Don't forget service in the rush to exploit
IT
Colin Thompson is correct in his diagnosis of the main strategic
IT issue facing organisations and their CIOs (Computer Weekly, 26
July). But his solution misses the mark. Many executives know that
they are under-exploiting their IT investments - both existing and
new. At the same time, the CIO and IT department are primarily
concerned with, measured on and competent at managing IT service
delivery.
The wrong answer is to attempt to shift the focus of the entire
IT organisation from "IT management to IT exploitation". Firms need
expertise in both.
Leading companies are already making the development of their
competencies in IT exploitation the core focus of their IT
strategy. But as part of executing this strategy, they are
implementing organisational structures that recognise IT
exploitation and IT service delivery as different sets of
competencies and ensuring they have people who are specifically
focused on either one or the other.
Rather than attempt to refocus the entire IT organisation away
from the very thing they are good at, this is a much more effective
and pragmatic solution to the strategic issue of IT
exploitation.
The challenge for CIOs is to decide whether their own primary
purpose is exploitation or service delivery, especially because
they are often accountable for both. Their value to the company and
relationships with the other executives will depend on which of
these competencies they appear to primarily represent.
Chris Potts, director, Dominic Barrow
Beware putting all your eggs in one e-mail
basket
On 26 July Computer Weekly reported that Microsoft has acquired
FrontBridge Technologies, a provider of secure messaging services.
The move will certainly see e-mail security and storage moving up
the IT agenda.
But will this be the catalyst which sees businesses realising
the importance of e-mail archiving, from a compliance point of
view, or as another tool to add to their e-mail system?
Most organisations do not understand the full range of risks
e-mail poses. They rarely have appropriate management procedures to
handle e-mail in a manner befitting its increasingly critical and
regulated role in the modern business - a trend Microsoft is
picking up on.
However, should e-management be run in conjunction with the
Exchange server as Microsoft suggests, or should such an important
function be kept separate?
What happens if a virus takes down the Exchange server: can you
still access your e-mail data? And is your e-mail secure, protected
and audited?
Forensic e-mail compliance can only be authentic if it operates
outside the mail server.
A true audit system provides a separate, secure environment for
regulated data such as e-mail and instant messaging, allowing
companies to fulfil subject access requests quickly, reduce e-mail
abuse and protect employees' privacy in line with the Data
Protection Act.
Attaching it to Exchange removes this independence.
If an organisation puts everything under Exchange it might as
well cross its fingers and hope its basket with all the eggs in
does not get dropped.
Michael Decker, managing director, Cryoserver
These cowboy stories are just works of
fiction
With regard to your report "Employers warned to act now to avoid
business IT skills shortage" (Computer Weekly, 19 July), as a
contractor the problem is obvious: if you only look for technical
experts, those with business skills do not get in. The shortage is
created solely by extending the required skills list.
And as for the story "Recruiter warns employers to screen for
'cowboy' contractors" (12 July), as references can be faked or not
truthful, different methods of checking need to be used.
For instance, the contractor company can be checked at Companies
House, professional memberships investigated, or proof of indemnity
insurance required.
As there are no new proposals from those quoted in the article,
it all just sounds like bogeyman scare tactics.
It takes all sides to make a professional relationship work. As
contractors we have to keep the agencies in the loop so that even a
high-integrity contractor has to keep talking and reviewing options
in case contracts are not renewed. This does not make us
cowboys.
Ralph Hinton
Thinking on outsourcing and skills doesn't add
up
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? First we were told
that jobs had to be outsourced offshore because of the alleged UK
skills shortage. Now we are told that the outsourcing of jobs will
result in a UK skills shortage. Meanwhile, there is much discussion
about how to encourage women into IT careers that will not be there
for much longer. Whatever happened to joined-up thinking? And can
we please outsource some of our senior managers instead?
Chris Webster
Real-time information reveals supply chain
I read with interest your article about Halfords' implementation
of warehouse management software (Computer Weekly, 19 July). While
the IT systems need to be effective, the data utilised must be too.
Managing goods through manufacture and delivery needs more than a
view of historical reports if we are to have an impact on
productivity and operational efficiency.
Organisations lack the completeness of information required to
understand the minute -by-minute performance of the supply chain.
Many struggle to attain this since it resides across a number of
platforms and different suppliers.
By using real-time technology to combine this information and
presenting it in a usable format organisations can attain
unprecedented visibility of the supply chain. This will support
tactical decision making to identify problems while they are still
manageable.
Nelson Smelker, managing director, Symon
Communications