Computer Weekly articles from November 2003

Computer Weekly archives from November 2003

British computer society ; Lower salaries and more training needed to slow offshore IT trend.
November 4, 2003... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk An end to "salary madness", plus more training, greater attention to quality and budgets and closer ties between IT and business departments could help the UK resist IT competition from...

inside the BCS; Wireless SIG will prepare for next wave.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk A BCS specialist group on wireless IT has been formed to cater for researchers and companies interested in this field. "Despite general uncertainty in IT, research has shown that wireless...

UK workers delay family life because of job fears.
November 4, 2003... Ross Bentley ross.bentley@rbi.co.uk UK employers are still unsympathetic to working parents despite new flexible working laws and the huge demand by staff for family-friendly policies. Research by staffing agency Officeteam has...

Crystal offers intelligent careers.
November 4, 2003... hot skills In the SSL/CW list of IT skills, Crystal Reports is number 50 Nick Langley computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk What is it? Crystal Reports is one of the longest established business intelligence tools, with a pedigree going...

FTSE companies demand common security standards.
November 4, 2003... UK users seize the initiative as suppliers fail to deliver Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Ten FTSE 100 companies have joined forces in an effort to drive home their IT security concerns to IT suppliers. The organisations,...

Fire service locates mobile callers.(Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... In the run up to Guy Fawkes night, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has incorporated location-finding technology for mobile phones into its emergency services control room. The technology, from Verilocation, gives a location for a...

More IT projects are hitting their targets.(the Computer Weekly Project/ Programme Management Survey )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk The management of UK IT projects is improving and is better than previously thought, according to exclusive research commissioned by Computer Weekly. The Computer Weekly Project/ Programme...

Men more likely to move for jobs.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Ross Bentley ross.bentley@rbi.co.uk Some 68% of employers may need to relocate staff within the UK and about 30% need to send staff abroad, according to a survey by the Work Foundation. British workers moving abroad are as likely...

What is the surest way to keep bugs at bay?
November 4, 2003... SME strategy special Expert advice on software patching for smaller businesses Following October's SME Month, run in association with BT, we have assembled a panel of experts to answer questions sent in by small businesses. The SME...

How the seven deadly sins of IT management only breed distrust.
November 4, 2003... Seven reasons senior managers will not trust their own IT departments When I left my "proper job" as a project manager in the IT industry to become an IT management consultant 18 years ago, I had my first exposure to interviewing senior...

IT security needs a new metaphor.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... IT security managers are rethinking their approaches to security in large organisations and re-evaluating upcoming threats. It is no longer fashionable to regard security as a fortress to keep people out. The new analogy is an airport,...

Importance of disaster plans highlighted as 93% of firms suffer unplanned downtime.
November 4, 2003... l 14% of firms had over eight hours of unplanned downtime last yearl 80% of firms do not include data on PCs and laptops in disaster plans James Rogers james.rogers@rbi.co.uk Ninety three per cent of UK companies experienced...

Age must be no barrier to success.
November 4, 2003... Lawyer Audrey Williams explains new regulations on age discrimination New legislation on age discrimination, due to come into force in October 2006, has been described as the most significant since sex discrimination rules were introduced,...

WHSmith invests [pounds sterling]1m to cut IT support costs.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk WHSmith News has invested [pounds sterling]1m in server and storage technology from Dell in an attempt to improve its e-mail and printing capabilities and reduce IT support costs. The...

Buy now, PC users told.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Antony Adshead antony.adshead@rbi.co.uk Users can pick up good deals on desktop and notebook PCs following price cuts of up to 35% on processors from Intel and AMD, analysts have said. IDC analyst Andy Brown said the price cuts,...

e-government; Government websites fall short of the mark.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... James Rogers james.rogers@rbi.co.uk Government websites are failing the people who need them most, according to a report by local authority IT directors' organisation the Society of IT Management and the Citizens AdviceBureau. The...

exchange 2003; Neopost joins MS roll-out.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... change 2003 had the in-built technology to offer more secure mobile integration capabilities, and Server 2003 allowed the company to take advantage of Microsoft's Active Directory domain controller. Its old NT4 system could not use Active...

Race redundancy IT manager gets apology.(from DaimlerChrysler)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler has been ordered to pay [pounds sterling]80,000 compensation and to issue an unequivocal apology to an IT manager who was unfairly made redundant after he suffered...

erp; Goodyear restates accounts after finding errors in SAP roll-out.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Antony Adshead antony.adshead@rbi.co.uk Goodyear, the multinational tyre and rubber company, has announced a $100m ([pounds sterling]59m) restatement of its accounts as a result of errors during the implementation of an SAP financial...

Nationwide delays to ensure San success.
November 4, 2003... l Large network project falls behind schedulel Analysts praise IT director's approachl San will enable firm to meet Basel II regulations Antony Adshead antony.adshead@rbi.co.uk A storage area network deployment by Nationwide has...

internet; W3C sides with MS against patent lawsuit.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has called on the US government to invalidate a controversial technology patent in order to prevent "substantial economic and technical damage" to the operation...

IN BRIEF.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... PC and mobile device web services get easier Microsoft and Vodafone used last week's Professional Developers' Conference to reveal more details of plans to make it easier for developers to produce web services that could be used for both...

MS responds to users' Messenger worries.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Microsoft is trying to reduce security holes in its Windows XP operating system by disabling the package's Windows Messenger Service and activating its Internet Connection Firewall by default....

Gates promises his 'holy grail' of XML in next version of Windows.(Microsoft Longhorn)
November 4, 2003... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk The next major operating system from Microsoft will feature better graphics and an improved communications architecture, and will enable users to develop applications more easily. This was...

Cheers, and fears, onfirst look at Longhorn.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Danny Bradbury computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Developers saved most of their applause during the keynote sessions of the conference for the demonstration of Longhorn, with its new Avalon 3D graphics system, unified object oriented storage...

MS price cuts fail to tempt IT chiefs to upgrade.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Microsoft's plans to boost uptake of its new Office 2003 product by offering discounts has met with a cool response from IT directors contacted by Computer Weekly. The discounts come into...

E-billing at British Gas.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk British Gas has begun e-mailing bills to customers in the first stage of the company's ambitious plan to process one million customers via online billing by 2005. British Gas, which sends out...

Businesses warned to prepare for dangerous new spam variants.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Businesses should brace themselves for dangerous variants on junk e-mail as spammers turn to sophisticated technology to evade detection and harvest e-mail addresses. Spamming is big business,...

Courts urged to replace juries with expert panels of judges in IT cases.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk The courts should consider replacing juries in complex computer crime trials with panels of specialist judges trained in IT, security experts said last week. Their comments follow concerns that...

HP uses 'virus code' to protect its corporate networks from worms.
November 4, 2003... Compsec 2003 News from last week's world conference on IT security Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk Hewlett-Packard has demonstrated how computer virus technology can be turned around to protect business networks against...

Successful bid for NHS e-booking system was nearly double rival bid.
November 4, 2003... Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk A [pounds sterling]64.5m contract to build and help run a national electronic booking system for the NHS was nearly double the bid price submitted by Fujitsu, one of the companies shortlisted for the...

Increase in cybercrime could mean new laws.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... John Riley john.riley@rbi.co.uk The rising tide of cybercrime could result in new regulations that would hit IT departments hard, according to Pauline Neville-Jones, chairwoman of defence technology agency Qinetiq. Speaking at...

Benetton opts for Solaris and Java.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Clothing manufacturer Benetton is to standardise its IT infrastructure on Sun's Solaris 9 operating system, the Java software development environment and XML. Last December the firm decided to standardise its enterprise applications on SAP's...

No more 'jam tomorrow'.
November 4, 2003... With tight budgets a fixture for many firms, businesses are seeking a swift return from minimal IT investment. Nick Langley talks to companies that have achieved this goal Afew weeks ago, Computer Weekly looked at the impact of lower IT...

Medium-size retailers ignore chip and Pin.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Almost half of medium-sized retailers are still ignoring calls to make plans to implement chip and Pin technology, despite the fact there are only 14 months until liability for card fraud moves...

IT chiefs agree on the benefits of enterprise application integration.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... In the current climate of consolidation, one area producing results is enterprise application integration. Senior users from Times 200 organisations attending a workshop on EAI organised by the Corporate IT Forum in September all agreed that it...

Good supplier links and early exposure to new products aid insight and experience.
November 4, 2003... It is a pleasure here at Computer Weekly to profile the IT departments that have made it on to our shortlist of the Best Places to Work in IT 2003. Through feedback from IT managers and their staff, our aim is to celebrate the best employers of...

M&S praised for addressing RFID concerns.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Retailers should use Marks & Spencer's approach to addressing radio frequency identification privacy concerns when considering implementing the electronic tracking technology, analyst firm...

Network managers can fill the storage manager's remit; From networks to storage.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... According to the latest figures from the Yankee Group, 56% of storage used in enterprises will be networked by the end of 2003. Most organisations now accept that direct attached storage is no longer an efficient way to manage data. By...

IBM tempts Microsoft .net users away from SQL Server to DB/2.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk With a stated goal to make DB/2 programming more natural, IBM has said the next version of its DB/2 database will improve support for Microsoft's .net development platform. In a bid to lure...

Tight budgets mean IT chiefs will go for bargains, not loss-leaders.
November 4, 2003... l Ovum Holway predicts an annual IT growth rate of 2% in 2004l Budget pressures will lead to an increase in piecemeal outsourcing Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk IT directors will not spend their full budgets in 2003 and their...

skills; MoD adopts framework to assess IT staff's skills.
November 4, 2003... l MoD plans to roll-out the scheme to thousands of staff by April 2004l Businesses can use the framework to ascertain which skills they lack Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk The armed forces are planning to change the way they...

Users have set security agenda.
November 4, 2003... When the IT directors of Royal Mail, BP, ICI and other FTSE 100 companies join together to call for a new universal framework for security, IT suppliers should sit up and pay attention. IT directors on the sharp end of delivering...

Preconfigured software roll-outs reintroduce old worms to systems.
November 4, 2003... l Automatic patch downloads not quick enough to stop infectionl Every system should be audited for flaws before being brought online Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Automatic software distribution, a popular method of installing...

Technology advances put IT directors in the hot seat; Business sense is vital.
November 4, 2003... Since the early 1980s, the constructive use of technology has been one of the absolute essentials of competitive success for a business. What is difficult for people to remember is just how primitive technology was then. One of the biggest...

Linux 2.6 test release.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk The 2.6 release of the Linux kernel came a step closer with the availability of a test version of the new operating system last week. Three years in the making, the kernel was developed by Linux...

Hitting targets? ; The state ofUK IT project management.
November 4, 2003... The Computer Weekly Project Management survey investigated how 1,500 IT project managers across the UK are running their IT projects, their level of success and the reasons for failure Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk The effective...

IBM will merge AS/400 and RS6000 next year.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2003... IBM's veteran RS6000 and AS/400 mid-range computers are to merge onto a standard software platform next year, users at the IBM Computer Users' Association's annual iSeries conference heard two weeks ago. The RS6000, renamed the pSeries,...

Cube could spell the death of the disc as memory moves into the third dimension.
November 4, 2003... Researchers are on the verge of massively increasing data storage efficiency BYLINE: Antony Adshead Getting Wired Current disc-based storage technologies are restricted because data is stored in two dimensions, on the face of the...

British computer society ; Membership set to soar as BCS continues to raise its profile after a year of change.
November 11, 2003... John Kavanagh computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk The BCS is aiming to increase its membership by 50% a year for at least four years from next May, when changes to its grading structure are due to take effect. BCS chief executive David...

Charities Consortium IT Directors Group; Charities consortium rejects big-bang approach to CRM.
November 11, 2003... The two issues at the top of the agenda for charity sector IT directors most - customer relationship management, and mobile and remote computing - got a good airing at last month's Charities Consortium IT Directors Group annual conference. ...

Winner of the A-Star awards for IT.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... If IT employers want to have the best staff, they must employ more women, said Department of Trade & Industry minister Jacqui Smith last week, speaking at the national A-Star awards for the best female A-level students. Teresa Thurston from...

MPs slam Libra as one of UK's worst PFI deals ever.
November 11, 2003... Costs more than double and Whitehall shoulders risk on magistrates IT Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk A committee of MPs has branded an IT contract with Fujitsu as "one of the worst private finance initiative deals that we...

hot skills ; Instant message incompatibilities.
November 11, 2003... In the SSL/CW list of skills, instant messaging is number 105 Nick Langley computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk What is it? Instant messaging covers everything from spam pop-ups to global corporate conferencing. Best known as a kind of...

public sector Public Accounts Committee's criticism of Libra has lessons for the NHS; Spending watchdog slams magistrates IT project as one of worst PFI deals ever seen.
November 11, 2003... Tony Collins tony.collins@rbi.co.uk As a minister Geoff Hoon does not always have the Midas touch. He became deeply unpopular in Parliament when, as defence secretary, he refused to order a new independent inquiry into the crash...

Stage is set for Netware OS market fight-back.
November 11, 2003... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Novell embraced Linux at its annual BrainShare conference in April, where Jack Messman, the company's chairman and chief executive, presented Linux as a way to boost the take-up of Novell's Netware...

Novell set to bring Linux into mainstream.
November 11, 2003... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Novell's [pounds sterling]125m purchase of SuSE, the world's second largest commercial Linux distributor, will allow the company to offer its millions of Netware users a migration path to the open...

careers; IT is changing the UK jobs market.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Ross Bentley ross.bentley@rbi.co.uk Webucation architects and nano-technologists are set to become as familiar posts as shopkeepers and accountants as new technology and changing lifestyles transform the UK job market. In the...

NHS IT ; NHS comms disrupted by hardware failure.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... James Rogers james.rogers@rbi.co.uk The NHS Information Authority and the national programme for IT suffered a "major hardware failure" that caused "server disruption in communications" in September. The organisations are...

Law firm management shake-up merges IT and business strategies at board level.
November 11, 2003... Julia Vowler computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk A boardroom reshuffle at UK law firm Irwin Mitchell has given a new twist to the debate on the changing role of the IT director. Irwin Mitchell, which has around 2,000 staff in the UK, has...

IT should warn the board about data laws.
November 11, 2003... WAKE-UPCALL With more than 15 years of using IT systems and nearly 10 years of e-mail behind them, businesses are starting to drown in data. At present, many senior management teams are ignoring the problem, seeing the topic as an...

Step forward and de-geek.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Simon Davey Opinion IT4Communities, the national IT volunteering programme, celebrated its first birthday this week, having recruited over 1,200 volunteers and initiated more than 250 projects. This unique partnership, led by the...

UPS strategy unwrapped.
November 11, 2003... Graham Nugent Opinion At delivery company UPS, wireless and mobile technologies are critical to the business. This has been the case since 1991 when the Delivery Information Acquisition Device (Diad) was introduced to our drivers. ...

Government plans to set up national child database must overcome serious problems.
November 11, 2003... James Rogers james.rogers@rbi.co.uk Government plans to set up a national database of all children and develop integrated IT systems to help prevent a repetition of the events that led to the murder of Victoria Climbie are at risk....

networks; Jaguar-Land Rover 2gbps network cuts per-megabit costs by 94%.
November 11, 2003... l High bandwidth network guarantees production data transferl Triangular cabling architecture protects vital site connections Antony Adshead antony.adshead@rbi.co.uk Jaguar and Land Rover have completed the installation of an...

retail; Homebase invests [pounds sterling]1m in chip and Pin system.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk DIYretailer Homebase is to invest [pounds sterling]1m to implement chip and Pin-compliant point of sale systems across its 300 UK stores over the next six months. The project, based on IBM...

security; 9/11 spurs security chiefs to action.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk The 11 September terrorist attacks have done more than government regulation, computer hacking and virus attacks to persuade businesses to improve their IT security, a survey of 250 chief security...

GIS used to monitor Tower of London.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... The Tower of London is using a geographical information system to help it monitor and slow the deterioration of its historic buildings and keep them accessible to the two million visitors they get each year. The GIS, supplied by ESRI, is...

public sector; Catalogue of failures killed MoD project.(Defence Stores Management Solution project)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk Fundamental management weaknesses led to the cancellation of a Ministry of Defence stores inventory system at a cost to the taxpayer of [pounds sterling]118m, the National Audit Office revealed...

e-business; Most online firms breach trading laws.(Distance Selling and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk The majority of UK-based online businesses do not comply with the Distance Selling and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations and risk facing legal action, lawyers have warned. The...

CRM ; Councils adopt cheaper CRM option built by local authorities.
November 11, 2003... l Newham and Belfast councils sell in-house CRM to local authoritiesl LA CRM costs less than market-leading systems and has no per-seat costs Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Pembrokeshire Council has gone live with a...

e-business; Retailers suffer as attack ; hits e-payment provider.
November 11, 2003... l Concerted attack brings down online payment services providerl More than 10,000 UK-based e-retailers were affected by outage Daniel Thomas daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk A denial of service attack forced internet payments firm WorldPay...

Gartner symposium; Gartner: forget about 3G, grid and 64-bit PCs until 2008.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Forget about 3G mobile, grid computing, 64-bit desktops, on-demand services, Bluetooth, and worries about IP Version 6, for now, 3,000 delegates at the Gartner annual symposium in Cannes were...

storage; Tool enables IT to bill users for storage use.
November 11, 2003... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Mobile phone chip company Qualcomm has become one of the first users of a data storage management system from Veritas that promises to let IT departments better control and cost their data...

IR35; Contractor wins case against IR35.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk The Inland Revenue's IR35 tax, which requires IT contractors to be treated as full-time employees for tax and national insurance purposes, was dealt a blow last week when the Special Commissioners...

Microsoft hears FTSE group's plan.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk The group of 10 FTSE 100 companies that joined forces to push for better IT security have begun briefing suppliers on their vision of boundaryless security. David Lacey, director of security and...

security; Users and suppliers welcome FTSE firms' security initiative.
November 11, 2003... l Boundaryless networking architecture revealed at RSA show. Suppliers say users should be more proactive in presenting their needs Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk User groups and industry bodies have welcomed the push by 10 FTSE...

NHS IT; NHS ITplan is risky but will not fail, says OGC.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Nick Huber nick.huber@rbi.co.uk The [pounds sterling]2.3bn plan to modernise NHS IT systems is "risky and ambitious" but it has sufficient safeguards in place to ensure it does not repeat the mistakes of previous large-scale public...

City IT conference; IT directors brave stomach bug cruise ship.
November 11, 2003... John Riley john.riley@rbi.co.uk Delegates at this year's City IT conference displayed a phlegmatic attitude to boarding P&O's cruise liner the Aurora, after its return from a Mediterranean holiday cruise that saw hundreds of...

Microsoft puts [pounds sterling]300,000 on the heads of virus writers.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Microsoft's offer of a [pounds sterling]300,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the hackers responsible for the Blaster and Sobig viruses was greeted with scepticism this week. Brad Smith, Microsoft legal council, announced...

SuSE buyout puts Netware in the open source frame.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk Novell's decision to buy SuSE, the world's second largest commercial Linux distributor, could dramatically boost the uptake of open source software in the enterprise and give millions of Netware users...

Bradford take bull by the horns with in-house CRM.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Rugby League double winners the Bradford Bulls have rolled out a sports-specific CRM system which allows them to track ticket sales and attendances in real time. The Bulls initially used the Talent Sport software as a remote managed service via...

IT is for business, not cutting costs.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... Antony Savvas computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk IT investment must be focused on improving business processes rather than simply saving money, analyst group Gartner told delegates at its Cannes symposium last week. Gartner said that for...

Computer Weekly Infosecurity User Group; Spam is not an issue for IT security managers.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2003... All too frequently, companies look to their IT security managers to solve their spam problems. But spam is not a security issue and should not be a matter of central control, according to Les Fraser, deputy chairman of the British Computer...