Short takes from this week's news
Walsall U-turn on outsourcing mega deal
Walsall Council has dropped a proposed outsourcing deal with
Fujitsu, which in December 2004 was named preferred bidder for the
£500m contract. Council leader Tom Ansell said, "Cabinet members
felt that the needs of the people of Walsall would not be best
served by the partnership proposals in its present form." Ovum
Holway analyst John O'Brien said, "Local authorities have become
far tougher customers to do business with, and suppliers will need
to prove they are up to the challenge."
BT Global Services uses CyberGuard
firewalls
BT Global Services has deployed 140 CyberGuard firewalls as part
of a project to provide secure managed services to companies in the
finance sector. BT and CyberGuard have customised the firewalls to
meet the needs of BT's clients. The firewalls were integrated into
BT's existing infrastructure without disrupting its services.
Police to develop face recognition
technology
The Police IT Organisation has begun work to develop a business
case to deploy face recognition technology across the UK. The
organisation is developing a national database of facial images and
videos, which can be retrieved and shared between police forces.
Dubbed "Find", the system will be piloted in the first quarter of
the year.
US regulator to formally check IBM accounts
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is formally
investigating possible inaccurate accounts posted by IBM for its
first quarter last year. Financial analysts complained last year
about IBM's accounting of expenses related to employee stock
options. The SEC was already looking into the matter informally,
but the step up to a formal investigation means the regulator can
order the disclosure of documents.
Quicktime security patch causes problems
A security update to Apple's Quicktime media player is being
blamed for a variety of problems for users running Mac OS X or
Windows. Apple released the Quicktime 7.0.4 update last week to fix
several serious security issues, but some Mac OSX users who have
installed the patch have complained of deleted files and
applications, and unplayable movie files. Some Windows users have
also reported difficulties.
Salesforce.com suffers CRM service outage
Salesforce.com, which offers hosted customer relationship
management systems, has confirmed that its European subscribers
faced an outage earlier this month. The outage, which hit Europe,
the Middle East and Africa, came just weeks after a major failure
in December when users were unable to access the service for almost
a whole day. Salesforce has 18,700 subscribers, including mobile
telecoms provider Orange, Avery, Expedia and TravelEx.
Firms collaborate on spyware measures
Several leading software companies are collaborating on
standards to identify and combat spyware. The Anti-Spyware
Coalition is producing spyware detection guidelines, which are due
to be published in October.
Pinder takes over as chair of Becta
Former e-envoy Andrew Pinder has been appointed chair of the
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, the
government agency that oversees the use of IT in schools and
colleges. Welcoming the appointment, skills minister Phil Hope
said, "Andrew was the prime minister's e-envoy and has worked in
both the private and public sectors in his career. He will play a
key role in driving forward technology in the education
agenda."
H&M signs Tiscali to deliver VPN
Clothing retailer H&M has signed up internet and broadband
company Tiscali to deliver a quality of service-enabled IP virtual
private network across its branches. The service - designed,
implemented and managed by virtual network operator TFM - will
allow H&M to run its store and stock management systems, Epos
systems and voice over IP telephony system.
HSBC prepares bird flu contingency plans
HSBC has said it is preparing for staff to work at home and
through video and teleconference links in the event of a bird flu
pandemic. In a worst-case scenario, the bank believes that up to
half its staff may be unavailable for work. Other contingency plans
discussed include cleaning offices once an hour to limit
infection.