News

IT operations management and IT support

• February 24, 2012 24 Feb'12

  More than two-thirds of companies risk downtime, survey reveals

  Most companies are risking downtime of their critical business systems in the light of recent data breaches suffered by third-party digital certificate authorities (CAs), a survey has revealed.

• February 24, 2012 24 Feb'12

  Heads of finance hate big-bang IT projects

  Big bang, long-term, strategic, transformational IT projects no longer make sense, says a panel of CFOs.

• February 23, 2012 23 Feb'12

  Interview: Ian Watmore, Cabinet Office permanent secretary

  Ian Watmore was the first ever government CIO in 2004. Now he oversees government IT policy as the top Cabinet Office civil servant.

• February 09, 2012 09 Feb'12

  Hybrid clouds most popular with UK business, survey reveals

  Hybrid clouds are the most popular cloud computing models with UK businesses, a survey has revealed.

• February 07, 2012 07 Feb'12

  Survey reveals need for new approach to back-up and recovery

  Traditional approaches to back-up and recovery of IT systems no longer work and a new approach is needed, a survey of more than 1,400 IT professionals worldwide has revealed.

• February 03, 2012 03 Feb'12

  Innovation and optimisation top UK’s 2012 IT agenda, survey shows

  2012 will be a year of change and smarter working, with IT departments focused on improving processes and finding ‘new ways of doing things’, according to a survey by The Corporate IT Forum.

• January 26, 2012 26 Jan'12

  UK government opens up IT procurement

  The UK government is to release a consulting paper to determine software standards to open up the government IT market to SMEs

• December 29, 2011 29 Dec'11

  Top 10 premium content articles of 2011

  Sign up to Computer Weekly's research library to download the top 10 research reports from 2011.

• December 23, 2011 23 Dec'11

  Top 10 business software stories of 2011

  Businesses and software suppliers are adopting new models, strategies and technologies in an increasingly cloud-based IT world.

• December 13, 2011 13 Dec'11

  CIOs believe cloud, SaaS, consumerisation and mobility increase risk

  Business models such as cloud computing and trends such as the consumerisation of IT, social media and mobility are exposing performance blind spots in IT management, a CIO survey has revealed.

• December 07, 2011 07 Dec'11

  CIO interview: Julian Burnett, chief technology officer, Sainsbury’s

  On plans for IT project delivery at Sainsbury’s, as well as the move to a multichannel set-up, outsourcing, innovation and skills development.

• November 30, 2011 30 Nov'11

  CIO interview: John Finch, global CIO, Experian

  John Finch, global CIO of Experian, discusses his plans to simplify supplier management and his approach to people development.

• November 29, 2011 29 Nov'11

  Standard Life overhauls IT department and cuts jobs

  Insurer Standard Life is to axe a number of IT staff following a review of its IT and operations division.

• November 24, 2011 24 Nov'11

  SAP extends Business Suite 7 maintenance: What is the real reason?

  SAP has extended maintenance for Business Suite 7 from 2016 to 2020, supposedly to give customers predictability and remove the burden of upgrades.

• November 24, 2011 24 Nov'11

  IBM begins expanding operations in India

  IBM has expanded operations in India by opening three new regional branches, taking the total number of offices in the country to 18.

• November 23, 2011 23 Nov'11

  Facebook security still has a long way to go, say experts

  Facebook may have dealt with the storm of spam attacks that caused violent and pornographic images to be posted on some users’ profile pages but security issues remain, say experts.

• November 15, 2011 15 Nov'11

  Warren Buffett invests $10.7bn in IBM

  Investor Warren Buffett has bought $10.7bn (£6.7bn) of shares in IBM, giving him a 5.5% stake in the company.

• November 14, 2011 14 Nov'11

  CIO Interview: IT should drive company innovation, says SAP's Oliver Bussmann

  Driving innovation has become one of the key roles of the chief information officer, says Oliver Bussmann, CIO at business software maker SAP.

• November 07, 2011 07 Nov'11

  HSBC suffers core services downtime

  Customers of HSBC across the world have had their cards rejected as the bank suffers a major technical problem.

• November 03, 2011 03 Nov'11

  SAP on track to achieve 2011 greenhouse gas emissions target

  Enterprise software maker SAP decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 2% per employee in the quarter ended 30 September, compared with the same period in 2010, according to the company's quarterly sustainability report.

• October 31, 2011 31 Oct'11

  Is the offshore contact centre honeymoon over?

  Western businesses are shying away from investing in offshore contact centres due to social and business pressures.

• April 18, 2011 18 Apr'11

  Microsoft executive's departure sparks Apple cloud rumours

  Reports that Apple has hired a senior Microsoft datacentre expert have sparked speculation of the company's plans to expand its cloud services portfolio....

• April 07, 2011 07 Apr'11

  Dell to invest $1bn in cloud computing services

  Dell will invest $1bn (£613m) into new cloud-based technologies and datacentres during its current fiscal year.

• April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11

  Councils should share services to improve websites, says Socitm

  Councils seeking to improve their websites should move to shared services to update their websites with other public providers, according to a report from the body for public sector IT professionals.

• March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11

  Will government IT be better without an oligopoly?

  The government has reaffirmed its desire to end the dominance of a small group of IT service providers in the public sector.

• March 24, 2011 24 Mar'11

  Doing something funny in the cloud

  IT leaders are well aware of the potential of the cloud, and some early adopters, such as Comic Relief, are already introducing cloud services into their IT strategy.

• February 25, 2011 25 Feb'11

  Lloyds Banking Group IT underpins recovery

  Lloyds Banking Group returned to profit in 2010 with its IT strategy central to the bank's cost cutting and service delivery HBOS.

• February 15, 2011 15 Feb'11

  IT vital to 2011 public sector strategy, say council IT chiefs

  IT is central to enabling public service reform, according to local government directors.

• February 07, 2011 07 Feb'11

  Austerity drives councils into U-turn on shared services

  Around nine out of 10 local authorities will move to shared services in the next two years, according to a survey of senior local authority managers by Browne Jacobson.

• January 26, 2011 26 Jan'11

  SAP reports 25% increase in sales

  Sales of SAP software and related services grew 35% and 25% respectively during Q4 2010, compared to the same period in 2009.

• January 05, 2011 05 Jan'11

  How far can European IT services consolidation go?

  A late rush of merger and acquisition activity in the European IT services sector in 2010 could be an indication of things to come.

• January 03, 2011 03 Jan'11

  2010 Review: Top 10 analyst reports

  There is a wealth of information in our CW+ premium content service to help IT decision-makers. Here's the top 10 in 2010.

• December 28, 2010 28 Dec'10

  2010 Review: Top 10 financial services IT stories

  Financial services firms are the biggest spenders on IT and as such are one of the powerhouses of the UK IT sector. We look back at the top 10 financial services stories from 2010.

• December 17, 2010 17 Dec'10

  Open standards pave the way for pan-European public services

  The European Commission has announced a plan to build an agile suite of pan-European public services through the loose integration of computer systems

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Deutsche Bank selects TCS core banking system

  Deutsche Bank is replacing multiple legacy systems with a banking platform from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as it updates its global transaction banking.

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Councils to save £11m by moving to shared services

  Havering and Newham councils expect to save more than £11m by extending shared services across both boroughs.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Shared services throw lifeline to budget-stripped councils

  With local authorities set to be handed reduced budgets, now could be the time for them to share back-office functions.

• November 11, 2010 11 Nov'10

  Sweated assets pay off for BT

  Sweating its assets has enabled BT, the UK's biggest network operator, to declare a 48% increase in profits to £406m on sales that dipped slightly to £4.98bn for FY2Q11.

• September 30, 2010 30 Sep'10

  Techies lose out as cloud engulfs jobs

  The outlook for security testers, database, network and application admins looks extremely poor, analyst Gartner has warned.

• September 14, 2010 14 Sep'10

  Royal Mail report points to failure in digital adaptation

  A report has highlighted the colossal failures of the UK postal service in mitigating its decline in the face of advances in digital media.

• August 23, 2010 23 Aug'10

  Met Police unveils radical overhaul in information strategy

  The Metropolitan Police Service has unveiled a number of IT-related measures aimed at improving its use of information.

• July 21, 2010 21 Jul'10

  General Motors sticks with HP services

  General Motors (GM) has renewed a $2bn deal with HP Enterprise Services for IT services.

• March 19, 2010 19 Mar'10

  How to cut goverment IT procurement costs

  The next government will not be short of advice on how to save some of the £13bn it presently spends on IT.

• March 08, 2010 08 Mar'10

  Fujitsu shares slide over former exec’s resignation dispute

  Shares of Japanese IT services firm Fujitsu fell more than 2% in 8 March trading after the firm said it had dismissed adviser Kuniaki Nozoe following a dispute...

• January 27, 2010 27 Jan'10

  Public sector faces fundamental change in the way it delivers IT

  Local and central government departments must fundamentally change how they deliver IT services as they face swingeing budget cuts.

• January 08, 2010 08 Jan'10

  Financial services technology predictions for 2010

  The last couple of years in the financial services sector have been volatile to say the least. Now that the dust of the sector's meltdown is settling Computer Weekly asks the experts what they think the key IT priorities will be in 2010.

• December 02, 2009 02 Dec'09

  Govt hopes national police IT infrastructure will save £200m a year

  The Home Office is merging 43 separate police IT infrastructures to form one national network.

  The 43 police forces in England and Wales were told...

• September 11, 2009 11 Sep'09

  CIOs need vision and pragmatism to help build the right company

  How well CIOs balance three pairs of contradictory roles has profound effects on the performance on their employer firms, says the first CIO study by the IBM Institute for Business Value.

• August 11, 2009 11 Aug'09

  Gartner reveals seven hyped up technologies going nowhere fast

  In terms of hype, Twitter and social networking is heading downhill rapidly, according to Gartner's eponymous hype...

• May 13, 2009 13 May'09

  Tata to transform Volkswagen IT

  Indian IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will transform and support Volkswagen's IT in the UK over the next five years to help it standardise...

• March 24, 2009 24 Mar'09

  Investment industry targets efficiency for 2009

  IT professionals in financial services are turning to virtualisation, having identified IT efficiency as a top priority this year, according to a survey carried out by communications provider Colt.

• March 19, 2009 19 Mar'09

  Bletchley Park wins crucial funding using Facebook and Twitter

  Bletchley Park, where the world's first computer broke secret German codes during the Second World War, has used social networking to help win a prestigious award.

• February 18, 2009 18 Feb'09

  Girl Geeks - turning IT stereotypes on their head

  A few years ago, Sarah Blow attended a networking event aimed at IT professionals.

• September 30, 2008 30 Sep'08

  Conservative Conference: More radical thinking needed on IT

  The government is not thinking radically enough on how IT could improve public services, politicians at the Conservative Party Conference said yesterday.

• September 30, 2008 30 Sep'08

  HSBC merges IT and operations heads

  HSBC has combined the roles of chief information officer and chief operating officer, in a move designed to bring the bank's technology and customer services...

• June 27, 2008 27 Jun'08

  Yahoo reorganises to improve services

  Yahoo is reorganising and hopes to improve its service to consumers and advertisers.

• June 27, 2008 27 Jun'08

  BT buys German IT firms

  BT is acquiring German enterprise IT services firms Stemmer and SND.

• May 13, 2008 13 May'08

  Ensuring the trust fabric of the knowledge capital society

  As networks evolve, traditional views about security must change, creating new security paradigms that protect not only the integrity of knowledge capital but also the reputation and privacy of its users.

• February 14, 2008 14 Feb'08

  Wipro Technologies to continue aggressive acquistion strategy

  IT services company Wipro Technologies expects its next acquisition to be in the region of £500m as it continues its aggressive global growth strategy and aims to reach a target of £5bn annual turnover by 2010.

• January 10, 2008 10 Jan'08

  Banks look to IT amid economic uncertainty

  Financial services organisations face an uncertain year amid predictions of an economic downturn, but IT budgets will continue to grow.

• January 08, 2008 08 Jan'08

  Microwave IP links help track polar bears across the Arctic

  Polar bears in Canada are being tracked by remote cameras linked via an IP network to increase awareness of their dwindling numbers.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  How key should performance indicators be?

  How key should performance indicators be? Chris Pierce, senior service manager, Metropolitan Police Service Through some work with the Police...

• November 19, 2007 19 Nov'07

  National Grid deploys global shared services

  National Grid is busy building a global shared service IT model to help integrate its acquisition of a US utility services firm.

• November 19, 2007 19 Nov'07

  Huawei launches HSUPA network

  Huawei Technologies (Huawei) has launched a High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) network across southern Italy for Telecom Italia giving a further boost to the standard to become the next 4G standard.

• November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07

  Barclays bases IT services on ITIL guidelines

  Barclays bank has used ITIL, the Infrastructure Libray best practices programme, to improve how IT support is run.

• November 08, 2007 08 Nov'07

  Mental Health Trust improves user service with helpdesk centralisation

  The Humber Mental Health Teaching Trust has selected a helpdesk system to provide improved centralised IT support to primary care and mental health trusts in the area.

• November 02, 2007 02 Nov'07

  First it was Big Brother, now it’s Bebo (Oh) Brother

  Social networking site Bebo has launched an online series entitled "The Gap Year" with Big Brother peddler Endemol UK. The interactive series will follow...

• October 10, 2007 10 Oct'07

  Humberside Police improves emergency response

  Humberside Police Force (HPF) is reducing response times to emergency and non emergency calls through a Nortel IP network and call handling system.

• October 08, 2007 08 Oct'07

  Dublin airport improves customer service with speech recognition

  Dublin Airport is enhancing customer service with a speech-based flight information service.

• October 03, 2007 03 Oct'07

  Britannia reduces phone queues with hosted call-back service

  Britannia building society has deployed a hosted callback contact system from Netcall.

• September 25, 2007 25 Sep'07

  Microsoft considers buying stake in Facebook

  Microsoft is said to be in talks to buy a stake in social networking site Facebook, reports the Wall Street Journal.

• September 20, 2007 20 Sep'07

  UK moves into top five e-government countries

  The UK has moved into the European top five for providing government e-services to its citizens.

• August 29, 2007 29 Aug'07

  Airwave roll-out due for ambulance service

  The ambulance service in Essex has implemented an Airwave digital radio service, with a national roll-out due within 18 months.

• August 24, 2007 24 Aug'07

  Helpdesk staff discover magic button

  Downtime's mailbag continues to bulge. Thanks to Malc Seaman for offering the following piece of advice for helpdesk professionals.

• August 17, 2007 17 Aug'07

  Bebo overtakes Myspace as most-visited social network site

  Bebo.com has overtaken Myspace.com as the most visited social networking site in the UK.

• August 03, 2007 03 Aug'07

  Web services will save councils money, says Socitm

  Websites are the best way for local authorities to cut costs in the face of tightening budgets, according to Soctim.

• June 28, 2007 28 Jun'07

  Tour de France to use free radio access in the UK

  Broadcasters will be able to take advantage of free radio access during the UK leg of the Tour de France. The radio access will be provided by network operator Arqiva, which acquired the 412MHz radio spectrum last year.

• June 21, 2007 21 Jun'07

  Juniper launches T-series router

  Juniper Networks has launched the newest member of its T-series family, the T1600 core router. Capable of delivering 1.6 terabits per second of throughput in a single half-rack chassis, the service-aware T1600 core router is designed to ease the ...

• June 20, 2007 20 Jun'07

  LINX London to use £50m data centre

  The LINX London Internet Exchange will take advantage of a £50m data centre and managed-service site being built in central London.

• March 29, 2007 29 Mar'07

  Intellect calls for improvement in joined-up social care

  Intellect, the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics industries, is calling on the government to remove barriers to joined-up social and health care services, to help practitioners and improve care.

• November 21, 2006 21 Nov'06

  Spar to trial self-service checkouts

  Grocery retailer Spar is due to trial self-service checkout technology in Northern Ireland, with the support of Wincor Nixdorf.

• November 13, 2006 13 Nov'06

  Computacenter offers ‘shared services factory’

  IT infrastructure services firm Computacenter Services has announced a new library of tools and standards that can be shared across its clients, backed by a £30m investment.

• June 28, 2006 28 Jun'06

  New virtualisation service launched

  Akibia says programme will reduce costs in the datacentre

• June 20, 2006 20 Jun'06

  National ethernet versus legacy ATM/frame services

  Download this Whitepaper to read about national ethernet versus legacy ATM/frame services.

• February 28, 2006 28 Feb'06

  Whitehall calls shots on local IT

  Central government is effectively mandating the widespread adoption of shared services centres among local authorities.

• January 06, 2006 06 Jan'06

  Google fails to relaunch free web analytics service

  Google has so far failed to relaunch its free web analytics service after withdrawing it late last year followiing heavy demand.

• November 25, 2005 25 Nov'05

  RSPB picks Hornbill helpdesk

  The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has selected Hornbill Systems’ Supportworks IT Service Desk platform to manage IT support for its four national offices, 10 regional offices and more than 180 nature reserves.

• November 21, 2005 21 Nov'05

  E-government awards off target

  As local authorities race to meet the government's end-of-year deadline for getting all services online, the department that set the targets is allowing its own timetable to slip.

• November 14, 2005 14 Nov'05

  European finance companies share best practice

  Service company Eurapco provides benchmarking for six financial services firms each operating in a different European country. The firms have formed a partnership for mutual self-help and self-improvement.

• October 31, 2005 31 Oct'05

  Pru aims to save £25m from global IT system

  Financial services group Prudential expects to save as much as £25m a year from creating a single global IT infrastructure to support all its brands, including online bank Egg.

• September 30, 2005 30 Sep'05

  Bell Labs runs 100Gbps Ethernet over optical fibre

  Lucent Bell Labs is developing an optical networking standard that can take advantage of the emerging 100Gbps Ethernet standard.

• August 09, 2005 09 Aug'05

  Finance sector held back by ignorance of technology, says study

  A lack of awareness about the improvements that technology could bring to transaction processing is holding back efficiency gains in the majority of financial organisations, according to a report from consultancy and services company Accenture.

• August 08, 2005 08 Aug'05

  Paddy Power to use real-time data analysis on betting site

  Paddy Power is to install dynamic data collection technology on its website in a bid to improve customer service. The gaming company will use Speed-Trap's Prophet system, which analyses events in real time, rather than relying on web server logs.

• July 11, 2005 11 Jul'05

  BT to trial its national IP network in Cardiff

  BT has chosen Cardiff and the surrounding area to build and test the first portion of its 10bn UK-wide 21st Century Network (21CN).

• June 06, 2005 06 Jun'05

  Fujitsu reports soaring success for managed IT services

  Preliminary audited results for Fujitsu Services in the year ended 31 March 2005 have displayed soaring profits before and a record order book

• May 23, 2005 23 May'05

  Walsh to retire after 31 years' service

  Francis Walsh, director of technology at Nationwide, is retiring after 31 years with the company. When he started in 1974, the...

• May 05, 2005 05 May'05

  Managed services from improved Bottomline

  Bottomline Technologies, a global technology provider of financial managed services is to partner with Sectornet to provide...

• May 03, 2005 03 May'05

  New Socitm president takes up challenge of service deadlines and efficiency savings

  Canterbury Council IT leader takes office

• April 20, 2005 20 Apr'05

  Tata profits jump, but US sales fall

  Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services saw fourth quarter net profits jump 38% on the same quarter last year.

• April 13, 2005 13 Apr'05

  Networks not ready for voice over IP

  The Communications Management Association (CMA) recently held an IP networking workshop with 3Com in Edinburgh, to address the...