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How flexible working can bring women to
IT
In response to a review of how flexible working has been accepted
and promoted in IT over the past year to attract women to the
industry (Computer Weekly, 4 May)
Perhaps we need to promote the sheer range of careers available to
women in IT. When I talked with my career adviser, he felt that
there was very little beyond networking and programming - and this
was only four years ago.
Flexible working is something that lends itself to IT and for most
women it can make it a serious career choice.
Catherine Erdal
Computer-aided learning manager,
Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust
Misleading users with printer prices
In response to correspondence resulting from Julie Giera's article
(Computer Weekly, 6 April) about how firms are unaware they can
save costs on their printed materials
In the UK it would appear that insufficient attention is given to
the third core element of business printing identified by Robin
Edwards (Letters, 20 April) - the total cost of each piece of
printed output.
Many printer manufacturers follow a deliberate marketing policy of
pricing the consumables needed by their printers at high prices,
while at the same time shaving the cost of the printers themselves
to the bone to win market share. This is a market strategy
sometimes known as "razors and razorblades" and is also widely used
in that market.
Suppliers' primary profit stream comes not from the printers but
from the repeated purchase of consumables by the customers tied to
them.
In the case of one leading colour printer, for example, the price
of the printer is less than the price of the first set of
replacement colour cartridges. People who have bought the printer
without carefully examining the cost of the consumables might find
this a bit of a shock. They are only prevented from buying a new
printer and throwing out the old one each time they run out of
toner by the fact that the new printer only contains toner enough
for 1,500 sheets instead the 4,500 sheets of the replacement
cartridge. A clever little marketing ploy and the same approach is
used by many manufacturers.
The high cost of laser printer consumables can be countered in two
environmentally-friendly ways: by topping up the old cartridges
with new compatible toner or by buying remanufactured
cartridges.
For many cartridges, including those of the printer mentioned
above, compatible toners are available and the refilling operation
is simple as a convenient filler plug is provided on the cartridge.
It does not often cross people's minds that they can refill their
cartridge with toner in much the same way as they top up their car
with petrol. However, the high cost of the colour toners in
particular is pushing an increasing number of organisations this
way and the practice is likely to spread.
Remanufactured cartridges are more popular and have the advantage
that new components are often fitted, allowing a full warranty to
be offered. They also involve no more effort than an original
cartridge. However, the UK lags well behind Germany in its use of
remanufactured cartridges at about 20% to 25% of the market and
more than two million, non-biodegradable laser cartridges are
thrown away annually.
It is perhaps surprising that more businesses do not evaluate these
ways of reducing their printing costs. The wider use of colour
printing with its higher cost is likely to be a trigger that will
encourage more careful use of resources in future, but unless the
printer manufacturers lose a far larger part of their lucrative
consumables market to the recyclers, they will have no incentive to
change their policy and bring the cost of consumables down to a
fairer level.
Martin Young
Managing director of Smith & Young sales
T/A TonerTopUp
Why are hackers treated with such apathy?
In response to your article about the speed at which patching is
becoming ineffective (Computer Weekly, 4 May), one simply has to
point to the destructive rampage of the Sasser worm to highlight
the point that it already is inadequate.
Both corporate and private users have been caught totally unaware
by this worm, and zero-day attacks of this nature are now a
fearsome weapon in the hackers' arsenal, exploiting not only
obsolete security measures but also a huge apathy towards the
seriousness of such crimes.
In any other medium a deliberate attack that could shut down or
disrupt train services, banks, post offices and emergency services
worldwide would be regarded as a major act of terrorism. However,
because of this apathy towards malicious internet attacks, law
enforcement agencies, governments and corporate IT managers will
happily pass the buck.
Justice simply must be forthcoming and prosecutions need to follow.
Current legislation, drafted back in 1990, is not enough to
successfully prosecute those taking part in cybercrime. No matter
the scale of the attack, these people need to be dealt with in a
way that is going to act as a deterrent.
With committees such as the All Party Internet Group inquiry into
the Computer Misuse Act gathering pace, this realisation is slowly
dawning, but laws against cybercrime need to make an example of
these criminals now to prevent such attacks from doing even more
harm in the future.
Ben Hayman
Business development director,
Prevx
Don't rely on CRM for a sales boost
In response to Stephen Jay (Letters, 27 April), he is right that
there is no point in running customer relationship management
software if it is not integrated with other business-critical
applications. But you do not need CRM to build successful sales
campaigns. In fact, it is a burden to sales professionals.
Because IT has brought about changes in attitudes to buying,
software developers have been seeing what it can do for the part a
commercial organisation really ought to have some control over -
the selling. This has led to the formation of a burgeoning industry
built loosely around CRM, but this is the wrong approach if what
you really need to do is achieve more sales.
Too many companies have implemented CRM in response to a tougher
selling climate, rather than reinforcing their sales professionals
with an investment in sales intelligence software. They are
effectively replacing traditional sales techniques with automated
buying functionality - which is fine if you are sure your customers
will be calling you, but not much use if you need to go out and
find them for yourself.
Small wonder then, that CRM companies struggle to demonstrate a
genuine return on investment and talk instead of changes in
attitude and healthier, customer-focused business practices. If it
is a boost in sales you need, CRM is not enough.
You can bolt on CRM to help make sense of your other enterprise
applications, but it is not going to help you close a deal or sell
more to existing customers. There are active selling solutions out
there, but you will not find them under the banner of CRM.
Justin Floyd
Chief executive,
Vecta Software
Simple IT can improve website accessibility
I strongly welcome the focus of attention on internet accessibility
for disabled users (Computer Weekly, 20 April), currently an area
poorly addressed in website design by the public and private
sector.
Organisations should look at the issue of accessibility as an
opportunity to improve the overall usability of websites and
improve relationships with customers and stakeholders.
The problems commonly cited by disabled users are often the same as
from able-bodied users - cluttered and complex page structures or
confusing and disorienting navigation mechanisms will send any user
to a competing site.
There are some simple steps businesses can take to make their site
accessible, such as utilising customer relationship management
technologies already commonly in use on websites. E-service
technologies offer a collaborative form-filling process allowing an
agent to take partial control of the form to aid completion, and
can also provide disabled users with help and advice for
form-filling and website navigation through a text-based live
webchat.
Provision of such services will help firms comply with equal access
laws and has the additional benefit of improving customer service
for both disabled and able-bodies users.
Terry Hiles
Managing director,
Atmyside
Local authority IT is failing
dangerously
How many avoidable tragedies - Toni-Ann Byfield, Victoria Climbie
or Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells - will it take before local
authorities and central government bodies put their house in
order?
The independent public review into the murder of schoolgirl Byfield
has clearly shown a breakdown in systems and processes that should
not have been permitted.
If the local authorities had put the processes, IT security and
controls in place to properly share, assess and act upon Byfield's
case information, there may not have been such a sorry
conclusion.
Public sector organisations should carefully examine their
procedures to prevent similar cases in the future and deliver the
better levels of service and care that are undoubtedly
achievable.
Adam Lee
Vignette UK
Recruitment agency or MI5 spies?
If Tribal GWT Consulting was really "just acting as a postman" in
passing CVs unread straight to MI5, I wonder what it was being paid
(ComputerWeekly, 27 April)? Perhaps it was using the loose brick at
the rear of the Centre Point building near Cambridge Circus as the
drop.
Dave Garnett
Chips (contract manager),
Companies House