Opinion

Opinion

Enterprise software

• Adding invoice automation to SAP adds up

  Whether you're the chief finance officer, chief information officer or accounts manager, the financial, management and operational advantages of adding invoice automation to SAP certainly add up - to 60% cost and efficiency savings, writes Kurt De ...  Continue Reading

• Traditional application development processes doom web projects to failure

  It is no secret that web projects fail, but it is lesser known that traditional application development approaches are the single biggest factor in this failure. Why? And what straightforward steps can be taken to reduce time to market, increase ...  Continue Reading

• A lean and green supply machine

  Inefficient transport methods in the modern supply chain contribute significantly to global warming. In fact, as much as 75% of a company's carbon footprint comes from transportation and logistics alone, according to a recent analyst report.  Continue Reading

• The possibilities of an XML-based information delivery framework on the desktop

  JustSystems has released xfy Technology, possibly the first XML-based information delivery framework on the desktop. David Norfolk looks at what this software is capable of.  Continue Reading

• Effective integration does not require the latest technology

  Whether it is SOA, BPM, or EDI, solving integration challenges is more about rigorous business management than the latest technology.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: DB 9.5

  IBM's DB2 is a relational database management system (RDBMS), widely used in enterprises.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 18 December 2007

  Catch up with the events from Bogcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• How to take your IT systems global

  Global IT can result in cost and efficiency savings  Continue Reading

• Hot skills : Rise of Ajax drives demand for Javascript developers

  Scripting language enables rich internet applications  Continue Reading

• Application virtualisation: the next big thing?

  Just when you thought there could not possibly be yet another conference on virtualisation, more flyers arrive through the electronic letterbox.  Continue Reading

• Sharing from the bottom up

  Government IT projects are prone to overreach themselves, inspired, as they often are, by a faith in technology for technology's sake.  Continue Reading

• There is more to business success than technology

  We regularly hear that "there is no such thing as an IT project, only business initiatives." But we do not need to look far to find business initiatives being managed as IT projects.  Continue Reading

• Report exposes stark reality of NHS IT

  Alan Shackman, an expert in NHS IT and contributor to the Public Accounts Committee report on the National Programme, gives his take on the way forward for the scheme  Continue Reading

• Government must step up open source adoption

  Public sector called to action  Continue Reading

• A clear case for operating system harmony

  There was scepticism last year when arch-rivals Microsoft and Novell signed an alliance which would see Microsoft sell and support Linux systems.  Continue Reading

• Legacy IT support in the takeover age

  Oracle has been out shopping again and is to buy business intelligence software firm Hyperion for £1.7bn.  Continue Reading

• A relationship that's in need of improving

  IT knowledge has to be matched with people skills, says Shirley Redpath  Continue Reading

• Simple ways to do more, faster, with older PCs

  Slow and outdated PCs can waste time and reduce end-user efficiency, however, there are easy and cheap ways to upgrade staff computers  Continue Reading

• Pretty interfaces alone do not make a business case

  The release of Windows Vista is a great achievement, but Microsoft should not lose sight of the fact that many of its customers will be running Windows XP for a while yet.  Continue Reading

• Make sure SOA truly starts with service

  The SOA lable is not an automatic seal of quality  Continue Reading

• Users win in Linux love-in

  It seems the world really is big enough for both Windows and Linux. Earlier this month some of the heat was taken out of the long-standing rivalry between Microsoft and the Linux community thanks to a collaborative effort between old enemies ...  Continue Reading

• SOA can light up manufacturing IT

  IT directors can help simplify the diversity of manufacturing systems in the business by implementing an efficient SOA platform, says Colin Masson  Continue Reading

• Spelling out Vista's value

  One would hope that in this day and age most people have a fair idea of whether an application is adding value to the business. But what is the intrinsic value of a new operating system?  Continue Reading

• Professionalism in IT scheme turns to individual best practice

  The future of IT depends on professionalism, where the test of such professionalism is related to business impact and outcomes, not just technical excellence.  Continue Reading

• SOA as a catalyst for better IT governance

  Effective framework helps deliver business value  Continue Reading

• Downtime: No trout about it – silence is golden on the riverbank

   Continue Reading

• Unhealthy tale of NAO report

  The National Audit Office is a great British institution - or was.  Continue Reading

• Challenges of consolidation

  Infrastructure and applications consolidation have dominated the agendas of the UK's IT departments during the past few years. And rightly so.  Continue Reading

• Question time over NHS data

  To lose one datacentre may be regarded as a misfortune to lose both looks like carelessness.  Continue Reading

• Profit motive is what drives the best in IT

  Technologists must make grade on business stage.  Continue Reading

• Licensing for today's world

  Getting a grip on software licensing complexity is a challenge that IT users and their suppliers cannot afford to shirk.  Continue Reading

• Innovative moves that may herald the storage cluster revolution

  Developments in network-attached clustering signal new storage approach, says Steve Broadhead  Continue Reading

• Web 2.0 offers a better place to stay

  It is the latest label that online software service suppliers are keen to deck themselves out in, but what exactly is Web 2.0 and what can it do for business?, asks Neil Ward-Dutton  Continue Reading

• Chasing the merger gold

  There are few signs that the task of integrating systems when companies merge is any easier now than before the advent of sophisticated middleware and web-enabled systems.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft’s metrics mean business

  Microsoft unveils plans for performance planning software  Continue Reading

• Right NHS formula is to ‘keep it simple’

  Over-complex IT results in diminishing returns, says Andrew Sakals  Continue Reading

• Dealing with the data explosion

  We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.  Continue Reading

• So SOA will make life simple... but for who?

  The demands of service oriented architecture  Continue Reading

• Web access is in the balance

  When Tim Berners-Lee gave the world a simple way to share documents over the internet in a common format, he demonstrated the true power of standards.  Continue Reading

• Rush to fulfil prime minister's NHS vision tripped up IT programme

  Expert argues that national programme is being built on unstable foundations  Continue Reading

• Open source grows big and strong

  How Red Hat and JBoss will tempt more users to open source  Continue Reading

• Don't be caught by licence to print money

  Buyer beware still needs to be the watchword  Continue Reading

• Have we been here before?

  A lot has been written about the positive aspects of service oriented architecture (SOA). This has led to a fashion that requires every self-respecting IT department to be seen with at least one SOA project underway.  Continue Reading

• Plan for a slow roll-out of Windows Vista

  Delays to the Vista operating system should not prove a big problem for users as its immediate benefits may not make a compelling case for a speedy upgrade.  Continue Reading

• Getting more than integration from SOA

  More than merely linked web services, SOA has the potential to enable IT and the business to talk and collaborate using a common language  Continue Reading

• Building an SOA without the hype

  One cannot help but notice the buzz around the concept of the service oriented architecture (SOA). With so much industry talk on the topic, it is a wonder how users ever managed before.  Continue Reading

• The end of the paper trail

  Imagine the scene: you are disgruntled with a supplier. You do your best to make sure your communications with them are measured and calm. Internally, though, you e-mail a colleague with some colourful language expressing your frustrations.  Continue Reading

• DPM's Diary

  DPM's Diary by C P Bound  Continue Reading

• Capitalising on the opportunities of SOA

  Service oriented architecture (SOA): An SOA can help IT become more responsive to business needs, but confusion about the approach means some fail to realise its potential.  Continue Reading

• Managing the effects of change

  Change management lies at the heart of every major IT deployment. Experts agree that building systems and deploying them is barely half the challenge faced by IT departments and their businesses.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: World's best OS, hardware horror story

  Computer Weekly readers have their say.  Continue Reading

• Do rich internet apps offer business value?

  Enterprises have enjoyed great benefits from the internet, browsers and web applications, but it is time for a change.  Continue Reading

• Giving ERP users the Windows feeling

  Microsoft owns the desktop, with at least 400 million Office users around the world. This has led to it becoming the de facto standard as the preferred user interface for enterprise software.  Continue Reading

• Time of choice creeps up on Netware users

  Gartner is usually reluctant to advocate doing nothing, but with regard to the next step for Netware users, this might make sense for the next two to three years, assuming you are on Netware 6.5. This is because Novell will probably stop updating ...  Continue Reading

• IT will be key to pensions reform

  The Turner Review of pensions poses a challenge not just for the government, but for IT as well. A New Pension Settlement for the Twenty-First Century is a hefty tome, which proposes policy options to provide decent old age pensions for all and ...  Continue Reading

• How to solve the problem of loss of application knowledge

  The dearth of application knowledge is a solvable issue. Application mining tools and APM tools can solve the issue and have the potential to bring many additional benefits.  Continue Reading

• Appearance of 'legacy' Java apps highlights danger of losing application knowledge

  Java and Perl applications that were developed just three years ago have developed "legacy" attributes: the original authors are gone, the applications are poorly documented and poorly understood, and although the business relies on the applications...  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Why IT education requires a rethink

  Why education needs sorting out, a look at problem abbreviations and a reminder about a looming deadline  Continue Reading

• Web application development continues to evolve as the Ajax approach catches on

  Google put the Ajax development method on the map with the launch of its Google Mail service, and now there are more than 50 websites taking a similar approach to online applications.  Continue Reading

• The challenges of on-demand integration

  Integrating in-house applications with those provided on demand by a third party can be complex if issues such as data duplication are to be avoided, says Teresa Jones  Continue Reading

• Chip virtualisation could boost resilience

  Intel and AMD multicore chips promise more consistent performance, argues Clive Longbottom  Continue Reading

• The network's missing link moves closer

  With "application oriented networking", Cisco aims to improve performance through closer interaction between the network and the applications that run on it.  Continue Reading

• Why Microsoft is learning from Linux in its drive to deliver software as a service

  "We are not anti-open source," says Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of competitive strategy. In fact, he makes a point of hiring people with Linux and open source skills for his R&D team and Linux lab.  Continue Reading

• Could companies be getting more from their business intelligence?

  Rationalise and integrate for better value  Continue Reading

• Microsoft plans route through the desktop

  Windows users will need to assess carefully how specialised their content needs are before lining up for the software giant's new content platform, says Jim Murphy  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation offers higher asset usage while masking complexity

  Virtualisation of IT systems enables admin staff to run datacentres effectively while hiding complexity from end-users, says Hamish Macarthur  Continue Reading

• End-users speak out

  As the increasing volume of data makes storage a hot issue, end-users are spending their money carefully, says Frank Timons  Continue Reading

• Your shout: SOA shivers, men only, the real offshore objective

  Computer Weekly readers have their say  Continue Reading

• EBS users will have an advantage, but move to Fusion will require careful evaluation

  Enterprise Business Suite should be first choice for new Oracle customers, says Lee Geishecker  Continue Reading

• Can Google bring openness to messaging?

  E-mail style universal interoperability would add huge value for users, says Jack Schofield  Continue Reading

• Web services and SOA enable organisations to simplify exploitation of the mainframe

  The arrival of web services has reduced terrors of mainframe deployment, says Andy Gutteridge  Continue Reading

• Making sense of the information age

  One thing we are not short of in this society is information. A couple of generations have grown up with notions like "the information age" and "information is power". Governments, especially the current one, appear besotted with the idea that the ...  Continue Reading

• How to make ITIL work for your company

  For the past 20 years, IT has been attempting to align itself with business. Yet how many companies still offer poor service based upon reactive helpdesks, haphazard change management and irrelevant service level agreements? And this is despite an ...  Continue Reading

• Make sense of corporate data complexities through master data management systems

  The emerging field of master data management deals with the issue of how to handle data that needs to be shared between different computer systems.  Continue Reading

• Check out the changes in Windows Vista

  Microsoft has released the first beta test version of Windows Vista, formerly known as Longhorn, and it would be a good idea for companies to try it as soon as possible. Compared with the simple transitions from Windows NT4 to 2000 to XP Pro, it may...  Continue Reading

• Framework aids building IT architectures

  Zachman method can improve clarity, consistency and communication  Continue Reading

• Chance to have a say on licensing

  Microsoft's planned revamp of its Software Assurance subscription licensing programme in September will fuel debate among IT directors across public and private sector organisations. Does it suit your organisation in terms of the frequency of ...  Continue Reading

• Quick and dirty substitute for Soap

  'Really simple syndication' looks set to provide users with a short cut to the information they regularly need via the internet.  Continue Reading

• The 64-bit challenge

  Although 64-bit computing has been around for years, only now has it become truly mainstream, offering processing power previously only available in high-end systems. Thanks to the efforts of AMD and Intel, 64-bit computing is becoming affordable.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Revenue culture, cooler blades, piracy

  Have your say at computerweekly.com  Continue Reading

• Line up to do the business

  It's time for more practical steps to business alignment  Continue Reading

• Use the power of the people's IT

  Security, security and security are the three big priorities for many IT directors these days. Along with worms and viruses,...  Continue Reading

• Tactics for winning the information battle

  Synchronisation of corporate data across disparate systems is vital to give the business the intelligence it needs to compete,...  Continue Reading

• Eclipse offers adaptable IDEs for Java and C++ programming work

  Eclipse is the chosen platform for constantly evolving IDEs  Continue Reading

• Don't fear e-terror hype

  The evidence fails to support the doom-mongers  Continue Reading

• It's a long road to genuine cost cuts

  Some Conservative and Labour politicians talk about cutting waste as if central government's excesses were stacked up like tins...  Continue Reading

• Adobe/Macromedia to offer alternative to MS

  Adobe’s £1.8bn acquisition of Macromedia is major news for the software industry, although not altogether surprising. Macromedia...  Continue Reading

• Building bridges is just the start

  Tomorrow's launch of the Strategic Supplier Relationship Group is an important landmark in the development of our industry.  Continue Reading

• Software industry told it must learn from the past and stop acting like 'hairdressers'

  Software development is generally more like a fashion industry than professional engineering because IT specialists fail to learn...  Continue Reading

• Good IT wears a human face

  It is unfortunate that the public is often most aware of IT when it goes wrong, or when organisations use it to provide...  Continue Reading

• Pay-as-you-go politics

  IT must call procurement shots in move to on-demand  Continue Reading

• Four challenges to get the most out of ERP

  Research identifies the areas where problems occur with enterprise software roll-outs, says Chris Westrup  Continue Reading

• Open source's open sore

  Intellectual property rights can catch out the unwary, says Alison Bryce  Continue Reading

• Could Firefox have assisted birth of IE7?

  Microsoft plans to release a new beta test version of Internet Explorer this summer, but it will only run on Windows XP with...  Continue Reading

• Beware upgrading enterprise software: total cost can be many times the licence fee

  As Oracle and SAP vie for unsettled PeopleSoft users, what does the future hold? asks Bruce Richardson  Continue Reading

• Size, unlike intelligence, is not everything

  Users often think enterprise application software needs multimillion-pound budgets and months to roll out, but the hottest...  Continue Reading

• Need for better communication is vital as doctors voice deep concerns about NPfIT

  Doctors' comments reveal fears of wastage and a failure to appreciate their needs  Continue Reading

• Your shout! On why Linux code does not have to be rewritten

  In response to the news that the Linux community could be forced to rewrite code after IBM hands over its operating systems to SCO (Computer Weekly, 1 February)  Continue Reading

• Proactivity breeds predictability and the chance for better business opportunities

  Firms should blend service- and event-driven architectures, says Chris Phillips  Continue Reading

• IBM sale may bring us next generation of PCs

  It is the end of an era. I obtained my first IBM PC in 1982, before it officially was on sale in the UK.  Continue Reading