Computer Weekly articles from September 2007

Computer Weekly archives from September 2007

News.(Essex Ambulance Service is using Airwave digital radio service)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Rebecca Thomson rebecca.thomson@rbi.co.uk Essex Ambulance Service has implemented an Airwave digital radio service, ahead of a planned national roll-out within the next 18 months. The ambulance service said the system, which was...

News.(Allianz Insurance Co. is using Kewill InsuranceXchange platform)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Allianz Insurance has gone to Kewill to host and manage a new electronic trading platform for its personal lines division. The Kewill InsuranceXchange (KIX) platform will allow Allianz Personal to deliver the benefits of straight-through...

News.(British Broadcasting Corp. signed a deal with Siemens IT Solutions )(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... The BBC has signed a [pounds sterling]43m outsourcing deal with Siemens IT Solutions and Services to aid its digital switchover programme. Siemens will design, build and operate a new coding and multiplexing infrastructure, delivering a...

News.(banking industry is using computer games)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Games So the US banks are going to play computer games to see what happens when everyone goes off with flu. It'll be interesting to see if they change the rules if they don't like what they get. That's what happened with Paul van Riper...

News.(Co-operative Financial Services is implemented Blue Prism software)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Co-operative Financial Services has freed up the time of nine members of staff by installing software to automate decisions on making payments from accounts with insufficient funds. The company has reduced the time staff spend making...

News.(Acer Inc. will purchase Gateway Inc.)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Acer to acquire Gateway for [pounds sterling]355m Antony Savvas Acer is acquiring PC rival Gateway for [pounds sterling]355m to create a firm generating sales of [pounds sterling]7.5bn, shipping 20m PCs a year. Acer said the deal...

News.(Art of Performance implements Asigra online backup and recovery software and recovers from disaster)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... A business continuity plan - set up just five months before a power cut destroyed Art of Performance's data as its server was shutting down - has saved an online bookshop's business. Art of Performance produces a website and various e-books...

News.(Art of Performance uses Asigra's Televaulting backup software)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... ArtofPerformance A business continuity plan set up five months earlier saved an online bookshop's business after a power cut destroyed the firm's data just as its server was shutting down. Art of Performance publishes a website and...

News.(Bournville College uses Touchstone Employee Engagement Manager from Touchstone Group PLC)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Bournville College invests in corporate CRM system Antony Savvas Bournville College has deployed a new customer relationship management (CRM) system to manage its relationship with the business community. The college has chosen...

News.(Germany claimed that China hacked into its ministries computers)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... China has been accused of hacking into Germany's government networks, reports the Times. The paper reports that China is believed to have hacked into the computers of Angela Merkel's chancellery and three other German ministries in an act...

News.(Fujitsu Advanced Technologies and Fujitsu Design are the new companies)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Fujitsu is spinning off its technology and design divisions to raise much-needed cash for the struggling group. From 1 October, the newly created Fujitsu Advanced Technologies and Fujitsu Design companies will offer their services to...

News.(Fujitsu built green datacenter)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Fujitsu is the latest firm to build a green datacentre, spending [pounds sterling]44m on its new London site. Fujitsu said the 65,000-square-foot datacentre will have a low carbon footprint as a result of using new IT-cooling and processing...

News.(George Reyes of Google Inc. is retiring)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Google seeks to replace chief financial officer Antony Savvas Google is looking for another chief financial officer after George Reyes announced his retirement from the internet's biggest firm. Google said Reyes will help it find a...

News.(Government is investing on the research on identity management infrastructures )(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... The government is to spend up to [pounds sterling]10m researching how the next generation of identity management infrastructures can offer assured privacy, and depend on truly informed consent. It is calling for expressions of interest by19...

News.(International Business Machines Corp.'s research on atomic computing)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... IBM has announced two breakthroughs in its atomic computing effort. The first new development is IBM research in understanding the ability for single atoms to maintain a specific magnetic direction, making them suitable for future data...

News.(Metro Group AG imposes fine on suppliers who don't use RFID tags)(radio frequency identification)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Metro, the German retailer, reportedly plans to penalise suppliers up to [pounds sterling]1.35 per pallet for pallets that do not carry RFID tags. The move to enforce contractual compliance comes as Metro expands its RFID supply-chain track and...

News.(Microsoft Corp. will introduce System Center Configuration Manager 2007)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the next version of Microsoft's systems management software, is set to ship in November. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 has been designed to ease system administration tasks in order to...

News.(Midland Mainline implemented closed circuit television system with the help of Atos Origin S.A.)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Midland Mainline gets next generation CCTV system Antony Savvas Midland Mainline has become the first train company to trial a next generation CCTV system from Atos Origin. The system is designed to deliver improved safety and...

News.(Monster Worldwide Inc.'s job sites information was hacked)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... About 146,000 people using a US government jobs website managed by Monster.com have had their personal information stolen by hackers, reports Reuters. The data theft from the USAjobs.gov site - which has around 2,000,000 users - was part...

News.
September 4, 2007... JCT600, the independent prestige car motor group, has gone to Simply Mail Solutions (SMS) to manage its e-mail systems. JCT600 supplies BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus, Aston Martin and Bentley cars. It has 42...

News.(Owen Pugh signed a deal with Croft Technology)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Plant hire firm outsources IT Antony Savvas Construction plant hire and demolition firm Owen Pugh has outsourced its IT to Croft Technology to increase efficiency and cut costs. The deal has seen Croft design and implement a new...

News.
September 4, 2007... Standard Life has renewed and extended its contract with THUS to supply its wide area data network to run its business critical data applications. THUS provides Standard Life with a high speed, high resilience, open fibre network...

News.
September 4, 2007... Praxis has won a contract with Thales UK to support its aircraft management software development. Praxis will supply the Spark Ada toolset as part of ongoing product development by Thales in aircraft mission management and mission...

News.(Visa research of baby boomers on prepaid cards)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Reloadable pre-paid cards instead of cash is the way of the future, according to research commissioned by Visa into the spending habits of US baby boomers and echo boomers. Evidence cited includes more that 75% have a debit card, more state...

News.
September 4, 2007... Vodafone has awarded Cable & Wireless a two-year, [pounds sterling]40m contract to provide a range of professional and IP network services to support Vodafone's business customers. The partnering agreement will lead to the firms closely...

News.
September 4, 2007... Perceived security weaknesses in wireless networks is preventing 43% of firms adopting them, says a survey. Independent research conducted on behalf of wireless network security firm AirMagnet also found that 29% of firms were delaying...

News.
September 4, 2007... The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) media group is replacing and consolidating the financial systems of its two largest divisions as part of a plan to standardise and modernise the back-office systems. The group's Associated Newspapers...

News.
September 4, 2007... Barclays Bank and Euroclear have refused to give details of the technical breakdown that forced the bank to borrow from the Bank of England's emergency reserves this week to cover a shortfall in its finances. Barclays said there would have...

News.
September 4, 2007... European 'docuwaste' up but UK sees fall Antony Savvas A report from research firm Infotec estimates that European businesses wasted almost [pounds sterling]6.5bn in 2006 through a lack of document output control. Infotec said the...

News.
September 4, 2007... Edinburgh Council has reduced its council tax bills by [pounds sterling]9 per person, after renegotiating its 10-year IT infrastructure with BT to reduce IT costs. The project, which is set to free up [pounds sterling]23.3m in savings over...

News.
September 4, 2007... 280,000 New York pensioners in data theft scare Antony Savvas A laptop containing the social security numbers and other personal data of 280,000 New York pensioners has been stolen. The latest US data theft scare comes after the...

News.
September 4, 2007... German universities migrate to Linux Antony Savvas Around 560,000 German students plus thousands of staff at 33 German universities will now be supported by Linux systems from Novell. The Federal State of North Rhine Westphalia has...

News.
September 4, 2007... From next Monday, Vodafone is offering mobile users in the UK a mobile broadband service, ten times faster than the original 3G service launched in 2004. The mobile operator is upgrading its mobile broadband network to support download...

Opinion and Letters.(It problems)(Brief article)(Column)
September 4, 2007... Reader Malc Seaman's novel suggestion for dealing with those pesky user problems has sparked a reader to contribute another useful suggestion. Seaman finds that most IT problems disappear when he stands next to the user and asks them to...

Opinion and Letters.(internet addiction)(Brief article)(Column)
September 4, 2007... Internet addiction remains a controversial topic. There is little agreement on the nature of the problem and even less agreement on how it should be treated. However, Chinese housewife He Ling has found rather a fine solution. Faced with...

Opinion and Letters.
September 4, 2007... US banks are planning to simulate a flu pandemic to see how financial services are affected by widespread staff absences. It will be interesting to hear how things turn out. In the run-up to the latest Iraq war, the US staged a simulation...

Opinion and Letters.
September 4, 2007... Hacking the brain should be simple for George Hotz (aka geohot), the 17-year-old student who first unlocked Apple's iPhone, making it usable on GSM networks other than AT&T's. The budding neuroscientist's path through academia is certainly...

Opinion and Letters.
September 4, 2007... IBM is being sued for the cost of a [pounds sterling]700,000 server that was written off after being dropped by a forklift truck. US contractor TR Systems is suing IBM, claiming that poor packaging caused the severe damage to the server, which...

Formula 1 stars test drive new fast payment system from RBS.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Royal Bank of Scotland has launched "contactless" debit and credit cards for fast payments of up to [pounds sterling]10. The bank teamed up with Formula 1 Williams drivers to demonstrate the speed of the system at a McDonald's drive-through in...

Employers struck by shortage of .net skills.(News)(Computer Weekly/SSL salary survey of IT professionals)
September 4, 2007... Wages are rising in most buoyant IT job market for six years Employers are struggling to find developers with .net skills, as demand for skilled IT staff continues to rise. The latest Computer Weekly/SSL salary survey, which analyses...

Retraining existing staff will be key to avoiding skills crisis, says E-Skills.(News)
September 4, 2007... Re-skilling the existing workforce is crucial if the UK is to avoid an IT recruitment crisis, E-Skills UK warned last week. Although potential workers in the "pipeline" of school and university are important, most of the IT staff that the...

IBM and Microsoft to vie for unified comms market.(Technology)(International Business Machines Corp. along with Siemens Enterprise Communications will enhance IBM Lotus Sametime software)(Microsoft Corp. introduced Office Communications Server 2007 )
September 4, 2007... Antony Savvas computerweekly@rbi.co.uk IBM and Microsoft are preparing to launch their respective unified communications products, which are designed to provide businesses with a single inbox for e-mail, voicemail and faxes. IBM...

VMware buys security specialist.(Technology)(Determina)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Cliff Saran cliff.saran@rbi.co.uk VMware's acquisition of Determina, a supplier of vulnerability protection software, could improve virtualisation security, analyst firm Gartner has predicted. Gartner identified two technologies...

Homework before going to the table.(IT management)
September 4, 2007... supplier relationship management A global contract for IT procurement sounds as though it should deliver savings, but closer examination reveals it is not that easy Last month, an IT director of a multinational company asked Computer...

Sharing from the bottom up.(federal IT projects)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Government IT projects are prone to overreach themselves, inspired, as they often are, by a faith in technology for technology's sake. There is a tendency to reach for centralist solutions, where a more organic and piecemeal approach would be...

Structuring data for business advantage.
September 4, 2007... Data management is an opportunity, not a burden Information management has become an industry buzzword for the consolidation of any type of information, be it governance information, architecture information or integration information. ...

Opinion and Letters.(Letter to the editor)
September 4, 2007... Recruitment agencies are not the only problem Gary Drew Retired independent IT consultant John Pether's letter regarding recruitment consultants exacerbating the skills gap made familiar reading. I have experienced recruitment...

public sector finds its own reasons to share.(Features)
September 4, 2007... Shared services is yesterday's news, a project that has sunk without trace, according to an article in the Guardian. However, this great white hope for IT savings for government departments is indeed alive and well, although the thinking behind...

Skype outage shows risk of free services in business.(Tech Data)
September 4, 2007... The 48-hour failure of Skype's internet telephony service earlier this month has highlighted the risks of using free web-based services in a business environment. Jan Dawson, vice-president of US enterprise practice at analyst firm Ovum,...

IP extends its reach in data storage.(Tech Data)(internet protocol)
September 4, 2007... storage A growing number of firms are choosing the longer range and lower costs of IP-based storage networks over Fibre Channel's speed and greater data integrity It is 15 years since internet pioneer Vint Cerf tore off his shirt to reveal...

Scrum down to get a project moving.(Tech Data)(software development strategies)
September 4, 2007... project management Agile techniques can help overcome common problems that arise in software development, but a winning strategy depends on effective leadership Even the most adept project manager is likely to have experienced that "rabbit...

Accounting for the needs of SMEs.(Tech Data)(small and medium-sized enterprises)(business and financial software)
September 4, 2007... enterprise software Finance software can deliver benefits to even the smallest business, and with the evolution of new functionality, the options are growing Finance and accounting software is widely used by small and medium-sized...

Legacy IT skills added to ITMB degree course.(News)(IT management and business)
September 4, 2007... Legacy IT skills are being added to the new IT management and business (ITMB) degree course in response to demand from employers. Companies including British Airways, ITV, the Met Office and Norwich Union, which make up E-Skills UK's...

Nat Express outsources Citrix system.(to Vistorm)(National Express Holdings Ltd.)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Coach operator National Express, has signed a managed network contract with Vistorm worth [pounds sterling]45,000 a year to run its Citrix server system. The deal reverses a three-year-old decision to run the Citrix-based thin-client...

How to secure a top managerial role.(tips for IT professionals)
September 4, 2007... senior appointments The IT recruitment market may be buoyant, but the top jobs are difficult to find and even harder to secure without the right approach It is a good time to be an IT professional looking for a job. The market is at its...

Union investigates bullying in IT industry.(Career Moves)(Unite)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Trade union Unite has begun research to establish the extent of bullying in the IT profession. The move follows concerns that tight deadlines and a lack of training for managers are contributing to a culture that can encourage bullying in...

Support the mobile revolution with Blackberry Enterprise Server skills.(Career Moves)
September 4, 2007... Hot skills With forecasts of 24 million users by 2009, Blackberry skills are in demand What is it? Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) is the middleware for the Blackberry wireless platform. It connects to messaging and collaboration...

'One patient, one record' unrealistic and unsustainable, says BCS group.(British Computer Society' Health Informatics Forum)
September 4, 2007... The difficulty of integrating the records of every NHS patient in the UK onto one lifelong electronic record has been vastly underestimated, according to a recent BCS Health Informatics Forum workshop. Meeting to scrutinise the ongoing...

Process gains in store for Aga network.(provided by TFM Networks)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Aga, the UK-based cooker maker, aims to improve communications and optimise its business processes with the installation of a network to link its 100-strong Aga and Fired Earth stores. The network will provide Aga stores with a single...

Royal Caribbean floats workforce system.(Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.)(Sabio)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Royal Caribbean Cruises has implemented a workforce optimisation system from Sabio based on Verint's Impact 360 technology. The system will support the growth of the travel company's contact centre. The system includes workforce management...

Betfair to speed debugging.(by using Fortify's Source Code Analysis)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Online gambling firm Betfair is investing in automated debugging software to speed up in-house system development and control the quality of outsourced code. The company, which plans to use Fortify's Source Code Analysis (SCA) to check...

Dunfermline uses web fraud hunter.(from Experian Ltd.)(Dunfermline Building Society)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Dunfermline Building Society, Scotland's second largest mutual lender, has deployed a web-based fraud detection tool to help it identify risks quickly and support the expansion of the business outside Scotland. "As the methods criminals...

Capacity tool helps law firm exceed IT SLA.(Irwin Mitchell uses NetIQ's Appmanager )(information technology service level agreement)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... Law firm Irwin Mitchell has deployed a capacity management tool to help manage its IT infrastructure and meet the requirements of the BS7799 security standard. The software has allowed Irwin Mitchell's IT department to exceed its service...

Jericho Forum at a crossroads as key suppliers shrink from its guidelines.(News)
September 4, 2007... Jericho Forum, the pan-industry security think-tank, is considering its way forward after reaching what members describe as a "crossroads" in its mission to persuade suppliers to improve the security of their software. In 2004, Jericho...

US to replicate UK's flu pandemic simulation.(News)(Brief article)
September 4, 2007... US banks are to follow the UK Financial Services Authority's example by simulating the effects of an influenza pandemic on financial services. More than 1,850 organisations have signed up to the computer-based simulation, which will run...

Tech Data.
September 4, 2007... IBM has unveiled a new data masking product designed to protect test data during software development. The IBM Data Masking Solution is designed to transform data so that no sensitive information is exposed while allowing internal and external...

News.
September 4, 2007... Realtime Distribution has announced the launch of the world's smallest motherboard, based on the Pico-ITX form factor from VIA that is expected to be adopted for a wide variety of applications by the manufacturing, safety, security and defence...

News.
September 4, 2007... The ambulance service in Essex has implemented an Airwave digital radio service, with a national roll-out due within 18 months. The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust was the pilot for the project, overseen by the Department of...

News.
September 4, 2007... Businesses are failing to invest in Web 2.0 technologies owing to a lack of understanding of business benefits among senior management. In the survey of 320 respondents in seven European countries from BEA, 23% of respondents were concerned...

News.
September 4, 2007... Co-operative Financial Services has extended its deployment of Blue Prism software to automate the daily process of accepting or rejecting direct debits, cheques and standing orders on accounts with insufficient funds. This latest project...

News.
September 4, 2007... The Improvement Service in Scotland has put out to tender a new National Personal License Database, which will cover the sale of alcohol. Tenders are being invited for the provision of a personal license database, with an option to extend...

News.
September 4, 2007... East Sussex County Council has awarded BT a multi-million pound contract to provide a next generation broadband network for 174 primary schools. Working in partnership with MLL Telecom, BT will provide a managed radio wave network under...

News.
September 4, 2007... The dotcom brands are getting customer service, delivery and price right, according to research covering hundreds of UK internet shoppers. With the exception of Tesco, the top of the best online customer satisfaction charts are dominated by...

News.
September 4, 2007... Almost 90% of online adults are concerned about becoming a victim of phishing attacks. Independent research commissioned by e-mail security firm Cloudmark shows that 89% of adults are equally or more concerned about becoming a phishing...

News.
September 4, 2007... Tandberg, a provider of video conferencing equipment, and HP have collaborated on a new product that enables HP's high end Halo conferencing suite to work in a standard video conferencing setup. Halo provides what is known as telepresence,...

News.
September 4, 2007... For the six months ending 30 June, LogicaCMG saw sales up 36.2% to [pounds sterling]1.525bn, compared with [pounds sterling]1.12bn for the same period last year. Operating profits were up 13.1% at [pounds sterling]43.9m, while pre-tax...

News.
September 4, 2007... Antony Savvas Microsoft is acquiring group chat and enterprise instant messaging provider Parlano to bolster its forthcoming Office Communications Server 2007 unified messaging platform. Parlano's MindAlign product will be added as a...

News.
September 4, 2007... Novell reduced its losses during the third quarter and has increased its Linux-based sales by around 75%. For the third quarter ending 31 July, Novell reported sales of [pounds sterling]121.5m, compared to the [pounds sterling]118m for the...

News.
September 4, 2007... Temporary recruitment firm Randstad UK has signed a three-year IT outsourcing contract extension with Logicalis. Randstad UK is part of the Randstad Group, which is the third largest staffing organisation in the world. The contract...

News.
September 4, 2007... Defence technology company Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL), the UK-based subsidiary of Raytheon Company, has opened a systems integration centre at Uxbridge in west London. The new facility will also serve as the new, expanded site of the...

News.
September 4, 2007... The Scottish Parliament has outsourced its core IT to LogicaCMG in a five-year deal that will cost [pounds sterling]1.75m per annum. The deal could eventually generate [pounds sterling]17.5m for LogicaCMG. The contract covers core services...

News.
September 4, 2007... The TUC has called on employers to allow their staff to use consumer-based social networking sites in company time. In guidance available on WorkSmart, its working-life website, the TUC advises employers that they should have in place...

News.
September 4, 2007... Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 may be delayed after Redmond put back the release to manufacturing (RTM) date. The company originally planned to release the software to server manufacturers, developers and other partners by the end of this...

News.
September 4, 2007... BT has signed a [pounds sterling]128m outsourcing deal with Xansa to extend its finance and accounting contract until 2014. The renewed business process outsourcing contract with Xansa will now last an additional six years. Xansa will...