Computer Weekly articles from March 2004

Computer Weekly archives from March 2004

British computer society ; BT systems designer attests to value of accredited qualifications.
March 2, 2004... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk The value of independent IT qualifications has been underlined by a systems designer at BT Global Solutions who gained several certificates from the BCS Information Systems Examinations Board...

networks ; CMA invites firms to share data to benchmark outsourcing services.
March 2, 2004... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Users are being urged to share information about their network and telecoms contracts in order to build a new benchmarking service. Members of the Communications Management Association have...

The real-time fantasy.
March 2, 2004... Andy Hayler Opinion The idea of "real-time" business intelligence sounds appealing: as soon as someone in Brazil types in a new sales order, the business intelligence system in central office knows and reacts immediately. Those who...

microsoft; Microsoft defends monthly patch update as best way to beat hackers.
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Microsoft has defended its policy of issuing monthly security patches for the Windows operating system, despite growing evidence that hackers use them to develop new ways of attacking corporate...

policing; Met to use IT specialist special constables to fight e-crime.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk The Metropolitan Police would be willing to take on IT security professionals as volunteer special constables during complex computer crime investigations. Metropolitan Police commissioner John...

Computer Weekly campaign wins support from MPs and major suppliers; MPs consider case for IT best practice legislation.
March 2, 2004... Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk Proposals to boost openness and accountability on government projects - put forward by Computer Weekly - won the support of senior figures in the IT industry when they were raised at a Parliamentary...

Oracle's revival raises skills' value.
March 2, 2004... Nick Langley computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk What is it? Oracle Applications, now called the Oracle E-Business Suite, competes with SAP and PeopleSoft in the enterprise resource planning market. According to Oracle, it has nearly...

health; Take a break from your mouse: IT workers warned of RSI danger.
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk IT professionals could be putting themselves at risk of repetitive strain injury from using computer mice, research by the Ergonomics Society has suggested. The society is urging employers to...

IT users to present their key security concerns.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk A leading member of the Jericho Forum, the new security group for global organisations, will present key end-user concerns about the limitations of IT security infrastructure at a conference in London...

government IT; IT industry backs our campaign.
March 2, 2004... for reviews to be published in a debate in the Commons. He said publication of the reviews would further strengthen the process. "If these matters were in the public domain and MPs, members of the public and journalists could read about...

e-learning; Asda and Marconi deals highlight growing popularity of e-learning.
March 2, 2004... l Telecoms company to offer "real-time" learning to 3,000 staff worldwide l Supermarket uses software to supplement classroom-based courses Nick Huber and Bill Goodwin nick.huber@rbi.co.uk Last month telecoms company Marconi...

Could a secondment to the marketing department make you a better IT director?
March 2, 2004... Robina Chatham Opinion What is the key to becoming a successful IT director? Is the cliche that IT directors need to have a general understanding of business, rather than just an encyclopedic knowledge of technology, the answer? A...

Make sure you know where the exits are before outsourcing gets off the ground.
March 2, 2004... John Mackie Opinion Outsourcing contracts go wrong for many reasons. Needs change over time, services decline, prices become uncompetitive, or the relationship may be poorly managed on either, or both, sides. We all prefer to plan...

Don't get blinkered: involve end-users to ensure IT projects stay on road to success.
March 2, 2004... Arthur Murphy Opinion Computer Weekly's 2003 Programme Management Survey highlighted the fact that average overruns on budget and schedule are down to 18% and 23% respectively. This is welcome news, but the survey also found that...

IT managers who do their homework can persuade the board that investment is wise.
March 2, 2004... Dominic Connor Opinion As spring approaches an IT director's thoughts turn to the annual budget. Forecasting accurately how much money your IT department will need over the next year is not an exact science. It is made easier,...

Address risks of utility computing to take advantage of cost benefits.
March 2, 2004... Peter Brudenall Opinion New business models within the IT sector have been relatively hard to find since the end of the dotcom boom a few years ago. However, in the past 12 months or so, a buzzword has emerged that has gained a huge...

contracts.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Ministry of Defence awards intelligence deal The Ministry of Defence has awarded EDS, QinetiQ, Raytheon and Mars Omega a [pounds sterling]3.6m contract for the design and build of its Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and...

training; Site offers skills advice for SME IT managers.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Gooodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk A website launched last week will make it easier for managers in small businesses to identify what training they should be giving their IT staff. The site aims to help managers select courses...

TAX; Contractor tax could push rates up.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Greg Chivers computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk The cost of employing IT contractors could be set to rise following tax changes expected to be included in this year's Budget, a tax specialist has warned. Anne Redstone, taxation partner...

financial sector; UK banks face Basel 2 compliance problems.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk Ageing IT systems at UK banks are hampering compliance projects to meet the Basel 2 regulation on risk management, according to a new survey. About 50% of 294 financial institutions worldwide...

PLM; PLM streamlines development of Boeing 7E7.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Boeing is implementing one of the largest product lifecycle management projects yet undertaken. Its Global Collaboration Environment is a bid to streamline the development and manufacture of its 7E7...

production processes; Digital factory uses virtual reality to track car production.
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk A key part of any manufacturing process is ensuring there are no bottlenecks in production and understanding the impact that a single failure might have on the overall process. Car manufacturer...

e-business; Card schemes secure e-commerce for BA.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk MasterCard and Visa's online authentication schemes received a boost last week when it was announced that British Airways has signed up to both initiatives to improve security on its e-commerce...

supply chain; Nestle links SAP with suppliers to respond to changes in demand.
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk The supply chain at the UK arm of consumer foods manufacturer Nestle has been revolutionised over the past five years through a wide-ranging implementation of SAP's R/3 software. Software...

The next step in improving government IT.
March 2, 2004... government itShaking up Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk Government spends [pounds sterling]2bn a year on IT equipment and services. But Parliament has never known much about IT projects. Its knowledge of failures generally...

pdas and handsets; Business users get mobile e-mail alternatives.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Instant e-mail and voice conferencing were two of the most high-profile new technologies at 3GSM. Ericsson announced that its P900 smartphone would support e-mail from the Blackberry...

innovation; IT can drive change in the business.
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Improving manufacturing processes by using product lifecycle management, supply chain optimisation and enhancing operational processes will go a long way to adding business value through IT. The...

Make Gateway reviews public to improve success rate of government IT projects.
March 2, 2004... Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk In February 2002, a secret Gateway review of a huge IT project at the Criminal Records Bureau found all was not well - a month before systems were due to go live. The supplier Capita had won its...

64-bit; HP's repackaged 32-bit and 64-bit Proliant servers may confuse users.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Hewlett-Packard is offering users a revamped server line, which offers combined 32-bit and 64-bit working using single processors, but the launch will cause confusion among users, analysts said....

security; IP security to encrypt Post Office banking.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk The Post Office is to use internet protocol-based technology to encrypt basic banking transactions at more than 16,500 Post Offices in the UK. The cash machine network Link will provide the service...

outsourcing; Council seeks [pounds sterling]500m IT partner.
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Birmingham City Council has embarked on the UK's largest local authority IT outsourcing and business transformation programme, with a 15-year deal estimated to be worth [pounds sterling]500m. ...

security; DTIsurvey shows rise in level of virus attacks.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Business in the UK are facing a huge increase in computer virus and denial of service attacks, the Department of Trade & Industry's Information Security Breaches Survey has revealed. About 50%...

compliance; Pension companies face massive IT bill to comply with new rules.
March 2, 2004... l Pensions Bill and tax changes could require IT work costing [pounds sterling]15m-[pounds sterling]30m l Companies may only get six months to rewrite their systems Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk The UK's largest pension...

web services; Businesses must adapt to survive, warns Meta.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk Companies should invest in emerging technologies such as web services to become "adaptive organisations" capable of responding to opportunities and threats more quickly. The adaptive organisation...

ERP; Oracle's PeopleSoft bid blocked.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Oracle's bid to acquire rival ERP company PeopleSoft suffered a blow last week when the US Department of Justice moved to block the proposed merger. "If the merger were allowed to proceed, it...

open source; Public sector urged to use open source.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Public sector organisations should consider using open source software on desktops as well as servers, the government's spending watchdog said last week. In a report on software licensing, the...

strategy; Don't expect computers to do too much, says IBM.
March 2, 2004... l IBM tells Parliamentary committee some jobs are better handled manuallyl Costs can be reduced by only using IT to handle straightforward tasks Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk IBM, the world's largest computer supplier, has...

staffing; BBC fires head of its technology division.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk The managing director of BBC Technology - the BBC's IT services arm, which is being sold off in a deal worth more than [pounds sterling]100m - has been sacked with immediate effect for "misusing...

Congestion charge IT supplier reports 23% rise in profits.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Capita, the outsourcing supplier that runs London's congestion charge scheme, last week announced 2003 pre-tax profits of [pounds sterling]121m, a 23% rise on the previous year. The surge in profits to [pounds sterling]121m comes despite...

supply chain; Coca-Cola and SAP collaborate on managing supply chain networks.
March 2, 2004... l Coca-Cola to use demand-driven supply network applicationsl Drinks firm hopes to cut paperwork and increase stock efficiency Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Coca-Cola is working with SAP to develop software to improve...

servers; Dell brings enterprise computing to SMEs.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Greg Chivers computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Dell has introduced a family of servers and a new storage system in an attempt to bring enterprise computing to small and medium-sized businesses. Last week the company introduced two...

Spies make use of Windows holes.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin.@rbi.co.uk Governments may be exploiting vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system to commit computer espionage, David Aucsmith, chief technical officer for security at Microsoft, said last week. ...

IT4Communities; IT professionals needed for voluntary projects.
March 2, 2004... There was a solid response from readers in early January when we last drew attention to IT4Communities, the organisation that matches volunteer IT professionals with charities that need help with their technology systems. Following our...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 2, 2004... Basics lessons are key to improved government IT Jos Creese Head of IT, Hampshire County Council For more years than I can remember we have been talking about improving the success rate of government IT projects. We have had...

web services; Java drives Mars mission portal.
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Web services built on Java are helping Nasa to distribute data from its current Mars mission. An information portal developed using web services written in Java is being used by scientists from around...

organised crime; Firms at risk if they give in to online extortion.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Businesses could end up breaking the law if they give in to extortion demands from criminal gangs that have begun to threaten corporate websites with denial of service attacks, a leading barrister...

3G for education ; Wireless networks for UK colleges.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk UK universities are to be targeted by Cisco, T-Mobile, and Intel with a new mobile data service that combines 802.11 wireless Lan networks, 3G and GPRS mobile networks to provide widespread...

training; E-crime investigation courses launched.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk A new company is offering training courses for IT professionals in how to investigate computer crime. Evidex, which was formed last month, offers courses for a range of staff, including those...

opinions; Police need more cash to fight e-crime.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin.@rbi.co.uk The police need more funds and more trained IT specialists to tackle the rising tide of computer crime, according to senior security staff who attended the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit's E-Crime...

financial services ; Standards needed to aid money laundering fight.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... l Mantas calls for alliance between banks, regulators and suppliersl Standards call in response to discussion paper from the FSA Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk Banks, regulators and software suppliers should form an alliance to...

outsourcing; Bradford Council will offer IT secondment.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk IT staff at Bradford Council will not be transferred to a private sector company when the local authority awards a [pounds sterling]100m IT outsourcing contract in July, after the council agreed a...

NEXT MOVE.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... The question Do I have a right to interview feedback? As a job applicant, do I have any rights in asking for constructive feedback following an interview? I was recently interviewed for an IT position with a high street bank and...

strategy; X internet heads the list of future challenges.
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Navi Radjou, principal analyst at Forrester, believes IT directors need to look at how the internet can be more fully embedded within business processes. He predicts that manufacturers will use...

utility computing; Define usage growth to predict costs.
March 2, 2004... Julia Vowler computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Utility computing could enable IT to meet the demands of a rapidly changing business environment, but putting it into practice means doing a lot of careful sums that can turn IT's traditional cost...

supply chain ; Focus Wickes expects [pounds sterling]10m savings from central database to alert product suppliers.
March 2, 2004... l Focus and Wickes consolidate sales figures onto a central portall New system boosts margins by improving stock availability Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk DIY retail group Focus Wickes expects to save [pounds sterling]10m...

microsoft; Gates pledges 'active protection' to improve Windows security.
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates has answered criticism of his company's security track record with measures designed to improve the company's Trustworthy Computing strategy....

Talk the board's language.
March 2, 2004... Geoff Gudgion Opinion "Web services" and "service-oriented architecture" are the latest examples of our penchant for creating loosely defined labels for complex collections of standards or technologies. However, they may make a...

Recovery offers new challenges.
March 2, 2004... Figures released by the CBI and the Office of National Statistics last week revealed that the manufacturing sector is in recovery, with increased output and healthier order books. As we report this week, this recovery is reinforced by initial...

e-business ; AirMiles pushes ahead with XML after integrating back-office IT.
March 2, 2004... l AirMiles Travel Company saw website use grow from 10% to 30%l Company is using open tools and pushing XML standards Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk The AirMiles Travel Company is pushing forward with a major refresh of its...

Let the team have a say in hiring.
March 2, 2004... Julia Vowler computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Having to work with colleagues you would rather not work with can make an IT department an uncomfortable place to be. Normally managers choose staff and incumbent workers have to live with...

Microsoft rolls out its budget version of a large-scale enterprise report writer.
March 2, 2004... Keith Gileand Philip Russom Tech talk On hearing the term "report" many business and IT people think first of the end product - the report - then the report writer where it was created, followed by the report server that delivered it,...

Decision time for users as .net and J2EE compete to be the architecture of choice.
March 2, 2004... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk For the past few years there has been a great deal of effort from the IT industry to promote the concept of web services, an umbrella term for a set of technologies that allow two or more...

Is finance essential to IT strategy success?
March 2, 2004... Is budgeting and financial management a necessary evil? How crucial is it to our success as IT strategists? IT needs a well-structured investment plan Chris PottsDirector, Dominic Barrow When I sit down with senior executives to...

WCIT Charity Walk; A wandering IT will go.
March 2, 2004... This summer's IT Charity Walk offers the opportunity to have a relaxed day out with the family and a group of like-minded IT professionals while raising money for charity. As an added bonus, participants get to see parts of London that are...

inside the BCS; Get your entries in for BCSawards.
March 2, 2004... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk The technology section of the BCS IT Professional Awards, covering applications, system and services, closes for entries on 22 March. The business achievement awards, covering the public...

ready for anything?
March 2, 2004... Event management software is designed to cope with unexpected problems in the supply chain. But, as Mark Vernon reports, although some users have implemented it successfully, analysts warn it may prove to be no more than a stopgap Supply...

Use process of sustained risk management to eradicate knee-jerk security scrambles.
March 2, 2004... Luke Brown Opinion The latest monthly bulletin from Microsoft warning users of a newly identified vulnerability in the Windows operating system would have affected many companies. Users were urged to apply a patch to protect against...

YOUR SHOUT; Have your say at ; computerweekly.com.(Letter to the Editor)
March 2, 2004... On the necessity of a data back-up plan In response to Bill Goodwin's article, which revealed that out of a survey of 1,000 businesses by the Department of Trade & Industry, less than 20% back up their data. It is not surprising that...

CRM ; Travelex consolidates its CRM with hosted service.
March 2, 2004... l Database consolidation simplifies transactionsl Service offers flexibility for a set annual feel Audit satisfied board that data would be secure Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Currency exchange company Travelex has begun...

storage; Veritas revamps for utility storage model.(Brief Article)
March 2, 2004... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Veritas has revamped its storage management and virtualisation software with the launch of Veritas Storage Foundation 4.0. Veritas said the software is part of its utility computing strategy and...

British Computer Society; Government must subsidise rural broadband to support e-learning.
March 9, 2004... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk A new underclass of IT "have-nots" could be created by a proposed government strategy to revolutionise e-learning, the BCS has warned. However, the plan could create job opportunities for IT...

Security on a shoestring.
March 9, 2004... Peter Wood Opinion No organisation likes to spend money on infrastructure, especially when the topic is security. An increase in headcount is unacceptable under any circumstances, so where should a small or medium-sized enterprise...

financial services; City police warn of criminal gangs bribing staff for financial data.(Brief Article)
March 9, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Criminal gangs are bribing employees of companies in the City of London to raid corporate databases for credit card and sensitive personal details, Mike Bowron, assistant commissioner of the City of...

security; Nuisance worms give helpdesks 'virus fatigue'.(Brief Article)
March 9, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk A wave of mass-mailing computer viruses last week threatened to slow corporate e-mail systems and overload helpdesk staff with calls from users. New variants of Bagel, MyDoom and Netsky flooded...

financial sector; Input error crashes Co-op mortgage site.
March 9, 2004... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk An error by a computer operator left 10,000 mortgage account holders at the Co-operative Bank without access to their accounts for one day last week. The bank's mortgage system crashed on Monday...

financial sector; City watchdog pushes XBRL data standard.
March 9, 2004... l Compliance information to be filed online from April 2005l Data standard will replace paper-based submissions and cut costs Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk City regulator the Financial Services Authority has announced plans to...

retail; House of Fraser plans to support EDI and XML.(Brief Article)
March 9, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk House of Fraser, one of the first companies to use Microsoft's Biztalk 2004 Server, is revamping its supply network to support both EDI and XML. The department store group, which has 47...

migration analysis.
March 9, 2004... Large companies have already accepted the why of Linux,it is up to the IT industry to paint the picture of how, where and when BYLINE: Steve Gaines Opinion Recent straw polls of corporate IT users have uncovered an interesting...

Progress simply makes it easy for everyone.
March 9, 2004... Nick Langley computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk What is it? Progress is a relational database and development environment. It is mainly used by independent software suppliers to build applications. However, the same characteristics...

? ; Keep talking and get the board on your side when projects run late or over budget.
March 9, 2004... Steve Tyler Opinion No matter how much preparation goes into an IT project, IT directors know to expect a degree of unpredictability. A number of variables, often beyond the control of an IT function, can shift the lifecycle of a...

Give the board a consolidation strategy to progress the business.
March 9, 2004... Alan Lawson Opinion The hunt for cost savings is constant, but which areas of IT should organisations focus on? Four of the most important areas where IT cost savings can be created at an organisational level are infrastructure...

e-business ; Lastminute cuts costs with wireless network.(Brief Article)
March 9, 2004... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Online travel and leisure provider Lastminute.com has begun rolling out a wireless network at its head office to cut networking costs and improve customer service. The network, based on...

work/life balance; Health and productivity suffer as IT staff work some of the longest hours in the UK.
March 9, 2004... l TUC study finds IT staff work equivalent of an extra day a week unpaid l Experts claim long hours increase likelihood of staff making mistakes Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk IT staff work some of the longest hours in the...

contracts.
March 9, 2004... MoD develops [pounds sterling]1m sonar data recorder The Defence Science & Technology Laboratory, part of the Ministry of Defence, has awarded a [pounds sterling]1m contract to Detica to support an acoustic processing system for sonar data...