Opinion

Opinion

Enterprise software

• Effective information management: Using data as a competitive weapon

  In today's global economy, information is becoming a major competitive asset, a weapon to drive business advantage.  Continue Reading

• Not in Kansas any more

  PA Consulting's Alastair McAulay looks at the commercial potential of smart watches, Google Glass and the latest smartphones  Continue Reading

• The state of the VDI industry in 2014

  There were two major technological advancements last year that make virtual desktops much more attractive than in the past  Continue Reading

• UKGovCamp 2014 - discussions on delivering digital government

  UKGovCamp is an event with growing importance to the public sector digital scene - this year's event took place last week in London  Continue Reading

• Apply lean concepts in IT to make a bridge to the business

  Håkan Borglund, CIO at Toyota Material Handling Europe, says applying lean principles to IT deepen its connection to the business  Continue Reading

• How to create a Local Government Digital Service

  Why we need to create a 'Local Government Digital Service' to oversee the standardisation and improvement of all things digital in councils  Continue Reading

• Cloud supplier lock-in – our experience

  Always ask before entering into any agreement, “How do I get my data out in the future if I need or want to?"  Continue Reading

• How to prepare the IT workforce for cloud and mobility    

  CompTIA is working to identify the key skills that staff responsible for cloud and mobility implementations need  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

• The security education dilemma

  Many employees, including executives, do not understand the implications of security. As a result, organisatons can lose focus  Continue Reading

• An internet of things vision

  What does a world of connected machines look like? Connecting machines will lead to changed behaviours that then change the applications.  Continue Reading

• Internet of things: Low-cost trade-off

  The office at DoES Liverpool has a DoorBot, which works as a kiosk device, showing webcam views of the office and a list of upcoming events.  Continue Reading

• Smart machines raise challenging questions

  Smart systems like IBM’s Watson, autonomous vehicles and a growing army of robots are quietly making more and more decisions every day.  Continue Reading

• Lessons from electronic medical records programme at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

  Cardiologist Johan Waktare talks about the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust's EMR scheme  Continue Reading

• Take an issues-driven approach to business intelligence

  Accenture advises CIOs to put business issues ahead of data, know the users, look beyond ERP data, and embed analytics in BI  Continue Reading

• Breaking the medieval software market in local government

  The financial challenges facing local government have never been greater and we need innovation and new ways of delivering public services  Continue Reading

• IT skills shortage still tops the technology agenda

  Many executives in the UK expect to increase investment in IT products and services, but there is an ongoing skills challenge  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Security testing a vital part of software procurement

  How can security professionals ensure security testing becomes part of the procurement process for all business software?  Continue Reading

• Design applications to get the right data

  The right data helps enterprises make better decisions. Getting it, however, requires a fundamental shift in how applications are built  Continue Reading

• How wearable gadgets will impact the IT department

  The Chancellor George Osborne was spotted recently wearing a bio-monitoring wristband, suggesting wearable tech really has gone mainstream. Despite it being a useful and efficient product, it is limited when compared to the capabilities that such ...  Continue Reading

• Gartner: Benefits of mobile collaboration

  The rapid adoption of smart devices, both in the workplace and outside, has raised expectations about accessibility and user experience  Continue Reading

• The politics of software asset management

  A software asset manager's tips on convincing people they really don'y have to run the software they insist is essential.  Continue Reading

• BI: From specialist capability to mass-market availability

  Pringle & Company analyst advocates business-led business intelligence (BI). Three barriers must go: complexity, excessive cost, undue duration  Continue Reading

• The Death Of Cloud Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

  Revelations about the extent of US and UK government surveillance on the internet will not mean the death of cloud computing, but companies will change their approach.  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Three Best Practice Tips For Business Intelligence Success

  Martha Bennett gives three essential tips to help you ensure your BI project is a success.  Continue Reading

• How to handle a software audit

  Software audits are an irritating and time consuming part of life. To survive one unscathed you'll need a thorough understanding of your licensing requirements.  Continue Reading

• Whiteboard it – the power of graph databases

  Graph databases map relationships between entities in a network. They won’t replace conventional relational databases, but for harnessing the value of interconnectedness they mark a breakthrough  Continue Reading

• Why the internet is forcing retailers to rethink their supply chains

  The growth of internet shopping is causing retailers to radically rethink the way they manage their supply chains  Continue Reading

• Why companies are turning to application virtualisation

  More people are ‘getting’ the idea that you can virtualise selectively  Continue Reading

• IT needs soldiers

  The government has recognised that its returning troops can bring value to Britain. Unfortunately it has backed the wrong profession.  Continue Reading

• Managing costs on your journey to cloud

  Procuring cloud services can be relatively easy, but integrating them into existing IT environments can be complicated  Continue Reading

• Impressions of the latest BlackBerry 10 devices

  Freeform Dynamics analyst Dale Vile shares his experience of using the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones for business  Continue Reading

• Forrester: CIOs need to support the workplace of the future now

  Increasing workplace diversity requires new thinking about how and where staff do their work. Forrester offers tips for CIOs  Continue Reading

• Making sense of SAP HANA and in-memory computing – a user view

  For SAP users, in-memory computing tools such as SAP HANA promise to deliver a step change when it comes to data processing and analysis  Continue Reading

• The future of application development

  As cloud adoption continues to increase , most organisations are making important decisions in executing their cloud strategies  Continue Reading

• The Great Deverticalisation – part 5: Mind the GaaP

  Politicians and government have the opportunity, through the power of open platforms, to take the lead in creating modern public services  Continue Reading

• Forrester: The secrets of digital disruption

  Companies can exploit digital disruption to unleash the next wave of innovation, says Forrester Research  Continue Reading

• The Great Deverticalisation - part 4: The role of the private sector

  Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply?  Continue Reading

• Securing the hypervisor: expert tips

  There are many potential security issues with the various components of a virtualised infrastructure, and nowhere is this more of a concern than with the hypervisor platforms that host virtual systems and application instances  Continue Reading

• How to create business value from social intelligence

  Social media gives access to huge amounts of data about markets, customers and competitors. The challenge is to turn this into intelligence  Continue Reading

• The Great Deverticalisation - part 3: New skills and structures in the public sector

  Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply?  Continue Reading

• Ordnance Survey gets to grips with geospatial big data

  Ordnance Survey has pulled 17 databases into one Oracle geospatial database management platform  Continue Reading

• Tips for master data management best practice

  Master data management (MDM) projects must be business-owned, joined up, and proven step-by-step  Continue Reading

• SMEs open to public cloud – provided it is easy with local sales and support

  It is no surprise that small and medium-sized businesses are the most inclined to adopt and use public cloud to deliver the majority of their IT, but there are significant barriers to overcome  Continue Reading

• The Great Deverticalisation - part 2: The power of open

  The public sector has the opportunity, through the power of 'open', to take the lead in creating organisations for the future success of UK plc  Continue Reading

• Windows 8 - the challenge of moving to a new operating system

  Microsoft launched its Windows 8 operating system (OS) in 2012, promising manifold benefits - but what are the challenges of moving OS?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Web-based app security needs data-centric, risk-based approach

  What are the security pitfalls of web-based applications and how are they best avoided?  Continue Reading

• Getting the right processes in place to benefit from big data

  Most executives recognise that the vast amounts of data coming into their organisation can be used to make the business better, but few are taking full advantage  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Tips for software contract negotiation

  Forrester's Mark Bartrick offers four essential tips on negotiating successful IT contracts  Continue Reading

• The great deverticalisation – part 1: the street

  Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply?  Continue Reading

• Unleash the value of consumer data

  Companies' ability to capture, mine and analyse consumer information has the potential to deliver economic value  Continue Reading

• Open source is just a weapon

  If open source is rapidly growing and dominating many industries, should the answer to every IT question be "open source"?  Continue Reading

• Developing the modern datacentre into a services hub

  More businesses are choosing private cloud over public cloud. Analyst Andrew Buss explains why  Continue Reading

• Rackspace CTO predictions for 2013

  Rackspace chief technology officer John Engates gives his IT predictions for 2013  Continue Reading

• Mind the digital gap - a strategy for accessibility

  There still exists a digital gap and it is vital to understand the ways in which digital exclusion might be remedied in the future  Continue Reading

• Forrester: The impact of cloud on outsourcing contracts

  Although still in its early stages, the transition of outsourcing engagements toward cloud-based models has begun  Continue Reading

• Getting to grips with managing supply and demand

  The way that companies connect with each other to do business can have a big effect on overall performance  Continue Reading

• BYOD: Bring your own device – or demise?

  Nitin Bhas from Juniper research discusses the impact bring your own device (BYOD) polices are making on the enterprise  Continue Reading

• Lack of understanding inhibits big data adoption

  Most organisations have no clear understanding of the advanced data analytics technologies now hitting the markets  Continue Reading

• How IT is supporting the next generation of artists and designers at Birmingham City University

  Birmingham City University’s new campus buildings are part of a £180m investment in new facilities with IT at its core  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Five important guidelines for business technology governance

  Forrester believes that "good" IT governance is business technology governance – a conscious process by senior executives to establish strategies, structures, processes, and measurements for the management of technology to boost business results  Continue Reading

• How to make IT contracts agile

  Agile software methodologies have been around for years, yet many in the legal profession still feel they are entering unchartered waters  Continue Reading

• Consumer capital: The new reality of 21st century data exchange

  Consumers are beginning a counter-offensive against the monopoly that industry has enjoyed over the spoils of big data  Continue Reading

• A new age of sentimental data

  Sentiment-analysis is nothing new - we just have new ways of capturing multiple digital sources and making better sense of the data  Continue Reading

• Where does the ICO's new cloud guidance take you?

  It is not possible to follow the ICO's advice on cloud computing and still have a “cloud” solution  Continue Reading

• Changing lives through technology innovation

  Technology such as open source can radically change the way an organisation operates and for users it has the ability to change their lives  Continue Reading

• Where is your Data Migration DMZ?

  Johny Morris, author of Practical Data Migration, looks at how changes to procurement practices have created a trap for the unwary to fall into  Continue Reading

• Moving on from a culture of collaboration by email

  The time has come to think seriously about enterprise social networking (ESN) and consider its role within wider enterprise collaboration strategy.  Continue Reading

• Windows 8 – Beauty and the Beast?

  Quocirca analyst, Clive Longbottom, looks at whether corporates should consider deploying Windows 8.  Continue Reading

• Review: Windows tablets in the enterprise

  Tony Lock has been using a Windows tablet for a year and finds that it has a lot to offer businesses  Continue Reading

• Why Tesco chose open-source software

  Jane Williams, head of e-learning at Tesco, explains the challenges of delivering an open-source system at the retailer  Continue Reading

• How to secure a SharePoint environment

  Five lines of defence you need to secure your Microsoft SharePoint environment  Continue Reading

• Managing shadow IT

  Shadow IT is the use of IT systems within an organisation without the approval, or even the knowledge, of corporate IT. What should you do in response?  Continue Reading

• Hacking open data on development aid

  Using open data to analyse information about international aid shows the benefits - and the limitations - of the ICT for development field  Continue Reading

• Does Microsoft need to change its policy on Windows upgrade pricing ?

  Microsoft will needs to reduce the cost of Windows upgrades if it is to conquer the tablets market, writes Andrew Buss.  Continue Reading

• Business consulting – the next battleground in IT services

  Buying habits are shifting, with profound implications for the IT services and management consulting industries  Continue Reading

• Business intelligence and analytics: how to develop a complementary strategy

  Instead of replacing traditional BI and data warehousing with predictive analytics, organisations should pursue a complementary strategy. BI needs big data analytics, which needs BI.  Continue Reading

• Preparing your teams for software defined networking

  Software defined networking may offer a more reliable and automated network, but administrators need to be prepared before they introduce it to their environment  Continue Reading

• In an age of subscription services, ERP is dead

  It’s hard to believe now but there was a time when ERP was hot  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Six questions to ask about security and virtualisation

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Virtualisation raises three main security issues

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Configuration is key to virtual security

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Virtual security more than just technology

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Security in the virtual world still not 100%

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Security in virtual world requires special considerations

  How should information security professionals get stated with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Hypervisor is key to securing virtual servers

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• To be open or not to be – that is the question

  We are heading to a world where being open, or exploiting open, isn't optional, and for many it will become a question of “to be open or not to be”.  Continue Reading

• EU court legalises second-hand software

  In a landmark decision, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that the reselling of used software licences is legal.  Continue Reading

• Getting the most from public sector data

  There were plenty of nodding heads within KPMG’s IT Advisory team following a new report by Policy Exchange entitled Big Data Opportunity. The report recognises that the information underpinning public services is an essential asset in the battle...  Continue Reading

• Ovum view: The future of software development

  Agile programming is clearly part of the future, IT professionals at Computer Weekly's 500 Club heard last month, though there was tacit agreement among the speakers that agile the verb was key here, and not agile the noun  Continue Reading

• As cheap as chips: turning the 'internet of things' into business benefits

  To benefit from the internet of things, organisations should develop offerings responsive to the flow of data from chips embedded in products.  Continue Reading

• Can Nokia's 'next billion' strategy save the company ?

  Nokia is at a cross roads as it pins its recovery hopes on cornering emerging markets. But it will need to work hard to restore market confidence if ts 'next billion' strategy is to succeed.  Continue Reading

• Delivering social change through crowdsourcing

  Free and open source tools now mean that anyone can quickly create an online map to visualise the issue they most care about and use it to build a compelling case for action.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Intelligence-led security could give IT pros the edge

  What should organisations be doing to benefit from intelligence-led security?  Continue Reading

• Growing out of the socially awkward phase: how marketing and IT can work better together

  IT’s relationship with marketing has often been more strained than with other major parts of the business - what can be done?  Continue Reading

• Why great companies die - repeatedly - and is Microsoft next?

  The Penny Black stamp revolutionised comunications - and taught us lessons that some IT giants today are failing to learn.  Continue Reading

• The carping of naysayers harms the wielding of influence

  Government data-sharing Czar Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom refutes the leaks that question his commitment to open standards.  Continue Reading

• Time to assess the value of the data you hold

  Martha Bennett offers strategic advice for managing growing volumes of corporate data.  Continue Reading

• Leveraging the benefits of ‘Big Data’

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• Three key considerations to deliver benefits from big data

  There is a real commercial advantage to be gained from big data and organisations need to make sure they have the right elements in place to seize that advantage.  Continue Reading