Opinion

Opinion

• The name change short-change

  When I read of yet another mega merger, I always wonder who is going to have to pay how much to whom to have the name change...  Continue Reading

• Outsourcers must speed up to meet growing demands

  
  
  David Bicknell

  E-business

  If outsourcers want to keep their customers happy and competitive, they will need to offer a faster...

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• Computer weekly comment

  
  
  It may take several years before the fate of Microsoft is finally decided, but breaking up this software superpower is not the right...  Continue Reading

• Wap: a rocky road lies ahead

  
  
  You cannot read a newspaper anywhere in the world right now that does not feature a piece at some point in the week on "the Wap phenomenon" and how we will all...  Continue Reading

• Boos for boo.com: an example of how not to do it

  
  
  The online clothing retailer Boo.com is in many ways exemplary - in the sense that it offers a perfect example of how not to do an e-commerce site....  Continue Reading

• Connect with your Intranet

  
  
  David Taylor

  Inside Track

  The new global agenda is on everyone's lips. Any organisation that follows the simple rule, that there...

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• ASP potential set to make big impact

  
  
  Ian Mtchell

  City Briefing

  I have been a believer in the application service provider (ASP) business model for some time, partly...

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• A time for nifty footwork from ISPs

  
  
  Toby Poston

  It has been a busy month for Internet service providers. In reaction to a move made by their rivals, BT and Freeserve, two of the...

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• Council of users helps Microsoft reshape models

  
  
  John Riley

  A dozen top UK users, including Marks & Spencer, the Woolwich and Credit Suisse First Boston, have directly helped reshape...

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• ISPs need legal clarity

  
  
  The case of Godfrey-v-Demon - the Internet libel case settled out of court last week - leaves IT professionals mystified and concerned as to what it means...  Continue Reading

• We must get the framework right

  The e-minister plans to make interoperability standards mandatory, in pursuit of open government  Continue Reading

• Good time for technology start-ups

  
  
  Ian Mitchell

  Following last week's budget, there has never been a better time to join a start-up technology company. The Chancellor has improved...

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• Big Blue demonstrates lack of original zing

  Lou Gerstner has saved IBM. The problem is, he doesn't have a clue what to do next. Big Blue has become Big Grey  Continue Reading

• "E" stands for ethics

  
  
  Consider this business arrangement. I will do business with you only if you can provide me with supplies more cheaply and faster than anyone else. Even if...  Continue Reading

• What matters most is getting the job done

  
  
  John Riley

  Groundswell

  Choosing a new supplier is as fraught and as tempestuous as the forging of any new personal relationship....

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• Users fill void with non-IT graduates

  
  
  The failure of universities to keep pace with the demand for skilled IT staff is encouraging employers to turn to graduates from the arts and other disciplines...  Continue Reading

• IT look to big cheese

  
  
  Mark Lewis

  If you've attended any IT conferences recently, you may have been surprised to see fellow delegates spending their coffee breaks...

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• IT has a major role to play as Best Value takes effect

  The Government's Best Value regime is about to come into force. Its aim is to shake up the delivery and assessment of local...  Continue Reading

• Developing Web commerce skills

  
  
  I am a 24-year-old analyst programmer with two years' experience developing business applications. My main skills are C and Unix. I am currently...  Continue Reading

• Engage right brain

  
  
  An IT department's credibility is based on perception rather than performance, and is influenced more by its relationship with management and political...  Continue Reading

• Pocket PC OS: a Microsoft in the hand

  It's not often you hear me getting excited about Microsoft, but earlier this month, the company invited me to Seattle to hear the...  Continue Reading

• Access for all as Wap walls come down

  
  
  Antony Savvas

  Mobile phone operators are pulling down their "walled gardens" to allow any company to have their corporate Web sites read by mobile...

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• Expert warns of ERP perils

  Failure to implement change-management is behind the performance dip suffered by companies post-ERP roll-out Hooman Bassirian  Continue Reading

• IT managers welcome apprenticeship scheme

  
  
  Mike Simons

  Most IT users would be happy to take on school leavers or graduates as apprentices.

  The Computer Weekly/Harvey Nash...

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• Income tax IT row harms Government programme

  
  
  Mike Simons

  The Inland Revenue is deeply concerned that competition between outsourcers will undermine moves towards "joined-up...

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• If they don't click on, you could click off

  
  
  

  John Riley

  Groundswell

  Can you imagine the destructive effect on your business of your company not responding to a third of...

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• Will Sun see the light over open sourcing?

  If Sun is a company that truly wishes to embrace the open source philosophy then we should welcome an open source version of its...  Continue Reading

• Barclays has infrastructure to get e-banking right

  
  
  John Riley

  "A big world needs a big bank" is the message Barclays Bank is trying to put across in its new advertising campaign.

  And it seems...

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• MPs probe Chinook

  Parliament's most powerful select committee has begun enquiries into software problems on the Chinook helicopter that crashed  Continue Reading

• E-business boom set to deepen skills crisis

  A long-term view can help avert an IT skills crisis.  Continue Reading

• Bloated Web sites frustrate even the unmetered Net user

  
  
  Free (unmetered) Internet use is sweeping the UK. And while it's changing the way people use the Net, I don't think it will affect the backlash against bloated...  Continue Reading

• CSL admits benefit IT chaos

  
  
  Mike Simons

  IT outsourcing company CSL is failing to deliver an adequate service on more than half of its housing benefits...

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• Free Internet access - but at a price

  Antony Savvas looks at the free Internet access packages launched, what's on offer and any hidden problems  Continue Reading

• Co-op to save cash from IT merger

  
  
  Bill Goodwin

  IT will play a key role in reducing costs following the merger of the two largest players in the co-operative movement...

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• Internet voting has huge impact on US state election

  
  
  The voters of Arizona, USA, may just have made political history. Eighty thousand of them turned out in a presidential primary that was already as good as won...  Continue Reading

• Judgment puts IT users in the firing line on purchasing

  Until now IT users have usually won the backing of judges when suing their supplier over a flawed system. Now a ground-breaking...  Continue Reading

• Typecast for action?

  The dynamic world of e-commerce demands that ideas are put into action. But are you employing the right people? Mark Lewis...  Continue Reading

• Thomas Cook integrates Web and back-office to offer two million holidays online

  
  
  Thomas Cook has integrated its Web site with its back office systems to offer any of two million holidays online, writes Guy Campos.

  The agency...

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• European innovation is driving IT revolution

  
  
  John Riley

  There was much razzmatazz when Ford announced recently that it is providing PCs with Internet access to all its employees. But...

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• Users face uncertainty future with Baan

  Following Baan's sell-off of its Coda financial application family, users were warned last week that more products are likely to...  Continue Reading

• Tivoli offers management agents for palm handheld

  Tivoli has announced a roadmap to provide systems management on handheld computers, cable modems and, at a later date, mobile...  Continue Reading

• Blowing the froth off e-tailers

  
  
  Are you thinking of investing in lastminute.com? If so, be honest. Have you concluded it is an excellent company that is going to win a significant amount of...  Continue Reading

• Users shy of PKIs

  
  
  Suppliers of public key infrastructure technology (PKI) are facing a market shakeout as users shun their marketing message.

  Suppliers such as RSA,...

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• Obituary: Alan Benjamin OBE

  
  
  Many of our readers will have heard of the death of Alan Benjamin OBE. Alan's contribution to our industry would be difficult to...  Continue Reading

• Your IT department: are you sitting on a goldmine?

  
  
  Is your IT department worth more than the business? On the face of it this may seem a ridiculous question, but given the valuations attached to IT...  Continue Reading

• You can't blame the boffins

  The flawed development of Chinook's systems holds vital lessons for IT managers.  Continue Reading

• When time is of the essence

  
  
  Mike Pilcher

  Opinion

  Most large-scale application development projects come in over budget, over time or unsuccessful. The...

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• IT is the business

  Sir John Harvey Jones complains that it is about time Britain saw the importance of IT to business and argues that if we don't we...  Continue Reading

• Health services lag behind general growth

  Spending on IT in the NHS is growing - but not as fast as the average for the whole economy. Behind the figures, say IT...  Continue Reading

• Does HP's ePC herald the era of the disposable machine?

  
  
  Everyone knows that the cost of PCs has fallen over the past 20 years. However, not enough people have taken the idea to its logical conclusion: that...  Continue Reading

• Boo.com fails to live up to the hype

  
  
  Isabel Choat

  Call me old-fashioned but one of the pleasures of clothes shopping is being able to flick through a rail of the season's latest...

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• Third generation e-business to rely on bespoke supplier info

  E-businesses will come to rely on the Internet to manage supply chain relationships electronically and in real time to gain...  Continue Reading

• Safety buck should stop at company directors

  Security is crucial to the growth of e-business - so much so that company directors should be pilloried if their policies are lax  Continue Reading

• Don't cry for me IT reader

  
  
  Karl Feilder

  Ground Zero

  Arather long journey comes to a cold end

  The ice wind ended its long journey from the...

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• Dotcom hit and myth

  
  
  Ian Mitchell

  City Briefing

  There is a view that in the current climate anyone can wake up with a great idea for a dotcom, get...

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• How the Royal Bank of Scotland slimmed down costs

  Royal Bank of Scotland has many ITcost saving lessons to pass on to its new acquisition, NatWest, writes Julia Vowler  Continue Reading

• Perfect packaging? Are ASPs all they're cracked up to be?

  Are application service providers (ASPs) really the saviours that many managers in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)...  Continue Reading

• Your job may never be the same again

  The launch of Windows 2000 is just the start for IT departments. As structures are redrawn, training and skills audits will be...  Continue Reading

• Improve your company's credibility by making security a priority

  
  
  Ian Mitchell

  City Briefing

  The IT illiterate and those who have missed the boat are growing more vocal about the prospect of a...

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• Y2K: an endless search for scapegoats

  Y2K hysteria has followed the pattern of HIV, writes Karl Fielder  Continue Reading

• Concern over server risks

  Windows 2000 draws a cautious response from IT directors.  Continue Reading

• Beware the dotcom fire

  
  
  John Riley

  The bloodletting is beginning! Reports are mounting of IT directors getting the chop - albeit on satisfactory terms.

  Many...

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• MPs on the wrong line

  
  
  Richard Woods

  Soapbox

  Last month a cross-party alliance of MPs told BT to follow the example of British Gas and ditch its...

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• Councils grapple with skills crisis

  Local authority IT faces a tough time ahead - Modernising Government initiatives, the Best Value regime and the looming IT skills...  Continue Reading

• When to implement Windows 2000

  Is it better to be an early adopter of Windows 2000 or better to wait until its weaknesses are known so that you can use this...  Continue Reading

• Opening Windows: the threat from Open Source

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• The IT Valentine's party

  Passions can run high in the business/IT/supplier ménage à trois, writes Julia Vowler  Continue Reading

• Users caught in Wap crossfire

  The telecoms network war rages and Wap is being heavily hyped, but the new handsets could soon be scrap  Continue Reading

• Load balancing is key to Net banking

  
  
  Pravin Jeyaraj

  Online banks like Egg have used aggressive marketing to attract people to their sites, but in order to provide an...

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• Biting the bullet on pay

  
  
  Ian Mitchell

  City Briefing

  Rarely can IT contractors have felt so confused as to where their future lies - and that will not...

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• Adaptability is the name of the game

  
  
  John Riley

  Adaptability is more important in the e-business age than the ability to plan. That was the message the new director general...

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• Don't forget the warmwear

  
  
  John Riley

  Groundswell

  A director of Airbus Industries once assured me that the public would never accept flying in an aircraft...

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• City slickers or techno-dunces?

  
  
  Karl Feilder

  Ground Zero

  London needs to buck up its ideas in the IT market

  London, the City. The world's centre of...

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• Time to make dotcom move

  IT executives wanting to join a dotcom company as chief technology officer may have only six months to make their move, according...  Continue Reading

• What your desk says about you

  
  
  Psychologist Donna Dawson has revealed that others can tell from your desk whether you are ambitious, hard-working, good in teams or calculating for...  Continue Reading

• Why mobiles are no threat to the good old PC

  
  
  Jack Schofield

  Opinion

  The leading lights of the mobile phone industry are sunning themselves at the GSM 2000 conference in...

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• Euro law bars e-economy

  
  
  David Bicknell

  European legal specialists have warned that ambitious European Commission plans to push through electronic commerce...

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• Discount model danger

  Amazon.com's announcement of 150 redundancies, coupled with up to another 100 at clothes retailer  Continue Reading

• IT jobs demand to soar

  IT departments will find it increasingly difficult to recruit the right people as demand grows for staff with e-commerce and Internet skills  Continue Reading

• IR35 impact greater than expected

  
  
  Tina Milton

  The final version of the IR35 guidelines may hit more contractors than expected. As the new proposals impose a one month time...

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• Even the big boys make mistakes

  Karl Feilder Ground Zero MP3 is the latest to receive the hype treatment  Continue Reading

• Education is king

  
  
  Prime minister Tony Blair has called for education reforms to prepare Europe for electronic commerce.

  Blair told the World Economic Forum in Davos...

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• New tricks for old dogs: learning to use the Net

  
  
  John Riley

  When you're a large, established, fast moving company running a 2% margin there's not much room for experimenting with...

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• Scare tactics will open CEO's door

  IT directors should undertake some shrewd Macchiavellian politicking to ensure their commercial value is properly recognised  Continue Reading

• Murderer caught out by computer

  
  
  Antony Savvas

  The forensic computing lab at Greater Manchester Police played a vital role in securing the conviction of killer GP Harold...

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• The wired world

  
  
  

  Ken Olisa

  At a recent party, I met a very attractive lady and, over the exotic canapes and Pouilly Fume, I learned that she heads a major...

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• Stay one step ahead of the business in the year of technology infrastructure

  The business world is moving fast and pre-emptive measures must be taken to stay ahead  Continue Reading

• Two successful link-ups

  FI Group's merger with Druid has received a lot of publicity  Continue Reading

• Will surveys seriously damage your belief that the bug doesn't hurt?

  Don't breathe easy it ain't over yet!  Continue Reading

• Dawn Watch over VAT rule

  
  
  Red (faced) Dawn has been caught out over her policy on VAT. The treasury minister, Dawn Primarolo, fought for an end to the rule under which value added...  Continue Reading

• The truth is out there, but Bill won't let us in on it

  You are old father William, the young man said, and the Department of Justice will fall on your head. Is this an epitaph for...  Continue Reading

• Placating pay gap paranoia

  Tension is growing in some companies as the pay gap between traditional back-office IT developers and front-end e-business...  Continue Reading

• Make supplier relationships work for you

  David Taylor recommends some important steps by which an IT manager can vastly improve relationships with suppliers  Continue Reading

• Skimping on business continuity costs dear

  
  
  Tony Collins

  The anatomy of success and failure

  Any IT directors who have trouble extracting money from the board for measures to...

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• The implications of ASP

  Amid all the fuss about the announcement of Bill Gates standing down as CEO of Microsoft was a statement that should make the...  Continue Reading

• Ensure your fingers are in the e-pie

  Have you noticed that everyone is involved in a major, hush-hush e-commerce initiative, one that will change the way they do...  Continue Reading

• Users say no to technology giants

  
  
  Most Big Question respondents do not think that they will have to rely on giant combines like AOL/Time Warner to deliver effective e-business...  Continue Reading

• The heart of the matter

  A pioneer of IT in medical practice, Dr Geoff Clayton is now using the Web to fight disease  Continue Reading

• What's Bill plotting?

  Is Bill Gates' assumption of the title chief software architect a genuine move to captain the software giant through stormy seas...  Continue Reading

• Learning from the Man U master

  Managing My Life - My Autobiography Alex Ferguson  Continue Reading