Opinion

Opinion

• Thought for the day: Double indemnity

  Can "free" anti-virus software do a better job of working with the Windows operating system than commercial products, asks Simon...  Continue Reading

• Will desktop searching reveal all your hidden PC secrets?

  Desktop search is not new: it is already built into the Start menu of Microsoft Windows XP.  Continue Reading

• Compliance and value delivery dominate IT directors' forward planning for 2005

  Here are the five biggest challenges facing IT directors over the next 18 months  Continue Reading

• Demand more from agencies: fine tune the recruitment process and reap the rewards

  Users must be proactive in ensuring that recommended candidates are suitable  Continue Reading

• Your shout! On how to successfully develop applications

  In response to Bola Rotibi's opinion article on the secrets of successful application development (Computer Weekly, 19 October)  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: A descent into hell

  The dreams and visions that made IT and the internet a force for freedom have been transformed into a nightmare of political...  Continue Reading

• Secure state of mind

  Not surprisingly, security is one of the biggest issues facing businesses today. The threat posed by viruses, hackers and...  Continue Reading

• World Wide Web Consortium's future will be driving semantic web, XML and mobile

  After 10 years as the spiritual guardian of the web, what is W3C's next role?  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Call in the cyber police

  The number of victims to online theft is on the increase, so why is the government and its law enforcement agencies not doing...  Continue Reading

• Techniques for terminating spam before it reaches the inbox still have some way to go

  E-mail software can only do so much to spot spam and eliminate it. Try people power  Continue Reading

• Ignorance of IT breeds turkeys

  MP Edward Leigh says the Ministry of Defence might just as well have bought eight turkeys as eight Chinook Mk3s. We would go...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Outsource your changes

  Fast-changing firms benefit from third-party services, says John Creber  Continue Reading

• Performance targets can root out slackers and ensure efficiency

  Review reporting systems to track project progress  Continue Reading

• Technology catches up with the VoIP hype

  There has been renewed interest in voice over IP telephone systems as falling prices and increasing functionality make it a...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: It's good to talk

  The chief executive of BT, Ben Verwaayen, is warning the UK to pull its finger out or else face the great Indian takeaway, writes...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Whose data is it anyway?

  Patient records plan presents a host of legal posers, says Ian McGibbon  Continue Reading

• Bring discipline to software development

  Poor management processes cause high project failure rate  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Yell for mobile innovation

  As innovation in the mobile phone space starts to take off, will this in turn subject users to the security threats that many are...  Continue Reading

• Platitudes don't make for good IT

  Rarely has so little been said in so many words. The government has reacted with 17 pages of platitudes to the cogent and...  Continue Reading

• How to avoid the pitfalls in the small print

  Ensure you are not trapped by contracts' limited liability clauses.  Continue Reading

• Outsourcing bandwagon slows as users see value of retaining control of applications

  Organisations that want control of their software are keeping it in-house  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: The three "Rs"

  Good money is being wasted on trying to teach leadership, when a good leader knows that responsibility, respect and reward are...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: You've been Googled

  Do you really want Google to get to know you better? Simon Moores certainly doesn't  Continue Reading

• Your Shout! On recruitment and agism in the profession

  In response to the article "Lack of youngsters could create skills shortage" (Computer Weekly, 5 October)  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Beware the danger of DIY leaving presents

  Ensure staff don't walk off with business-critical data when they get a new job  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: The outsourcing balance

  There is no need to take an "all or nothing" approach  Continue Reading

• Balance discipline and creativity to make innovation work for you

  The right mix of talents is vital for ground-breaking projects  Continue Reading

• A healthier way to communicate

  The IT industry equivalent of the politician's familiar cry "education, education, education" is "communication , communication,...  Continue Reading

• Cognos sharpens focus on performance management to meet compliance demands

  Cognos' acquisition of Frango turns spotlight on financial reporting aids  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Telling tales of missed objectives

  Strategic planning is the Cinderella in the IT department but organisations must transform their attitudes to obtain their...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Will IT spend cure the NHS?

  The government's IT modernisation programme for the NHS, the National Programme for IT, is going to cost a fortune but who will...  Continue Reading

• Isolation does not foster innovation in IT

  IT cannot deliver value in business applications without the board understanding the need for development within a more...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: How to beat the sinister side of spamming

  Failure to tackle zombies can lead to company blacklisting, says Pete Simpson  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Some rights reserved

  Locking up content behind the bars of copyright law will only benefit big corporations. What we need is commonsense legislation...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: The right side of the law

  Legal knowledge is now essential for IT professionals, writes Roger Bickerstaff  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Legion of the damned

  Simon Moores laments the demise of his Windows OS, victim of XP Service Pack 2, which collapsed under the weight of anti-virus...  Continue Reading

• Lead suppliers into partnership

  The customer is always right is a commercial tenet more honoured in the breach than the observance. Or so it often seems to IT...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Map reading

  Mapping out the workflows and processes within the organisation should be a mandatory part of every business, says Colin...  Continue Reading

• Involve IT from the start to ease pain of mergers and acquisitions

  "The integration programme is on track. It is only IT that is behind." A comment along these lines usually occurs within a month...  Continue Reading

• Do you give the wrong signals?

  The IT director who is not a team player is easy to spot  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: More companies are using Linux despite lawsuits and cost issues

  Deployment of Linux is growing across large enterprises  Continue Reading

• Your shout! On gender-based recruitment in IT

  In response to Steve Shuttleworth's comments about female-oriented IT recruitment drives  Continue Reading

• Strategy clinic: How can I make users supply quality data?

  The IT team has been criticised over our customer relationship management software. But the real problem is the quality of the...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Make legacy attractive

  Friendly interfaces can revitalise mainframe projects and ensure deadlines are met, says David Chalmers  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Safe as houses

  It has become increasingly difficult to prevent the bad guys getting hold of your credit card and bank account details.Will it...  Continue Reading

• NHS IT needs open leadership

  The loss of leaders on the world's biggest civil IT programme is beginning to make a mockery of the phrase "public sector...  Continue Reading

• Your Shout! On ageism in the UK's ITjobs market

  In response to the report on computerweekly.com about the need to broaden IT recruitment to avoid a potential skills shortage  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Standard cure for GPs' IT

  Systems must meet universally agreed requirements, says Kirsty Trigg  Continue Reading

• DPM'S Diary

  Monday  Continue Reading

• Downtimes

  Same old chaos reigns a century from now  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Kissing frogs...

  If manipulating project plans to suit politically acceptable outcomes becomes the norm, maybe it is time to come up with new...  Continue Reading

• Manage the dangers of meta data hiding in the documents you send

  Word files and e-mails can reveal more than users intend  Continue Reading

• Bespoke IT can be cheaper in the long run

  Buying tailor-made software can avoid the need for lengthy consultancy work  Continue Reading

• IT industry must have the freedom to grow

  Shadow minister for industry and technology for the Conservatives, Michael Fabricant, explains why a light touch from government...  Continue Reading

• Stop the party games with IT

  Over the past three weeks, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives have spelt out their IT policies.  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Cybersex and the kiss of death

  By hiding trojans within the pornographic images so enthusiastically pinged around the internet, hackers have finally made...  Continue Reading

• The law's not a chore

  Data protection laws may seem onerous for small firms, but not if common sense processes are put in place as early as possible  Continue Reading

• Bigger is not better: manage applications to deliver improved network performance

  Over the past few years organisations have come to expect more from their networks.  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: We must be responsive to industry's needs

  Labour minister for e-commerce, Mike O'Brien explains what it is doing to support e-business and deliver e-government  Continue Reading

• Protect your firm's intellectual property

  SCO's action against IBM over disputed Unix code highlights the grey area of software as intellectual property. So how do you...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: To SP2 or iMac?

  Escaping the world of the PC and Microsoft for an alternative such as the iMac, may be harder than you think, says Simon Moores  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Businesses can't work without current information

  The high-speed online nature of the world businesses operate in means managers need up-to-date information all the time. The...  Continue Reading

• £28bn: the cost of the 'worst case worm'

  Study assess the dameage that the worst possible electronic attack could inflict  Continue Reading

• Multi-core chips deliver faster operations but could double per-processor OS charges

  Intel's move to put two processors on the same chip may give Linux a boost  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Rights management, who needs it?

  Will the promotion of rights management technology by the EU mean the end of a competitive IT market, asks Simon Moores.  Continue Reading

• Have faith in adding Linux to the IT mix

  Forget about competing claims for total cost of ownership, Linux is fit and ready for the enterprise if you need an operating...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Openness will improve public IT success

  Richard Allan of the Liberal Democrats explains why they support publication of Gateway Reviews  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Sink or swim

  Citrix needs to re-evaluate its position in the large company market if it is not to be eaten by the big fish Microsoft, says...  Continue Reading

• Don't let killer apps be the death of the firm

  Since the early days of computing, software applications have been plagued with problems: unexplained crashes, intermittent slow...  Continue Reading

• Build ERP upgrade costs into the business change programme - not the IT budget

  In terms of business processes and employees, the reach of enterprise resource planning systems in large companies covers a...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Whose fault is it anyway?

  It is time CIOs stood up and made the contribution to the business that they are capable of, says Roderick Angwin  Continue Reading

• People.com: Euro flaws

  Just what can employers expect from the present government and its apparent empathy with any European directive that happens to...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: At your Service (Pack2)

  The security benefits of XP SP2 are probably worth the risk of disrupting your system when you install it, says Simon Moores  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Meaningful relationships

  Abandoning service level agreements will not hinder the business, but free up valuable management time, says Colin Beveridge  Continue Reading

• Your shout! On small businesses using open source

  In response to the debate on the advantages of Linux and Microsoft Windows (Computer Weekly, 7 September)  Continue Reading

• Learning lessons of Libra's history

  We congratulate the Department for Constitutional Affairs on its openness. But, for all the department's sincere assurances (see...  Continue Reading

• Defences must be multi-layered

  Spam blights many networks, but it can be managed and blocked  Continue Reading

• Five golden rules of knowledge management

  Knowledge Management: A Blueprint for Delivery  Continue Reading

• No more papering over the cracks

  Standard can help IT to control problem-solving process  Continue Reading

• The difference between project and programme management

  That IT projects tend not to deliver many sought-after benefits is not news. Accusing the usual suspects - excessive optimism,...  Continue Reading

• Get into office politics if you want to get on the board

  Our continuing research into the nature and consequences of the IT stereotype have shown that there has been some progress over...  Continue Reading

• The IT director holds key to sales

  We live in a multi-channel world. Gateway's stores have become showrooms in which the shop assistant expects you to buy elsewhere...  Continue Reading

• Challenge of change

  New electronic reporting requirements imposed bu the government will force many small businesses to upgrade their IT, says Dennis...  Continue Reading

• How giants squash the online ambitions of small businesses

  Small firms are being denied the Internet access they require by restrictive BT packages  Continue Reading

• Better broadband

  Poor service blights growth in broadband penetration, says Lucy Woods.  Continue Reading

• Strategy Clinic: Don't forget the users!

  What do you feel is the most common - and avoidable - mistake that organisations make when initiating an e-business operation?  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Organised crime sews up internet scams

  Where do we start in defending ourselves against the ever growing internet scams, asks Simon Moores  Continue Reading

• The business case for wireless mobility

  The productivity and flexibility from wireless usage in today's working environment is of vital importance, particularly in...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: IT is not just technology

  Business opportunities present new IT challenges  Continue Reading

• Beware of spies in the machine

  While spyware is widely used to track the patterns of individual users' internet usage, there is an unexplored and more sinister...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: From Beijing to Whitehall

  Will taking the Chinese approach to compliance ensure companies meet new government regulations, asks Simon Moores  Continue Reading

• Your Shout! On the likely rise in cost of the ID card project

  In response to the news that the Home Affairs Select Committee expects the national ID card project to cost more than £3bn (Computer Weekly, 3 August)  Continue Reading

• Going the extra mile for SMEs

  Among British politicians' favourite platitudes is the importance of smaller companies to the overall performance of UK plc.  Continue Reading

• Watmore's tough task

  Ian Watmore, the new head of e-government, faces a formidable task in persuading Whitehall vested interests to change business...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: MFI and the case for flexibility

  As the furniture chain admits to problems with an implementation, Colin Beveridge says being flexible with your business model...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Buy-in depends on softer skills

  Employee commitment to new working practices is crucial to project success, says Lindsay Wittenberg  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Preparing for the worst

  Updating PCs with more and more security products does not stop Simon Moores worrying when the next viruses will hit.  Continue Reading

• Fight spyware with tactics, tools and technologies

  Spyware is a critical security threat to corporate systems and data. Prepare a tactical response now using multiple tools, and...  Continue Reading

• Outsourcing is a people issue

  The three-week strike by IT staff at Swansea Council in protest at possible outsourcing raises serious issues with ramifications...  Continue Reading

• Thought for the day: Finding the true cost of IT projects

  Until the the government can reveal the real risk to the security of its latest projects, should users remain suspicious, says...  Continue Reading