Computer Weekly articles from December 2007

Computer Weekly archives from December 2007

News.
December 4, 2007... A Department of Health document reveals that a review has been underway into the possibility of allowing sensitive NHS patient data to be processed overseas, Computer Weekly has learned. GPs are concerned that if patient records are sent...

News.
December 4, 2007... International law firm Denton Wilde Sapte has doubled network connectivity speeds between 1300 employees at offices in 12 countries 5 Gbps within two months by upgrading from its legacy local server environment to an off-site datacentre running...

News.
December 4, 2007... Ireland's Office of Public Works (OPW) has implemented a high-powered wireless network at the 12th century Kilkenny Castle, overcoming the challenges of working in a listed building, to provide high speed internet access to staff and visitors....

News.
December 4, 2007... SAP User Conference: Warburtons SAP systems secures better deals on supplies The UK's largest independent bakery, Warburtons, has implemented a mobile SAP purchase order approval application to improve productivity and speed up decision...

News.
December 4, 2007... UK online shopping is expected to reach almost [pounds sterling]6bn this December, according to UK payments association Apacs. This is an increase of almost 56% on December 2006 - from [pounds sterling]3.6bn to [pounds sterling]5.6bn this...

News.
December 4, 2007... Finding easier and less disruptive ways engaging SAP users in the business world is one of the main areas of focus for the incoming chairman of the SAP UK and Ireland User Group, Alan Bowling. "We recognise the constraints users are under...

News.
December 4, 2007... SAP User Conference: Business continuity standards will become essential for businesses The first British standard for business continuity published last week will become a key element of the business environment, according to a report to...

News.
December 4, 2007... Debenhams has appointed digital agency Nomensa to revamp its homepage in time for Christmas. The design allows visitors to find their way deeper into the Debenhams website from the gateway homepage, helping to increase conversion rates for...

News.
December 4, 2007... Ford is integrating speech technology in new car models to control communications and entertainment features. The use of voice to control such systems will also improve safety, as drivers will be able to keep both hands on the wheel. ...

News.
December 4, 2007... Friends Provident has introduced a system to enable independent financial advisers (IFAs) to set up an agency agreement online. The secure electronic application process makes it easier for IFAs to apply for an agency trading agreement and...

News.
December 4, 2007... What claims to be the world's first system to measure an individual's digital status was launched today. Garlik, an online identity service, has undertaken an analysis of the nation's digital profiles to create a rating system called QDOS,...

News.
December 4, 2007... Gateshead school ploughs [pounds sterling]1.7m into IT for state-of-the-art learning system Antony Savvas A Gateshead school has ploughed [pounds sterling]1.7m into IT to create a state-of-the-art learning system for its pupils. ...

News.
December 4, 2007... The government is to convert its 951 websites into two supersites to save money, a meeting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday. All government websites except 26 corporate departmental sites will be merged into either...

News.
December 4, 2007... HMRC: Information Commissioner now able to doorstep government departments on data security Antony Savvas The Information Commissioner's Office is to be given special powers to investigate the data security at government departments,...

News.
December 4, 2007... Picture story - good picture in folder. Wireless network draws visitors through castle walls Ireland's Office of Public Works (OPW) has implemented a high-powered wireless network at the 12th century Kilkenny Castle, overcoming the...

News.
December 4, 2007... Better internal managers can improve the service, quality, cost of outsourced projects by 20% to 40%. This was a key finding of research by the London School of Economics for LogicaCMG, a UK IT services firm. Firms will spend almost...

News.
December 4, 2007... The UK workforce is gaining business advantage through the use of social networks, but users' behaviour may leave employers at risk, says Microsoft. The company commissioned an online survey of over 1,300 web users over 16. Microsoft said...

News.
December 4, 2007... Mothercare, the UK baby products retailer, is to meet its commitment to the PCI Data Security Standard with a combination of Imprivata's Onesign authentication appliance and one-time-password tokens from Secure Computing. Mothercare CFO...

News.
December 4, 2007... Norwich & Peterborough Building Society streamlines loans with automation Antony Savvas Norwich & Peterborough Building Society deliver a 65% increase in successful loans applications after automating its loan system. Norwich &...

News.
December 4, 2007... People worried about the loss of information on 25 million child benefit recipients can now sign an online petition on the Prime Minister's website to call for the formation of a police central e-crime unit. The petition says, "The...

News.
December 4, 2007... Glynn Lowth is to step down as chairman of the SAP UK and Ireland User Group after six years and hand over the reigns to Alan Bowling, IS director at Northern Foods. Lowth made the announcement this morning at the first day of the SAP UK...

News.
December 4, 2007... Warwick Ashford warwick.ashford@rbi.co.uk SAP remains committed to improving its relationship with UK users, Steve Rogers, managing director for SAP UK & Ireland, told delegates at the SAP User Group Conference in Birmingham last week....

News.
December 4, 2007... SAS and Sun Microsystems have launched a new initiative to deliver business intelligence innovation in datacentres. The offering is designed to help customers streamline the implementation of technology to deliver faster, more accurate data...

News.
December 4, 2007... The Information Commissioner has warned young people to be careful what they put on the web. "As many as 4.5 million young people would not want a college, university or potential employer to conduct an internet search on them unless they...

News.
December 4, 2007... Thomas Cook is offering its customers an automated speech recognition service to pay their outstanding holiday balances. Thomas Cook is using a system from Fluency Voice Technology. It has deployed the Fluency VSA speech recognition...

News.
December 4, 2007... Nearly one-third of websites were infected with downloadable malware as infection rates almost doubled in the past year, according to the Sans Institute. User confidence in online security is waning as a result and small and medium sized...

News.
December 4, 2007... Trafford Council has set up an online benefit processing system for residents. The council has contracted IBS OPENSystems to provide a set of online benefits application forms. The forms will enable local residents and agencies to...

News.
December 4, 2007... Government offered alternative national ID scheme that doesn't require national database Antony Savvas A biometric security firm is pitching a national identity scheme designed to allay fears caused by the government holding and trying...

News.
December 4, 2007... An investment in the latest data storage technology is enabling United Dairy Farmers of Northern Ireland to manage its ever expanding volumes of transactional data. United operates five dairy processing plants in the UK under its...

News.
December 4, 2007... Weekly web sales at Domino's Pizza have reached an all-time high, with last week hitting the [pounds sterling]1m mark for the first time. The web sales came through www.dominos.co.uk and do not include other current e-commerce channels...

News.
December 4, 2007... An online documents suite has been launched by InstaColl to rival the Microsoft Office suite. The man behind the venture is Sabeer Bhatia, one of the founders of the Hotmail e-mail system, which was later acquired by Microsoft. He...

Bosses clamp down on social networking.(News)(Survey)
December 4, 2007... Most businesses plan to monitor or limit employee access to social networking sites, as concern grows over their impact on productivity at work, research by ComputerWeekly.com has revealed. The survey of 361 UK IT decision makers found that...

Management.
December 4, 2007... Security must be a primary business requirement with full support from the board, and should be an object that the organisation works with, not around Do you consider your finances, personal information and standing within the community as...

A look back at Leo.(Features)
December 4, 2007... For John Simmons, comptroller of what was once Britain's largest catering company, J Lyons & Co, there was only one option available to take advantage of the huge benefits offered by electronic calculating machines: Lyons must build its own. It...

Features.
December 4, 2007... They may seem to poach your best staff, change technology standards on a whim and make contracts impenetrable, but it is hard to run an IT department without talking to IT suppliers. Since there are few with a world-wide reach, it is how a...

Imperial Tobacco begins Active Directory merger.(News)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Imperial Tobacco has begun a six-month project to merge its Windows Active Directory across two separate business units, as it gears up for further expansion. The company has been running two Active Directories since it acquired German...

Hot skills: Java Database.(Career Moves)
December 4, 2007... What is it? Sun ships the PostgreSQL open source database with its Solaris server operating system. But there is another database that goes out with Solaris and a range of Sun's other platforms and development products, which also comes...

Kilkenny's Wi-Fi network ghosts through castle walls.(News)(Ireland. Office of Public Works)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... Ireland's Office of Public Works (OPW) has rolled out a high-power wireless network at 12th century Kilkenny Castle to provide internet access to staff and visitors. The castle, home to an art gallery, conference centre, a branch of the...

Government to merge 951 websites into two.(News)(Brief article)
December 4, 2007... The government is to bring its 951 websites down to two sites to save money, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee was told last week. All government websites, excluding 26 corporate departmental sites, will be merged into either...

Spending watchdog looks into [pounds sterling]5bn defence project.(News)
December 4, 2007... The National Audit Office has begun an investigation into the [pounds sterling]5bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) contract - a programme that has run into major problems, as revealed by Computer Weekly and Channel 4 News this month....

News.
December 4, 2007... Monday The tree went up today. In keeping with tradition it is real spruce, but the team decorate it with items of IT detritus. A few yellowing reels of paper-tape are preserved for this very purpose, as is a box of now obsolete electronic...

News.
December 4, 2007... NAO request evidence Evidence has emerged of why the National Audit Office (NAO) asked HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for a large download of information from the child benefit database. After receiving the request, HMRC sent the NAO...

News.
December 4, 2007... The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is monitoring promotions on financial service company websites as an investigation reveals that some promotions were misleading. In an investigation of 77 websites the FSA found that a quarter...

News.
December 4, 2007... Gigabit Ethernet PoE port sales increased almost 80% when compared to the same quarter last year. Enterprises are demanding more Gigabit PoE as they expand their networks to support converged voice and data and "future proof" for speed as...

News.
December 4, 2007... Hewlett-Packard has introduced software and services to fully automate the management of business applications and systems. HP has introduced HP Automated Operations 1.0, an integrated set of products that automates IT operations across all...

News.
December 4, 2007... Hewlett-Packard has expanded its use of renewable energy as part of its goal to reduce overall global energy consumption 20% by the end of 2010. HP has signed deals with two renewable energy providers. As part of a power purchase agreement...

News.
December 4, 2007... Cisco has released Network Admission Control (NAC) Guest Server with its Secure Guest service. The software allows any organisation to automate the process of managing guest network access without overburdening information technology (IT)...

News.
December 4, 2007... The UK and Ireland SAP User Group is to join other groups from around the world for the first time at SAP's Influencer Summit to be held in the US city of Boston next week. The user groups will bring together senior SAP executives to...

Technology.
December 4, 2007... Seventy five per cent of the UK will connect to the web via broadband by December 2007 but top speeds are low compared to the rest of the world, analysts have said. "The speeds that are available in the UK are lagging a long, long way...

News.
December 4, 2007... Al Gore, the former US vice-president, now a prominent green campaigner, had his website hacked to sell drugs yesterday. Climatecrisis.net had been hacked to include links to various pharmaceutical products, including Viagra. Hackers...

News.
December 4, 2007... Microsoft's sales of Vista have hit 88 million and the company highlighted a number of customer migrations it says show that users are gearing up to switch to the year-old operating system. In addition to the 88 million copies of Vista...

Technology.
December 4, 2007... Commercial deployments of Wimax networks by operators have overtaken deployments of trial-only networks, according to research consultancy Maravedis. For the Q3 of 2007, 58% of Wimax networks worldwide are now being deployed for commercial...

News.
December 4, 2007... UK banks are upgrading the systems and processes used to fight fraud and focusing on prevention, according to research from Fidelity National Information Services (FIS). The research revealed that retail banks felt that they did not yet...

News.
December 4, 2007... Banks are using their fraud monitoring systems to keep a close eye on activity following Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) breach which saw the personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants go missing. Earlier this week...

News.
December 4, 2007... The Body Shop has signed a [pounds sterling]1m contract with Northgate HR to expand the chain's use of Resourcelink integrated HR and payroll software, as part of its green strategy Justin Taylor, HR partner at The Body Shop, said, "Our...

News.
December 4, 2007... Premier League Football club Bolton Wanderers has upgraded to a web-based e-mail management systemto halve administration time, ensure business continuity, and improve security. "Since moving to the web-based service from Mimecast, viruses...

News.
December 4, 2007... The British standard for business continuity published this week can help organisations differentiate from the competition and become more agile, according to Sungard Availability Services. The BS 25999 standard establishes definitions of...

News.
December 4, 2007... Canadian officials are investigating a medical computer hack of patients' HIV and hepatitis status. Officials in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador are investigating a web security breach after a desktop was taken from an office to...

News.
December 4, 2007... Cisco is trying to tackle a security threat in its voice over IP phones that allows hackers to eavesdrop on conversations. The threat was discovered by a researcher working for Telindus, and allows hackers to remotely eavesdrop on Cisco...

News.
December 4, 2007... The Co-op is rolling out a new supply chain system to smooth deliveries to its stores. The Co-op has successfully deployed the Warehouse Management component of Manhattan Associates' supply chain platform in its new regional distribution...

News.
December 4, 2007... Field engineers and software developers will have opportunities over the next year according to a specialist IT recruitment company. According to Chris Short, managing director at Concept IT, employers are looking for customer-friendly...

News.
December 4, 2007... A website has been launched to provide an independent resource of design advice for UK manufacturers. The DesignTalks website is sponsored by CAD software supplier SolidWorks but independently edited, hosted and managed by a third-party...

News.
December 4, 2007... Microsoft has released an updated version of Service Pack 1 for the Exchange Server 2007 e-mail platform. The latest SP1 includes improved disaster recovery services through the Standby Continuous Replication feature. There is also...

News.
December 4, 2007... Credit-rating agency Experian has implemented a high volume data management system to support the storage and management of statuatory documents filed at Companies House. The system, implemented by storage specialist Softco, supports 6...

News.
December 4, 2007... Working outside the office is the future according to 78% of office workers, with offices considered uninspiring by a third, says research. Findings from the survey of 1080 people carried out by The Work Foundation and Microsoft also showed...

News.
December 4, 2007... Business intelligence (BI) software is increasingly being deployed to improve customer service in end-user businesses, a survey from analyst Gartner has found. 38.8% of respondents rated improved customer satisfaction as the primary...

News.
December 4, 2007... Mobile operators are failing to meet the needs of business users, analyst Gartner has said. According to Gartner, large organisations have four main priorities when buying mobile services: managing costs, managing services, dealing with...

News.
December 4, 2007... Google is looking to expand its environmental credentials with the use of more renewable energy sources. The move follows a similar announcement made earlier this week by Hewlett-Packard, which is expanding its use of solar and wind power....

News.
December 4, 2007... There is little connection between corporate plans to introduce "green" policies and what is actually happening in IT departments, according to a survey of 800 datacentre managers by Symantec. The "Green Datacentre" survey showed that...

News.
December 4, 2007... Barking & Dagenham Surgeries are to use the iPLATO mobile messaging system for health promotion and patient appointment reminders. Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust has offered the iPLATO Patient Care Messaging platform to their GP...

News.
December 4, 2007... Thousands of UK heating service engineers can now send test results directly to their companies using mobile devices to eliminate paperwork and data entry errors. Kane International, a manufacturer of portable test equipment for heating...

News.
December 4, 2007... Computer systems in the UK, US and Germany are among the likely targets of political, military, economic and technical espionage, with cyber spying posing the biggest security threat in 2008. This is a major finding of the third annual...

News.
December 4, 2007... Local authorities are failing to take advantage of technology to enable mobile working, according to research from mobile applications supplier Consillium Technologies. In a survey of 93 local authorities the company found that 20% had no...

News.
December 4, 2007... Napier University adopts coursework fingerprint scheme Antony Savvas Napier University in Edinburgh is using biometrics to revolutionise the way that undergraduate and postgraduate students submit coursework within its School of...

News.
December 4, 2007... Ofcom is consulting over its wireless spectrum management plans for the 2012 London Olympics. The close management of wireless spectrum was a condition of the London Olympics bid, to make sure the media, officials, participants and...

News.
December 4, 2007... Online banking is preferred by consumers with three quarters developing a better understanding of their finances through the channel, according to research from Abbey. Over half of online bankers are logging on at least every other day,...

News.
December 4, 2007... UK business are more likely to outsource datacentres services than their European counterparts, with half already doing it according to research from telco COLT. About 70% of UK IT directors said power, security and space challenges were...

News.
December 4, 2007... Transport for London (TfL) has teamed up with O2 and Nokia to trial a mobile handset that incorporates the Oyster smartcard ticketing technology. Around 500 customers will trial 'O2 wallet' phones which will enable them to use their mobile...

News.
December 4, 2007... The reputation of UK brands can be trashed as a result of phishing attacks, says a survey of web 2,000 users. But consumers believe they and their ISPs should take some responsibility for tackling phishing threats. Phishing attacks are...

News.
December 4, 2007... Prudential is aiming to save [pounds sterling]60m over the next two years through a [pounds sterling]722m outsourcing contract with Capita which will see 3000 employees transfer to the outsourcer. The insurance company is transferring the...

News.
December 4, 2007... Worldwide server shipments up by John-Paul Kamath Worldwide server shipments for the third quarter of 2007 increased 8.7% over the same quarter last year, while worldwide server revenue for the same period climbed 2.6% according to...

News.
December 4, 2007... Service oriented architecture (SOA) projects are in danger of failing to fulfil their potential through lack of governance, a survey of IT directors has found. Nearly three quarters (72%) of IT directors believe that SOA governance is...

News.
December 4, 2007... IT is a major contributor towards to environmentally damaging CO2 emissions but the industry has an opportunity to reduce this contribution, according to a report from public sector IT management association Socitm. In its Green IT report,...

News.
December 4, 2007... A research area of mathematics is being used to simplify spreadsheet formulas by providing users with a library of downloadable spreadsheet components. Oxford researcher and consultant Jocelyn Paine has set up a Web-based software library...