Opinion

Opinion

Business applications

• Data-driven government needs practical steps

  We should build data platforms for government with the same techniques used in creating anything digital, argues Jim Stamp, head of data at Made Tech  Continue Reading

• ODI: Smart data promise could founder against paywalls

  The Open Data Institute’s Mahlet Zimeta examines the government’s smart data plan, which could boost competition and empower the public, but needs to be set up to allow rapid creation of new markets without barriers  Continue Reading

• The evolution of threat modelling as a DevSecOps practice

  Threat modelling is becoming ever more integrated into software architecture design. Here, Stephen de Vries of IriusRisk looks at the evolution of the process  Continue Reading

• Why the world needs tech standards for UN Sustainable Development Goals

  Chaesub Lee from the ITU argues that the world needs technology standards to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals  Continue Reading

• Data leaders need to overcome their fears and unlock their creativity

  Author and data management consultant Caroline Carruthers argues that data leaders need to tap into their creativity to make their analytical work pay off  Continue Reading

• Move with the times – in defence of WhatsApp in government

  Former minister and current member of the House of Lords argues that the UK government needs to move with the times and embrace new communications tools such as WhatsApp  Continue Reading

• Harnessing the promise of data from space services for a better Earth

  Mark Chang, an aerospace, defence and security expert at PA Consulting, looks at the actions that organisations need to take to harness the potential of space services data  Continue Reading

• Succession in the world of ERP

  Succession planning is not a simple business, especially in the age of the Great Resignation  Continue Reading

• How to leverage the artificial intelligence solar system

  With great excitement around artificial intelligence, organisations should be aware that for successful implementation, AI must be approached specifically and strategically, as part of the technology universe  Continue Reading

• Totting up a decade of ones and zeros at the ODI

  As the Open Data Institute turns 10, managing director Louise Burke reflects on its first decade and what comes next  Continue Reading

• Why it makes sense to use best-of-breed SaaS to power a business strategy

  A hybrid multicloud model is playing an ever greater role as the IT platform of choice in driving a business-first strategy  Continue Reading

• Why CIOs must prioritise system integration in 2022

  System integration is a core part of operating enterprise systems. How can it be simplified?  Continue Reading

• How data sharing and collaboration can solve great challenges

  Daniel Hirst and Arjan Dhaliwal from Ordnance Survey argue for the value of data sharing, collaboration and data skills enhancement to address social, ecological economic problems  Continue Reading

• ERP: Join the dots faster with ready-made ecosystems

  Pre-integrated IT has a long and honourable history, and it has a role to play in the mesh that makes up cloud-native enterprise systems  Continue Reading

• ERP and the cloud

  Work to your agenda – not someone else’s  Continue Reading

• Cloud enterprise applications need great developer tools too

  Developer and quality assurance tools play an important role in safeguarding cloud enterprise applications from disruption  Continue Reading

• Subpostmasters won their David and Goliath battle, but initial goal still not reached

  Despite exposing the Post Office Horizon scandal, Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who drove the campaign for the truth, says the goal of repaying people what they lost has not yet been achieved  Continue Reading

• The complementary strengths of AI and human intelligence

  Kathy Peach, director at Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, describes projects the organisation supports that explore the interaction between artificial and human intelligence  Continue Reading

• A trial relying on computer evidence should start with a trial of the computer evidence

  Learning from the Post Office Horizon scandal - the most widespread miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history  Continue Reading

• Ready for Oracle E-Business Release 12.2 by new year 2022?

  Date for the end of Premier Support for Release 12.1 of Oracle E-Business Suite is 31 December 2021  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• The top 10 myths about agile development

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

• 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

• User acceptance testing needs real training, not just a short course

  In spite of its importance, user acceptance testing (UAT) is often chaotic, problematic and ineffective  Continue Reading

• Open standards are about the business model, not the technology

  Software companies, abuzz with lobbyists and patent lawyers over government open standards, are similar to the record industry 10 years ago.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Is big data just big hype?

  If the deluge of headlines and vendor marketing materials is anything to go by, big data is the next big thing. So how much is there really to all this big data talk?  Continue Reading

• The problem with Open Data

  Although clearly a good thing in theory, Open Data risks increasing the digital divide and social inequality unless approached right.  Continue Reading

• Bridging the information gap

  The pace at which modern business tends to move has resulted in a situation where centralised decision-making struggles to keep up.  Continue Reading

• How to fine tune your ERP system and maximise value

  Large organisations have invested a lot in enterprise resource planning software. Although the value of these applications is unquestionable, many still fail to maximise their full functionality.  Continue Reading

• Five golden rules of knowledge management

  Knowledge Management: A Blueprint for Delivery  Continue Reading