Have your say at computerweekly.com
On ageism in the UK's ITjobs market
In response to the report on computerweekly.com about the need to broaden IT recruitment to
avoid a potential skills shortage
I am an IT professional with more than 20 years' experience in technical disciplines, service and
quality management. I am also over 40.
I was unemployed for nearly six months. Ageism is a real problem in the UK market. Because so many
places have to be seen to pay lip service to the notion of diversity, I also felt sure that there
was discrimination against me as a male and from a non-ethnic background.
The recruitment consultants need to open their minds. I have first-hand experience of recruiters
who spend no more than 15 seconds reviewing a CV. If they do not see the right keywords within the
first five or six lines of a CV, it will be binned.
The result is that I now live and work in France because UK employers and recruitment agencies are
too narrow-minded to look at the full range of skills and competencies that someone aged over 40
has to offer.
I believe this attitude is a symptom of the quick-fix, short-termist culture that exists in the UK
IT industry. Why? You only have to look at a typical IT department that spends more money fixing
badly designed systems or all those notorious failed projects.
Graeme Blundell
On open source and the cost of ownership issue
In response to the articles and letters debating the total cost of ownership of open source
software (Computer Weekly, 28 September)
Nine times out of 10, it seems that writers assume open source is merely another phrase for Linux.
This is far from the truth.
I was delighted to see that many of your letter writers commented on the amazing variety of open
source products available. This can be very important in reducing total costs while improving
performance.
The purpose and point of computers is to run applications not operating systems. Applications, not
operating systems, are the real point of open source software and can save you money whatever
operating system you run.
Don't be fooled into thinking it is merely a question of Windows or Linux. It isn't. It is a
question of what gets the job done as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. That means an open
source product.
Look at what your organisation needs and visit an open source archive to see what is available. I
think you would be pleasantly surprised and much better off.
Mark Preston
On private sector's lack of long-term vision
In response to Rene Cheront's letter on the private sector's ability to limit project failure
(Computer Weekly, 21 September)
With little measure of success much beyond the annual profit statement, private-sector markets
often give huge rewards to directors who produce short-term profit without questioning longer-term
efficiency and productivity movements.
How many quoted companies from 50 years ago are still around or are more competitive now than they
were then?
The current M&S board is being publicly judged by the City and the media on their performance
over the past 10 weeks and so are unlikely to be thinking much beyond next week's headlines. Those
companies that are run for the long-term benefit of all their interest groups face a tough time in
today's soundbite culture.
One of the many fundamental differences between the private and public sectors is that pricing
mechanisms help measure productivity, efficiency and quality for the private sector but are of
limited value in assessing the far more complex outputs required of the public sector.
Good management and governance produces good results in both sectors; short-termist and
self-seeking people produce problems in both.
Adrian Rutter, chartered management accountant
The high price of ITsystems for GPs
As an ex-nurse - now a network manager - and husband to a practice nurse, I have been following the
articles regarding IT in the NHS and GP practices with some interest (Computer Weekly, 14
September).
Although Emis is the most used IT system within the practices, it is not the only one. Torex
Medical is the most common one that I have come across. The reality is that if users do not want to
change, it is not necessarily because they like the system they have but because they see little
benefit in changing.
Furthermore, the purchase of computer systems comes down to the individual practice managers and
senior GPs within that practice. This means that the support contract must be with each practice
whose staff frequently lack detailed IT knowledge and purchasing skills.
It will only be when regional primary care trusts provide the computer systems to the local
practices as a service and centralise facilities and support that better terms can be negotiated.
Software companies are entitled to charge an economic fee for the service they provide. When that
fee is charged to each practice separately, the multiplication factor inflates the figures
enormously. IT is only one cost each practice has to pay from its budget.
Practice managers are expected to be buyers, accountants, HR managers and now IT managers. There
are few who can cover all roles well.
Alan Stewart
Calculating usage costs could be a waste of time
On the matter of charging for network usage (Computer Weekly, 28 September). Although knowing how
much resources are being consumed by different departments can obviously be useful for efficiency,
the amount of extra infrastructure necessary is probably prohibitive and, frankly, not worth the
effort.
When 120Gbyte hard drives can be bought for £60, is it really worth quibbling that a user is taking
up 200Mbytes of storage, worth a mere 10p?
Similarly, unless a user is downloading gigabytes of data, are they really costing the company sums
of money worth worrying about?
Downloading MP3 files should be stopped by preventing end-users installing software on their
machines for illegal purposes, and by managers paying attention to whether their staff are actually
working.
That should cut out 99% of the bandwidth excess. Worrying about the rest almost certainly isn't
worth it.
Andrew Ducker, analyst/developer, Standard Life
Recruitment initiatives work for both sexes
The letter decrying the initiative to recruit more female staff into IT (Computer Weekly, 28
September) asked why there was no initiative for more men to work as primary school teachers.
In fact, a male applicant would have a better chance than a female applicant of similar academic
background owing to the shortage of male teachers at this level. Post-graduate trainees in
education are also paid while they learn, with further financial incentives for shortage subjects
such as IT and maths.
The comments about the refuse collection and street cleaning were unnecessary - these are not
highly skilled jobs and so cannot be compared to IT.
Sally Nicholson
Qualifications are no silver bullet for success
I was disappointed that the article on the BCS' project management guide made no reference to the
established project management professional bodies and their initiatives to improve professionalism
and to introduce qualifications to the industry (Computer Weekly, 7 September).
For example, as a member of the Project Management Institute, I - along with thousands of others -
have attained project management professional status through a combination of accredited experience
and study and examination.
But the education and qualification of professionals is not a silver bullet. Most projects have to
contend with so many external factors that impact on the project that it is impossible to meet
original deadlines or budgets.
A good project manager will continually adjust the expected budget, quality and timescale and
maintain a healthy dialogue with their stakeholders to enable them to make the big decisions, for
example to cancel the project, accept new budget, timescale or scope, or restructure the
project.
Project managers must also be allowed to actively manage all aspects of a project, which many
customers will see as bureaucratic procedure and rail against. Although employing educated and
qualified project managers will improve the project's probability of success, it will not guarantee
it.
Bernie Doeser, senior project manager, Shell
Listen to end-users at the procurement stage
The Libra criminal justice project article (Computer Weekly, 21 September) raises an important
issue that is not considered enough when it comes to successfully delivering new IT projects: the
direct impact these projects have on the lives of staff.
Although the modernisation of government seems to revolve around large IT deals, a vital factor in
making projects work is to listen and act on the concerns of existing employees to ensure that new
IT systems will fit in, particularly where there has been a history of past failed implementations
stimulating inevitable resistance to change.
Your report highlighted the concerns of employees of magistrates courts who feel that technology is
simply papering over the cracks between more than 380 facets of the justice system at present. The
organisation must be fully prepared first to prevent the risk of employees rejecting the new
technology.
The best way to avoid running before you can walk is to install new systems as part of a larger
change management process. This should be worked out at procurement stage with your supplier, that
listens, communicates and acts on the service needs of employees that use the desktop support, or
the call centre workers that use the CRM solution.
Peter White, senior business consultant, Steria
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This was first published in October 2004
