New ISO standard guides top management on IT governance

The new ISO/IEC 38500 standard will provide greater security against the risk of non-compliance. Inadequate IT back-up is adversely affecting the performance and competitiveness of many organisations. The new standard would help them in overcoming the hindrances.

François Coallier, chair of the ISO subcommittee, Software and systems engineering, commented that IT is the biggest enabler of future business and ISO/IEC 38500 will help top managements to evaluate and direct the use of IT in their respective organisations. The directors will get assistance in ensuring conformance to legislation, common law and contractual obligations.

The new standard ISO/IEC 38500:2008 will be applicable to all public and private companies of all sizes as well as not-for-profit organisations. It is the framework for the effective governance of IT. The standard comprises definitions, principles and models for good corporate governance. The principles include responsibility, strategy, performance, conformance, acquisition and human behaviour.

Alison Holt, chair of the IT Governance Working Group, declared that ISO/IEC 38500:2008 is specifically evolved to assist the board of an organisation in delivering maximum value from IT and information assets.

Apple’s new application development platform, iPhone App Store

Apple has just announced development of iPhone App Store. This revelation was made during the key note address by Steve Jobs at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The company has created the powerful platform for development of new applications. It has also developed new tools to bring the new mobile applications to the market in shortest time. The App Store linked with iTunes music and video store is created to facilitate easy search and downloading of applications.

Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner, is impressed with the speed with which Apple’s application development platform has matured. The large number of handset models, with different processing capabilities and screen sizes, make the process of application development, time consuming. It takes several months to launch a single application.

Apple has created a simple-to-use tool, which allows development of applications within weeks. Sam Altman, chief executive of Loopt, one of the users of iPhone SDK, described the tool as amazing. He disclosed that it took just two months as against 12 months in the past to create the ever best version of Loopt’s applications.  Apple has provided not only the ability to create applications quickly and easily but also a rich environment for the developers.

Software suppliers forced to rethink their strategy

Software suppliers have realised the negative impact of their highhanded approach towards their customers in forcing software audits. The head of the Federation against Software Theft (FAST) says that software suppliers would like to adopt softer approach towards customers and work in close co-ordination.

The highhanded approach of FAST and Business Software Alliance over the issues regarding compliance on software-license agreements had offended several UK businesses. To soothe the ruffled feathers, Soft recently launched the Software Industry Research Board (Sirb) to remove hassles in the software licensing for companies. Soft sought collaboration of Microsoft and others in the process of simplification.

John Lovelock, the chief executive of FAST, acknowledged that an aggressive approach with regards to licensing thus far had soured the sentiments. That no more would be the case owing to increased collaboration between software vendors and users. The Sirb is conducting a survey to understand their expectations regarding modifications in software asset and licensing management.  A poll conducted by Corporate IT Forum revealed that companies, well versed with software asset management (SAM), are not keen on seeking help of FAST or such organisations anymore.

IBM presents the Supercomputer twice as fast as previous fastest computer

The computing giant IBM has built a supercomputer for US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Named ‘Roadrunner’ it can perform 1,000 trillion floating point operations per second.
As per the IBM statement, the supercomputer will be deployed in US nuclear weapons simulation and will also be used for research in energy, climate change and human genome science. The computer is built with the combination of business and gaming technologies.

Roadrunner operates on 6,948 dual-core AMD Opteron chips on IBM Model LS21 blade servers, and 12,960 Cell engines on IBM Model QS22 blade servers. It has 80 terabytes of memory, and is housed in 288 IBM BladeCentre racks, which occupy area of 6,000 square feet. There are 10,000 infiniband and gigabit Ethernet connections, and fibre-optic cable of 57 miles.

Bijan Divari, IBM vice president for next-generation computer systems technology, described the construction of Roadrunner as similar to that of human brain. He explained that tens of thousands of computing nodes when connected work in parallel simultaneously and create significant computing capability.

According to Divari, Roadrunner’s super speed will be used to simulate effects of nuclear explosions. The combination of gaming and enterprising technology will be deployed for realistic simulation.

Yahoo looks to improve competitiveness through a major staff reorganisation

Yahoo is all set to go for a major staff reorganisation, reports The Guardian. The move is part of an effort from the embattled internet company to reassure investors and its staff that it is keen on improving its competitiveness and performance.

The reorganisation exercise is to create web services aimed at different international audiences as well as improve internal accounting for those services. Led by its president Susan Decker, Yahoo is expected to combine search, homepage and mail divisions in one single global product department. Ash Patel, the long-serving Yahoo executive, is likely to be in charge of the new global product division.

He is presently the executive vice-president of the web firm’s platforms and infrastructure. Decker is also expected to put executive vice-president (platforms and infrastructure) Hilary Schneider in charge of the media division.

Combined with lingering uncertainty about the firm’s future caused by Microsoft’s attempts to buy out the company and the vesting of stock owned by its long-term employees, the proposed reorganisation has triggered an exodus, the report mentions.

IT slowdowns are biggest cause for contact centre’s low productivity

A recent research by Siemens Enterprise Communications reveals that biggest productivity loss in contact centres is caused by the IT slowdowns. It also points out that data entry task consumes more time and slows down the operations. 63 per cent of the respondents hold IT slowdowns responsible for low output. Multiple applications and massive data entry tasks are also contributors to low productivity in contact centres, as per the findings of the survey.

Tim Bishop, Head of strategy for Siemens Enterprise Communications, was staggered with the findings that contact workers use 5 separate applications on an average for a call and that the actual conversation with customer is just 29 per cent of each call. Five per cent of groups even used 15 systems in the call process.
As per the survey report, 4o% respondents would like to be trained on ways to deal with a tricky customer while 41% sought more training in IT and systems.

According to Bishop, agents’ creativity and energy is getting exhausted in technology rather than being spent on the caller. 37% of agents had no details of IT technology, whereas only 42% informed to have basic details. A meagre 5% reported wider knowledge of the technology. Bishop concludes that agents only can answer as to what changes they need in IT processes to help them improve productivity.

Concern over super-fast broadband in UK is misplaced

Francesco Caio, the person responsible for framing government policy on next generation internet infrastructure, advises not to panic on the issue of super-fast broadband. Mr. Caio, a former chief executive of Cable & Wireless, has been appointed by the government to find out why the UK lags as compared to other countries of the world, regarding the introduction of super-fast broadband.

The results of Mr Caio’s review will be made public only after three months. The investigation was conducted following concerns that the UK was fifty times slower in network speeds compared to its rivals from Korea and France. The cost of replacement of copper cables to premises is estimated to be whopping £20bn. According to Mr. Caio, usage of network as percentage of population is far below in Japan in comparison to the UK despite 40 per cent spread of fibre connection.

He rules out any relation between the user numbers, futuristic infrastructure and business competitiveness. According to Caio, access network is important, but it is not the only key aspect.

What is hurting the productivity of contact centres?

A recent research by Siemens Enterprise Communications has revealed the reasons for the productivity loss in contact centres. It points out that data entry task consumes more time and slows down the operations. About 63 per cent of the respondents hold inefficient IT-related operations responsible for low output.
Multiple applications and massive data entry tasks are major contributors to low productivity in contact centres, as per the findings of the survey. The findings showed that contact workers use up to 5 separate applications on an average for a call and that the actual conversation with customer is just 29 per cent of each call. Five per cent of groups even used 15 systems in the call process.

As per the survey report, 40 per cent respondents would like to be trained on ways to deal with a tricky customer while 41 per cent sought more training in IT and systems, such as simple timesheet software and call logging. About 37 per cent of agents had no desired knowledge of IT technology, whereas only 42 per cent conceded to have a sketchy knowledge. A meagre 5 per cent reported wider knowledge of the technology in use.

UK’s Honda F1 Racing Team finds new back-up capabilities

The UK-based Formula One racing team has succeeded in finding new data storage and back-up capabilities. The heterogeneous product will back-up its multi-platform storage environment. This will enhance data protection and make the system cost effective.

100 TB data of this Northamptonshire-based team is stored on virtualised storage area network (SAN). The SAN provides information to 80 file servers, 700 clients and a number of Microsoft Windows, Unix and Linux systems. According to Matt Harris, the team’s technical infrastructure manager, existing EMC NetWorker backup software was not able to protect its varied storage environment. The team was in search of a solution with the flexibility to suit its backup needs.

Team was assisted by its IT supplier and BackBone NetVaultBackup in the installation of new backup facility. The interesting feature of the facility was that it had zero impact on users during the installation. Features like server-less backups, direct backups across SAN and use of the server client backup, facilitated the process.

The team has moved 30 TB of its data across 40 servers onto the system. The process of data migration to NetVault Backup is currently on and will soon be completed.The Honda F1 Racing Team can now freely backup its enormous data within no time.

UK consumers boost online sales beyond expectations despite credit crunch

A research concludes that consumers react to bad economic forecasts by seeking internet bargains, and the UK consumers are proving it right.  Notwithstanding the serious credit crunch, Verdict Research findings revealed that online sales were up by 35% to £14.7bn in 2007. The growth rate is 10 times more than that of the total retail market.

Verdict report attributes phenomenal growth to the convenience of internet buying, increased penetration of broadband and to the vast improvements that took place in the retail websites. According to senior analyst Malcolm Pinkerton, lesser disposable income with the consumers is another contributor to the boom in online sales. The consumers are able to compare prices on websites and succeed in making good bargains. This is building a perception that internet buying is cheaper.

Cheaper broadband has also broadened the base of online buyers.  Mr Pinkerton makes an interesting observation that online buyers are refraining from purchases of big-ticket items and instead buying items like foot wear, clothing and entertainment products.

Verdict forecasts that of total online sales in 2012, grocery and electricals alone will account for 29 per cent and 22 per cent sales respectively. Mr Pinkerton added that new entrants, like Ikea, contributed to 24.7 per cent rise in the number of online shoppers to 22.6 million. He forecasts online retail sales growth from 5.2 per cent to 13.8 per cent by 2012.

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