Letters to the editor

Working miracles in management

2008-07-03T17:04:38+01:00

The problem is that IT departments often fall into two areas - understaffed, or having a motherload of work to get through (Putting IT in the driving seat for business success, sandrasmith.computing.co.uk).

My department would not appreciate having to do projects that are not really our responsibility, because we do not have the resources to spare. We prefer to use the IT director as the bottleneck for all work coming into the department, so at that point we can start to apply project management constraints.

For example, "we can do that for you, but we don't have the resource for another two weeks" or "you can have X, but it is incompatible with Y, so which one is more important?"

Then, when a piece of work becomes a project, we have control of it from the start, and we can impose a realistic deadline to begin with, rather than have one pushed upon us.

Jesus Horatio Hernandez

Save your energy

2008-07-03T17:02:25+01:00

Making IT green should be a key issue for many companies, given in part the fact that energy prices are rising at an eye-watering rate (Making IT green, freeform.computing.co.uk).

It is not just a case of ensuring you have a good recycling route for obsolete hardware, but also using
energy efficiently.

We are anticipating energy to be the third-largest expense of most businesses by the end of this year. Datacentre consolidation might be a great idea, but it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Energy saving could simply consist of nominating a member of staff to turn off the idle kit at the end of the working day.

Name withheld on request

Deliverance

2008-07-03T17:00:41+01:00

I run an e-commerce site, and in my experience what stops people buying across countries is the excessive postage charged (EU to encourage cross-border e-commerce, www.computing.co.uk/2219738).

At the moment it is many times more expensive for us to ship from the UK to Europe. Were it not for this, we would put more energy into translating our sites and accepting the euro, and marketing in mainland Europe.

As it is, the postage makes it too expensive for people to buy from us.

Paul, submitted on the web

Sisters are doing it for themselves

2008-07-03T16:34:44+01:00

Your article raises some important points (Nine in 10 women say IT sector is biased, www.computing.co.uk/2218837). However, I disagree that gender is a bar to progression.

There is no reason whatsoever why women should feel deterred from pursuing careers in a computer industry which is crying out for quality recruits to adapt to and shape its constantly changing landscape.
Unfortunately, the sector has been plagued by an outmoded image in which the geek is king for far too long.

The technology sector should no longer be viewed as the exclusive preserve of the techies.

Schools and colleges need to do far more to promote IT to girls as a viable, rewarding career option. The percentage split of computer science graduates these days is becoming more balanced, yet progress is far too slow.

More focus should be placed on female role models in the industry such as eBay founder Meg Whitman, who has inspired many American women into IT. Likewise, those who have forged successful careers in this country need to champion the cause and evangelise the message.

Women are making huge strides in British industry. There are 117 female directors on FTSE100 companies and women-owned businesses generate about £130bn turnover annually. So why should IT be any different and why shouldn't there be more Martha Lane Foxes?

Of course, women students must also play their part and drop any preconceptions they might harbour about the IT profession. It is possible to progress. I have worked at high levels at eBay and Amazon.
Technology also affords the opportunity for women who want children to work from home, so it is not inevitable that maternity has to have an adverse impact on a career.

The sex of an employee should not and does not present barriers to anyone passionate enough about working in the industry.

Jennifer Mowat, BT Tradespace

Leave IT alone

2008-07-03T16:32:36+01:00

Building Schools for the Future is perceived by some as a great invasion for schools (Vice-like grip,
letters.computing.co.uk).

John Jones needs to go into schools and see the excellent work that IT staff provide. I manage a team of six who are employed by the school to provide support exceeding the standards set out by Becta and private firms.

This high standard will be eroded and the best practice we employ will be replaced by private companies with shareholders who are more important than students.

John Richards

We don't need no thought control

2008-07-03T16:29:44+01:00

While I agree with much of what Paul Ashbrook says about open source software (Waste of money, letters.computing.co.uk), the school IT environment is very complex with schools typically running hundreds of often poorly-written pieces of software.

Most people in schools IT work towards bringing in as much free and open source software as possible, not least because it reduces the overhead of ordering and maintaining licences.

We are making inroads with individual applications, but we still have a long way to go. For example, our school runs Microsoft Office and Open Office in parallel and have done for several years, but a great deal of lessons taught in schools and the skills of staff are unfortunately based on MS Office.

Training time is very limited and training time for IT skills is virtually nil, so the upheaval of changing any application, regardless of its licensing terms, can be very problematic. I am convinced that is the reason few schools have solid plans for moving to Windows Vista or Office 2007.

As for Becta's framework deal, it is largely irrelevant. Anyone can look at Becta''s online software procurement platform, and I invite them to do so. It is woefully out of date and will not get better prices than any IT manager with half a clue could get in five minutes.

So now they are paying private firms to "sell" schools free software without any experience of what schools want and need. Thanks but no thanks - let the taxpayers keep the £80m.

Sam P, submitted on the web

Variation is key

2008-07-03T16:27:13+01:00

The advocates of punishing those who choose software suppliers such as RM for use in schools have missed the point and made a major error.

They have offered the "obvious solution" of training children to use Microsoft Office rather than use an "obscure" offering from others. Send them back to school before their ill-judged assumptions make an ass of them on a real project.

First, when examined properly, the requirement is not to train children in a tool but to educate them in using such tools and provide their teachers with the tools they need to support that education.

Microsoft Office is not a training tool but an operational one. It does not have any tools that track a pupil's achievement of a new activity type or concept for the first time, nor can it record errors and suggest alternative methods - the educational software does. It does what it is designed for:
producing and manipulating office documents.

Second, over the past 20 years in IT, I have seen the difference in performance in those who are expertly trained in one tool who stumble once the tool is changed. I have compared this with the results of those who have been educated in the underlying concepts and how adaptable they become when given the experience of another tool.

One supplier's dominance of the education market is concerning because of the lack of variation in education, but at least it is an alternative to simple indoctrination in the dominant product in the adult market.

While economies of scale are useful, adaptability and alternative strategies are needed for longer-term survival in the workplace. Educate first, train when needed.

Carol Long

Transfer fees

2008-07-03T16:24:46+01:00

The expertise built up through the Fujitsu contracts will be invaluable to the NHS (Fujitsu may lay off 700 NHS IT programme workers, www.computing.co.uk/2219727).

It seems essential that the NHS should negotiate a transfer of Fujitsu staff and directly manage their
continued work on the National Programme for IT. Of course there would have to be changes to top-level programme management, but perhaps more local involvement could be factored in this time.

When will the government learn that automatic outsourcing of development and programme management is not the way to transform public sector IT?

Patrick Newman

We must face up to our oil problem

2008-06-25T11:53:26+01:00

Avoiding the issue is not the answer to the oil price rise (Surge in oil prices hits IT, www.computing.co.uk/2219448).

As energy costs rise inexorably, the need for a detailed view of where energy is being consumed becomes business-critical. This is relevant to IT, facilities and finance - they need to know where the energy is going.

Before you can identify opportunities to make savings and improve efficiencies, or to charge based on consumption, you need to measure what you are consuming and establish benchmarks.

The fact that datacentre owners do not know the "true cost" and do not have the tools in place to do this
is a good reason to remedy that, not to keep a lid on it.

Philip Petersen

Green power

2008-06-25T11:51:29+01:00

The price of oil and gas will continue to rise, and everyone will take a hit in the short term at least (Surge in oil prices hits IT, www.computing.co.uk/2219448).

Virtualisation can help reduce power consumption, but the savings are not enough to offset continuous rises over the coming years.

The obvious and only long-term solution is to invest in viable alternatives to oil and gas. However, with the UK government widely expected to miss the 20 per cent renewable target by 2020, the solution seems to be for industry to secure its own renewable sources.

Few companies are willing to sacrifice profits just to tell a nice environmental story. But with some economists predicting oil prices of $250 (£126) a barrel, investing in green power sources is starting to make business sense.

As energy prices in IT departments start hitting the bottom line, we are likely to see sustainable power move from the marketing office into the boardroom, and companies not looking into renewable energy sources now will be left behind.

James Carnie, eLinia