BT awarded £28.7m contract extension
BT has been awarded a three-year extension to its contract with
HM Customs and Excise to supply, operate and manage the Customs
Handling of Import and Export Freight (Chief) service. The Chief
system links customs officers with 4,700 traders and freight
forwarders who use the system directly, and supports all import and
export traders around the UK. Under the extended contract – worth
£28.7m – BT will operate Chief until 2010.
Plumpton takes top IT job at Highways
Agency
Denise Plumpton, chair of the Corporate IT Forum, next week
becomes the Highways Agency’s first director of information. Her
new position will involve running a team of 150 IT specialists and
putting together a strategy for delivering information for road
users. Plumpton also becomes a board member of the Highways
Agency.
Microsoft releases beta anti-spyware
software
Microsoft is expected to release a beta version of its first
dedicated anti-spyware package on 16 January, a month after
acquiring anti-spyware company Giant. The software will use Giant’s
signature database technology to protect, detect and remove new and
modified spyware threats as they are unleashed on the internet,
Microsoft said. It has been designed to complement the increased
security features bundled into its Windows XP Service Pack 2
software.
University to integrate HR and payroll
The University of Manchester is investing £970,000 over five
years in an integrated human resources and payroll system from
Northgate HR. It will use Northgate HR’s Resourcelink to automate
personnel, payroll, recruitment, web recruitment, training, health
and safety, expenses and administration for 10,000 staff.
Data privacy software set to control DBAs
Suppliers will begin offering innovative data privacy products
within the next 12 to 24 months to control the activity of database
administrators by assigning restrictive roles, analyst firm
Forrester Research has predicted. With today’s corporate focus on
tighter IT security, Forrester said there was a need to control the
access of database administrators to private data such as
financial, health-related or credit card data.