Computer Weekly articles from August 2006

Computer Weekly archives from August 2006

News.(Church of England have been struggling to use their service-planning software )
August 8, 2006... Evidence that not all inspiration is divineDowntime was shocked to read last week that 4,500 Church of England vicars have been struggling to use their service-planning software after an incorect spyware alert was circulated by Symantec.The...

Take a walk or sleep over to aid children's charities.
August 8, 2006... Computer Weekly reportercomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukIT professionals wishing to take part in the outdoor approach to charity fund-raising, should mark two dates in September in their diaries.The first, on Sunday 17 September, is the occasion of...

Toolkit for a common approach.(IT Infrastructure Library)
August 8, 2006... ITlL has come of age and is making the leap from being a clutch of worthy standards to a practical tool for delivering IT efficiently. While ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library, its reach is more profound than its name suggests, and...

NHS staff bear the brunt.(National Health Service)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Lindsay Clark lindsay.clark@rbi.co.ukNHS trusts have expressed frustration with Connecting for Health and its contractor CSC for the datacentre crash that caused disruption and additional workload for hospital staff. Connecting for Health said...

News.(software industry launched a draft specification for the Service Modelling Language )(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Major suppliers line up behind SMLTash Shifrin and Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukTen major IT suppliers have teamed up to promote a new language to describe system information about networks, applications, servers and other IT resources.BEA...

Insist on a flexible deal, users urged.
August 8, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukIT directors should look to negotiate more nuanced software licensing contracts that allow them to accumulate desktop user licences in stages rather than paying for them all up-front.They should...

More firms report skills shortages.(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukThe number of firms reporting IT skills shortages has gone up and the business consequences of the skills gap are worsening, according to the latest quarterly E-Skills UK ICT InquiryThe study shows that the...

News.(Waitrose Ltd. contracts with SAS Institute Inc. for supply chain management software)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Waitrose adopts SAS demand forecasting systemAntony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukWaitrose has rolled out SAS forecasting software to help it manage its supply chain. The software will help the supermarket forecast demand for its products...

Data migration must be treated as a business issue, not an IT problem.(Book review)
August 8, 2006... Justin Richardscomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukModern organisations are thick with data, but where is the best data these enterprises have to offer? Where is the most appropriate, the most up-to-date and the most accurate data? How do we create a...

News.(Employee discrimination on grounds of age, sex or race on the rise in information technology industry)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Is discrimination on grounds of age, sex or race on the rise in IT? 19% Yes81% NoThe Big Question is an initiative between Computer Weekly and recruitment consultancy PSD. Each week we put the Big Question to top IT professionals to get their...

IT bosses preparing for Byte Night.(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Computer Weekly reportercomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukAbout 250 senior IT professionals will take part in the annual Byte Night charity sleep-out on London's Embankment on 22 September in an effort to raise ?300,000 to combat child...

How to learn ISO-based asset control.(International Organization for Standardisation)
August 8, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukA qualification in software asset management based on the ISO 19770-1 standard has been launched by IT governance consultancy Ultima Risk Management.ISO 19770-1 was introduced by the International...

Business integration doubts grow.
August 8, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukConfidence among IT directors that their firms' business processes and IT systems are well-integrated has shown tentative signs of slipping in recent months, and IT chiefs also appear to be losing...

News.(air travel )
August 8, 2006... dpm's diaryc p boundMondayIt has happened again. There I was planning no such disconcerting thing as a week away from the office, when first thing this morning Mavis comes round to the flat with a set of airline tickets and a taxi sitting at...

Question time over NHS data.(National Health Service)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... o lose one datacentre may be regarded as a misfortune to lose both looks like carelessness.There will certainly be some earnest conversations between Connecting for Health, which runs the National Programme for IT in the NHS and CSC, which is...

How globalisation alters your world.
August 8, 2006... outsourcing Globalisation has opened up new sourcing opportunities to help businesses handle large-scale change, demanding new skills and attitudes from CIOsChange is all around us: globalisation, the explosive emergence of nimble new...

SOA underpins IT systems transformation at Alliance.(Alliance Trust contracts with Financial Objects)(service oriented architecture)
August 8, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukInvestment company Alliance Trust is preparing to roll out online transactions and dealing systems after adopting a service oriented architecture (SOA) last year to enable a far-reaching IT...

Data is key ingredient.(Alliance BootsE data management efforts)
August 8, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukAlliance Boots, the company created by last week's merger of pharmacy chains Alliance UniChem and Boots, is concentrating its IT efforts on master data management rather than planning a post-merger...

Eurostar cuts 170 apps in IT infrastructure overhaul.(contracts with Dell and Altiris software )(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukTrain operator Eurostar has completed a major IT overhaul, standardising hardware and software infrastructure and culling more than 170 applications.The IT project involved the replacement of HP/Compaq PCs and...

London gets shared services centre.(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukThe London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has signed a ?120m, 10-year deal to set up London's first local government shared services centre from 1 October.The centre, run by a joint venture company owned by...

NHS trusts left strandedafter CSC datacentre crash.(national health service)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.ukMultiple failures at a datacentre run by CSC left hospital trusts in the North West and West Midlands without access to patient administration systems for up to five days.The failure, which affected 72 primary...

News.(House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has expressed doubts about the government's ID card plans)(Brief article)
August 8, 2006... in briefCommons IT committee voices ID card doubtsThe House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has expressed doubts about the government's ID card plans. Its latest report said the programme's focus on biometrics had "detracted...

Lambeth devises IT transformation toolkit to boost project success rate.
August 8, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukThe London Borough of Lambeth has devised a business transformation toolkit to help increase the success rate on its IT projects.The Lambeth Transformation Academy is the result of a national project that was...

The usual suspects.(business interruption being everyday things such as software maintenance and network failure)(Survey)
August 8, 2006... Terrorist attacks and floods may hit the headlines, but IT managers see the most likely causes of business interruption being everyday things such as software maintenance and network failure.This finding from research by disaster recovery...

Weighing up the risks.(Technological risk assessment)
August 8, 2006... It seems remarkable in a world hugely dependent on IT that risk assessment and management can be described by analyst firm Gartner as subjective and a trial and error process. Yet Gartner is not alone in this view."There are information risk...

Mercury acquisition could boost HP app management.(Mercury Interactive Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co.)
August 8, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukHewlett-Packard's planned ?2.4bn acquisition of Mercury Interactive could give users of the HP Openview network management suite much needed application management tools. By merging Openview with Mercury's...

Look beyond gut feeling to cut recruitment risk.
August 15, 2006... The tendency for many IT directors to rely on "gut feeling" to recruit the best IT staff should ring alarm bells for any serious employer.Recruitment specialists have argued in the pages of Computer Weekly that intuition is the best way to...

Challenges of consolidation.(infrastructure and applications consolidation )(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... nfrastructure and applications consolidation have dominated the agendas of the UK's IT departments during the past few years. And rightly so. It is a critically important issue. Most enlightened IT departments have long realised that they need...

HSBC denies online accounts vulnerability.(HSBC Holdings PLC)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukHSBC has played down reports that a flaw in its online banking system could give fraudsters using keylogging software easy access to millions of customer accounts. Antonia Jones, who led a research...

The AA rolls out managed service to.(contracts with Cable & Wireless Communications PLC)
August 15, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukThe AA is replacing its BT and Energis data and voice infrastructure with a managed service from Cable & Wireless to deliver cost savings and enable it to take advantage of advances in network technology.The...

NHS suppliers.(National Health Service contracts with local service providers for disaster recovery management)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Cliff Saran and Lindsay Clarkcliff.saran@rbi.co.ukConnecting for Health (CfH), which runs the National Programme for IT in the NHS, has ordered a review of disaster recovery arrangements for all five of its local service providers following...

One in five do not wipe data off their old PCs.(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukOne in five second-hand PCs finding their way onto the resale market contain sensitive data left on their hard discs by the previous owner, an international study has revealed.Research by BT, the University...

Zurich banks on saving with modular systems.(Zurich Financial Services contracts with Infosys Technologies Ltd)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukThe banking arm of Zurich Financial Services Group is in the process of replacing its core legacy banking systems with a modular software system. The Zurich Banking business unit said it hoped to reduce its...

Savvy spending drives.(Investment in IT has risen)
August 15, 2006... Lindsay Clarklindsay.clark@rbi.co.ukInvestment in IT has risen in the past six months, with annual growth in IT spending reaching 5.6% in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest Computer Weekly/Kew Associates IT spending...

UK software industry needs unified voice and high-level skills to thrive.
August 15, 2006... Justin Richardscomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukThe lack of a unified and clear voice, and a growing shortage of high-level skills are among the threats facing the future prosperity of the UK's software industry, according to an initial report by a...

T.(Banks have been increasing the security of their online services)
August 15, 2006... Danny Bradbury computer.weekly@rbi.co.ukMany banks have been increasing the security of their online services over the past year. By offering customers smartcard readers or security tokens, they have been able to roll out a second level of...

Growth in IT vacancies is greater in the regions than in Central London.
August 15, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukPermanent and contracted IT recruitment in many regions of the UK is growing at a faster rate than in Central London, according to the Computer Weekly/SSL Quarterly Survey of Appointments Data and Trends.The...

News.(IT downtime as computer crimes increases)
August 15, 2006... Are you there God? I need some help with my ITDowntime got more than it bargained for when it asked last week for examples of the Almighty lending a helping hand to sort out your IT messes. From the resulting mailbag, it seems clear the Creator...

News.(email usage)(Diary entry)
August 15, 2006... dpm's diaryc p boundMondayStill in the villa in Tuscany and still totally deprived of any kind of technological stimulants. The withdrawals are getting less severe, but I can only really manage because of the constant reassurance and gentle...

Move to single datacentre brings savings for Cornhill.(Allianz Cornhill contracts with VMware)
August 15, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukInsurance firm Allianz Cornhill is close to completing a major project to move six datacentres spread across separate business units into the firm's Guildford headquarters.The consolidation is part...

News.(high level of disaffection among IT professionals)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Would you recommendIT as a career to your children?36% Yes64% NoThe Big Question is an initiative between Computer Weekly and recruitment consultancy PSD. Each week we put the Big Question to top IT professionals to get their take on a current...

IT strategy is key to merger success.
August 15, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukMergers and acquisitions are a dominant theme in global corporate news, with the voracious way the big names of the IT industry are absorbing smaller suppliers mirrored across many other sectors.Gartner...

Airtricity powers up Docucorp systems.(DocuCorp International)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Eco-electricity company Airtricity has begun using Docucorp's end-to-end bill print technology to create, manage, print and deliver personalised correspondence and bills to more than 45,000 customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of...

IBM looks to support SAP on mainframe.(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukIBM is investing ?21m over the next five years to support SAP enterprise software on its System z mainframe platform. The company's aim is to make its z9 Enterprise Class and Business Class servers a...

News.(BOC Group Inc. contracts with Sirius Corporation)(Lloyds TSB Group PLC contracts with Xansa)(International Business Machines Corp. launched RFID system for pharmaceuticals)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... in briefBOC deploys open source data management system Gas supplier BOC is rolling out the open source Mediawiki knowledge management system across its businesses. BOC has signed a deal with UK-based Sirius Corporation to help implement the...

News.(US offers breathing space on Sarbanes Oxley Act)(Gartner offers five steps to data security)(Aon Corp. contracts with Xchanging Ltd.)
August 15, 2006... In briefUS offers breathing space on Sarbanes-OxleyThe US has given overseas companies that want to list on the New York Stock Exchange an extra year to comply with the most difficult aspects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Companies that are new to...

Council plans early Duet.(Staffordshire County Council is to roll out SAP Duet)
August 15, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukStaffordshire County Council is to roll out SAP Duet, the system that enables users to access core SAP functions through Microsoft Office applications. It is one of the first major UK organisation to announce...

Thomas Cook starts trip to IT unity.(contracts with International Business Machines Corp.)
August 15, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukThomas Cook is embarking on a ?67m, multi-year IT project to develop a single, multi-channel reservation platform covering its 34 tour operator brands and travel agency network across Europe.The...

Why we must shout about our IT security.
August 15, 2006... Most companies have an information security programme. They may even have a chief information security officer to protect their information-based assets, though most do not. However, in many cases, the reason they have those programmes and...

IBM talks up voice-based.(International Business Machines Corp. developing biometric user authentication systems)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukIBM is developing software that could enable IT directors to deploy biometric user authentication systems based on voice recognition technology.IBM has been researching a technique known as "conversational...

Mobile web access tackled.(web more accessible from mobile devices)(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Tash Shifrincomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukUniversity of Manchester scientists are seeking to make the web more accessible from mobile devices.In a three-year project, they aim to draw on the experience of visually impaired people and technology such...

Microsoft seeks way to improve web searches.(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Tash Shifrincomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukMicrosoft researchers are seeking ways to improve internet search results by looking at how people use and interact with search engines.Accurately modelling and interpreting users' interactions with search...

Harness the power of collaboration.
August 15, 2006... Miya Knights computer.weekly@rbi.co.ukFifteen years since the invention of the worldwide web, the growth of web logs, wikis, chatrooms, peer-to-peer websites, and multiple-player gaming environments is paving the way for new web applications...

A streaming headache for IT bosses.
August 15, 2006... The long summer of sport draws to a close, and corporate networks draw a breath of relief as multiple streams of video cease to drain available bandwidth from the business. How was it for you? Did the voices from on high make the big statement...

Sybase combines data integration functions.(Brief article)
August 15, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukDatabase supplier Sybase is developing a data integration tool that allows users to access real-time, historical and outside data from disparate databases. Sybase Data Integration Suite 1.0 bundles together...

Prioritise retention as staff get itchy feet, warns report.
August 29, 2006... Bill Goodwinbill.goodwin@rbi.co.ukEmployers are coming under pressure to develop more effective strategies to retain their best IT staff in the face of competition from rival employers.Rising demand for highly skilled staff, an improvement in...

Firms push business focus in alternative to IT A-level.
August 29, 2006... Bill Goodwinbill.goodwin@rbi.co.ukLeading employers are driving the development of a business-focused alternative to A-levels, in a radical attempt to reverse the decline in the number of young people studying computing in schools and...

Document system has all the answers for Alliance.(Alliance & Leicester PLC)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukAlliance & Leicester has completed the first phase of a document management system roll-out designed to speed up the handling of customer queries by contact centre staff.The organisation's...

Postgrad IT 'consultants' focus on business wins.(City University )
August 29, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukPrivate and public sector employers in the South East could benefit from a decision by City University in London to make work placements compulsory for computer sciences postgraduate students.Undergraduate...

Innovation is the main attraction.
August 29, 2006... It says a lot for the state of IT innovation and the new emphasis on professional development in the public sector that people are taking pay cuts to move across from the commercial world."The public sector has some of the biggest and most...

News.
August 29, 2006... It is hard to imagine IT without Java. James Gosling and his team at Sun devised a language based on a simple premise: you should only need to develop the application once, and it should be able to run anywhere, without modifying the source...

Unhealthy tale.(National Programme for Information Technology)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... he National Audit Office is a great British institution - or was.It was set up by Gladstone, in part to authorise the issuing of public money to government from the Bank of England, and it now has the express power to report to parliament at...

Downtime hits ambulance service.(London Ambulance Service)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Lindsay Clark and Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukLondon Ambulance Service has suffered seven hours of unplanned downtime on its 999 call management system since a software upgrade one month ago.A spokesman for the service said a database...

Business alignment with a spark.(EDF Energy)
August 29, 2006... case study Electricity supplier EDF Energy has integrated IT into its business improvement and technology division, providing new opportunites for IT staffCliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukThere are many ways to align IT with the business, but...

News.( National Programme for Information Technology )
August 29, 2006... NAO report: a journey from criticism to praiseTony Collinstony.collins@rbi.co.ukWhen a report was published in June by the National Audit Office into the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT), it was seen by ministers as a vindication of the...

Kelly targets ?1m savings in global net consolidation.(Kelly Services Inc.)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.uk Recruitment consultancy Kelly Services is consolidating multiple networking contracts and technologies across 242 sites in 14 countries onto a single network from virtual network operator Vanco.The company...

JJ's ERP roll-out delivers.(JJ Food Services)(enterprise resource planning)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukFood distribution firm JJ Food Services has increased productivity to the value of ?31m within nine months of installing a new business software and call centre package based on Microsoft Dynamics AX enterprise...

AOL sacks staff over data release error.(America Online Inc. appointed John McKinley)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Tash Shifrincomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukInternet company AOL has sacked two members of staff, and its chief technology officer has left the company following the firm's release between March and May of internet search terms used by more than...

Check contracts in light of Dell recall, warn lawyers.
August 29, 2006... Lindsay Clarkcomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukIT directors should view the recall of 4.2 million notebook batteries by Dell this month as a wake-up call, lawyers have warned.Even those not affected by the recall, which was prompted by concerns about...

ING deploys tokenless two factor security.(ING Direct UK)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukING Direct has followed Alliance & Leicester in strengthening its online banking security with the launch of two-factor authentication for all its customers.ING Direct is using RSA's new Adaptive Authentication...

News.(public agencies' information sharing)(International Business Machines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc.)(outsourcing companies cost management)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... in briefGovernment plans data protection changes The government is planning to alter data protection principles from September. Any such change would allow a diverse range of public agencies to freely share private information on individuals,...

News.(Tesco PLC)(Domestic and General Group)(new chip for speech recognition technology )(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... In brief Hospital trust first to use online marketplaceAn NHS hospital trust in London has become the first organisation to use the Zanzibar online marketplace set up by government agency OGCbuying.solutions. The Zanzibar e-procurement...

New patch needed for Explorer.(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukMicrosoft has had to reissue a patch following the introduction in its 9 August monthly update of a bug that caused Internet Explorer to crash.The company was expected to release a new version of security update...

Why shared services.(public services management)
August 29, 2006... Maintaining first-class public services at a time when budgets are being frozen or cut is a challenge. Doing so while simultaneously increasing motivation and job satisfaction for staff sounds impossible. However, there is a solution, to be...

Machine learning used to block SQL injection hacks.(Secerno)
August 29, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukUK company Secerno has devised an innovative way to detect when a database is being attacked using the SQL (Structured Query Language) injection hacking technique.The databases at the heart of internet...

Scientists on path to super-fast chip.(Brief article)
August 29, 2006... Tash Shifrincomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukScientists at a US university are working on a new kind of transistor that could lead to computer chips that run thousands of times faster than existing desktop processors.The University of Rochester has...