary; c p bound.
April 11, 2002... Monday Mavis, the Jag and I travelled back from our first visit of the year to the croft in Wester Ross. The weather was too bad for the stalking, but I was able to borrow Mrs Macdonald's Jamie's Lame Boy Advanced for the weekend, so it...