Computer Weekly articles from October 2007

Computer Weekly archives from October 2007

News.
October 2, 2007... David Lister, CIO at Reuters, is in no doubt about the pivotal moment in his career. It happened when he became a management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand. Until that point, Lister had followed a well-trodden path for IT professionals...

Regular travellers on the London Underground between Turnham Green and Tower Hill a few years ago may have noticed a woman who always had her nose in a thick book or a folder bulging with papers. ......(News)(Maggie Miller)(Interview)
October 2, 2007... Regular travellers on the London Underground between Turnham Green and Tower Hill a few years ago may have noticed a woman who always had her nose in a thick book or a folder bulging with papers. They may have wondered who she was and what she...

Technology.(Sanderson Weatherall's e-mail continuity service)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Chartered surveyors and property consultant firm, Sanderson Weatherall, has implemented an e-mail continuity service across its five UK offices as part of a new business continuity plan. "A business continuity review identified our e-mail...

News.
October 2, 2007... BT has hinted that it might consider investing in a [pounds sterling]10bn optical broadband network that operates between 50 and 100 megabytes. Ian Livingstone, head of BT's retail division, told the Financial Times that the company would...

Technology.(Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, England )(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Bassetlaw council has signed a [pounds sterling]90,000 deal with Northgate Information Solutions to deliver a new combined environmental health and public safety system. The public protection service will be implemented at Bassetlaw...

Technology.(Microsoft and Google's interest in Facebook)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Microsoft is said to be in talks to buy a stake in social networking site Facebook, reports the Wall Street Journal. Google is also believed to be interested in taking a stake in the popular site. The Wall Street Journal reports that...

News.
October 2, 2007... IBM has unveiled a wireless self-service point-of-sale kiosk for retail industries to service consumers. The IBM AnyPlace Kiosk can be deployed in almost any environment and is enabled by a Sprint Mobile Broadband ExpressCard or via...

News.
October 2, 2007... Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, has released eight "smart" switches for supporting the growing demands of small businesses. The Linksys Business Series Smart Ethernet Switches are designed as a cost-effective option for small office...

News.
October 2, 2007... Investment banks must deploy monitoring software and draw up hot lists of risky investors, as the complexities of the Markets in Financial Instruments directive (MiFID) could open banks to time-wasting attacks, Gartner warned today (25 Sept)...

News.
October 2, 2007... Investment banks must stop thinking about storage in terms of volume and capacity but instead put retrieval at the top of their policies to help meet the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), Gartner advised today (25 September)....

News.
October 2, 2007... Credit crunch and the need to ensure IT systems have multi-bureau capability John Eggleston, information technology director, at credit reference agency Callcredit With the debate around the credit crunch still raging and the finger...

News.
October 2, 2007... Small companies in a growth phase are more likely to use IT systems intensively to seek new opportunities, while those consolidating will use IT to reduce costs. This is the conclusion of a research report into the growth and use of IT...

News.
October 2, 2007... Sun Microsystems has upgraded its Solaris Express Developer Edition software to make it easier for developers to install and use. The new support offerings and usability enhancements in Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 software are...

News.
October 2, 2007... CIOs need to consider vulnerabilities in their organisations rather than threats to their IT environments if they are to protect both properly. "When you cut down the vulnerabilities you improve the company's ability to survive regardless...

Features.(Peter Dew of the Linde Group)(Interview)
October 2, 2007... It is 1993 and Peter Dew, today CIO of the Linde Group, has just arrived in Sydney. He has been sent there by BOC, the industrial gas supplier acquired by Linde in 2006, to shut down a failed systems replacement project and start a [pounds...

Technology brings Burma plight into view.(News)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Mobile phones and blogs are helping to bring the plight of protesters in Burma to the attention of people throughout the world. People have taken to the streets to call for democracy in the South-East Asian country, which has been ruled by...

News.
October 2, 2007... in brief TJ Maxx customers left out from settlements Customers of TJ Maxx, the UK branch of TJX, were excluded from out-of-court settlements worth tens of millions of pounds. The settlement covered class actions following the theft of...

Do you work in a winning IT workplace?(News)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Time is running out to get your entries in for Computer Weekly's Best Places to Work in IT Awards. The annual event, now in its fifth year, aims to find and promote instances of best practice in IT departments across the country. ...

MRSA patients fall through NHS IT gap.(News)(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, )
October 2, 2007... Difficulties with Care Records Service left patients vulnerable Potentially infectious patients with MRSA were not isolated for up to 17 days because of difficulties with the Care Records Service - a central part of the NHS's [pounds...

NHS IT led to 'disturbing' incidents, says patient head.(News)(National Health Service; Alex Nunes)
October 2, 2007... The head of a patient group at the first NHS trust in London to go live with the BT-supplied Cerner patient administration systems as part of the national IT scheme, has warned that trusts will receive complaints from patients when they go live...

Manufacturing struggling with ERP.(News)(enterprise resource planning)
October 2, 2007... analysis The manufacturing sector is looking to generate more value from existing ERP systems. But to do that, a cost-effective means of data integration must be found IT in manufacturing is still struggling with data integration, despite...

Kingston Comms invests in IT staff development following rebranding.(News)(Kingston Communications rebranded as Kcom Group)
October 2, 2007... Kingston Communications, winner in the utilities and telecoms category in Computer Weekly's Best Places to Work in IT 2007, has re-branded itself as the Kcom Group and is continuing initiatives to develop staff and graduates. Since last...

Enterprise architectures must be able to show business value, Gartner says.(Technology)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Enterprise architecture initiatives risk failure if they are unable to demonstrate value to businesses, Gartner has predicted. By 2010, 40% of existing enterprise architecture programmes will be stopped because of poor execution, according...

SOA governance is not a bolt-on.(Technology)(service-oriented architecture)
October 2, 2007... enterprise software Following our best practice guide to SOA governance last week, two analysts examine just how critical governance is to a successful SOA Many service oriented architecture implementations are suffering because of the...

Governance ensures consistency across projects.(Technology)(governance systems)
October 2, 2007... Service oriented architecture governance is a critical success factor for any organisation wanting to pursue SOA as a software delivery strategy. If you are just starting out with SOA (running a pilot, executing the first project or two),...

Pull together for outsourcing success.(Management)
October 2, 2007... outsourcing When formulating a complex outsourcing agreement, establishing a level of trust between the parties involved is often the key to long-term success What makes some outsourcing arrangements successful, while others fail at the...

On-demand gains ground.(Opinion and Letters)(Editorial)
October 2, 2007... Almost a decade ago the software as a service concept lived out a hopeful, but exiguous existence under the banner of the application service provider, which came to grief in the dotcom bust. Ten years on and our feature (on page 28) finds...

Secure IT is critical to the modern law firm.(Opinion and Letters)
October 2, 2007... The days of the quill are numbered for law firms Law firms make massive use of technology - anyone still under the quill-pen illusion should prepare themselves to be disillusioned. Imagine the press a law firm that inadvertently leaked...

Opinion and Letters.(Letter to the editor)
October 2, 2007... NHS system will produce a dizzying data mountain Mark Jacobs DK Computing The British Computer Society cites problems with the ethics of maintaining the data resulting from the NHS records system (www.computerweekly.com/221049)....

the future of on-demand apps.(Features)
October 2, 2007... Software as a service is still a mixed and fragmented market, although the concept is gaining ground. Cath Jennings takes a look at how it is being adopted and how it may be developed further in the future Although corporate adoption of...

SAP Bydesign to simplify IT for growing businesses.(Tech Data)(SAP Business Bydesign)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... SAP has introduced SAP Business Bydesign, its on-demand business software for midsized companies. Priced at [pounds sterling]75 per month per user, Bydesign has been introduced to complement SAP's existing Business One, Business All-in-One and...

Salesforce.com allows common interface across devices.(Tech Data)(developer appication Visualforce)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Developers using the Salesforce.com platform will now be able to build common user interfaces across different devices to allow workers to access the same customer relationship management system. Visualforce will enable programmers to...

The next step for rich internet apps.(Tech Data)(Rich internet applications)
October 2, 2007... software Rich internet apps may offer a replacement to desktop applications Rich internet applications (RIAs) have been the height of web fashion for the past year, and have given internet users more powerful applications with better user...

Get the most from virtual servers.(Tech Data)
October 2, 2007... Servers New entrants into the virtual server market are bringing new approaches to virtualisation technology. So how does this help you implement IT infrastructures? The virtualisation of computing resources has become a growing trend...

The new breed of printers.(Tech Data)
October 2, 2007... hardware Printing and scanning technology is coming with more features and green credentials, which equals cost savings Printing and scanning technologies have improved steadily over the years, resulting in faster outputs and higher quality...

Hardware jobs offer room for growth.(Career Moves)
October 2, 2007... working for hardware Candidates with a mix of technical and soft skills could find working for a hardware supplier offers lucrative and diverse career opportunities Working for a hardware supplier may not have the cachet of a software...

Mono lets .net developers run applications on Linux.(Career Moves)
October 2, 2007... Hot skills Mono an option for C# and Visual Basic coders What is it? Mono is an open source implementation of the Microsoft .net platform, which was once hailed as a route out of proprietary lock-in to Microsoft. Mono implementations...

More women needed in IT, says Connect.(Career Moves)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... An IT services and support company says big corporations need to do more to attract greater numbers of women into IT. Mark MacGregor, CEO at Connect, which provides technology support for businesses, said there is no reason for women not to...

IT training is critical to business, says head of learning at Reuters.(Career Moves)(Charles Jennings)(Interview)
October 2, 2007... In an interview for IT Training magazine, produced by the BCS, Charles Jennings, global head of learning at Reuters, responsible for training 17,000 employees, talked about his approach to IT training. "I am responsible for the approach we...

Whitehall assigns telcos [pounds sterling]6m for data retention.(News)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... The government has allocated [pounds sterling]6m to help UK telecoms providers comply with data retention legislation coming into effect on 1 October. The subsidy, to be made available through the Home Office, is aimed at quashing fears...

HSBC set for green savings with virtual server roll out.(News)
October 2, 2007... HSBC's European IT operation plans to add thousands of virtual servers to its datacentres by the end of 2008, in a move that will save 500kW of power - equivalent to the consumption of 500 electric fires running simultaneously. The move is...

Statistics office criticised over IT outsourcing.(News)(Office for National Statistics)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) business case for outsourcing IT systems to Fujitsu has been criticised for not explaining how it will save money. The contract, announced last Friday, is expected to help the ONS make savings of...

News.
October 2, 2007... Monday As the bitter winds begin to curtail our enjoyment of autumn, the first signs of Christmas make themselves apparent. The Trading Standards people have got in first this year. Their Christmas party is on Friday, and I was invited. I...

UK will lead [pounds sterling]13m study on electronic ID.(News)
October 2, 2007... The UK is to spearhead a [pounds sterling]13m pilot project covering 13 European countries to test the interoperability of several electronic identity verification systems. This may eventually give citizens and businesses access to e-government...

E.ON rolls out ID system to meet expansion plans.(News)
October 2, 2007... E.ON UK, a power and gas supplier to 4.9 million UK homes, has cut the time it takes to set up new users on its network from seven weeks to five days. This comes as the E.ON group gears up for a major expansion programme in Europe. The...

Security firm takes control of its network.(News)(Group 4 Securicor)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Security provider Group 4 Securicor (G4S) is set to save [pounds sterling]70,000 a year in additional bandwidth costs with an upgrade that allows it to allocate existing network capacity to critical applications more quickly. G4S's...

Computer crime agency set to expand.(News)(European Network and Information Security Agency)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Europe's IT security agency plans to double its staff as governments step up their efforts against computer crime. The European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) aims to expand its collection of data on security threats and...

GNER prepares for rail IT handover.(News)(Great North Eastern Railway)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Great North Eastern Railway is preparing to hand over management of 300 critical enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications to National Express. GNER, which currently runs the InterCity East Coast rail,...

Tech Data.(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... IN BRIEF Lotus Symphony prompts download rush, says IBM IBM's free Lotus Symphony productivity suite has attracted 100,000 registered users in the first week of release. The download rate has surpassed the initial record held by...

Technology.(malware)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Hackers are using e-mails containing fake security bulletins from Microsoft, purporting to include patches for the Windows operating system, to spread malware. However, although the patches were either linked from or attached to the...

Technology.
October 2, 2007... Chartered surveyors and property consultant firm, Sanderson Weatherall, has implemented an e-mail continuity service across its five UK offices as part of a new business continuity plan. "A business continuity review identified our e-mail...

News.
October 2, 2007... Further evidence of China's growing willingness to steal Western intellectual property emerged this week when two Silicon Valley engineers were charged with economic espionage. The FBI alleged they conspired to steal microchip designs for...

News.
October 2, 2007... Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, has released eight "smart" switches for supporting the growing demands of small businesses. The Linksys Business Series Smart Ethernet Switches are designed as a cost-effective option for small office...

Technology.
October 2, 2007... Northern Defence Industries (NDI) has invested [pounds sterling]100,000 in a new IT infrastructure for its new headquarters and Marine Design Centre in Newcastle. NDI is a business development company that represents more than 200 defence...

Features.
October 2, 2007... It is 1993 and Peter Dew, today CIO of the Linde Group, has just arrived in Sydney. He has been sent there by BOC, the industrial gas supplier acquired by Linde in 2006, to shut down a failed systems replacement project and start a [pounds...

Technology.
October 2, 2007... Intel has launched a website designed to help Linux users get green. LessWatts.org is designed to reduce the power consumption of Linux servers and PCs by providing users with tips and utilities for reducing power consumption. It includes the...

News.
October 2, 2007... UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called technology "one of the most powerful agents of change in our world today" at a development summit this week. Speaking at the Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development, held in Geneva from Monday...

News.
October 2, 2007... Cisco has extended its Empowered Branch framework with the introduction of products and services to improve the network performance of branch offices. The offerings cover improved security, unified communications, application acceleration,...

News.
October 2, 2007... Two health bodies have warned patients and staff that their confidential data is at risk after laptops were stolen from remote workers. Dunstan Medical Centre in Bolton has confirmed that a laptop containing confidential patient data has...

News.
October 2, 2007... Barclays has been singled out by the Help Desk Institute (HDI) for the quality of its IT Service Management on a global scale. The bank's IT Service Desk team, which has 280 staff, achieved the highest possible score in all eight of HDI's...

News.
October 2, 2007... Halifax Bank is implementing a behavioural targeting system to increase sales and conversion rates for online products and marketing campaigns. Halifax has chosen the Omniture TouchClarity system to optimise consumer responses and customer...

News.
October 2, 2007... More than 18 million end-users of the Janet UK research and education network are to benefit from 40Gbps (gigabits per second) access capacity to the web at their institutions. Janet has selected VSNL Telecommunications UK to supply...

News.
October 2, 2007... Cisco is acquiring Latigent to add Web 2.0-based reporting systems to its contact centre systems. Latigent's products are built to take advantage of Web 2.0 principles that help enable customers to create flexible, scalable, easily...

News.
October 2, 2007... IBM says its free Lotus Symphony productivity suite has attracted 100,000 registered users in the first week of release. The software is aimed at both businesses and consumers and the download rate surpasses the initial record held by...

News.
October 2, 2007... The European Commission has allocated millions of pounds to help more than 4,000 mobile phone manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs through globalisation. The Commission has approved two applications for assistance under the...

News.
October 2, 2007... The Home Office has awarded a [pounds sterling]2.3m contract to a biometric technology provider as part of its new visa system. The department has bought 1,385 livescan Guardian fingerprint scanning systems from American firm Cross Match...

News.
October 2, 2007... BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the BlackBerry device from Research in Motion software have been awarded Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 2 augmented (EAL 2+) validations. The Common Criteria is a key requirement in government...

News.(broadband)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Regulatory involvement is a key factor in boosting a country's broadband penetration rate, says analyst Ovum. The analyst has published its top-ten fastest growing broadband markets. It says infrastructure competition and relative pricing...

News.
October 2, 2007... Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced 10,000 mobile computers will be given to police officers to cut down on the amount of time they spend on paperwork. The computers will be given to officers on patrol allowing them to save time by...

News.
October 2, 2007... The Chinese virus writer jailed for four years is the latest cyber-crook to be offered a job by the IT industry. Chinese media reports say 25-year-old Li Jun, who was sentenced to four years in prison this week for profiting from the worm...

News.
October 2, 2007... Delayed e-mail responses are losing UK business an estimated [pounds sterling]31.6bn a year. One-in-three businesses will take their custom elsewhere if a potential supplier does not get back to them within just two hours, according to new...

News.
October 2, 2007... Computer Weekly's offices feature in a political documentary to be broadcast tonight on at 8pm Channel 4. In the documentary, "Nice Work If You Can Get It", author and broadcast journalist Peter Oborne examines whether a new political...

News.
October 2, 2007... Online gaming firm Gala Networks Europe (GNE) has awarded Cable & Wireless a [pounds sterling]300,000 two-year contract to manage its European gaming platform. The contract covers operations out of GNE's Dublin datacentre, and covers...

News.
October 2, 2007... Government CIOs must take lead over green IT Antony Savvas Government chief information officers (CIOs) must take a leadership position over green IT, as the issue becomes increasingly politically sensitive, says analyst Gartner. ...

News.
October 2, 2007... Less than a quarter of UK businesses believe a datacentre consolidation strategy could lower their carbon emissions. An Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 213 chief information officer in large businesses with more than 1,000 staff found...

News.
October 2, 2007... Northgate Information Services has signed contracts worth a total of [pounds sterling]650,000 with eight local authorities and one housing association. The company will roll out its 'Intelligent Mobile' system, designed to bring public...

News.
October 2, 2007... Unisys has drawn union criticism over its plan to scrap its final salary pension scheme in the UK. Unite, Britain's biggest union, has condemned a proposal by Unisys to end further accruals to its defined benefit (final salary) pension...

News.
October 2, 2007... Loss-making voice over IP provider Vonage has been fined by a court for a second time for infringing the technology patents of a telco. Jurors in a US court decided Vonage infringed the patents of Sprint Nextel and awarded Sprint [pounds...

News.(Intel's online training program for teachers, Intel Teach)(Brief article)
October 2, 2007... Intel will bring its teacher training program online to help more than 1.5 million teachers in 15 countries learn how to best integrate technology into their lesson plans to help students learn. The move is expected to cost Intel around...

News.(IT's Role in Determining Competitive Advantage)
October 9, 2007... IT's Role in Determining Competitive Advantage by Christine Davis, Fellow, Cutter Business Technology Council IT has been a critical part of the production of running a business since the early days of the IBM 360. IT supports every...

Opinion and Letters.
October 9, 2007... Business Objects and Adobe have formed a technology partnership to deliver more intuitive business intelligence systems to users. One of the key initiatives in the partnership is the development of a Business Objects Xcelsius Connector to...

Opinion and Letters.
October 9, 2007... Almost 90% of IT managers are worried about potential insecure backdoors into their corporate networks as a result of increased remote working among staff. Research commissioned by network hardware supplier ZyXEL among 200 IT managers, has...

Opinion and Letters.
October 9, 2007... Adobe is acquiring Virtual Ubiquity and its online word processor Buzzword to ease collaboration among users. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will further Adobe's offering in rich internet application (RIA) development and...

News.
October 9, 2007... Companies can cut response times to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by up to two-thirds with a new managed service from BT Managed Services, says Ray Stanton, global head of BT's business continuity, security and governance...