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IT graduates have the hardest task finding work

Bryan Glick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:41:59 GMT

Bryan Glick, Computing, Friday 3 July 2009 at 17:25:00

Some 14 per cent of the class of 2008 computer science graduates are still unemployed

Last year’s computer science graduates are having a harder time finding a job than any of their peers from other study subjects.

The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that 14 per cent of computer science students who graduated in 2008 are currently unemployed – a higher proportion than any other discipline.

Across all subjects, just 8.4 per cent of last year’s graduates are out of work.

Male IT students are slightly worse off – 14.6 per cent are unemployed, compared to 12.8 per cent of female computer science graduates. But only 18 per cent of last year’s IT graduates were women – reflecting the male dominance of the industry.

In total, more than 260,000 students graduated from UK universities last year, of which 11,125 studied computer science.

Slow uptake of technology in NHS "harming patient safety"

Bryan Glick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:29:26 GMT

Bryan Glick, Computing, Friday 3 July 2009 at 11:01:00

MPs want to see greater focus on key IT initiatives

MPs have warned that the slow uptake of key technologies across the NHS is hindering important improvements in patient safety.

The report by the House of Commons Health Committee said that while the “potency and complexity” of new technologies can introduce great potential for harm, it can also make a major contribution to patient safety.

But certain key developments are being implemented too slowly.

“The delay in introducing technologies proven to improve patient safety is extremely alarming,” said the committee.

The report identifies a number of IT-related initiatives that should be given greater focus.

A timetable should be set for introducing automated decision-support systems, which can help GPs in diagnosing problems, the committee recommends.

Automatic identification and data capture systems, such as better use of bar codes, can help to reduce errors. Initiatives at Charing Cross Hospital and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have proved the potential of this technology.

But despite central funding for Oxford’s blood transfusion barcoding project, intended to produce a national specification, a pilot scheme is only progressing slowly, with IT connectivity highlighted as one of the causes of problems.

And continued delays in electronic patient records, a key part of the £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT, are also a “huge missed opportunity” to improve safety by improving communication of clinical data, says the report.

“Our report highlights many areas where urgent action is required, in some cases where it is a life or death situation, and we urge the government to ensure that everyone in the NHS realises that avoiding harm to patients must be their top priority," said Health Committee chairman Kevin Barron.

Most public sector IT managers have never heard of government green IT plan

Bryan Glick — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:56:47 GMT

Bryan Glick, Computing, Friday 3 July 2009 at 10:28:00

Year-old strategy needs much better awareness, says research

Sixty per cent of public sector IT managers are not aware of the government’s green IT strategy, according to research.

And of those who are aware of the year-old Greening Government plan, two-thirds say they are concerned about their ability to achieve the targets, which include public sector IT becoming carbon neutral within four years.

But the survey of 173 IT managers by environmental charity Global Action Plan and vendor Cisco, suggests that 70 per cent of respondents still feel green IT is important.

However, only 13 per cent of those polled measure the carbon footprint of their technology, and just 22 per cent have set internal green IT targets.

Steve Palmer, president of public sector user group Socitm, said greater understanding and collaboration is needed to take advantage of green IT innovations.

"The economic downturn provides an enormous opportunity for maximising the potential that IT has for delivering high quality, low carbon services,” he said.

“Most public sector bodies know they cannot afford to continue as normal and will need to restructure the way that services are delivered. Green IT initiatives cannot just reduce travel, enable flexible working and reduce energy consumption; they can also improve the quality and delivery of frontline services.”

Gartner vice president Rakesh Kumar said the public sector needs to share best practice more effectively.

“Where government is successfully implementing green IT schemes it should be making the effectiveness of these transparent through case studies and wider promotional activities to demonstrate what is possible to other large-scale IT users,” he said.

“Government needs to increase the level of transparency around the effectiveness of green IT initiatives. This will help to build collaboration, reduce duplication and embed good practice.”

The Cisco report recommends that government use its purchasing power to push the use of more environmentally-friendly systems, and fund the use of external experts to help public sector bodies achieve the aims of the Greening Government strategy.

Sainsbury’s cuts energy use with double-sided till receipts

Angelica Mari — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:56:47 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Friday 3 July 2009 at 09:32:00

Printing on both sides of paper across 9,500 checkouts will cut the firm’s carbon footprint by more than 280 tonnes

Sainsbury’s has reduced its energy use at checkouts by 35 to 50 per cent and cut paper use by 40 per cent by printing till receipts on both sides.

The NCR-provided printers are in use across 7,000 checkouts in the UK, and the retailer said it has seen a “substantial” reduction in CO2 emissions since using the devices. When the implementation across 9,500 tills is complete, the firm expects a carbon reduction of about 284 tonnes.

The initiative won the product premier award at the Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE) Environmental Leadership Awards this week.

’The BCE award recognises the efforts that Sainsbury's and NCR have put into improving the environmental performance of our tills,” said Dennis Fuller, head of store IT installations at Sainsbury's.

“This technology not only provides environmental benefits, but also gives customers shorter, more manageable receipts, faster print times and fewer stoppages for receipt roll changes."

MoD spends £230m more on Bowman communications system

Gareth Morgan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:03:00 GMT

Gareth Morgan, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 16:56:00

Future-proofing and maintenance deals signed with General Dynamics

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed two deals with General Dynamics UK, together worth £231m, to upgrade the armed forces' Bowman military communications system.

One contract, known as Capability Release, covers the update and refresh of the Bowman digital radio system over its lifetime to reflect advances in technology.

The other deal provides longer-term technical support, including repair and field services.

“Bowman has been used successfully in Iraq and Afghanistan, where secure, faster communications and data exchange is saving lives on the front line. It is a key element of a comprehensive suite of communications systems to provide a robust network that allows commanders to exercise command and control effectively," said Quentin Davies, minister for defence equipment and support.

“These contracts are testament to our work with industry which allows us to rapidly adapt to technological advances and the evolving operational demands of our front-line troops.”

General Dynamics won the £2.4bn contract to build the Bowman system, after the MoD terminated its original deal with the Archer consortium.

The Bowman system has been installed in more than 13,000 British Army vehicles, together with headquarters, ships, and helicopters. The MoD recently purchased an additional 2,139 radios, with an option for a further 437, to meet the demands of current operations and their associated training needs.

Public sector spending watchdog the National Audit Office has previously been critical of the MoD's procurement practices, which it said had contributed to delays in getting the Bowman system fully operational.

Met Police signs identity management deal

Gareth Morgan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:32:21 GMT

Gareth Morgan, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 11:33:00

BT to oversee integration of physical and IT security systems at the Metropolitan Police

The Metropolitan Police Service has signed a identity and access management deal with BT's Global Services division.

Under the contract, BT will integrate elements from existing systems to create a comprehensive identity and access management system.

"Through this contract, we aim to enhance security and risk management, as well as introduce more efficient IT processes and new ways of working at the Metropolitan Police,” said Catherine Crawford, chief executive of the Metropolitan Police Authority, which holds the Met to account.

Earlier this year, the Met put out a tender for 80,000 smartcards and 35,000 smartcard readers as part of the overhaul of its identity and access management systems.

MPs to debate ID cards policy

Parliamentary reporter — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:59:49 GMT

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 14:32:00

Tory motion will allow House of Commons to discuss controversial scheme and examine if the government has made a U-turn or not

MPs are to debate ID card policy in the House of Commons on Monday (6 July) in a motion called by the Tory Party.

There has been growing speculation in recent weeks about the future of the controversial scheme.

Earlier this week, home secretary Alan Johnson announced that ID card trials planned for airside Manchester and London City airport staff will no longer be compulsory. Johnson also backed down on previously stated aims to make ID cards compulsory for all citizens at some point in the future.

The Tories claimed last week that key statutory instruments required before the scheme can proceed have still to be laid before Parliament, with just two weeks before MPs leave Westminster for their summer holidays.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said they would scrap the scheme if they came into power.

And a major IT contract for producing the cards themselves has been delayed until at least autumn 2010, after the next General Election.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday denied accusations that the government had backtracked over plans to make ID cards compulsory in the future.

And Commons leader Harriet Harman today added to confusion over the claimed government U-turn.

She said in reply to questions about government business: "The only change — which I would not call a change in policy — is that for airside staff at two airports, instead of government requiring them to do this, it will be dealt with airport by airport in consultation between those who are working there and those who are running the airport."

Harman said ministers "have always said that if we are going to make them [ID cards] compulsory we would have to have primary legislation before this House."

Harman denied a claim from deputy Liberal Democrat business spokesman Sir Robert Smith that money has been wasted on the programme, insisting biometric passports and ID cards for foreign workers will proceed.

Next phase of BT's superfast broadband rollout starts on Monday

Dave Bailey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:29:41 GMT

Dave Bailey, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 13:14:00

More than one million homes will be able to access next-generation, fibre-based services by March 2010

More than 15,000 homes in Muswell Hill in North London, and Whitchurch, a suburb north of Cardiff, will start to receive next-generation high-speed broadband when BT kicks off the next phase of its fibre-optic rollout on Monday.

The operational pilot is a key component of the government's Digital Britain strategy, and will also see BT next week announce a further tranche of exchanges to move to fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) optical access.

"Both pilots will involve over 15,000 premises with over 100 street cabinets being FTTC-enabled," said BT strategy and portfolio group director Liv Garfield.

She added that BT had already announced the next 29 exchanges to be enabled, which will go live between now and January 2010, connecting more than half a million premises.

Garfield said that next week BT will announce more exchanges to be enabled, bringing more than a million premises live by March 2010, and 1.5 million by summer 2010.

"By 2012 we'll have spent £1.5bn to bring fibre to 10 million homes," said Garfield.

Openreach managing director for next-generation access David Campbell said new street cabinets would be needed, but relatively little "digging up the road ". He said ISP customers involved in the FTTC trials starting on Monday would include Carphone Warehouse, Sky and O2.

Campbell also said that BT will be looking to run two exchanges using fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) totaling around 40,000 customers next March.

"We're also about to embark on a consultation around the voice services we can run over this as well, coming out in the next few weeks," he said.

Pricing for the trial will not be announced until the end of July, with Garfield saying that although there would be offers, "longer term, it will depend on market take up, usage levels and what backhaul consumption we see."

Garfield said the major advantages for business would be related to flexible working.

"[Things like] the networked office, but certainly towards a more collaborative way of working, because what we're seeing in recessionary times across our current portfolio is lots of conferencing and agile working – and fibre plays well [to those applications]," she said.

No U-turn on ID cards, insists Mandelson

Parliamentary reporter — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:57:42 GMT

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 09:43:00

Business minister and first secretary says government policy has not changed

Home secretary Alan Johnson's pledge that the government will not make ID cards compulsory is not a U-turn on policy, according to first secretary Lord Mandelson.

The business minister said the government had "always made clear we want to move to a full take-up of ID cards and what Alan Johnson has said is fully consistent with that."

Mandelson was commenting on the announcement that the trials planned for airside Manchester and London City airport staff will no longer be compulsory.

Johnson also backed down on previously stated aims to make ID cards compulsory for all citizens at some point in the future.

But Mandelson insisted it had always been the government case that ID cards need not apply to every citizen of the country .

Mandelson’s comments follow widespread speculation about the future of the scheme, and rumours that Johnson was less enthusiastic about ID cards than his predecessors.

The Tories claimed last week that key statutory instruments required before the scheme can proceed have still to be laid before Parliament, with just three weeks before MPs leave Westminster for their summer holidays.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said they would scrap the scheme if they came into power.

And a major IT contract for producing the cards themselves has been delayed until at least autumn 2010, after the next General Election.

Tory shadow home secretary Chris Grayling claimed Johnson had decided to beat "a partial retreat" and that this was "symbolic of a government in chaos".

"They have spent millions on the scheme so far. The home secretary thinks it has been a waste and wants to scrap it, but the prime minister won't let him. We end up with an absurd fudge instead," he said.

Habitat gets a web site makeover

Angelica Mari — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:55:45 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:15:00

The furniture retailer is revamping its online presence to provide a fully transactional web site. CIO Jacques Dekock explains why

For a store that made its name by being at the leading edge of design, Habitat admits it is playing catch-up online.

The furniture retailer does not have a fully transactional web site and realised it was not taking advantage of the growth in online shopping, so the company decided it was time to take action.

Planning for a revamped web site started in January, in partnership with e-commerce specialist eCommera, with BT Fresca supporting the online store’s infrastructure.

“Right now, you cannot buy products from our web site, which is not a good thing as our clients’ expectations on service are quite high. We need to provide an online operation that matches the high quality that we provide in the real world,” said Jacques Dekock, chief information officer at Habitat.

“Our new chief executive is really passionate about getting online and wants to ensure that we do not miss the business opportunities in that market and use the web to provide good customer service by making it easier for people to buy from us,” he told Computing.

Dekock believes the new web offering will help the business mitigate some challenges, such as the difficulty of displaying products in some stores due to lack of floorspace.

Habitat’s IT spend is about two per cent of the firm’s £300m turnover. Most of that is now being channelled into the web overhaul, which has become a business priority for the organisation.

“This is also about catching up. We will soon be in line with the competition on e-commerce and have a web offering that is as good or better than theirs,” said Dekock.

“Before, we were quite sceptical about selling furniture online, but we have changed our view and realised that the web offers enormous potential.”

As well as improving the logistics supporting the web site, enhancing the quality of data will be a crucial part of the revamp and Habitat will be improving its bespoke content management system, as well as the use of images and the depth of product information.

“Having less than optimum information on products and images is the single biggest stoppage for a transactional web site – there is a big piece of work going on at the moment to help us identify the gaps in that area,” said Dekock.

From late September, customers should be able to buy furniture online at Habitat’s new web site and the home accessories range will be available before Christmas.

As the majority of its IT finances are targeted at web improvement, Habitat decided not to focus investment on back-office systems such as SAP. Instead, the firm invested in new hardware to support the application and in the rollout of SAP’s reporting suite, so requirements can be met for as long as required.

An electronic point-of-sale upgrade has also received the go-ahead for 2010, aimed at gaining real-time visibility of store product information and availability.

Apart from making its web strategy a success, Habitat’s biggest challenge over the next year has to do with its people.

“The retail sector has been affected by the recession, coupled with a reduction in interesting technical projects, which makes motivating staff quite difficult,” said Dekock.

“The solution for us is to give IT people opportunities outside their existing comfort zones, such as learning some new skills around e-commerce.”

Social media in e-commerce – a cautionary tale

Habitat is one of many retailers using social media tools to increase web traffic and maximise conversion rates, but the technology must be used with caution, according to experts.

Businesses using social networking and user-generated content often report an uplift in sales as users value other people’s opinion on their experience with products or services.

“Traditionally, retailers have used features such as the top 10 best-selling products to attract customers, but it emerged that having the top 10 reviewed products works best as consumers believe in fellow shoppers,” said Andrew McClelland, business development director at e-commerce trade body IMRG.

McClelland advises retailers to get the basics right on their web sites before venturing into social media.

“Usability practices that make it easy for customers to find information, and good information and images, are crucial for any transactional web site,” he said.

But the use of social networking platforms needs to be treated carefully, McClelland added. Habitat fell foul last week when it mistakenly used keywords related to the unrest in Iran to promote its Twitter feed.

“The purpose of these tools is to spread information quickly and any mistake can become global knowledge in a matter of minutes, so such tools need to be treated very delicately,” McClelland said.

The digital divide must be tackled early in life

Valerie Thompson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:34:20 GMT

Valerie Thompson, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:30:00

The digital divide must be tackled early in lifeIt is essential that all schoolchildren have the opportunity to learn IT skills, says Valerie Thompson

When the e-Learning Foundation started in 2001, its mission to ensure every schoolchild in this country has their own computer and broadband access at home, regardless of the income of their family, might have been regarded as unrealistic. Today, not only is that dream realistic, it is close to being a reality.

We have helped more than 100,000 children gain access to the learning technologies they need to support their education beyond the classroom. That work is about to gain a boost with a £300m Home Access programme due to be rolled out nationwide in the autumn, following a successful pilot in Oldham and Suffolk earlier this year.

The programme, being managed by government agency Becta, provides families whose children are eligible for free school meals with a pre-paid debit card that entitles them to an IT bundle.

This includes a suitable computer, 12 months of broadband access, warranty, support and e-safety measures.

Technology is increasingly being used in and out of the classroom for studies. Without access to a computer and the internet at home, many children are falling behind. It is ºlittle surprise that a child from a disadvantaged family is half as likely to achieve five higher-level GCSEs than their peers.

The e-Learning Foundation will work with schools across the country to encourage them to get involved in the programme. Only when there is a strong link between home and school can a young person be properly supported in their learning. And technology offers a unique opportunity to improve that vital communication channel between school and home.

The 21st century has brought with it many technological advances, but there is still a very obvious digital divide in this country. The Home Access Programme will go some way to erasing it and helping provide children, regardless of their background, with the skills they require for the workplace and challenges of tomorrow.

Valerie Thompson is chief executive of the e-Learning Foundation

From tracks man to tax man

Rosalie Marshall — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:34:19 GMT

Rosalie Marshall, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:30:00

Phil Pavitt, outgoing chief information officer for Transport for London, talks to Rosalie Marshall about the lessons he will take to his new role at HMRC

Phil Pavitt is chief information officer (CIO) at Transport for London (TfL), the organisation that runs the Tube and buses in the capital. However, in September he will take up the position of CIO for one of the largest public sector IT users, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), where he will oversee 1,400 staff and a budget of £1bn.

Computing caught up with Pavitt to hear how he will set about building an IT function that can meet the needs of one of the most demanding government organisations.

How do you explain your vision of aligning IT to business requirements?

I tend to feel my way through an organisation and get an idea of its history. In the first few months after I join, I spend my time understanding the key elements rather than creating numerous strategies. I have to get to the crux of what an organisation thinks about. When I started at TfL and the services were broken, I could have talked about strategies such as service-oriented architecture, but all the average user cares about is the time it takes to log on.

What was your understanding of TfL after being there a few weeks?

Most people were resigned to an OK IT system and a problem had to be pretty big to complain about. I told the customers this system is not great and I told my team we had to be more customer-centric.

There were lots of problems that I don’t think will surprise anyone, particularly in a public sector organisation. There was very little central process, with everyone building their own instead. In fact, the good news was that we had one of every single application in the world. The bad news was, we didn’t know this and we could not work out what to do with them all.

The problem was, they all worked independently but very well. When you have 40 datacentres, 40 networks, 11,000 applications and 41 asset management systems, you realise that no one has figured out the horizontal bit. And like quite a few organisations, all the verticals were task-objective into their own vertical. This creates problems when you try to set the priority between saving a bus application from going down and an underground application going down.

We also had an interesting support model. We were not an intelligent buyer, in fact we outsourced most of our intelligence. We were heavily dominated by third-party players, particularly those from IT consultancies and those who had a vested interest. All these people were not sure of their long-term view of us as an organisation.

Now we are in the middle of a 24-month efficiency strategy that requires vision and confidence about where we are going. Before we started the strategy, we focused on the main priority, which was the average customer just wanting the IT to work and that’s it. Once you have earned the right to strategise, because it works, then go for it.

Do you have any ideas of what your strategy will be at HMRC?

It will certainly be a big change from TfL. Managing transport company

staff is demanding because the employees are so IT-literate and technically savvy, so they hold very high expectations. For example, one challenging demand I had to deal with was making sure that their BlackBerrys would work everywhere.

HMRC will also be different because it already has a centralised IT function.

What kind of precautions did you take when centralising IT at TfL?

I don’t like the term centralisation. We build true shared services. In the past, IT departments centralised, de-centralised or federalised. Shared services are different. They are run through a central function and delivered locally.

It’s like the iPhone. About 80 per cent of our applications are common and the last 20 per cent is up to individual departments to personalise.

When I started at TfL, I found quite a few unusual applications running on critical servers but that were not treated as critical. There tended to be only one version of each application and the person who designed it had left the business, but still staff did not want to see these applications taken away. I see it as evidence that culturally, people like IT more than they realise. It just means that as an IT manager, you need to work harder and harder so people come over to your side.

Now, 65 per cent of platforms across the organisation are common and in a public sector organisation, that is close to a miracle.

What are your views on cloud computing?

We have to finish our 24-month efficiency strategy before we consider such things as cloud computing. But when buying it, there are a number of things to think about first, such as how much cheaper is it really? And how will you manage downtime?

We are not a bleeding-edge organisation so we will not be the first to adopt new technology. We have to be a follower because we have crucial applications that support crucial transport systems such as London Underground.

Meeting ever-changing IT needs at Unicef

Lisa Kelly — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:03:11 GMT

Lisa Kelly, Computing, Tuesday 9 June 2009 at 11:37:00

Charity Unicef UK has used proven technology to build an IT architecture that can respond quickly to changing fundraising requirements and scale easily to meet spikes in donations

“The key thing for any IT architecture,” says Phil Durbin, UK head of IT at international children’s charity Unicef, “is to enable the business to meet its aims and objectives.” That is as true for a charity as it is for an investment bank.

And Durbin is keenly aware of the commercial pressures facing his organisation. In 2008 Unicef UK raised £59.6m from contributions to help protect children’s rights and save their lives when caught in emergencies or humanitarian crises. All the money comes from voluntary donations, the sale of cards and gifts and partnerships with firms.

In many respects this “commercial” pressure on the charity has helped create an IT architecture that is incredibly responsive to the business and the overriding need to maximise efficiency, drive fund-raising and process donations as quickly as possible.

“The bottom line is to ensure the architecture is robust, reliable and agile enough to enable Unicef UK to respond to changing business needs on relatively shoestring budgets,” says Durbin.

Consequently, Durbin sees many parallels between the charity sector and commercial organisations: “Both sectors want our IT architecture to help us go that extra mile,” he says.

But while some commercial organisations invest heavily in IT innovation, looking to eke out competitive advantage, Durbin is more pragmatic.

“I strongly advocate that any architecture should be based on proven technology that has stood the test of time. If an architecture is bleeding edge, then the business will bleed as well as IT,” he says.

This philosophy has informed Durbin’s attitude towards service-oriented architecture (SOA), where he appreciates some of the benefits it can bring but is far from being an SOA zealot.

“We have not built our architecture entirely on SOA because that would be restrictive and expensive. It would restrain the kind of organisations we could work with, as not every supplier is pushing for the SOA architecture,” says Du rbin.

“However, there are clear benefits to SOA. It is important to weigh up any benefits by looking at the overall architectural fit, implementation, cost and methodology.”

One area where the benefits of a more agile architecture were immediately apparent was in its customer relationship management (CRM) system. Unicef UK uses a CRM system called alms.NET from charity software maker Westwood Forster.

“The architecture of the CRM system is built on an SOA model and runs on the .Net platform, which is a good fit for us as we are a Microsoft shop. It has services that can be deployed in different ways across the user community depending on what we are trying to achieve,” says Durbin.

“We want our CRM system to give a 360-degree view of the supporter and Unicef UK. Application integration is as important as data integration because we need to know everything the supporter is doing with us and everything we are doing with that supporter,” he says.

Application integration is intended to streamline business processes and improve the flow of information around the organisation, while minimising the level of manual data entry. So the CRM system is integrated with Microsoft Office, allowing staff to input customer data using familiar applications.

Unicef UK has also integrated its CRM system with Microsoft Exchange, allowing it to capture information from the email system.

“We look at critical business processes and where we can make improvements by integrating one application with another to make us more agile and responsive,” says Durbin.

Under Durbin, Unicef UK has also investigated how business process management (BPM) might help improve its fundraising capabilities.

“An organisation is made up of people, systems and processes. Many organisations focus on people and systems and neglect processes, but to become more effective it is important to consider all three,” he says.

The internet has become an increasingly important fundraising channel, and it is essential that the charity is able to integrate information collated from online donations into its central CRM system.

“It is important to be able to transfer donations efficiently from the web into our CRM system as the volume and number of donations online has increased significantly and will continue to do so,” says Durbin.

Unicef UK is also using web services to improve its capture of donors’ details. It has added an address management service from Postcode Anywhere to its site, which automatically completes address information once a user enters their house number and postcode.

“If there is a business benefit to web services, we will use them as long as they work on the desktop with Internet Explorer and they do not break security guidelines,” says Durbin.

“Web services are inexpensive, you are not tied into one supplier as you can switch easily, the software integrates with legacy systems and there is no problem with installation. Using web services helps decentralise the IT infrastructure and reduce its footprint and burden of support,” he says.

This is where the SOA element of the CRM system comes into its own. “We build our processes agilely to be able to change the way we do things extremely quickly. SOA means you do not have to rewrite a whole system if you change one point, so it is much easier to improve BPM in an SOA environment,” says Durbin.

This approach to IT architecture is also based on a deep understanding of the processes taking place within the organisation.

“We sit down with people in charge of a process and ask: ‘Why do you do that?’ and ‘What if you didn’t do that?’,” says Durbin. “It is vital that we understand business processes and what the business wants to ensure we map out a new business process correctly. The benefit of the SOA architecture means that it is straightforward to build that new process without having to rebuild anything else.”

And Durbin believes that through the combination of SOA and BPM, Unicef should be able to build a greater understanding of its processes, which could be of use to the whole charity sector.

He is already in discussions with another not-for-profit organisation about sharing information on key performance indicators.

“We are at an embryonic stage, but it is an exciting opportunity as there are so many processes we could benchmark. Think of the countless interactions with human resources systems, for example,’ says Durbin.

Durbin is also keen to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies and Unicef UK has a project manager who engages with suppliers.

“There are new communication tools based on SOA principles that help us to interact with young fundraisers who are the future. We are always looking at new technology as long as it can be part of a robust and stable IT architecture,” he says.

Read how Knight Frank and Greenwich Borough Council deal with changing IT infrastructure

In part three of our definitive guide, leading IT architecture experts provide guidance on best practice

Case study: Greenwich Borough Council and IT architecture

Lisa Kelly — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:03:11 GMT

Lisa Kelly, Computing, Tuesday 9 June 2009 at 11:38:00

Council focuses on security and flexibility to satisfy needs of online public services

The efficiency drive across the public sector has seen the concept of e-government gain unprecedented attention. And while that has huge ramifications for public sector organisations’ IT infrastructure – where there is a new emphasis on flexibility and efficiency – some core requirements, such as the security of often highly sensitive data, remain paramount.

“There is a big driver to get efficiencies out of our IT architecture, but I must ensure that customers trust the council to manage records with appropriate security in place,” says Henri Reinbolt, chief information officer at Greenwich Council.

“There have been some high-profile incidents of data loss in the media and as a council we are very anxious to manage records and data properly and reassure the public we do that,” he says.

As a local authority, the council has strenuous compliance requirements. For example, it must meet PCI compliance to take e-payments in a secure manner, and adhere to the code of connection compliance (CoCo) for access to the Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSx), which facilitates collaboration with central government services, such as the NHS.

Hytec, part of the OLM Group, has advised the council about security, including GCSx compliance and the associated network architecture.

“At the end of last year Hytec helped us with the CoCo issue to ensure our architecture is compliant with the expected requirements from central government, so it can support our modernisation programme, which centres on using the web for access and sharing information outside our domain,” says Reinbolt.

“There has been a lot of work on both infrastructure and application systems. Hytec understands what security controls are needed at the basic network layer and above layers and the constraints under which we work,” he says.

As part of that work, Greenwich has strengthened its change management processes to ensure compliance is factored in.

“It is very easy to make changes to business processes and find you are no longer compliant, but we need to ensure we stay within the rules,” says Reinbolt.

The council is moving towards a flexible working environment with about 3,000 Citrix thin clients compared to only 500 laptops and 500 desktops, and securing that environment is crucial.

“We are moving from dedicated IT resources to a pan-building environment where people can work anywhere within the council to enable flexible working and to optimise our property assets, but we have to ensure that security is acceptable from a control point of view, and we need to be very smart in our architectural design,” says Reinbolt.

Getting it right involves looking at encryption and authentication within the context of who is doing what with whom as the council increasingly has to share information outside its local environment.

“Public trust is key. We have to provide a public-service network, and cannot afford to build Fort Knox. Our architecture needs to provide us with secure flexibility,” says Reinbolt.

Rally the troops for war on cyber crime

Computing — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:45:29 GMT

Computing, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 06:45:00

The government's new cyber security strategy faces plenty of challenges

“Divide and conquer” is a battle plan that probably goes back further than the Romans, and it is one on which e-criminals and cyber saboteurs have been all too happy to rely in the UK.

The government’s new Cyber Security Strategy not only sets up two new organisations to help protect the country against the growing digital threats we face, but identifies 16 other bodies that already have responsibility for dealing with such attacks.

Nobody is trying to pretend that cyber defence is easy, and perhaps there is a very good reason why we need 18 different organisations working together – or at least, trying to.

But as most IT security experts know, it is human factors that the best hackers target, and even with the best will in the world, 18 different groups with 18 different priorities and prejudices mean an exponential increase in the potential for gaps through which cyber criminals can attack.

In theory, the new Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) to be set up at GCHQ will be responsible for co-ordinating all these organisations in a coherent way. Good luck with that.

But what this means is that the success or failure of the government’s plan will depend entirely on the authority and accountability vested in CSOC. The centre’s location at the government’s top-secret communications monitoring site rather suggests its focus will be on high-level cyber espionage and terrorism – somehow it seems unlikely it will be that bothered about the sort of low-level, frustrating hacking activity that is the daily bane of most businesses’ life.

It would be churlish to criticise the Cyber Security Strategy because it has so plainly been needed for so long, and its arrival is to be welcomed, even though it is belated. But to counter the increasingly sophisticated threats the UK faces, we need a simple, streamlined, co-ordinated operation that has the real teeth needed to take action.

If one does not emerge, those gaps will loom ever larger for both the casual hacker and the malicious cyber attacker.

Global standardisation delivers benefits at UPS

Angelica Mari — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:54:22 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:45:00

Delivery giant sees benefits of central IT solution

UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, is perhaps one of the most IT-enabled organisations in the world.

Over 20 years, the firm’s technology has seen radical change, and one man has been there to witness it all.

Outgoing IT director Graham Nugent joined the company in 1988 and was responsible for streamlining the firm’s applications portfolio and the planning and implementation of all major system upgrades in Europe.

“My legacy is the collapse of local systems and the implementation of common enterprise solutions. I have a schematic in my role that shows the main UPS systems and their interfaces on an A3-sized piece of paper – and it’s a nice position to be in, as the alternative is chaos,” said Nugent, who retired from UPS last week.

“In an increasingly cost-competitive environment, a central solution is easier to control and contain.”

Nugent said that consolidation has been a watchword in back-office projects, where virtualisation allowed the company to downsize non-core assets at its two datacentres, which contain more than 11,000 servers.

Another key achievement was the development of a migration programme to move UPS’s Visual Basic 6 applications to .Net.

UPS now expects to spend its near-$1bn (£605m) IT budget on initiatives that include web-based systems to provide customers with better access to information and services.

During his stint at UPS, Nugent was also given responsibility for joining up the IT systems of parcel carrier firm Lynx, which UPS acquired in 2005 and completed integration last year.

UPS now has a standard integration procedure, and the company also learned a few lessons.

“When merging IT infrastructures, you need to ensure that you make the right people accountable and have standards. However, that can be difficult when some of your customers don’t share the same practices and preferred products,” said Nugent.

“But when you work for a business the size of UPS, it is just like an oil tanker you can change quickly, but it takes time and it needs a lot of focus and continuous attention,” he said.

Hot Seat: Roger Bearpark

Computing — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:38:53 GMT

Computing, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:15:00

Roger Bearpark is assistant head of ICT for the London Borough of Hillingdon, where he oversees innovation and green IT

What was your first job and how did you get into IT?

After leaving school, I saw an advert for a trainee hardware engineer that included a company car, which was the biggest pull. However, once I joined they told me I wasn’t old enough to be included on the company car scheme so they gave me a car allowance instead. I went out and bought a sporty Fiesta.

Which IT vendor do you think has been the most influential in the past 20 years?

There have been many, but if you look at the past five years I rate server and storage virtualisation vendors such as VMware and Compellent as examples of companies that are changing the way we think about, and use, technology.

Which mobile device do you currently use?

I rely heavily on two devices – my T-Mobile Vario 4 and my HP Tablet PC. I would be completely lost without the two of them. They let me work anywhere at any time, which is vital for my job.

What technology would you save in a fire?

If there were a fire, I would save my CD/radio player. Relaxing with some good music or listening to the radio really helps me unwind. Anything from Mozart to heavy rock does it for me.

If you were not in IT, what would you be doing?

I would be a deck chair attendant on a long sandy beach in Cornwall. That way, I could enjoy the summer outdoors and relax in the winter.

Is now a good time for people to enter the UK IT profession?

Yes. We are just beginning to see new people enter the market who have been learning about computers and IT at school from an early age. This will bring a fundamental change to the market. IT will no longer just be a business profession, as it has so many social implications. IT won’t just be a career choice, it will be a way of life for tens of thousands of people.

Government aims to bolster UK's cyber defences

Computing staff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:08:09 GMT

Computing staff, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 01:00:00

Is the UK’s first national cyber security strategy up to the task of co-ordinating the country’s response to digital threats? Computing investigates

The government has launched the UK’s first national cyber security strategy, aiming to bring a “coherent approach” to the multitude of organisations tasked with tackling digital threats to businesses and the public sector.

To enhance the UK’s ability to detect and respond to attacks and make information sharing about threats more resilient, new funding will also be provided.

“Just as in the 19th century we had to secure the seas for our national safety and prosperity, and in the 20th century we had to secure the air, in the 21st century we also have to secure our position in cyber space to give people and businesses the confidence they need to operate safely there,” said prime minister Gordon Brown.

The announcement follows the lead of President Barack Obama, who launched a US national cyber security strategy in May.

The UK plan highlights the need for government, organisations across all sectors, international partners and the public to work together to meet the strategic objectives of reducing risk and exploiting opportunities by improving knowledge, capabilities and decision-making to secure the UK’s use of cyber space.

Two initiatives announced as part of the strategy stand out as being pivotal to the new plan’s success.

An Office of Cyber Security (OCS) will be set up in Whitehall to provide strategic leadership for government departments and businesses through a shared view and intelligence on threats and attacks.

And a multi-agency Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) will provide co-ordinated protection of the UK’s core IT systems.

CSOC will be based at GCHQ in Cheltenham, already home to the government’s key communications monitoring service and existing agencies such as CESG, which oversees the technical aspects of information assurance and runs the Computer Emergency Response Team which provides assistance in resolving serious IT incidents for the public sector.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the new strategy is the need to co-ordinate the work of the large number of different organisations already involved in protecting the UK’s digital infrastructure.

The government’s Cyber Security Strategy document lists 16 existing organisations, each with different – but sometimes overlapping – responsibilities (see below).

Robert Hannigan, the prime minister’s security adviser, said the government wants to use existing skills and resources as much as possible.

“With the CSOC, we will look at using existing infrastructure – we wouldn’t want to spoil the work that has already been carried out. The OCS is all about policy-making and one of the key points for us is to develop skills to get the knowledge we need and we will work with the industry to create that,” he said.

And that co-operation extends internationally. “There is no point in developing this on a single national basis. That is why we are working closely with other countries – we are already doing a lot of work with the US, Canada and Australia in that area. There is also some work going on with EU players. We expect there will be some international legal issues there but this is going to be a long, drawn-out debate,” said Hannigan.

“We will work across the spectrum, from schools to business sectors, and work with knowledge transfer networks to make it happen. [The availability of skills in the market] is a huge opportunity for us. Recruitment is getting easier, so it is a good time to find people.”

The quality of the resources behind the strategy will be key to its success, according to Andy Kellett, senior security research analyst at Butler Group.

“It sounds as if they are pulling it all under one roof, and it looks like they are following the US lead. But I’d like to see some significant resources put behind it, and I’d like to see the substance of what they will actually be doing going forward, and how effective it is – for now it’s case of ‘wait and see’,” he said.

Kellett also called for a greater role for cyber security experts in business and the IT industry.

“Potentially, there are better ways of going about this than re-inventing the wheel in Whitehall, because surely all this already exists – the top security vendors have been doing this for years,” he said.

“Why not co-ordinate and integrate with their systems, and also co-ordinate with the top chief information security officers in business. The government is going to have to make sure the recruitment is right and the people they put in place are the best.”

Speaking at a conference on cyber crime organised by vendor Unisys last week, National Police Improvement Agency detective superintendent John Mooney highlighted the challenges thrown up by rapid advances in technological threats.

“From a policing perspective, we always seem to be playing catch-up,” said Mooney. “We need a better ability to share information. Everyone working from the same song sheet would be a good thing.”

Multiple agencies will have bearing on strategy

The Cyber Security Strategy enables the formation of two new organisations to help oversee and co-ordinate the activities of the 16 bodies already involved in tackling e-crime and cyber security. All 18 groups are listed below with their areas of responsibility:

Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) – oversees the development and direction of the police service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Acpos in Scotland.

Attorney General’s Office & the National Fraud Strategic Authority – responsible for policy to combat online fraud and e-crime.

The National Security Secretariat – supports and advises the prime minister, and the Cabinet’s National Security Committee, on all areas of natio nal security.

Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure – provides security advice for businesses and organisations in the national infrastructure.

Cyber Security Operations Centre – set up to monitor developments in cyber space, providing collective situational awareness, analysis of trends, and to improve technical response co-ordination to cyber incidents.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – responsible for industrial and economic policy, and regulatory policy, particularly in the telecommunications sector.

Devolved Administrations – responsible for those functions that have been devolved to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, according to their different devolution settlements.

Foreign Office – foreign policy, international relations and international laws and behaviours in cyber space.

GCHQ – responsible for operations, capability and policy support, including CESG as the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance.

Home Office – deals with issues associated with the use of cyber space for criminality. The Home Office includes the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism for terrorist-related use of cyber space.

Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre – issues assessments of terrorist cyber intentions and capabilities.

Metropolitan Police – tackles e-crime through its Police Central e-Crime Unit.

Ministry of Defence – responsible for issues concerning the military use of

cyber space, including defence policy and doctrine.

Office of Cyber Security – initially set up in the Cabinet Office, with overall ownership of the Cyber Security Strategy, providing strategic leadership across government for cyber security issues.

Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) – deals with the collection of intelligence overseas to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of

the UK.

Security Service (MI5) – tasked with protecting the country against covertly organised threats to national security.

Serious Organised Crime Agency – covers issues relating to organised criminal use of cyber space.

Technology Strategy Board – through its Network Security Innovation Platform, this body is tasked with developing innovative ways to improve online safety, security and resilience.

Source: Cyber Security Strategy of the UK, June 2009

Focus resources on what really matters

Martin Butler — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:52:35 GMT

Martin Butler, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 00:15:00

IT has become too caught up in the drive for efficiency, at the expense of business success

A firm’s success is generally not because of its efficiency. This may sound like blasphemy, but it is true. What makes a firm successful is customer preference for its products and services, and that it participates in growing markets. Everything else is secondary. I’m not saying efficiency is unimportant, it is just not critical.

We only have to look at US automakers to see the truth of this. One of these failing giants has spent in excess of $2bn (£1.2bn) on the global rollout of a large application suite to realise process efficiencies. Meanwhile, it continued to produce cars that people did not want – albeit very efficiently.

If we can accept that products, services and markets are the really important issues, we should expect our IT investments to shadow this fact. Marketing information systems (MIS), product lifecycle management, competitive intelligence and any other systems that help management deal with these issues would surely take priority. Clearly, this is not the case. Instead, we have a myopic fascination with process efficiency almost to the exclusion of everything else.

Business process management, corporate performance management (CPM), enterprise resource planning, governance, compliance and myriad other internally focused applications consume the majority of the IT budget.

We can blame this on the fact that the first IT systems dealt almost exclusively with internal processes such as billing, accounts and payroll. Forty years on and we cannot shake off this first love affair with IT it colours everything we do. The IT industry does not even offer marketing information systems as a mature, developed product, even though this should rank as number one in IT investment priorities.

There is some recognition of the fact that MIS is necessary, but the current emphasis is largely directed at tracking the performance of discount coupons or similar processes. MIS as the primary component in the success of an o rganisation is not widely debated, although an article I read suggested that accounts and finance were simply inputs to an MIS system. I am not sure the chief financial officer would like to hear this, but there may be more than a grain of truth in it.

Implementing an MIS has taken on a new urgency with the emergence of social media – specifically Facebook and Twitter. Mars successfully created a Facebook entry for its Skittles product – hundreds of thousands of Skittles fans linked to this entry and discussed the nuances of different flavours – sad but true. British Airways has created a forum for some of its more well-heeled passengers clearly an opportunity to network.

The myopic spiral of systems labelled with the words “management”, “process” and “enterprise” seems to continue unabated. I had a conversation with a consultant who worked for a supplier of such systems and without any prompting from me complained that it all seemed “a bit incestuous with no real output” his words not mine.

An interview with the IT leader of a large corporation that had just deployed a CPM system revealed that he had been able to reduce the number of reports he needed from 12 to six. This was cause for celebration but at such a cost.

If we continue to invest in IT purely as a means of managing internal processes, we can expect to see more large corporations go the way of the large US automakers. The emerging economies will happily supply the products and services that we all want if our traditional suppliers are busy navel gazing, using ever more sophisticated systems that help them produce unwanted products with breathtaking efficiency.

Martin Butler is the founder of analyst Martin Butler Research

Digital Britain? In your dreams

Dave Bailey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:52:35 GMT

Dave Bailey, Computing, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 00:15:00

Gordon Brown wants the UK to become digital capital of the world, but his government seems to be trying its best to make sure it can never be

Ever wondered why you dream? There’s no shortage of theories out there, from Sigmund Freud’s view that dreams are disguised fulfilments of repressed wishes, to one that views dreams as a test drive for new ideas, and another that thinks dreaming is just the brain cleaning up mental clutter ready for the dawn of a new day.

Taking Freud’s wish-fulfilment view, how many out there are dreaming of a UK-wide optical fibre-based network? Not many, I suspect, especially after the publication last week of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report.

The thing that really gets steam coming out of my ears, is Gordon Brown’s speeches on how important all this is to the UK economy. Comments such as: “We can’t leave this to chance,” and: “The UK will become the digital capital of the world,” would seem to suggest that he understands how important this is to UK plc. The government’s actions fail to match such rhetoric.

Which other country still has an agency a Valuation Office Agency, to be precise that considers optical fibre in the ground as a taxable asset? In fact, the tax only applies when the fibre has data going through it, and it gets worse, because the rating system favours large carriers with large numbers of fibre connections. For small carriers rolling out a few fibres, the charges are harder to swallow.

There is simply no financial incentive for these smaller ISPs to roll out fibre to the 25 to 30 per cent of the country that Carter has said will miss out because it is currently economically unviable.

Let’s move on to one of the big winners of Digital Britain BT, and in particular its Openreach division. Ofcom is already consulting on proposals that would give Openreach control of those green cabinets you see located on most streets.

Openreach is the organisation that will be connecting up ISPs who want to roll out next-generation connectivity to your house. However, its record for doing the same for businesses in the UK leaves a lot to be desired, according to some ISPs I have talked to.

The main issue is a lack of transparency when it comes to connection charges. You can sign up to BT Wholesale for fibre connections, and then later down the line get hit by Openreach charges for connecting that fibre.

And some of these charges are no laughing matter. An ISP I spoke to recently had a nasty surprise after it checked out how much a fibre connection would cost in a large city centre. “You can use the BT Wholesale pricing tool and come back with a nice figure that looks very good, but when you order it, Openreach comes back with extremely high additional costs indicating excess construction charges,” said my source.

“Look at the charge for drilling a hole,” he added. “More than £300! What type of drills are they using gold-plated ones, badged by Armani?”

You get the picture by now, but remember the government and Ofcom has conceded that BT has to make a return on its investment; the question is just how much? If the Openreach charges relating to connecting up fibre for businesses are any indication, ISPs, and that includes BT Wholesale, should prepare to get stiffed big time.

So instead of dreaming about a Britain with state-of-the-art network infrastructure, I’m reminded more of the Ellen Ripley character in the Alien movies. In the last film of the series, Alien Resurrection, Ripley is once again trying to rid the universe of the bio-mechanoid killing machines. At one point she’s chatting to the obligatory android and says: “I don’t dream any more.” When asked why, she answers: “Because however bad the nightmares get, when I wake up the reality is always worse.”

Ring any bells?

Q&A: Jerry Thompson - BT Business director of business products and online

Dave Bailey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:26:00 GMT

Dave Bailey, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 16:14:00

Large corporates are being drawn to managed services as the recession bites deeper

As director of business products and online for BT Business, Jerry Thompson has seen at first hand the impact the recession has had on firms' business and IT plans.

Computing talked to Thompson about the technologies firms are turning to to help them ride out the economic storm.

Computing: What do your customers tell you is their top priority today?

Jerry Thompson: Well, the cry has always been "do more for less", even during the good years. But I've been in this industry over 20 years and I've never seen the problems quite as acute as they are now. It's not "twice as fast at half the cost" every few years, it's seriously taking fixed costs out of the business and finding new ways of doing things.

Does BT see software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing fitting into this cost-cutting agenda?

There's a number of strategic questions here, and when you go into a recession like we have at the moment, there are clues as to what the world will look like from a structural point of view when we come out of the other side. Everybody has indeed been talking about SaaS and cloud computing, but in essence people weren't doing it, whereas now they're really looking at it quite seriously and saying what does it mean for me?

We're seeing an increasing appetite for trialling this in discrete areas and seeing if it does work. There's a real push towards taking fixed costs and making them into variable ones, recognising that you may take 15-20 per cent of your organisation, but that you may want 15-20 per cent growth in a year or two. However, the financials currently may be inhibiting a massive change and movement towards these technologies at present

Which cloud computing services do you think will take off?

One thing we have noticed that corporates are going for is managing email. Outsourcing email management is not something corporate IT departments considered in the past - smaller companies, absolutely. What we're seeing is an interest - yet to be translated into a huge amount of orders - from North American firms with 15,000-20,000 employees in outsourcing email management to a hosting provider. Two to three years ago this would have been unheard of, and that's a real telling sign because email management is a core service for IT departments and it's quite a complex thing to run.

We're also offering customers SaaS CRM like Salesforce and SugarCRM, certainly for SMEs and mid-market companies, and managing IT support helpdesks.

I think large corporates will increasing look at these kinds of managed services over the next three to four years as a way of addressing IT cost management.

What are customers telling you is their biggest headache in the datacentre?

Power. I sit on Intel's board of advisers and a few years ago they said that the biggest issue will be power. They showed us some data about five years ago, and here we are today with Google building datacentres next to hydroelectric power plants. Power is the most important vulnerability for running datacentres today, and it also focuses attention on the need for having multiple power sources.

What about the market for videoconferencing and telepresence?

We're not seeing a massive adoption of videoconferencing – I wish it was otherwise. For big corporates it's a really useful tool for project work. I've seen research on videoconferencing that says its effectiveness is related to how well you know the person on the other side of the connection. If you know them, and you have a rapport with them, it's 60-80 per cent effective compared to a face-to-face meeting, but over time that figure diminishes. You need to keep the relationship fresh.

Airlines see unprecedented decline in IT spending

Angelica Mari — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:55:20 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 13:31:00

Businesses in the sector struggling to deal with the recession, says research

Airline investment in IT will plunge to unprecedented low levels this year as the industry struggles to cope with massive losses caused by the downturn, according to research.

Figures released at the SITA Air Transport IT Summit in Cannes suggest that operational spend for IT and telecommunications will be 1.7 per cent of airline revenue – the lowest since 2002.

According to the survey, which polled 200 IT decision-makers in the sector, airlines are in “survival mode”, with 72 per cent of firms looking to renegotiate vendor contracts and 70 per cent investing in IT that helps bring down operating costs.

Most businesses from the sector have already enacted measures such as consolidation of IT suppliers and infrastructure, as well as staff reductions and increased outsourcing.

“The drop in IT investment by airlines is a direct response to the $80bn in revenue that is expected to disappear this year due to falling passenger demand in our industry,” said Paul Coby, SITA chairman and British Airways chief information officer.

“For the first time in several years, there will be a year-on-year decline in IT spend. The focus everywhere is on doing even more with even less,” said Coby, who told Computing last month that BA had reduced its IT budget by 30 per cent.

“We are living in the most challenging times any of us have seen in the air transport industry. We should not be surprised that when survival is the issue for many carriers, that all but the most essential of IT investments has been put on the back-burner,” said Coby

“But it is important to recognise that IT is also part of the solution to our challenges. Used well and effectively IT will cut costs and protect revenues,” he said.

According to Coby, the IT-driven revolution in the airline industry continues, and the web is the most important distribution channel for the sector – the survey suggests that 60 per cent of companies use online check-in and the figure is expected to rise to 92 per cent over the next three years.

Most respondents said they will boost their web functionality, including alternative payment options (34 per cent), new products to improve revenue (34 per cent), booking portals for corporate customers (33 per cent), frequent flyer redemption functionality (29 per cent), booking portals for travel agencies (28 per cent) and online shopping tools (26 per cent).

Some 38 per cent of those polled do not provide any mobile services. But notifications about flight status and delays are the most popular services among the 38 per cent of companies who offer mobile functionality. Some 42 per cent have plans to do so within the next year.

“No one should be surprised by this. It tells me that airlines absolutely understand the importance of technology for the future, and what we are seeing here is the immediate and necessary response to the global recession,” said Coby.

"Every airline IT department in the world is contributing to the fight for survival not just with cost saving systems and automation such as online check-in and selling, but they themselves are saving costs,” he said.

Read more about the recession plans of IT decision makers at the UK’s main carriers here.

Weetabix stocks up on supply chain software

Dave Bailey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:55:20 GMT

Dave Bailey, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 09:51:00

Cereal maker uses Manhattan software to improve stock controls to 99.9 per cent accuracy

Weetabix has rolled out a new warehouse management system following a review of the breakfast cereal producer's existing technology infrastructure.

The new solution from supply chain software vendor Manhattan Associates supports radio-frequency technology for scanning bar code and stock location labels, and Weetabix said the system has improved stock accuracy from below 90 per cent to 99.9 per cent, with all stock transactions controlled by the system interfaced to Weetabix's enterprise resource planning software.

Weetabix head of supply chain George Perry said the system had been rolled out at two warehouses at the firm's 82-acre Northamptonshire site, which holds 35,000 pallets and serves clients throughout the UK.

"Both warehouses were previously managed using a legacy system and many paper-based processes," he said.

Perry said that knowing the exact location of 35,000 pallets was impossible with the previous legacy system.

"It just wasn’t sophisticated enough for the ever-increasing business requirements, and the Manhattan system has dramatically improved stock accuracy by pallet location, giving us full traceability and enabling us to store and distribute products with a significantly reduced pallet pool," he said.

Weetabix employs more than 2,300 people globally, and the company’s eponymous product accounts for eight per cent of the UK’s total cereal sales.

Future deployments will address Weetabix's exported products at a third warehouse in Northamptonshire.

Web sales brighten up M&S results

Angelica Mari — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:39:16 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 11:00:00

Internet business sees 28 per cent growth despite fall in like-for-like sales

The online operation of Marks & Spencer (M&S) generated 28 per cent year-on-year growth in its latest financial quarter, and the retailer said consumer spending appears to be stabilising.

The sales growth at M&S Direct follows the introduction of a project focused on online improvement. Some changes in the navigational structure of the web site have already been introduced and a major refresh is scheduled to go live in the autumn.

“We are pleased with the improving trend in our performance. This demonstrates that the actions we are taking are working,” said M&S chairman Stuart Rose.

“Consumer confidence appears to be stabilising. However, we remain cautious about the outlook for the remainder of this and next year and will continue to run the business accordingly,” said Rose.

Services such as international delivery, wine club and gift card redemption, with better product availability and order fulfilment capability, are expected to be part of the web site’s new features.

Despite the growth online, UK like-for-like sales at M&S decreased by 1.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 June, after a fourth-quarter drop of 4.2 per cent.

Visa aims for mobile payments on four billion phones

Angelica Mari — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:37:37 GMT

Angelica Mari, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 11:50:00

Deal with Monitise aims to develop mobile e-commerce network

Visa has signed a $13m (£7.9m) deal with Monitise for the development of a mobile payments network.

The financial services giant has also taken a 14.4 per cent stake in the mobile payments specialist, with the aim of extending Visa’s services to four billion mobile devices worldwide.

The partnership intends to enable mobile phone users to purchase goods and services, make payments, receive information and offers, and transfer money between accounts, in a safe and secure manner, said head of global product innovation at Visa, Tim Attinger.

“With the ever-expanding growth in handsets coupled with increasing sophistication of mobile networks, mobile payments and services present significant opportunity for Visa as we continue to develop new ways to bring the benefits of our electronic payments to more people in more places,” said Attinger.