Have your say at computerweekly.com
On gender-based recruitment in IT
In response to Steve Shuttleworth's comments about
female-oriented IT recruitment drives
I find it amusing that both Computer Weekly and the Nursing
Standard are discussing gender-based recruitment drives.
After 20 years in IT my husband is half way through re-training to
be a nurse. He recently had a letter published in the Nursing
Standard contributing to its discussion about male-dominated and
female-dominated occupations.
He says he much prefers working in a female-dominated occupation.
He is also enjoying working with people, not being tied to a desk,
having some real responsibility and being out of the City. He
recommends nursing to anyone thinking of a career change from
IT.
Anyway, why would encouraging more male primary school teachers be
such a bad thing?
Miriam Bromnick
On the managed security services market
In response to the comments about regulations increasing the demand
for outsourced IT security services (Computer Weekly, 21
September)
Reducing the threat to corporate assets is a major issue, but
understanding the technologies, risks and vulnerabilities is a task
that most businesses are not up to. Companies do not want to take
on extra staff to meet governance requirements, but a managed
service provider can take the strain of security and allow a
company's staff to become more productive.
It is not just a case of having a tick in the box with regard to
the security aspect of compliance. IT managers want to feel some
comfort from the fact that their business will not go down through
poor network design and has the bonus of making them compliant at
the same time.
However, services which are not up to scratch can make the
situation worse, with a poor security implementation instilling a
false sense of security and create a greater risk than if no
security was implemented at all.
The industry needs something like a Gartner Magic Quadrant which
will clearly define those companies which lead the way in best
practice and with proven security services.
Andrew Mason, managing director, Boxing Orange
On the pros and cons ofusing open browsers
In response to the news that users are seeking an alternative
to Microsoft Internet Explorer (Computer Weekly, 21
September)
It would seem that Microsoft has embedded its browser deep into the
internet by the way that it constructs web pages.
The World Wide Web Consortium develops standards to ensure that web
browsers construct a web page in the same way, ensuring
compatibility between browsers.
The visible problems arise when Internet Explorer constructs a page
that is based on more than just HTML. When loading Cascading Style
Sheets, Internet Explorer can misalign text and graphics making the
page construction appear to be broken. Scripting languages like
Javascript are also a problem.
As Internet Explorer is used by the overwhelming majority of
internet users, most web designers create websites to display
correctly in Internet Explorer.
Now firms are waking up to the security risks in Internet Explorer
and are taking a look at the total cost of ownership for the
Microsoft platform.
Other browsers such as Mozilla and Firefox are secure, comply
directly with the W3C standards and are not affected by the ever
increasing exploits that leave computers open to spyware, malware
and viruses.
Some web pages designed for Internet Explorer may not display
correctly in other browsers. But in a world with malicious code
around every corner, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Matthew Saunders,systems and infrastructure technical
support, Writtle College
Whatever happened to the service ethic?
One paragraph in your article on the Inland Revenue's security
lessons (Computer Weekly, 28 September) summed up what is wrong
with public and private service providers in today's commercial
climate: "One supplier did not have proper back-up processes in
place. Instead it took out insurance against penalty clauses from
the Inland Revenue should service be disrupted".
Suppliers and service providers can now deliberately avoid the cost
of providing sufficient resources to maintain an agreed level of
service. Instead they can make financial arrangements to cover the
penalties when they are caught out. The end-result is a drop in the
level of service and the people who suffer are the customer,
taxpayer, railway passenger or the patient.
Every issue of Computer Weekly includes at least one article about
the national programme for IT in the NHS with the mention every
time of the £2.3bn pot.
What about improved patient care? What about the ability to access
a patient's medical records instantly at any hospital, instead of
relying on tatty, brown, overfilled envelopes being lost in the
post? What about the improved efficiency in the NHS, and the return
to it being the best health service in the world?
Perhaps Computer Weekly could start a new campaign, to put the word
service back into service$ (the $ is deliberate).
Peter J Hill, manager, Unisys EMEA technical marketing
support
Get structure right for outsourcing to work
So JP Morgan is taking its operations back in-house (Computer
Weekly, 28 September). This does not spell the end for
outsourcing.
What it does reflect is that many deals structured in the 1990s
were often guinea-pig efforts with companies testing the water in
IT outsourcing. If structured badly, outsourcing relationships can
end in disaster, but the National Outsourcing Association figures
show that about 97% of all outsourcing contracts are renewed with
their original supplier.
Outsourcing is not just a new fashion. Companies should be doing
what is good for the business and know why they are doing it.
There are key constants that are important however you deliver
company services. The NOA produces a toolkit that outlines these
considerations. Insourcing and outsourcing are both types of
service provision, so aspects such as relationship management,
processes and service level agreements are all important.
Taking the time to get organisational sourcing strategy right in
the first place can help stop their selected method going belly up
further down the line.
Seize the time>>
Martyn Hart, chairman, National Outsourcing
Association
Open, identity-aware web services offset
risk
I agree with Gartner analyst Victor Wheatman's suggestion that "the
best defence is a good offence" with regard to security risks
associated with web services (Computer Weekly, 21 September).
However, if companies build silos shielded by firewalls and
security systems, they will distance themselves from partners and
customers.
While the fundamentals for web services are based on open
standards, the higher up in the protocol stack you go, the more
likely you are to encounter proprietary specifications in certain
suppliers' offerings, affecting our ability to manage
interoperability and security costs effectively.
Identity is another crucial security issue. The recent increase in
online identity thefts and credit card fraud is dampening the
growth of e-commerce.
Liberty Alliance is working to provide identity-based, secure
standards for open specifications in the connected world. We urge
companies to manage identity and ensure the products they choose
are built on open, secure and identity-aware specifications. Only
through truly open standards will security stop being a problem
that is defended by a single company and become a challenge that
can be proactively tackled by organisations working together.
Bjorn Wigforss, vice -president, Liberty Alliance
Weigh the risk in web services against
benefit
With regard to Bill Goodwin's piece on web services and risk
(Computer Weekly, 21 September), it is true that the standards
around web services do not yet cover security, but nor do they
cover business process management or fail-over.
Only the interoperability layer is well covered by standards. The
other layers, such as security, web services data transformation or
BPM are not covered by standards. It is important that firms
embarking on web services projects deploy infrastructures
delivering alternative ways to implement web services
security.
The current immaturity of web service security should not be a
deterrent for starting web services projects. Many of the benefits
of web services projects are from re-building an organisation's
architecture as a service-oriented one, for which web services can
play an important communication role.
Oliver Barbe, WebMethods
CRM is not just blanket mailshots
Sally Whittle's article on data quality highlighted the fact that
cold CRM systems are doing little to further relationships with
customers (Computer Weekly, 21 September). Traditional CRM systems
do not enable organisations to create the bond with customers that
is required to attain long-term loyalty and increase lifetime
customer value.
Customers need to be treated as members, not just revenue
providers. Unfortunately contact management does not enable the
required level of involvement and customer commitment.
Firms need an integrated record management system that combines
events, case management, income and even website interaction. This
provides the focused information that enables the delivery of
usefully tailored services.
Trevor Cole, business development director, ProTech Computer
Systems