25-31 October 2011 | computerweekly.com

Why IT projects fail we ask the experts why technology programmes are plagued with problems page 13

Managing virtual machines VMware CEO Paul Maritz sets out his vision for virtualisation page 4 Getting NHS IT into shape Health service interim IT chief Katie Davis on managing the technology to support change page 5 comstock images Highlights from the week online

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Samsung sues to block > The reality behind government 1 Apple iPhone 4S cloud computing hype: Gartner computerweekly.com/248167.htm Cloud computing remains an important trend and, in the long run, RIM offers free technical will have a transformational impact 2 support after outages on the way government organisa- computerweekly.com/248173.htm tions access and leverage IT. However, the path to the cloud is Military-grade cyber attacks: definitely slower and more tortuous 3 How businesses can be safe than many wish to think. computerweekly.com/248174.htm computerweekly.com/248039.htm

Data warehouse suppliers > Research: Do CIOs have more 4 will integrate Hadoop clarity about cloud computing? computerweekly.com/248169.htm Xantus surveyed a panel of 50 CIOs from organisations across a range CESG approves first of public and private sectors and 5 encrypted USB flash drive > Business apps for the iPhone sizes. The results show that, while computerweekly.com/248170.htm In this photo story we look at the applications, including GoodReader and there is still a reluctance to fully 1Password Pro, that make the iPhone a smartphone for business. commit to the cloud, there is a Microsoft will disrupt computerweekly.com/48151-1.htm general acceptance of the benefits 6 developer community and a growing commitment to computerweekly.com/248163.htm develop those benefits as far as videos practicable. CIOs recognise cloud NHS could lose role of IT chief computing offers opportunities and 7 in department shake-up there are short and long-term computerweekly.com/248180.htm benefits to making it work. computerweekly.com/248009.htm Password chaos linked 8 to network breaches > Using technology to drive computerweekly.com/248187.htm productivity and growth in the EU ICT investment and productivity Technology is top of the growth are closely linked - and 9 chops in RBS savings memo European countries are lagging computerweekly.com/248176.htm behind other parts of the world in both. European GDP could grow by Software suppliers exploit > CW500: Andy Beale, technology > CW500: Peter Ransom, chief an additional €760bn (or an extra 10 distance between HR and IT director, Guardian News & Media information officer, Oxfam 5%) above forecasts if Europe computerweekly.com/248164.htm In this CW500 Club video, Andy Beale We have heard the theories about what matched total US ICT levels by talks to Computer Weekly editor in the cloud promises, but advice from 2020. This would be worth around Get the latest IT news via RSS feed chief Bryan Glick to share his practical IT leaders with real-world experience €1,500 per person at today’s prices. computerweekly.com/RSSFeeds.htm advice on how to move to the cloud. can help put it into practice. computerweekly.com/247991.htm computerweekly.com/248108.htm computerweekly.com/248109.htm

awards blogs

> The Computer Weekly Social > Faisal Alani: What is the cheapest iPhone 4S package? Media Awards 2011: Nominate now There are many deals around for Apple’s latest iPhone, but it’s hard to tell which is the cheapest and Computer Weekly’s search for the best which is the best for consumers and small businesses. So I have looked at every contract available for use of social media in IT is back for its the iPhone 4S to find out which is the cheapest in total, inclusive of phone cost and monthly bill. fourth year and we want you to take computerweekly.com/blogs/inspect-a-gadget part in our new improved awards programme for 2011 by nominating > Philip Virgo: Lobbying post-Werrity – will we address the “real” corruption? the best uses of social media The UK had a simple mechanism for preserving the probity of its public service until Edward Heath gave technology and the bloggers and permission to two senior Ministry of Defence officials to join a defence contractor without losing their social media users you most admire. pensions: loss of pension if you joined any business with which you or your colleagues had had dealings. computerweekly.com/248053.htm computerweekly.com/blogs/when-it-meets-politics

opinion > Adrian Bridgwater: When open source community programming doesn’t work Comment has been circulating in certain web-driven circles relating to the size of some open source > Adobe defines digital enterprise projects. The subject in discussion is centred on projects that (allegedly) suffer from too small a platform for customer management number of community members; the upshot of which may be to create an elitist group of developers. Adobe is keen to influence a few computerweekly.com/blogs/open-source-insider industry paradigms during its time on Earth, so as the company targets the > David Bicknell: What sustainability should learn from Steve Jobs customer experience management I liked a blog post from Andrew Winston entitled What sustainability should learn from Steve Jobs. market with its Digital Enterprise Winston, who writes regularly for the Harvard Business Review, argues that before the iPad was Platform, what challenges does it face? introduced, many asked why you’d need a tablet computer. Steve Jobs, he says, made us want one. computerweekly.com/248117.htm computerweekly.com/blogs/greentech

2 | 25-31 October 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com the week in IT

desktop software Outsourcing Microsoft posts record Q1 revenue, Study reveals sectors boosting

despite lacklustre PC market thinkst o ck investment in IT outsourcing Microsoft has reported a year-on-year The retail, manufacturing, telecoms sales increase of 7% and first quarter and media sectors in Europe have profit gains of 6% as slowed growth spent more on IT outsourcing during in the PC market hit sales of its Win- the first nine months of this year than dows operating system. The modest in the whole of last year, according to increases still delivered record first- figures from sourcing advisory TPI. quarter revenues of $17.37bn for the The financial services sector, which quarter ended 30 September and accounted for about a third of total pushed net income to $5.74bn. spending last year, has slowed its computerweekly.com/248223.htm spending on outsourced IT services. computerweekly.com/248204.htm Public sector IT Government invites bids for Mobile computing £60m G-Cloud contracts Government targets big IT savings Intel posts record third quarter The government has invited sup- profits on back of notebook sales pliers to bid for a £60m framework The government aims to cut IT costs by £1.4bn over the next four years Intel has posted record sales and agreement to provide the G-Cloud through cloud computing, the public services network and datacentre profits after strong growth in note- – the public sector-wide cloud consolidation, according to its ICT Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). The book PCs. In its third quarter finan- infrastructure that will support SIP fleshes out the government’s technology strategy released earlier this cial results, Intel’s sales grew 28% Whitehall’s cost-cutting IT strategy. year and provides a roadmap for 19 areas of change. These include open year-on-year to reach $14.2bn, up The tender document says the con- source, the use of agile methodologies and a move to digital by default. $3.1bn. Profit grew 17% year-on-year tracts will be divided into four lots, Key areas expected to generate savings over the next four years are the to reach $3.5bn, up $513m. Intel’s PC covering infrastructure-as-a-service, creation of the public services network (PSN), estimated to save a total of client group sales increase 22% com- platform-as-a-service, software-as-a- £390m; a move to the cloud and Government Application Store (£180m); the pared with 2010 figures to $9.4bn. service, and specialist cloud services. continuation of the government’s moratorium on ICT spend (£650m); computerweekly.com/248203.htm computerweekly.com/248221.htm datacentre consolidation (£160m); and reducing the cost of procuring devices such as PCs and laptops (£60m). The government expects to save IT spending Mobile computing 7% of its estimated annual £6.5bn ICT budget for central departments once IT budgets expected to drop Nokia suffers loss of €151m its new ICT infrastructure has been established. This will total yearly savings in Europe next year despite phone sales increase of £460m by 2015, it said. A survey of investment companies An 8% increase in non-smartphone computerweekly.com/248225.htm has found that 67% of IT industry handset sales failed to save phone investors believe European spending manufacturer Nokia from posting a will decline in 2012, while 19.1% net loss of €151m (£132m) in its lat- think budgets will stay the same. est financial results. In the company’s 2012 enterprise IT budget growth The findings suggest significant eco- third quarter, net sales fell 13% nomic uncertainty in Europe, with year-on-year from €10.3bn in 2010 US companies only 13.8% of respondents expecting to €9bn. Overall sales of devices and (% year on year) companies in Europe to spend more 31.9% services fell 30%. 24.7% European companies on IT next year than last year. 30.1% (% year on year) computerweekly.com/248217.htm computerweekly.com/248195.htm 19.1%

cybersecurity 17% hardware Hague calls for international IBM shares fall after slow revenue

consensus on cyberspace 11.8% growth in third quarter 11.8% 11.7% 8.5% There needs to be international IBM shares fell almost 4% after its consensus on responding to develop- 8.6% third quarter results were announced 6.4% 5.4% ments in cyberspace, according to UK 5.3% as investors worried about cancelled 4.3%

foreign secretary William Hague. He 2.2% IT projects and slower spending on 1.1% said this response needs to be a col- 0% 0% technology. The company’s sales lective endeavour involving the major for the third quarter of 2011 were actors in cyberspace, so he has invited Flat $26.2bn, up 8% compared with Down 7-10% Up less Up than 3% than 3% representatives from governments, more Up the same period in 2010. Profit was Up 3-6% than 10% than 10% Up 7-10% Down less Down Down more more Down civil society and business to the Lon- 3-6% Down $3.8bn for the quarter, compared with don Conference on Cyberspace. $3.6bn in 2010 – an increase of 7%. Source: Jefferies computerweekly.com/248195.htm computerweekly.com/248210.htm computerweekly.com/248185.htm

cio interview Mobile computing Network infrastructure RIM unveils Blackberry BBX “I hope we get to the point EC proposes €9.2bn investment mobile operating system for high-speed broadband Blackberry maker Research in Mo- where [NHS] IT is something The European Commission (EC) is tion (RIM) has introduced its latest expected to propose an investment of mobile operating system (OS), BBX. we just take for granted” €9.2bn (£8bn) for high-speed broad- At the Blackberry DevCon Americas band across Europe. As part of the 2011 conference, RIM said BBX Katie Davis, interim head of IT, proposals, the EC will outline targets combines elements of its Blackberry to improve broadband speeds and OS platform and QNX OS, which its Department of Health prioritise rural areas. The investment Blackberry Playbook tablet device would also create hundreds of thou- currently runs on. computerweekly.com/248186.htm sands of jobs. computerweekly.com/248209.htm computerweekly.com/248165.htm

3 | 25-31 October 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis virtualisation VMware sets sights on integration as virtualisation complexity escalates At the VMworld conference in Copenhagen CEO Paul Maritz set out his vision for virtualisation, writes Cliff Saran

aul Maritz, CEO at VMware, use, with its own apps and phone has been in computing number; and a corporate mode, that since the 1970s, from the accesses enterprise applications and P age of mainframe, through has its own company phone number. client-server and now cloud comput- ing. “One of the ways to categorise Licensing criticisms computing is the type of application. VMware’s licensing is again under In the cloud, we are seeing the emer- the spotlight. Rival Microsoft has gence of a new type of applications, published data that shows its own which cannot be done on a tradition- Hyper-V hypervisor is much cheaper al relational database,” he said in his than a VMware set-up. keynote presentation at the supplier’s Microsoft said its ECI Datacenter VMworld in Copenhagen. “We are trying to suite costs €3,354 per processor, with Managing virtual machines (VMs) no additional cost for VMs, while it will be key to realising the new appli- pivot towards pulling claimed VMware’s cloud infrastruc- cation architecture. Virtualisation is ture suite costs €4,440 per processor the only way organisations can man- management into a and €1,493 per virtual machine. age the complex infrastructure to “VMware is charging per VM and scale up and down in support of con- full suite.” per management tool, which changes text-aware applications, said Maritz. the economies of virtualisation. Its li- The company has spent the last censing does not scale linearly,” said few years developing and acquiring Paul Maritz, Edwin Yuen, director of cloud and products to flesh out a portfolio of IT VMware CEO virtualisation strategy at Microsoft. management tools to manage increas- He pointed out that as users add ingly complex virtual environments. more VMs, the cost escalates. “If you “Customers have been asking have six VMs per processor, Micro- VMware for management tools for soft will charge €282,000, while years,” said Tony Lock, programme full suite. This is a high priority, and bines information from different IT VMware would cost €1.4m.” Users director at analyst Freeform Dynam- we want to take off the rough edges management sources. VMware is tar- also pay €1,500 per virtual machine ics. “It needs to integrate its own so our customers don’t have to indi- geting the CIO with the VMware IT for vCenter Operations, according to management tools with existing vidually test components.” Business Management Suite, which Yuen: “It is incredibly expensive.” products, such as BMC Patrol, CA provides a high-level dashboard on Responding to the criticism, Maritz Unicenter and Tivoli.” Product launches service level agreements. said users can run x86-based hard- VMware’s rivals point to the lack During the Copenhagen event, VMware’s Horizon enables users to ware more powerful than a zSeries of a single interface to manage com- VMware launched vCenter Opera- access Windows applications, based mainframe. “There are truly monster plex virtual environments. Maritz ad- tions Management 5.0 and vFabric on credentials that can be taken from devices in the x86 space, which go mitted there is still much to do. Application Management and IT the Windows Active Directory. It is beyond a zSeries mainframe in per- “It is a dilemma doing a few things Business Management suites. also working with LG and Samsung, formance. Today customers are very well and reacting to the rest of VMware says the vFabric Applica- and operators Telefonica and Verizon putting 40, 50 or even 100 VMs on a the world,” he said. “We are trying to tion Suite 1.0 helps IT make applica- to support virtualisation on Android single server. Moore’s Law is benefit- pivot towards a more integrated ap- tions ready for the cloud. vCenter devices. This gives their smartphones ing our customers. Customers can proach to pull management into a Operations Management 5.0 com- two personalities: one for personal put more VMs on a machine.” ■

University joint venture deploys vShield Edge security more online The Yorkshire Humberside metropolitan area network major challenge faced by the consortium. News: Oxford University demos (YHMAN), a joint venture of universities, provides “Universities ran their own intrusion detection/ VMware database shared service network connections for more than 60 higher education prevention systems, virtual private networks and computerweekly.com/248193.htm institutions, further education colleges and others in the firewalls. We needed to make these available as shared Yorkshire and Humber region. services. The cost of security would have worked out News: Regulators don’t understand It is developing a shared service, built on a multi-ten- more expensive than storage if the universities ran their cloud, says pharmaceuticals CTO ancy virtualised architecture, to support 190,000 own physical firewalls,” said Hugh Lavern, director of computerweekly.com/248201.htm students and 25,000 staff across several universities, information media technical services at Leeds Metropoli- including Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Bradford and York. tan University. News: NYSE’s VMware-based After virtualisation proved cost-effective and was Instead, YHMAN deployed VMware vShield Edge for community cloud goes live found to work across large distances, security was the virtual security appliances for the universities. computerweekly.com/248211.htm

4 | 25-31 october 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com cio interview it leadership Positioning NHS IT for a healthy future Health service interim IT chief Katie Davis speaks to Kathleen Hall about managing the technology to support change

NPfIT clean-up The department recently declared its intention to “accelerate the dis- mantling of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT)”. But Davis says the announcement was primarily a reit- s controversial plans to eration of plans last year to move to restructure the NHS push a more locally-based commissioning ahead, only one thing ap- approach. a pears certain within the Not all of the programmes under Department of Health (DoH): change. the NPfIT will be wound down. As- Katie Davis, interim managing direc- pects such as the N3 network and the tor of informatics at the DoH, tells Spine are genuinely national pro- Computer Weekly why her role re- grammes and deliver a single out- flects this process of transformation. come, so it would only make sense to Davis moved from her position as deliver those systems once, she says. executive director in the Efficiency “You wouldn’t want multiple net- and Reform Group at the Cabinet Of- works existing across the NHS. And fice to become interim managing di- it certainly wouldn’t make sense rector of NHS Informatics in July from a value-for-money perspective. 2011, following the departure of In those situations, no doubt, we will former CIO Christine Connelly. How- continue to develop national applica- ever, according to Davis she is not tions. Infrastructure, by definition, stepping into Connelly’s shoes entire- falls into that category,” Davis says. “My position…is ly with the new role. Her aim is to get behind the “I wouldn’t describe my position “brand” of the NPfIT and decide a transition role” as interim or permanent. It is a transi- which programmes should be wound tion role and my job is to transition down and delivered locally, and from where we were to the future,” which should be run nationally. “The Katie Davis, Department of Health says Davis. “What that future will new model is about having the right bring is a bit too early to say, but I programmes in place with the right don’t think my role translates that ownership,” she says. easily into the future. I see it more as healthcare IT market to more suppli- itself is diverse, which means a varie- making sure we’ve got the right gov- Healthcare revolution ers, as the department intends to ty of suppliers can help to meet those ernance, the right levers and incen- The healthcare revolution strategy, commission a number of the projects different needs,” she says. tives to make the future marketplace which now falls under the remit of under the NPfIT more locally. work as well as it needs to.” Giles Wilmore, director of quality “The relationships with the LSPs Managing change As plans to dismantle Primary framework in the DoH, is not an IT [local service providers] and the big Amid the major shake-ups under- Care Trusts steam ahead and the strategy, but it will involve making contracts have dominated much of way, one of the biggest challenges focus moves to a local approach to more information available, in line the conversation,” she admits. “Cer- for Davis has been the impact on her commissioning, the commissioning with a recent drive to open up more tainly a disproportionate amount of staff of 1,300 people. “Because of board will take a strong role in sup- datasets in the health service. public focus has been on that. It’s the extent of the change, it is not yet porting local procurements, says “That’s really important because about recognising the reality and possible to make clear to individuals Davis. “This isn’t in place yet, but it here in the centre we are not as close spending as much time talking to all what their future will bring. So that’s will evolve over the next few to the patients as we would like to be. the suppliers in the market, not just a challenge. months.” And there are no doubt people better the big suppliers. Different suppliers “We’ve got some great committed than us at delivering the iPhone apps will meet the needs of different or- people who have given a lot over the of the future in a local context. We ganisations depending on what they past few years, and it will be a bit of won’t get the level of innovation we are trying to achieve.” time before we can tell them precise- more online want if we try to deliver everything Of course, this isn’t the first time ly what the future will bring. No from the centre. We also won’t neces- government has made noise about doubt by the spring we will be able to News: CSC repays £170m as NHS sarily deliver the best value for money the importance of SMEs in public bring a level of clarity that we don’t complains of records progress if we try to deliver it all,” says Davis. sector procurement. But Davis says have now,” she says. computerweekly.com/248073.htm So how would Davis summarise the risk of small businesses being Once the strategy is released, Davis her role? “First of all, making sure that overlooked in favour of larger suppli- hopes to press ahead with her biggest In-depth: The benefits and costs of we continue to deliver systems that ers is lower than in other areas of goal: to reach a point where people implementing telecare services support the NHS today; secondly, un- government because the NHS is more stop talking about NHS IT. “We don’t computerweekly.com/247778.htm derstanding how we can do things dif- diverse by definition. want IT to dominate the conversation ferently in the future; and thirdly, “The reality of the NHS is that in the way that it has done over the News: Burying the NHS National making the transition from where we what provides value-for-money and past few years. I really hope we get to Programme for IT are today to that future,” she says. benefits for a small rural hospital is the point where there isn’t such a computerweekly.com/247976.htm Davis is currently talking with not necessarily the same as that for a focus on the IT and it is something trade body Intellect to open the large metropolitan hospital. The NHS we just take for granted,” she says. ■

5 | 25-31 October 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis risk management How to protect your organisation from a military-grade cyber attack At its recent conference RSA shared the lessons it learnt from its own APT incursion, writes Warwick Ashford

SA Conference Europe Our adversaries were able to get only 2011 provided a useful a piece of information, but without working definition of the the right tools the damage could have R term advanced persistent been more extreme,” said Coviello. threats (APTs) as military-grade cyber attacks on commercial entities. Five steps to limit the damage The term is military and refers to According to RSA president Tom attacks backed by nation states, Heiser, there are five measures busi- which non-military IT professionals nesses can take to limit loss or dam- have never had to deal with before. age if their systems are breached: But why are nation states now l They should re-evaluate their risk, going after commercial businesses? asking what could make them a tar- The answer is that states are back- get, what information they hold that ing attacks that achieve commercial could be valuable to attackers, how advantage for domestic industries in vulnerable they are and how they fit a competitive global market. into the supply chain. Around 40 nations are believed to “Attackers even l Organisations should rethink be targeting commercial entities their protection against zero-day using military-grade tactics, said Sam monitor responses vulnerabilities. “Do not rely on sig- Curry, chief technologist at RSA. nature-based detection, but also use “It’s not just the usual suspects, but to incidents to gauge behaviour-based detection systems,” includes smaller countries that have said Heiser. specific industries they want to help, security capabilities” l Organisations should start deploy- typically mining, pharmaceutical ing security and network analysis and defence,” he said. capabilities. “Situational awareness But, because these attackers are Art Coviello is crucial in the face of contemporary going up and down the supply chain RSA executive chairman threats,” he said. to achieve their objectives, any sup- l Hardening authentication sys- plier to targeted industries could eas- tems and tightening access control ily be in the firing line. is important, and should include found on the breached network. APTs demand a new kind of strate- multi-authentication methods and RSA under attack These incursions are not easy to gy that accepts attackers will gain ac- restricted number of logins. RSA claimed it was the target of an detect, said RSA executive chairman cess to corporate networks, but is de- l Educating staff about security is- APT-style attack when its systems Art Coviello. They exploit zero-day signed to detect, resist, investigate sues across the organisation is impor- were breached in March, as attackers vulnerabilities where possible and and recover from such attacks. tant to ensure these are discussed and sought specific information to enable aim to get in and stay in without This was one of the main reasons understood at board level. ■ them to target defence firms. being detected. for RSA’s acquisition of NetWitness. The only known use of the infor- “Attackers even monitor responses Although the RSA breach was ahead This is an edited version of the original article. mation stolen from RSA was an at- to security incidents to gauge an or- of the acquisition, Coviello said RSA Go online to read the full version: tempted breach of data systems at de- ganisation’s security capabilities and was already using the technology and fence firm Lockheed-Martin in May. enable them to remain on the net- detected the intrusion immediately, Protect against military-grade APTs The attack on RSA was a means to work for long periods without trace.” limiting the damage. computerweekly.com/248174.htm the end of stealing intellectual prop- Commercial entities targeted in Security dogmas and technologies erty from RSA’s defence customers. this way are unlikely to have seen an- of the past are no longer adequate Apart from the likelihood of a na- ything like it before, said Uri Rivner, and offer diminished value, Coviello tion state backing two groups acting head of new technologies, identity told conference attendees. more online in concert that have never worked to- protection and verification at RSA. “Security professionals need to gether before, the attack on RSA bore Most business organisations do not start thinking differently about data News: RSA 2011 focuses on APTs the hallmarks of a military-grade in- have the forensic tools or skills at protection and move from static and shares lessons of data breach cursion: It was specialised, sophisti- their disposal required to analyse and point products to systems that have computerweekly.com/247980.htm cated and highly targeted, using so- understand what is going on in their integrated elements that add value to cial engineering and freshly networks, said Rivner. each other,” he said. In depth: APT strategies to protect compiled malware highly tailored to Using NetWitness in combination your organisation RSA, mimicking RSA naming con- Defending against APTs with other controls, Coviello said computerweekly.com/247039.htm ventions to try to avoid detection. So where does this leave businesses? RSA could determine what was Such attacks are typically based on Organisations need a new defence taken very quickly and formulate ef- Blog: APT – It’s about the attacker, expert intelligence gathering to iden- doctrine, which is under discussion fective remedial action. not the attack tify the information required, who by increasing numbers of chief infor- “Anyone can be infiltrated, but computerweekly.com/blogs has access to it and where it is to be mation security officers, Rivner said. that incursion need not be successful.

6 | 25-31 october 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com cio interview it leadership Changing home-grown to packaged tools as LateRooms extends its reach Adam Gerrard, IT chief at travel firm LateRooms, talks to Angelica Mari about transforming the firm's IT as it expands

a service-oriented architecture (SOA), for which skills will be need- ed to understand and implement technologies based on an enterprise service bus. “We are working under pressing After four years at car rental timescales and we need to do a lot: giant Avis Europe as group get the packages we need, bring CIO, Adam Gerrard faces a skills, implement. In the next three to a fresh challenge as his new six months we will recruit a lot and employer, hotel-booking service Late- help move people into a different Rooms, changes its approach to IT to way of working as we will have a support its expansion worldwide. common element to IT, rather than Gerrard joined LateRooms in May agile delivery cycles,” Gerrard said. to help realise its ambitions to at least The CTO explained the kinds of triple - if not quadruple - its size in staff he needs: “We are looking for the next three to four years. people who are geographically mo- According to Gerrard, the experi- bile, as this plays a huge part of ence at Avis came in useful when he being able to put the right skills in applied for the chief technology offic- the right locations. er job at LateRooms. “We are also looking for very “Clearly, international experience strong analytical skills, since we are is one of the things needed here - un- Gerrard: “Understanding the challenges and pitfalls of working on a global basis” trying to assess the state of our IT derstanding the challenges and pit- landscape and working out how to falls of working on a global basis move forward with a global platform. across different time zones and deal- mostly home-grown and focused on LateRooms has its own datacentre Then we also need project managers, ing with a shared-services centre type employing agile development meth- in Manchester, although Gerrard and a different mix of development of model.” Gerrard said. odologies for a .Net product set. Ac- thinks there is room for cooperation skills,” he said. cording to Gerrard, as the IT transfor- with TUI. The main hardware sup- “We are a huge group and there are Growing pains mation is pushed forward, there will pliers for the 200-server facility are opportunities within LateRooms but LateRooms is 12 years old and worth be plenty of change to come. Dell and HP. also within TUI. And we want to about £500m. Originally a venture “We want to bring in the global “It would make sense to have one bring the best calibre of people that capital-backed company, it has picture context to IT here. We will vendor, but we are not going to make we can afford and provide them with grown significantly in the last dec- have small teams of agile developers, any decisions now. Across all of the as much career potential and oppor- ade. In 2007 the firm was acquired by testers and business owners and tech stack, we seem to have gone for tunities as possible, whether it is the First Choice, which was then bought work on the quickest ways to im- three to four vendors as an attempt to UK or elsewhere.” ■ out by TUI. prove our websites and deliver value cover the bases rather than bringing As a result of these acquisitions, back to customers through incremen- economies of scale, so in the next two This is an edited version of the original article. the company now has a fast-growing tal change,” he said. to three years I would hope we start Go online to read the full version: Asian business in addition to its UK “Although it makes sense for a consolidating and take opportunities and continental Europe operations. small business to build everything, as they come,” he said. Meet Adam Gerrard, CTO at LateRooms This means that a new and more scal- when you start growing on a global Neither virtualisation nor cloud computerweekly.com/248126.htm able IT structure is needed to support basis and looking at the tools you has been employed at the company, expansion. need to be successful, you conclude but he said there is an opportunity to “From an IT perspective, we have that there are software companies out use virtual servers to transform test- grown from a Manchester-based op- there to provide those tools and that ing processes, while a private cloud more online eration to having to think about the can save you a great deal of time.” could be a good option to improve global challenge: supporting various Such an approach will mean a access to data across geographies. CIO interview: Gerry Pennell, CIO, time zones, deciding whether we will package-focused approach and the London 2012 Olympics have a shared services core and some firm’s finance system will be the first The skills dilemma computerweekly.com/248136.htm local teams to deliver services and so to tackle. Gerrard said the choice of One of the big issues faced by Gerrard on – we are going through a lot of tools for that requirement is limited is not related to technology, but to CIO interview: Katie Davis, interim growing pains,” said Gerrard. to Oracle Financials or SAP. getting access to expertise to deliver head of IT, Department of Health Currently, the CTO leads a team of “I have a personal preference for the various projects in his IT agenda. computerweekly.com/248186.htm about 130 people and expects that SAP, purely because I have used it in LateRooms doesn’t have the skills number to double in two years if the several implementations in the past, for integration and implementation CIO interview: Mike Bracken, UK company adopts a shared services, but I am not against Oracle, it is a that a firm would need in a packaged government director of digital follow-the-sun approach. very good product – I am not overly software environment, for example. computerweekly.com/247821.htm The IT portfolio at LateRooms is torn one way or the other,” he said. The company plans to move towards

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Untitled-1 1 17/10/2011 09:34 SNW2011 UK Ad 1.3.indd 1 17/10/2011 09:32 community

Bryan Glick leader chris sauer opinion The real hard The tell-tale signs of an IT work for public project at risk of failure sector IT starts n 2003 a research project by Ox- losing their way. ford University in collaboration Other critical success factors were he government’s IT chiefs have had with Computer Weekly found or- in shorter supply in the abandoned a busy few weeks and have set I ganisations abandoned 8% of IT projects. Project managers reported themselves up so that continues projects before they were complete. that they received less of the neces- with the publication of the Strategic At the time, not much was made of sary resources for the project from the T the data, But a follow-up study project sponsor. And they used fewer Implementation Plan (SIP) – a detailed, mile- stone-packed delivery programme for large- turned the spotlight back on aban- project management methodologies, doned projects. At a time of drastic fi- tools and techniques. scale change in government IT. nancial cutbacks in most organisa- It’s hard to know exactly why, but The plan sets out deadlines to which gov- tions, the cost of abandoning a it is easy to imagine a sponsor dis- ernment CIOs have committed. It moves the project is difficult to ignore. It means tancing themself from a troubled situ- coalition’s IT strategy from the “what” to the a complete write-off of the project ation or a project manager struggling “how” and reflects the oft-stated desire for budget. Often there is reputational to monitor a project in trouble. greater transparency and accountability. For damage, both internally and with Project managers of abandoned that, it is to be welcomed and applauded. customers and suppliers. projects reported much lower levels I worked on the study with col- of trust between technologists and The document also lists the key risks to leagues, Professors Andrew Gemino, business members of the project achieving its objectives. Among those are and Blaize Reich of the Simon Fraser team. Less knowledge was shared in three areas which will present the biggest University Canada. We collected data the team, and less support for identi- test for the ambitious changes it outlines. from project managers in the UK who fying and developing the information It is surely no coincidence that the first risk read Computer Weekly and from glo- needed. They had less knowledge to the overall strategy identified in the SIP bal members of the Project Manage- and less expertise at the start. ment Institute’s Special Interest The alignment of the technical de- states: “Supplier market is slow to adapt to Group in IT Project Management. sign with the organisational change the new ICT landscape.” There’s a euphe- The 250 responses, collected in plan and the business objectives was mism if ever there was one. For all the sup- 2010, showed the proportion of aban- poorer in the abandoned projects. portive words we will hear from the big sys- doned projects has stayed roughly Combine this with a perceived dis- tems integrators, they will be digging their constant, at 7%. More significantly, it connect with the business units and heels to resist changes to their dominance. revealed marked differences between it is clear that these projects were ill- We hope that diversity wins. abandoned projects and those that equipped to deliver successfully. went through to completion. The abandoned projects ran on av- But supplier entrenchment is only one fac- The research shows problem erage nine months longer than com- et. Equally entrenched attitudes in Whitehall projects look very much like success- pleted projects, although they were make cultural change a huge challenge. ful projects at the beginning. It found not significantly larger. Perhaps they Some departments already resent the cen- no difference in the complexity of the were left to struggle; perhaps there tralised control over IT spending imposed by was hope for success even in the face the Cabinet Office. Open, standardised IT of indications to the contrary; the an- means open, standardised procurement. “Managers reported much less swer is difficult to discern from the data. What is clear is that they were Finally, some of those busy government trust between technologists and not abandoned early. CIOs need to take a long hard look in the mir- The data is pretty consistent over ror. For all the criticism of suppliers, govern- business members” time. The key issue for businesses is ment has not been an intelligent buyer. Insid- whether they can spot problem cases ers admit some CIOs will struggle to adapt to and act on what they see. We’d sug- the move to cloud – a fact recognised by the projects or of the number of depart- gest careful attention to three areas: ments involved. However, organisa- l If a project is struggling badly with proposed creation of a CIO Academy. tions reported significantly greater requirements; The drive to outsource government IT led difficulty in establishing the require- l If its relationship with the business to the over-outsourcing of IT skills. The pub- ments of projects later abandoned. is poor; lic sector needs to rebuild and retain the IT The troubled projects also suffered l If you see key staff leaving. skills the SIP needs and re-take ownership of from internal volatility. They had sig- Step in and either turn it around or the technology central to delivering cost- nificantly higher turnovers for project cut your losses and abandon it early. effective, digital-by-default public services manager, client manager and execu- Turnaround costs a lot of manage- tive sponsor. On average, there were ment time and resources. Abandon- over the next 10 years. three changes of key personnel com- ment throws away the proposed ben- Big challenges lie ahead; a good start has pared to just one for completed efits. But either is better than letting been made. The real work starts now. ■ projects. Organisations do replace your project drift in the hope that it key staff when projects go off the will come right. ■ rails, but the differences are so clear Editor’s blog that we conclude high staff turnover Chris Sauer is editor-in-chief of the Journal of computerweekly.com/editor is a key contributing factor to projects Information Technology

9 | 25-31 october 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com buyer’s guide

Six top tips for social CRM strategies Zach Hofer-Shall outlines some pointers for organisations incorporating social media into customer relations practices

1. Social CRM starts with a challenges, a working relationship 2. Social CRM requires socially populated customer between IT and marketing, a high strategic social planning CW Buyer’s guide database level of comfort with data analysis, Many firms today resist social CRM customer relations In its most technical form, social and a deliberate plan around han- due to the technology limitations. CRM combines social media and dling customers’ conversations. But But adopting social CRM involves part 4 of 4 CRM databases. Before diving into underneath all of this, the databases a new way of thinking for many the strategic aspects of social media, must be capable of handling social brands. Social CRM means accepting lthough social CRM defini- CI professionals who are evaluating data and businesses must ensure and understanding social media as a tions vary, all share some social CRM can think about it from a they’re on the safe side of their cus- valid source of customer data. Build- common distinctions. They database perspective. tomers’ privacy concerns. ing social media into the customer » a all centre on customer- Today, customer databases contain centric interactions through social traditional fields such as name, media. Competitive intelligence (CI) phone number, and e-mail. But try professionals - inherently customer- adding social content to the customer “No matter how many vendors tout focused marketers - recognise the database - such as a customer’s Twit- value of social media in learning ter handle, recent blog post, or Linke- their social CRM, it isn’t something you about and connecting with custom- dIn profile. Adding social media data ers. Here are six top tips for building to the customer database involves can buy from a single supplier” social CRM strategies. cross-channel customer recognition

10 | 25-31 october 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com buyer’s guide

database» takes technology assistance, but also requires a strategy. Teams Will data warehouse suppliers integrate Hadoop? must decide why before how. Social CRM can drive customer support, One of the challenges of social CRM is analysing vast tools and approaches. sales, market research, engagement data sets. The industry uses the term “big data”, to In the report, Enterprise Hadoop Best Practices: marketing and more - but each of describe these data sets, but tools for big data are still Concrete Guidelines From Early Adopters In Online these comes with a different strategy immature. One of the rising stars is the open source Services, he explains that training and professional and with a different execution. Hadoop platform, which provides the analytics behind certification services for Hadoop are in short sites such as Facebook. supply, making projects not only difficult but 3. Early experiments show Forrester predicts Hadoop will become a key also challenging and even riskier. promise component in the product strategies of Further, industry-consensus best Although most of the conversation leading enterprise data warehouse practices are conspicuous by around social CRM is primarily hype, suppliers. EMC Greenplum and their absence. some of the buzz comes from busi- IBM already offer Hadoop The report highlights key nesses’ early success. For example, products and other suppliers areas of concern such as the Procter & Gamble uses online com- offer degrees of Hadoop integra- core specification for Hadoop, munities to gain insight on customer tion in their product families, or have which is still being developed by demographics - then targets product announced intentions to do so. the Apache Hadoop community. In development and marketing around Forrester expects that over the the report, Kobielus warns that federation, these insights. One financial services next year, companies such as metadata, high availability and machine learning firm populates its customer database Teradata, Oracle, SAP/Sybase, are missing from the specification with information learned through Microsoft and HP/Vertica will acquire This means businesses are stuck with social networks and then segments Hadoop start-ups such as Cloudera, MapR proprietary functions that suppliers selling Hadoop put its database for an informed customer Technologies, DataStax, HStreaming and Outerthought. into the open source software. support function. The early adopters But Forrester also said Hadoop is an unfamiliar There is also a lack of a single, integrated, Hadoop share a key similarity: They stick technology to many enterprise data analytics and IT software distribution. Many Hadoop implementations with basic business goals. Advanced professionals. In a report on using Hadoop in the involve some custom coding. Given the complexity of targeting, increased sales, or im- enterprise, senior Forrester analyst James Kobielus Hadoop deployments, Kobielus warned that the messy proved customer support are tradi- warned that even top-notch advanced analytics and complexities of custom Hadoop development and data tional business goals - early adopters enterprise data warehouse veterans will find it a tough modelling may present a formidable learning curve that didn’t change their goals for social slog to get their heads around Hadoop specifications, delays full deployment. media, but enhanced their approach with social CRM.

4. No end-to-end technology 5. Social CRM requires data boost business performance. recent commercial, the marketing exists today analysis capabilities Forrester recommends that before team collected data from online dis- No matter how many vendors tout Managing the vast influx of so- diving into social CRM, determine if cussion to understand how its cus- their social CRM capabilities, today’s cial data, mapping information to you’re prepared to manage the new tomers responded to the campaign. social CRM isn’t something that customers, deriving customer seg- data source. Establishing a function- Although it was only able to identify you can buy from a single supplier. mentation that incorporates social ing customer database can be an ar- a small percentage of customers To feed social media content into a behaviours, and informing outbound duous process - fortunately, social through their social profiles, it com- customer database, there needs to actions may seem feasible on a small CRM shouldn’t replace existing CRM piled a virtual focus group and col- be cooperation and integration from scale. But for many companies - with systems, it should add and integrate lected targeted feedback in a matter CRM systems and social data ag- large consumer bases - there will be to what’s already in place. of hours. Through this process, it gregators or listening platforms. To too many customers to track and too Next, begin collecting data. Social identified what worked best and built enable the action on this data, you much online discussion to manage. CRM is not possible without social out scalable best practices to grow need a connection between data- Achieving a functioning social media data, so firms expecting to in- larger social CRM initiatives. By start- bases and marketing suites or other CRM practice takes ample expertise: tegrate social media data into their ing small, you can scale your social outbound communication tools like customer segmentation, database customer databases must begin by ac- CRM strategies without overwhelm- customer support dashboards or management, look-alike modelling, cessing that data. Today, most firms ing yourself in data. ■ social engagement tools. Although advanced data mining, and deep data turn to listening platforms for data no full social CRM platform exists analysis. The mantra around custom- sourcing and analysis. To feed data This is an extract of Forrester’s What Social today, many vendors will compete er data - capture, manage, analyse, found in listening initiatives, many CRM Means To Customer Intelligence paper for this business in the coming years. apply - will guide social CRM from of the listening platform vendors by Zach Hofer-Shall with Suresh Vittal and Because social CRM relies entirely on online conversation into action. offer API integrations with some of Allison Smith a functioning CRM system, the tradi- the large customer databases. But this tional CRM vendors have a leg up in 6. How to implement a social integration is relatively simplistic, building the desired platforms. In the CRM strategy and many companies emphasise how meantime, prepare to combine data The buzz around social CRM will hard it is to consistently connect to more online sources from disparate social chan- grow in 2012, as social media contin- primary identifiers in the customer nels, integrate complimenting tech- ues its rampant spread. Expect many database. Businesses must learn to Buyer’s Guide: The companies nologies, and automate the data flow companies to find innovative ways manage this unstructured data to un- using social media in their CRM from online conversation to action. to apply social CRM strategies and derstand how it will eventually inte- computerweekly.com/248041.htm grate into their customer strategies. Finally, test an outbound pilot Buyer’s Guide: Social networking using social information. Reach out adds a layer to CRM practices “The buzz around social CRM will grow to your customers for sales, support, computerweekly.com/247987.htm or marketing - informed by social in 2012, as social media continues its data in the database. One successful Buyer’s Guide: Adobe defines beverage company we spoke with digital enterprise platform rampant spread through business” started small, with a single campaign computerweekly.com/248117.htm to learn the social ropes. Following a

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cademics, CIOs, lawyers, a professor of outsourcing, a consultant and an inves- tigative journalist answer

a Co mst o ck Images the question on the minds of many a business and IT professional: Why do big IT projects fail? The National Health Service’s (NHS) National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) is perhaps the best-known IT project that did not achieve what it set out to do, but the public sector is littered with these projects. A study from the European Services Strategy Unit, completed in 2007, reported on 105 government IT projects which cost more than they should, over-ran or were terminated – or even all three. The 105 projects were valued at £29.5bn and cost almost £9bn more than expected. A total of 60 pro- grammes had cost overruns and on average cost about 30% more than they should have. Furthermore, 35 contracts were delayed and 31 cancelled. Recent research from Oxford Uni- versity’s Said Business School found large IT projects are 20 times more likely to fail than large projects in other sectors, such as construction. Said Business School research ana- lysed 1,500 global projects worth a total of $245bn, with an average cost of $170m. It found that large IT projects are on average 27% over budget and take 55% longer to com- plete than planned. The private sector is no stranger to cost and time over-runs and out- sourced project are not immune. In 2009 BT Global Services lost £1.2bn due to cost overruns on big contracts with the NHS and Reuters.

Yann Avoid IT meltdown L’Huillier Karl Flinders asks the professionals why big IT projects fail Yann L’Huillier is group CIO at financial services giant Compagnie Stock Exchange (2003-2007), where fail. You will find some common es and have enough buffer in financ- Financiere he designed and launched the Boston reasons to all. The first one is that ing and scheduling to account for an- Tradition. Be- Equities Exchange trading platform, even though most budgets are done ything that will go wrong. fore his current and prior to that he spent seven years well from the start, to be approved “Lastly, when projects are delayed, role he was at the Toronto Stock Exchange where they must be scaled down, contin- the wrong solutions are often used, CIO at trading exchange Turquoise he developed the new Equity Trading gencies removed, to a level where such as increasing staffing instead of where, in eight months, he delivered Systems. they will receive the blessing of the de-scoping or phasing the deploy- the complete set of IT solutions, He says: “Big projects can’t be deciders/payers. Once they are ap- ment. Design is a democracy but im- procedures and processes for the completed on budget or on time. But proved there is nothing left for unex- plementation is a dictatorship.” exchange to go live in August 2008. it’s not only IT projects – some of the pected events (Murphy’s law, for ex- Before that, he was CIO at the Boston big architecture/engineering projects ample). Anthony “The second reason is that be- Finkelstein tween the time the decision is taken, Anthony the project starts and is completed, Finkelstein “Big projects – IT or otherwise – can’t the situation will change several is professor times. The economics, regulatory [en- of software be completed on budget or on time” vironment], and competition don’t systems engi- freeze at the start, so big projects need neering at Uni- Yann L’Huillier, Compagnie Financiere Tradition a wider scope than the original one. versity College One should plan for unknown chang- London (UCL) »

13 | 25-31 October 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com project management

process, determine if the project has “The problems are been successful or even deal with the Tony Collins consequences of failure. Governance more fundamental is becoming more complex as we in- Tony Collins is an investigative journalist who has creasingly have organisations with specialised in large IT projects. He is co-author of Crash, and not essentially federated and outsourced business a book on IT disasters, and co-founder of structures. We will neither under- Campaign4Change, which seeks reforms in the public technical – they lie stand project failure nor be able to ad- sector. He spent 21 years at Computer Weekly. dress the causes until we have ad- He says: “Every project is different, but these are some in governance” dressed governance.” general lessons: 1. Projects with realistic budgets and timetables tend Anthony Finkelstein, Brian not to be approved. Randell 2. The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the progress report. University College London Brian Randell 3. Users are likely to reject any system that gives them what they asked for. is emeritus Better for the project managers to understand what users do rather than professor and what they say they do.

» and dean of UCL Engineering. Active senior research 4. CEOs who know a great deal about computer projects are dangerous. in industry consulting, he is a fellow investigator The over-confident CEO may try to do too much, too soon and with too little of the Institution of Engineering and at the School – and possibly remove potential savings from business budgets before the Technology (IET) and the British of Comput- savings are actually made. He gets few warnings because he is surrounded Computer Society (BCS). ing Science by people who agree with him. He says: “The Standish Group in at Newcastle 6. Keep it small and simple. If it has to be big, split it into components that are its CHAOS report cites reasons such University. He was a member of the each useful in themselves. as: inadequate user involvement; un- group of academics who became 7. A failing project has benefits that are always spoken of in the future tense. clear business objectives; failure to concerned about the NHS NPfIT. 8. In the public sector the unnecessary secrecy over the progress or control scope; poor architecture; re- From April 2006 until September otherwise of major projects such as Universal Credit continues. It’s a pity quirements volatility; unsystematic 2010 he edited the evolving dossier because it increases the chances of failure.” development process; and unreliable documenting concerns about the estimates. programme. “None of these would come as a In response to Computer Weekly’s surprise to any IT professional. The question, he sent this excerpt from initially designed by a large central the business. That satisfaction may more interesting challenge is, there- his report, A Computer Scientist’s Re- team, and intended as a complete well be an evolving mix of specifica- fore, why do we appear to be bound to actions to NPfIT (Journal of Informa- ‘big-bang’ replacement for the many tion, time and budget, because incre- repeat these same mistakes? I would tion Technology, Macmillan, 2007): and varied existing EHR systems. It mental implementation and market argue that the problems are more fun- “The NHS’s huge NPfIT project, in- would have been far better to employ change leads to changing expecta- damental and not essentially techni- tended to serve 40,000 GPs and 300- evolutionary acquisition, ie. to speci- tions and needs. cal – they lie in governance. That is, in plus hospitals, was claimed to be the fy, implement, deploy and evaluate a “My first major project was the the structure of relations and incen- world’s largest civil IT project. In fact, sequence of ever more complete IT merger and decimalisation of the tives that bind together the business its ill-fated intended central core, a systems, in a process that was con- sales ledgers for the companies that and IT functions of an organisation. nationwide electronic health records trolled by the stakeholders who were had come together to form ICL. My “An organisation with a flawed (EHR) facility, dramatically illustrates most directly involved, rather than reward was two years at the London governance structure cannot articu- one of the most serious causes of by some distant central bureaucracy. Business School, including a course late its requirements, charter a large IT project failures. Authority as well as responsibility on programme management led by project, identify appropriately skilled “The system of systems that was to should have been left, from the out- one of the Polaris team. I have staff, manage the concomitant change provide electronic health records was set, with hospital and general practi- watched successes and failures over tioner trusts to acquire IT systems nearly 40 years. The reasons have not that suited their environments and changed. By far the biggest IT project priorities – subject to adherence to in the UK was the transition of the James Martin minimal interoperability constraints payment clearing system, including – and to use centralised services as, if the ATMs in every high street, to in- James Martin is the former IT chief operating officer and when they chose.” ternet protocols and common card (COO) Europe at investment bank Lehman Brothers. standards. It took nearly 10 years to Over the past 17 years he has worked for several retail Philip Virgo complete all the incremental chang- and investment banks, often in the IT COO role. He has Philip Virgo es. No one has ever heard of it be- been involved in hundreds of large IT projects, including is secretary cause success is boring.” ■ three global Year 2000 programmes. general at the He says: “In my experience, the key reasons for IT Information project failure have been consistent across firms and Society Alli- around the world. My top five pitfalls are: Lack of robust business require- ance. He has more online ments at the outset, leading to unrealistic IT project budgets and timescales; nearly 40 years’ business sponsorship and participation start off strong and then tail off, experience of News: IT project failure: Read the leaving the IT project drifting; red herring stakeholders frustrating a project by IT projects. early warning signs and act fast raising numerous side issues and minor concerns; the world outside moving He says: computerweekly.com/248184.htm on, which forces a project to be redefined during its course so it never really “Large projects nearly always fail un- ends, but just runs out of steam; and the administrative burden imposed on less broken into components that can Blog: Write a contract to protect the IT team eats more resource than technical development work. be delivered step-by-step by mixed against out of control IT projects “The large projects which have been most successful tended to be teams of users and technicians who computerweekly.com/blogs externally visible to customers, regulators, the public and media. I’ve also know what they have to achieve to- seen ‘best practice’ lead to ‘worst result’ projects far too often and I believe gether and what their next job will be CIO interview: Katy Davis, interim that is the root cause of the problem: process has greater emphasis than if they succeed – and that they can- head of IT, Department of Health outcome, and that is not going to get a project over the line.” not move onto it until they have de- computerweekly.com/248186.htm livered this one to the satisfaction of

14 | 25-31 October 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com CW SMA Nominations-Voting Ad.qxd:Layout 1 10/13/11 2:40 PM Page 1

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Retirement fund sets police on IT security whistle-blower Australian Patrick Webster noticed that, when he logged in to his online account at retirement fund First State Super, the URL contained the unique ID for his account. By tweaking the number in the URL, Webster found he could ac- cess other people’s accounts. Being the model citizen, he immediately notified First State Super that their 770,000 account holders were at risk. Proving that no good deed goes un- punished, Webster soon found him- self arrested by police on suspicion of hacking into First State Super’s computer systems. Adding insult to injury, the retire- ment fund suspended Webster’s Heard something amusing or exasperating on the industry grapevine? E-mail [email protected] account, demanded to inspect his computer and said he could be liable for the costs of fixing the breach. Objects for Pickup (Poop) from a Motorist caught multi-tasking on HGV cab. given field using its colour cameras. the move The HGV cab allowed officers to Boffins spend far too much time Once all the Poop in the area has Police in Hampshire recently caught observe and video offenders from an thinking of clever names been identified and located, the robot a motorist driving while using a lap- improved viewpoint. IT is littered with three-letter acro- will drive to each pile, pick it up and top, writing down the answers to a Looking on the bright side, that the nyms (TLAs), but a team of scientists deposit it in a bucket for disposal. radio quiz and sipping coffee, all at coffee-drinking, laptop-using, radio at the University of Pennsylvania And there you have it, a Perception the same time. quiz-participating driver is referred in the US have outdone themselves Of Offensive Products and Senso- According to the report in the to, simply, as a “motorist” – whereas with a nine-letter classic. rised Control Of Object Pickup (Poop Daily Telegraph, the behaviour was another offender, caught eating a pear They have created a robot to per- Scoop) system capable of clearing 12 observed during Operation Tramline, with a knife, was revealed to be a form a simple, yet distasteful task, individual Poops in 20 minutes. a crackdown on distracted drivers man – suggests the motorist in ques- but naming the beast of their creation Great to know, but as unpleasant as in which the force used a number tion was at least naturally disposed to probably took longer than developing it is to follow your dog around with of vehicles, including an unmarked multi-tasking. ■ and building it. a plastic bag, it is unlikely many peo- The robot is designed to seek out ple will want to spend $400,000 for Read more on the Downtime blog contacts and identify Potentially Offensive the high-tech waste disposal unit. computerweekly.com/downtime Computer Weekly/ComputerWeekly.com Marble Arch Tower, 55 Bryanston Street, London W1H 7AA

General enquiries Roll over, Beethoven 020 7868 4282 Editorial A survey conducted by Goldsmiths College reports one in 10 Britons Editor in chief: Bryan Glick 020 7868 4256 [email protected] leaves web passwords in their will. Some 53% of Managing editor (technology): Cliff Saran those surveyed 020 7868 4283 [email protected] said they had what Services editor: Karl Flinders they’d consider 020 7868 4281 [email protected] “treasured Head of premium content: Bill Goodwin possessions” 020 7868 4279 [email protected] stored or saved Content editor: Faisal Alani online. lifetimes; 25% of the 2,000 who took part 020 7868 4257 [email protected] A quarter cited said they had collected more than £200 Chief reporter: Warwick Ashford important photos. And worth of music, video and software. 020 7868 4287 [email protected] another one in 10 said they had If Gran were to leave Downtime her iTunes Correspondent: Kathleen Hall sentimental e-mails or password (if indeed Gran has an iTunes 020 7868 4258 [email protected] treasured videos they wanted password at all - is it too early to speculate to bequeath as a “digital about the benefactors of the Jobs estate?) Correspondent: Jenny Williams 020 7868 4288 [email protected] inheritance”. it’s unlikely the inevitable collection of But the most popular end-of-the-pier organ music would be of Production editor: Claire Cormack reason for handing much use or comfort. 020 7868 4264 [email protected] passwords to the next Downtime can see how a Gmail or Flickr Senior sub-editor: Jason Foster generation was the value account could be of interest – passing on 020 7868 4263 [email protected] of online content the photos, memories and conversations in a DISPLAY ADVERTISING erstwhile deceased had modern way – but still harbours ambitions Sales director: Brent Boswell amassed during their for the mahogany kitchen dresser. 07584 311889 [email protected]

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16 | 25-31 october 2011 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Remote Access, Support and Collaboration Solutions

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