Computer Weekly articles from May 2006

Computer Weekly archives from May 2006

News.(RWE Thames Water PLC uses a project management system)
May 9, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.uk Thames Water is using a central project management system to locate and fix leaks as it embarks on a one-year, ?3.9m programme to replace ageing water pipes across North London. As the UK prepares for a summer...

News.(British Petroleum Company PLC uses mesh networks and remote sensors)(Brief article)
May 9, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukBP is going live this week with a remote sensoring application for shipping based on wireless technology it helped to develop through a proof-of-concept implementation.The chief technology officer sold the idea...

Vital skills for today?s professionals.
May 30, 2006... Gordon Brown? March budget highlighted the chancellor? intention for the UK to ?lead the world in the new industries and technologies which will increasingly shape our future?. There is no doubt that the UK IT services and software industry...

FirstGroup on road to consolidation.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.uk FirstGroup is consolidating 191 IT systems to fewer than 40 as it enters the second phase of a five-year project to transform the business and cut IT costs.The international public transport company aims to...

Ofcom to enable super speed wireless.(Office of Communications)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukTelecoms regulator Ofcom plans to open up new spectrum bands to allow service providers to offer ultra high-speed wireless broadband services.Ofcom intends selling relatively cheap licences to cover fixed...

Global firm goes virtual for savings.(Bureau Veritas Quality International outsource its data networks to Vanco Inc.)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukGlobal consultancy Bureau Veritas aims to trim 20% off its network service costs over five years by outsourcing its data networks to virtual managed service provider Vanco.Under the multimillion-pound deal,...

British Airways cites IT investment as key factor in 20% profit increase.
May 30, 2006... Bill Goodwinbill.goodwin@rbi.co.ukInvestments in IT have played a key role in boosting British Airways? profits by 20% to ?620m in the face of rising fuel prices and growing competition from no-frills airlines.BA chief information officer Paul...

IT department should not be viewed as a cost centre.(IT Directors Forum )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukThe idea that IT is a cost centre and carries no profit or loss is dangerous and should be opposed wherever it is encountered, according to Simon Linsley, head of consultancy, IT and development at...

News.(IT Directors Forum )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Will Hadfield and John Rileywill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukA major theme of the IT Directors Forum on board the Oriana last week was that IT directors and CIOs should be a dominant force driving change within their organisations.Tony Preston, business...

Government ?gifted but misguided?(IT Directors Forum )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... John Rileyjohn.riley@rbi.co.ukA fundamental weakness of the UK government? transformational government strategy is the lack of will among top civil servants to give up control of their autonomous departments, according to a leading academic....

London NHS trust set for biometric single sign-on.(National Health Service)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukLewisham Primary Care Trust is poised to implement one of the first biometric single sign-on security systems in the NHS. The system, at a new children? centre in south-east London, will initially give...

News.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Bill Goodwinbill.goodwin@rbi.co.ukSalaries for permanent IT staff have risen by four times the UK average percentage rise over the past 12 months, as competition for the most senior IT professionals intensifies.Rising demand for senior project...

TfL to trial remote speed restrictions.(Transport for London )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukTransport for London (TfL) is to test a system that can automatically reduce a vehicle? speed, as part of a strategy to reduce road deaths.TfL is initially aiming the Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA)...

Prepare for a revolution of the web, says Berners-Lee.(World Wide Web Conference 2006, Tim Berners-Lee)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukThe internet revolution has just begun, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, told the World Wide Web Conference 2006 in Edinburgh last week.About 1,500 industry leaders and academics gathered to discuss the...

News.(police database to facilitate intelligence sharing will be fully operational from 2010)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Computer Weekly reportercomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukA police database to facilitate intelligence sharing, ordered in the aftermath of the Soham murders, will not be fully operational until 2010, the Home Office revealed last week.Home secretary...

Semantic web ?ready to implement?
May 30, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukThe semantic web, a network of machine-readable information, is a proven concept and organisations should begin exploring how to use it. That was a message from a panel of luminaries from academia and commerce at...

US proposals could create closed web.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukProposed US legislation could create closed-off areas of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium, has warned.One of the challenges facing the web is that the network companies...

The changing face of outsourcing.
May 30, 2006... There is a lot of talk these days about the rationale for outsourcing migrating from cost to quality. But ask the CEO or board of most large companies for their primary motivation in signing an outsourcing deal, and cost savings will not be far...

News.(potential security breaches by deploying enterprise-wide single sign-on technology without deploying stronger authentication)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Bill Goodwinbill.goodwin@rbi.co.ukBusinesses are leaving themselves exposed to potential security breaches by deploying enterprise-wide single sign-on technology without deploying stronger authentication.A survey of more than 400 firms in the...

Drugs firms? high IT spend reflects emphasis on R&D but outsourcing takes its cut.(Brief article)(Column)
May 30, 2006... Business Focus is a weekly column providing at-a-glance statistics and commentary on spending priorities and trends in particular sectors. This week we look at the pharmaceuticals industry.Pharmaceuticals manufacturers are big investors in...

Could Ruby be the jewel in the crown of scripting?
May 30, 2006... Nick Langleycomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukWhat is it?Ruby is a relative latecomer among scripting languages, but has developed a distinct niche of its own. In an increasing number of job ads, it is often part of an either/or pair with Python. Like...

BCS members win top prizes at the Female Inventor of the Year awards.(British Computer Society, British Female Inventors & Innovators Network, HT Consultants)
May 30, 2006... Justin Richardscomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukTwo BCS members have been awarded prizes at the Female Inventor of the Year 2006 awards, run by the British Female Inventors & ?Innovators Network. Megan Beynon of IBM won first prize in the category...

Who is really behind the internet?
May 30, 2006... creating Your own TLDIf you do not like the way that the top-level domain allocation and domain naming system is working, you could always create your own. Several organisations have tried. New.net used a browser plug-in to interpret...

Could Ruby be the jewel in the crown of scripting?
May 30, 2006... Nick Langleycomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukWhat is it?Ruby is a relative latecomer among scripting languages but it has developed a distinct niche for itself. In an increasing number of job adverts it is part of an either/or pair with Python. Like...

News.(Fasthosts merges with German internet service provider)
May 30, 2006... Police records could be coming to a park near youDowntime was alarmed to read last week that Tony Blair and his cohorts are considering giving frontline council workers access to police intelligence records.Under the proposals, park keepers,...

getting everyone on the same track.(London Underground Ltd. uses project management solution to work with a number of partner organizations)
May 30, 2006... Managing the complexity of about 1,700 simultaneous projects is no mean feat, especially when you are also working with a number of partner organisations on each project. This is the challenge that faced London Underground, and its solution was...

News.(retail industry uses wireless technology to allow companies to run their millions of transactions )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Pervasive wireless Wireless networking is still at the early stages of its technology curve, but it has opened a range of opportunities to improve the way we do business.In the retail industry, wireless technology allows companies to run many...

News.(retail industry uses wireless technology to run their millions of transactions )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Pervasive wireless Wireless networking is still at the early stages of its technology curve, but it has opened a range of opportunities to improve the way we do business.In the retail industry, wireless technology allows companies to run many...

Who is really behind the internet?
May 30, 2006... Danny Bradburycomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukBack when the internet was a gleam in DARPA? eye, the question of control was easy. The people that controlled it were the people that built it, and they could be counted on the fingers of two hands. Now...

xxe well to win over the board.
May 30, 2006... Danny Bradburycomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukBack when the internet was a gleam in DARPA? eye, the question of control was easy. The people that controlled it were the people that built it, and they could be counted on the fingers of two hands. Now...

Invest outside the Lan fornet gains, advises Gartner.(Gartner Symposium )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Antony Savvascomputer.weekly@rbi.co.ukMost businesses follow outdated network design and procurement practices that lead to over-engineered, overpriced but under-performing networking infrastructures, this month? Gartner Symposium in San...

Suppliers avoid paying for failures.(IT Directors Forum )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukCompanies often allow their suppliers to avoid financial liability when IT projects run into problems, according to Allan Watton, managing director of the Best Practice Group.Watton told the IT Directors...

News.(Britannia Building Society brings payroll and human resources systems back in house from HR and payroll specialist ICS)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukBritannia Building Society is to bring its payroll and human resources systems back in house to give it more control over future developments, which include providing ?self-service HR? functionality...

News.(Britannia Building Society brings its payroll and human resources systems back in house from HR and payroll specialist ICS)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukBritannia Building Society is to bring its payroll and human resources systems back in house to give it more control over future developments, which include providing ?self-service HR? functionality...

Liverpool declares war on paper to free up buildings.(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Will Hadfieldwill.hadfield@rbi.co.ukLiverpool City Council is to extend its document management system to social workers in an effort to cut costs by streamlining administration and freeing up buildings used to store paper records.Social...

News.(Royal Liver Assurance implements CedarOpenAccounts's accounting system )(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... IN BRIEFElectronic records of US army veterans stolenElectronic data on up to 26.5 million former US soldiers has been stolen from the home of a data analyst at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The data includes names, social security...

Government backs public pensions plan.(National Pension Savings Scheme)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Christian Annesleychristian.annesley@rbi.co.ukThe government has put its weight behind the creation of a public body to develop and administer the IT systems for a National Pension Savings Scheme.Last week? pensions white paper made clear the...

Take the sting out of the tail-end of a deal.
May 30, 2006... Even good IT deals can go awry, typically through services no longer meeting a customer? needs, services deteriorating or prices rising over time. But if as a customer your wish to terminate a contract, be aware that this is often a whole...

News.(fashion retailer Oasis launches website, Barclays Bank PLC provide anti virus software from F-Secure Corp. to its online banking users)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... IN BRIEFZfone software encrypts internet phone callsScientist Philip Zimmermann has developed software to encrypt internet telephone calls. The program, Zfone, is designed to protect callers from future threats, such as spyware developed to...

Microsoft to provide grids for SMEs.(small and medium sized companies)(Brief article)
May 30, 2006... Arif Mohamedarif.mohamed@rbi.co.ukMicrosoft is set to bring the power of grid computing within reach of small businesses with the release of a high-performance computing (HPC) product this summer. Microsoft? Windows Compute Cluster Server...

SAP customers adopting SOA need to find a partner with experience.(service-oriented architecture )
May 30, 2006... Before innovative SAP customers decide to adopt service-oriented architecture (SOA) across the entire enterprise, they will need an holistic view of how all the pieces of their IT puzzle fit together. They will need an enterprise-wide...

Triangulation homes in on rogue WLan access points.
May 30, 2006... Cliff Sarancliff.saran@rbi.co.ukFoundry Networks has devised a way to restrict end-users from accessing certain parts of a wireless local area network. Although wireless access points use encryption to secure network traffic, access to the WLan...