Opinion

Opinion

Business applications

• Harness data to make better business conversations

  Productive business conversations require a data culture underpinned by data literacy and balanced by humanistic values  Continue Reading

• Watching me, watching you – challenging the rise of digital surveillance at work

  Unprecedented levels of digital monitoring at work is embedding a culture of surveillance, despite workers’ opposition to the practices, says Prospect Union  Continue Reading

• UK AI strategy focused on economic growth, resilience and ethics

  Chris Eastham of law firm Fieldfisher looks at the government’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and the merits of the 10-year plan and its approach  Continue Reading

• Using geospatial data to unlock innovation in the property sector

  Louise Weale from Ordnance Survey argues that geospatial data is key to unlocking business innovation in the property sector  Continue Reading

• Can we rely on AI?

  As artificial intelligence comes increasingly to bear on human lives, how ought we to address social and ethical concerns? Is a tighter symbiosis between human systems and AI systems the way forward?  Continue Reading

• Why the Post Office Horizon scandal kept me awake at night

  Reverend Richard Coles tells Computer Weekly why there needs to be a statutory public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal  Continue Reading

• How to tackle intellectual property crime

  Crimes against intellectual property are big business for organised crime groups, commercial competitors and foreign states alike. In the first of a series of legal columns, David Cowan offers a practical approach  Continue Reading

• Post Office’s full and final settlement with Horizon scandal victims in plain English

  The legal settlement with subpostmaster victims of the Horizon scandal that the government and the Post Office say is “full and final” is anything but  Continue Reading

• Employees must be given the right to disconnect

  As enterprises increasingly turn to workplace monitoring technologies and more of the workforce moves to remote or hybrid working, unions are campaigning for workers’ ‘right to disconnect’ and not engage in digitally enabled work after hours  Continue Reading

• Healthcare digitisation at point financial services was in 1990s

  For all the talk about digitised healthcare, the sector is only where banking was in the 1990s. How can it catch up? Can the Covid-19 pandemic crisis be a catalyst?  Continue Reading

• Why Brexit will make software licence transfers and database copyright harder for UK firms

  Brexit will make it more difficult for UK companies to sell unused software licences and to enforce their database rights in Europe. Firms will face a legislative disadvantage over AI-generated databases  Continue Reading

• Let’s build on the innovation shown by UK tech during pandemic

  The UK’s technology sector has innovated and shown leadership through the Covid-19 crisis, particularly with developments in AI. It is now time to maintain and build on that progress, so the UK remains a global force in tech innovation  Continue Reading

• HANA or ‘na’?

  With alternatives abundant, many organisations are holding off on enterprise software upgrades  Continue Reading

• Why automation isn’t always an improvement

  Automation can help organisations run more efficiently, but only if the most inefficient steps in a business process are fixed first  Continue Reading

• Love (and impact sourcing) in the time of Covid

  Amanda Lewis, a lawyer specialising in IT outsourcing, describes the diversity and inclusion work of Digital Divide Data  Continue Reading

• Digital leaders and the widening divide

  This year’s Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey shows a widening of the digital business divide, with companies that have already adopted digital technologies more likely to accelerate those investments than those still in the planning stage  Continue Reading

• Data institutions play critical role in solving global social problems

  Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the Open Data Institute, argues that a new breed of data institutions have a key role to play in unlocking the social and economic value of data  Continue Reading

• How Schrems II will impact data sharing between the UK and the US

  At the end of this year, the UK will no longer be subject to the EU’s treaties, opening the way for it and the US to finalise a new trade relationship. Could the UK leave EU data protection standards behind?  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Five-step action plan to keep SAP ticking

  All businesses have been impacted by the coronavirus lockdown. As the economy starts moving again, how should SAP projects proceed?  Continue Reading

• Why you should think before you Zoom

  Feel free to use Zoom during the coronavirus lockdown, but think before you discuss anything confidential  Continue Reading

• CCRC findings on subpostmaster prosecutions reveal incompetence of successive governments

  Former subpostmaster who took on the Post Office in a multimillion-pound legal battle speaks out.  Continue Reading

• What is the Post Office board doing to right the Horizon wrongs?

  Business lawyer Nick Gould compares the treatment of subpostmasters by the Post Office in the Horizon IT scandal with the huge HBOS fraud that saw £1bn stolen from small businesses  Continue Reading

• Learning from the Travelex cyber attack: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

  The key lesson to take from the Travelex breach is that an effective response to a breach is a critical business function and no longer the sole province of the IT department  Continue Reading

• The Post Office computer problem that destroyed the lives of pillars of the community

  The Post Office’s refusal to believe subpostmasters were suffering losses due to computer system errors was incompetent and cruel  Continue Reading

• Industry, academia and government are joining forces to drive AI education

  Building a diverse, advanced skills base in the UK will support the thriving technology sector and encourage the adoption of artificial intelligence across the broader economy  Continue Reading

• SAP Document Licensing for Indirect Access: The risks that still won't go away

  SAP introduced a new licensing scheme last year to reflect indirect access to its system from third-party systems based on document licensing  Continue Reading

• Why the rise of IT managed by the business is driving creative thinking

  Organisations that encourage business units to implement and run their own IT systems have an edge over competitors that rely entirely on the IT department, research from Harvey Nash and KPMG reveals  Continue Reading

• Making the move to cloud work for you

  Getting the best out of a move to the cloud means getting the size right, turning off what you don’t need, smart purchasing and continuously decluttering your new environment  Continue Reading

• Can we live without passwords?

  Can you imagine a future in which we can be secure online without having to remember an unwieldly list of passwords? Solutions are emerging that could make passwords redundant, but there will be other security problems to resolve  Continue Reading

• Douglas Engelbart, the forgotten hero of modern computing

  Half a century ago, Douglas Engelbart demonstrated an experimental computer that laid the foundations for modern computing. His vision to use computing power to solve complex problems in all areas of human activity has become reality, but not in the...  Continue Reading

• Agile becomes mainstream

  There are clear parallels between the conditions that led the IT industry to adopt agile approaches and the challenges facing business today  Continue Reading

• UK winners and losers in digital tech

  The UK's retail and telecoms companies are among the best in the world at digital technology, but a survey of digital leaders shows there is still room for improvement for many UK firms  Continue Reading

• Are SAP’s indirect use charges legal?

  The German legal system is examining whether SAP can legitimately charge for indirect access to its software from a third-party application  Continue Reading

• Mind your drone business

  Amazon is just the tip of the iceberg – companies are pouring hundreds of millions into the development of commercial drones  Continue Reading

• Big data skills shortages – and how to work around them

  Businesses are finding it hard to recruit enough people with big data and analytics skills, but for CIOs there are alternative strategies to consider  Continue Reading

• Moving away from analogue health in a digital world

  Healthcare records still rely on faxes, email, mail and paper, but the innovative use of technology will lead to major improvements in medical care  Continue Reading

• The seven levers of digital transformation

  Organisations that embark on digital transformation projects often run into difficulties. Following the seven principles of digital transformation will help them reap the benefits of digital technology  Continue Reading

• Driving digitisation: open standards in process automation

  Organisations often can’t take advantage of advances in digital technology due to the lack of interoperability in their IT systems in different facilities, but open standards promise a way forward  Continue Reading

• SAP licensing – reassuringly expensive?

  SAP’s recent settlement with AB InBev has again put audits and licensing under the spotlight. We look at how to get the best value and avoid fines  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Encourage employees to use an approved messaging app

  What criteria should organisations use to assess the security of smartphone messaging apps and how can they ensure only approved apps are used by employees?  Continue Reading

• How to attract investors for your enterprise software startup

  Are you looking to find an investor for your enterprise software company? This expert advice explains what investors will be looking to find in an innovative software business seeking backing  Continue Reading

• My brother Lauri Love should have the right to a trial in the UK

  Lauri Love should face trial over hacking allegations in a British Court, rather than be extradited to the US, where his extraordinary skills will be lost to society, says his younger sister  Continue Reading

• Embrace the new normal – re-platform your cloud services

  Huge improvements in cloud technology are opening up markets and solutions that previously didn’t exist. But complacent suppliers often don’t offer these innovations to long-established customers  Continue Reading

• A guide for businesses to China’s first cyber security law

  Companies that break China’s new cyber security law may be fined or even have their licence to trade in the country removed  Continue Reading

• Is the tide going out for transatlantic data flows?

  Businesses face new uncertainty over their ability to share data with the US, as Europe’s highest court reassesses the legality of the EU’s model data-sharing contracts  Continue Reading

• The high price of not understanding how automation works with existing software licences

  Businesses must check their software licences before they introduce robotic process automation or they risk breaking the rules  Continue Reading

• Digital takes aim at the professions – disrupting doctors, lawyers, academics and accountants

  Traditional professions will be the next to see significant change – and competition – as digital technology introduces new ways of working  Continue Reading

• The digital revolution: push or pull?

  The “digital revolution” has parallels with the 1889 Land Rush in Oklahoma. Some succeeded, some failed and others wished they had never set off on the journey  Continue Reading

• Industry standards: Paving the way for autonomous vehicles

  The car industry needs to agree open standards to allow connected cars and autonomous vehicles to communicate. The bIoTope project is one initiative that could lead the way to agreement  Continue Reading

• Let’s have some more straight talking on AI and robotics

  How do you ensure artificial intelligence grows with your business and does not turn into an assortment of technologies that may be fantastic but don’t integrate or scale well?  Continue Reading

• Energy and healthcare primed for blockchain disruption

  Blockchain applications are upending traditional industries, with startup activity expected to ramp up in years to come  Continue Reading

• Architecting the digital enterprise

  A survey of almost 4,500 IT leaders in 90 countries shows that the fastest-growing area of demand in IT this year is for enterprise architects. It is not a skills shortage, but an adoption lag  Continue Reading

• The growing influence of the CIO

  The role of IT leaders has changed radically over the past decade. Today, digital technology is bringing CIOs new opportunities, higher budgets and the chance to make a strategic difference  Continue Reading

• Emerging technologies: How can you cut through the noise?

  Technology leaders need to focus the raw potential of emerging technology into a set of priorities with measurable, tangible business impacts  Continue Reading

• Finance firms are vulnerable to cyber attacks, so why do customers think they are secure?

  The public are overly confident in the ability of banks and financial institutions to protect their data, but that will change when mandatory reporting comes in next year under the General Data Protection Regulation  Continue Reading

• Building business value with IT4IT

  To reinvent IT, CIOs must go beyond current process-based approaches and equip their teams with the right information and tools, completely automate end-to-end workflows, and provide the business with the controls to govern IT  Continue Reading

• How AI is disrupting the role of call centres and call centre staff

  Artificial intelligence could eliminate many white-collar jobs in coming decades. Its effects are already being felt in the call centre industry, but there is still no substitute for the human touch  Continue Reading

• Telcos need real-time analytics strategies to capitalise on big data

  In order to capitalise on the value from big data and operate as intelligent businesses, telcos must develop real-time analytics strategies, advises Accenture  Continue Reading

• The digital opportunity for CIOs

  CIOs have a unique opportunity to lead the digital strategy in their organisations, but they have to move quickly to make sure they have the right skills and infrastructure in place  Continue Reading

• Acquiring public sector software systems – an alternative role for GDS?

  Controlling and measuring software systems in government is notoriously difficult, so could a healthcare model offer a better alternative?  Continue Reading

• Investigatory Powers Bill – the case for mass surveillance

  As the Investigatory Powers Bill goes through its final stages in Parliament, a former GCHQ intelligence officer puts the case for the bulk surveillance powers contained in the legislation  Continue Reading

• Prism and the law: The state of play in August 2016

  Computer Weekly assesses the history, legal aspects and latest developments in the story of the mass surveillance programme launched by the US National Security Agency  Continue Reading

• A day in the life of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

  Britain's most secretive court combined the surreal with the deadly serious, as it debated the legality of bulk data collection by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ  Continue Reading

• Privacy Shield gets green light – for now

  Privacy Shield faces inevitable legal challenges, so organisations should prepare by considering legal and practical alternatives  Continue Reading

• Brexit offers chance for UK to become a ‘data haven’

  Could the UK become a a safe place for both cloud and big data after it leaves the EU?  Continue Reading

• Graph databases: What are the benefits for CIOs?

  With enterprise interest in graph databases on the rise, Clive Longbottom explains why some businesses are favouring them over relational setups  Continue Reading

• The consumerisation of machine intelligence

  Machine intelligence is improving fast – as demonstrated by Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo success – and IT leaders need to plan for its effect on enterprise IT  Continue Reading

• How to transition to a cloud-based analytics environment

  Accenture Digital consultants say businesses can be more agile by way of cloud-based analytics  Continue Reading

• Wearable technology creates opportunities for retailers

  Wearable technology allows taxis to offer commuters a ride when it is raining, and restaurants' to tailor their dishes to customers' weight-loss plans.  Continue Reading

• Life on the edge: The benefits of using micro datacentres

  Enterprises are demanding faster access to applications and ever more processing power. Could edge datacentres fill the gap?  Continue Reading

• How insight-driven enterprises use data to strategic advantage

  Accenture managing directors Nick Millman and Ray Eitel-Porter distil steps for enterprises to turn data into business insight from the firm’s consultancy  Continue Reading

• Robots will transform, not replace, human work

  Claims that robots will steal our jobs are commonplace – but humans will find themselves working side by side with robots, rather than being replaced by them  Continue Reading

• Digital platform more than taxi service: Uber as app economy paradigm?

  Uber’s significance may lie more in its being a data-rich platform that taps into unused human economic resources than in its role as a passenger pickup service  Continue Reading

• Why it pays to get messy with big data

  Big data does not have to be perfect to give useful insights. The ability to make messy data usable quickly could become business critical  Continue Reading

• Pixar president on why building a 'fail fast' culture is hard

  The duality of failure, IBM's bet on cognitive computing, and the difference between a data officer and an analytics officer: The Data Mill reports.  Continue Reading

• Reinventing outsourcing through agile principles

  Organisations are starting to use agile principles to reinvent the outsourcing selection process, with some excellent results  Continue Reading

• Driving digital productivity in the UK

  There is a need for British businesses to improve their adoption of digital technologies  Continue Reading

• Can emulating social media make business applications more productive?

  Can social technologies be turned to account for business applications, and can they boost economic productivity?  Continue Reading

• When DevOps isn't enough, try NoOps

  Letting developers loose to create, test and deploy new code without operations might streamline processes, but it's not without its risks  Continue Reading

• Who is responsible for digital leadership in the boardroom?

  Digital technology affects every aspect of modern business - so which executive should lead digital strategy in the boardroom?  Continue Reading

• The top 10 myths about agile development

  Examining some of the most common misconceptions in the growing field of agile software development  Continue Reading

• Apply data governance to maximise data insights

  How IT can apply data governance to help the business trust analytics insights and gain the most value from big data  Continue Reading

• Microsoft SharePoint: Why are we still hearing so much about adoption issues?

  The SharePoint business system is too important to be left to IT; the whole business need to embrace it so it's more than just shelfware  Continue Reading

• Making sense of the internet of things

  Welcome to Thingalytics, the use of real-time analytics and algorithms to guide you through the maze of fast big data  Continue Reading

• Investment banks recruit for rise of big data analytics

  Investment banks have been slower to embrace big data analytics than many consumer retailers, technology businesses, even retail banking  Continue Reading

• Patent trolls must not be allowed to encroach on Europe

  So-called patent trolls may soon come under attack in the US as part of government-backed efforts against abusive intellectual property litigation  Continue Reading

• Why you need smarter case management

  Business users will see myriad benefits from an emerging wave of case management applications  Continue Reading

• Big data to unlock value from the industrial internet of things

  The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is changing the way we live and work, and extracting maximum value requires a big data approach  Continue Reading

• What is government as a platform and how do we achieve it?

  There are lots of discussion going on at the moment about digital “platforms”, and the impact they might have on UK public services  Continue Reading

• Time for DevOps to get out of the weeds

  Software and service providers face a battle to deliver new products, features and capabilities faster than ever  Continue Reading

• The business benefits of the third platform

  Ron Tolido explains the benefits of the Open Group Open Platform 3.0  Continue Reading

• Balancing user desires with business needs

  With users increasingly taking IT decisions into their own hands, businesses need to try harder to keep up  Continue Reading

• Purchasers get social, marketers play catch-up?

  Social media theorist Erik Qualman once suggested that news, products and services are now pushed to us by friends and colleagues  Continue Reading

• Watermelon SLAs – making sense of green and red alerts

  Often IT SLAs don’t reflect the real service and service experience of users. They also aren’t focused enough on the business results  Continue Reading

• Define a software delivery strategy for business innovation – four key steps

  As software takes a central role in modern business models, application delivery capability has become the key enabler of disruption  Continue Reading

• The new dawn of brand: You are only as good as your software

  We can make computers exciting, and we can capture our unique cultural personalities, writes Alan Trefler  Continue Reading

• Watch out: Oracle plants $23,000 licensing booby trap in 12c upgrade

  Oracle will charge $23,000 per processor if you inadvertently switch on the in-memory database option  Continue Reading

• Why businesses need brilliant social media

  Social media is tturning out to be arguably the biggest disruptive challenge business has to face  Continue Reading

• Social media and why businesses need to embrace it

  Why are businesses using email for everything? Jack Vile gives the younger generation's perspective  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Why small steps in big data count

  Don’t get bogged down and fearful that big data means big steps – get started and learn as you go  Continue Reading