Industry news

HP has announced new solutions and services that advance the way clients use Unified Communications (UC) to improve collaboration and business responsiveness.

HP’s new Voice Transformation Solutions, Virtual Workplace Solutions and Network Readiness Services address the trials organizations face when integrating telephony with communications applications, such as video or instant messaging

Many organizations are facing challenges with enabling a growing virtual workforce, as well as interoperability issues caused by aging, inflexible telephony and network infrastructures and disparate communications systems. Gartner predicts that by year end 2015, 60 percent of organizations will offer employees at least four parallel, overlapping, voice/telephony options.

As employees share information faster, they increase responsiveness to customers, partners and across the organization, ultimately improving productivity.

“Clients need to understand how changes to their work environment can impact communications,” said Rich Skoba, director, Global Unified Communications Portfolio, Technology Consulting, HP. “By collaborating with HP, clients can leverage HP’s methodology and testing of multivendor UC solutions to create their unique Unified Communications journey, transforming their communications infrastructure to address needs today and into the future.”

Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, today announced the successful deployment of an integrated food safety solution at Feihe International, Inc., formerly known as American Dairy, Inc., one of the leading producers and distributors of premium infant formula, milk powder, and soybean, rice and walnut products in China.

This innovative end-to-end solution was developed by Cognizant in collaboration with Heilongjiang LiGao High-Tech Development Co. Ltd., a high-technology services company, and FoodlogiQ, a leading provider of traceability, food safety, and sustainability software. The solution enables Feihe International to trace foods, feeds, ingredients, and food-producing animals through all stages of production, processing, and distribution.

The enhanced traceability across farmers, producers, processors, and retailers provides for significantly superior quality and safety tracking, compliance monitoring, and issue resolution, which are critical focus areas for the food and beverage (F&B) industry in today’s globalized manufacturing environment. The solution also provides operational efficiencies by minimizing costs associated with conducting recalls or withdrawals, and improves stock and distribution control while aiding in the removal of unsafe food from the marketplace.

“Inspiring food safety confidence among consumers has become a business imperative for food companies,” said Xiao Guanghui, Vice President and General Manager of the Production Division at Feihe International, Inc. “We are committed to doing all it takes to address consumer concerns and meet regulatory requirements around food safety in the most accountable and transparent manner. We are pleased with the successful implementation of a state-of-the-art food safety traceability system developed by Cognizant in collaboration with Ligao and FoodlogiQ. It will help us align our advanced production technology with the highest standards of quality and safety throughout the supply chain, ranging from raw material to production processes and distribution, enabling our consumers to trace any finished product back to its source conveniently and accurately, and buy our products with greater confidence. We look forward to integrating this unique solution with our enterprise-level systems.”

“Food safety crisis is a crisis of confidence, which is leading to distrust in the food safety and quality assurance system,” said Wang Xinxiang, Chairman of Heilongjiang LiGao High-Tech Development Co. Ltd. “At present, consumers distrust the food safety assurance system because there is no way for them to know about this system and supervise food safety. Therefore, to solve food safety issue, the food trust system must be re-established. Three years ago, our company began to study the best practices of the operational and food safety system in the dairy industry.

"Feihe International’s food safety project is among the first traceability projects covering the whole industry chain, relying on the advanced technologies and experience of a global company such as Cognizant in the fields of dairy operation management, plant MES, food safety, and traceability system. This project not only helps consumers purchase safe products but also provides an independent food safety platform for regulating the dairy production management. ”

“We are delighted to help Feihe International strengthen its capability to provide safe and higher quality products,” said Mahesh Venkateswaran, Senior Vice President and Head of Engineering and Manufacturing Solutions Practice, Cognizant. “Ensuring food safety and regulatory compliance in the highly competitive dairy industry is a complex process and increasingly crucial to public health and consumer confidence. Our traceability solution will enable Feihe International to trace ingredients as well as track all process steps from farm-to-fridge, and make sure its products are safe, wholesome, and compliant with microbial and compositional requirements. This solution will help Feihe International improve customer confidence, grow sales, and capitalize on market opportunities, thereby reinforcing its leadership position in the Chinese dairy market.”

Interoute, owner operator of Europe’s most advanced next-generation network and largest private cloud, today announced its membership of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). Interoute has long recognised the immense potential of cloud solutions, providing leading enterprises across the world with private cloud solutions that have the necessary security controls required to protect their critical data across all technology platforms.

“Enterprises trusting their data to cloud solutions providers need to demand the highest levels of security. The Cloud Security Alliance and Interoute share the same philosophy, which is to enable organisations to employ the benefits of cloud computing without having to worry about the security of their data,” said Joe Stevens, Chief Security and Risk Officer of Interoute. “Interoute is focused on securing the data of Europe’s enterprises in the cloud and our membership in the CSA reflects this commitment.”

The CSA is a member driven organisation that was formed to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing. Interoute maintains rigorous security and compliance controls, deploying an integrated Enterprise Security Management System across its operations to protect all critical data held within its private pan-European cloud.

Jim Reavis, CEO of CSA, said: “We are delighted to have Interoute participate as a member of the Cloud Security Alliance. Cloud computing is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and security is a fundamental component for enterprises. CSA is focused on driving best practice for cloud solutions to demonstrate the necessary ‘trust’ assurances in the Cloud. Interoute’s participation, as one of the leading cloud solutions providers, supports CSA’s overall objective to demonstrate the benefits and commitment of service providers to secure critical data in the cloud.”

Interoute offers a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions including, DDoS protection, firewalls, Intrusion Protection and encryption Services, email filtering, and a Web application firewall (WAF). Interoute’s Enterprise Security Management System is based on the best practice management guidelines of the ISO 27001 accreditation, and has been awarded this certification across all of its operations and data centres.

Martyn Hart, NOA Chairman, has commented on Capita shares downgraded from 'buy'

“City analysts who have downgraded Capita from ‘buy’ are taking an extremely short term view. Capita is a massive player in the public sector. Although the value of four of its existing contracts has shrunk because of cutbacks, it has nearly £5 billion worth of work in the pipeline! Following the Open Public Services white paper - which means all public sector organisations are now free to hire the most efficient provider, regardless of ownership - there is going to be so much more work available for support services companies.

"Capita is among the most experienced, and is in a great position to take full advantage of the devolution of buying power to a local level. Capita is converting a smaller percentage of its profits to cash as part of their acquisition strategy – a move that will bring in even more business. City analysts need to look deeper into situations than merely scanning profit/loss and cashflow. Although that is important of course, the National Outsourcing Association suggests that for investors taking a more mid-term view, this could be an excellent time to be buying shares in support service providers like Capita.”

Most DBAs (Database Administrators) specialise in one type of database whether it is Oracle, SQL Server or DB2. They will build their careers working with their chosen database. It can be difficult when, for reasons beyond their control, the organisation they work for need to bring in another database.

Whilst internal DBAs are probably highly skilled in their specific discipline things can quickly become difficult, even after training, when issues come up on an unfamiliar system. It can be difficult too for the organisation to find the best solution; training existing staff, bringing in new staff or taking out an external support contract.

There are several reasons why organisations may require extra support to bring in additional skills to the DBA team. Here we take a look at some of those reasons and how they can be managed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

Over the last few years there have been many high profile company mergers and acquisitions. The merging of IT systems can mean that, for example, what was previously an exclusively Oracle or SQL Server “shop” is now having to manage DB2 as well.

New applications

It is sometimes necessary for organisations to purchase new application software which will only run on one type of database. If this application is mission critical then it is vital to have support for the underlying database and if there are no skills within the organisation this can be a problem.

Redundancy

Unfortunately the last few years have seen many job losses within the IT industry. Organisations are having to cut back on IT staff and there are times when this can lead to DBAs having to take on the responsibility of managing additional database systems which do not fall into their area of expertise.

Strategic Move

Probably less common but still an issue is when an organisation takes a decision to move their systems onto a different database product. This is a huge strategic decision which would have an impact through many levels of the organisation. It is highly likely in this instance that an external organisation would be brought in to support the new database, at least in the short term.

It is becoming increasingly common for organisations to be forced to run multiple database systems. To cut down the cost and complexity of employing a large DBA team to cover each different discipline, one possible solution is to employ the services of a support organisation to cover part of the work. Internal DBAs can continue to manage the incumbent database system and a specialist support organisation can take on support of the new database. This approach takes the pain out of having to provide in-depth training and education, or asking DBAs to take on a greater workload and work outside their traditional comfort zone and skill set.

IT is among the highest single areas of expenditure in most businesses, which puts it under considerable scrutiny in the current economic climate. IT is demonstrably a key enabler for both innovation and cost-efficiency, with investment in IT initiatives creating new business opportunities that will typically deliver very significant returns. However, too many IT departments are struggling to make their budgets cover even business-as-usual activities, let alone innovative projects that push the business forward. By improving the efficiency of IT service delivery and aligning it to the business requirements, organisations can reduce business-as-usual costs and free up budget to deliver new capabilities.

The first question to consider is: are you spending too much keeping the lights on in IT? IT spend for most businesses is estimated at between 4 and 7 percent of total revenue. Considering the enormous savings technology delivers in terms of removing paper-based administration and automating business transactions, this might be considered a bargain. But are you sure you’re getting the best possible value from your IT spend? With the constant advances in technology which should outweigh the inflationary pressures, shouldn’t your alarm bells be ringing if your costs are going up every year?

Hence, it’s critically important to eliminate waste in IT expenditure while maintaining or even increasing service levels, thereby freeing up budget to invest in future capabilities. By re-examining the cost and quality of day-to-day operations, you can identify ways to deliver IT services faster, better and at lower cost.

The three broad areas of consideration are as follows:

Infrastructure

Firstly, hardware assets need to be utilized efficiently as over-sized infrastructure is excessively costly to power, cool and manage. Relatively small investments in newer, more reliable hardware backed by automated monitoring and management tools should remove significant manpower costs, cutting the risk and cost of downtime, and freeing up skilled staff to focus on higher-value activities. Alternatively, have you investigated the possible benefits of new infrastructure options, such as cloud computing?

IT Service Management

Secondly, there needs to be clarity around how the IT organisation delivers and manages the services the business needs. Improving the way that you procure hardware and software can save money and provide a more responsive service to the business. It is also useful to consider automating or even outsourcing non-strategic activities to reduce costs and free up skilled in-house resources. Small and midsize businesses can benefit from outsourcing IT to a specialist provider and receive year-round cover at a fraction of the cost of maintaining the equivalent in-house resources.

Applications

Finally, there needs to be a good understanding of the application functionality required by the business, and of how closely the existing solutions meet requirements. Does your company’s application portfolio contain redundant or duplicated functionality or legacy systems that are becoming hard and expensive to support? A formal process needs to be in place to ensure that IT and the business keep reviewing the gap (if any) between functionality and requirements.

Outsourcing Helps to Reduce Costs While Providing the Foundation for Growth

For many organisations, there may not be enough clarity around how the budget splits into day-to-day operations and transformative spend, making it difficult to see how costs are really changing and where improvements can be made. By evaluating and measuring the cost and quality of day-to-day operations, IT departments can realign their activities to deliver the business requirements in a more efficient manner. Efficiency in the critical IT function will not only release funds and skilled staff for more strategic initiatives but also gives you the foundation required for growth.

Companies of all sizes can make significant improvements to IT and business process efficiency, with major benefits to the overall business. And outsourcing can be that leverage you need. For example, a client in professional services industry moved to a managed service for backend infrastructure, reducing costs by 57 percent while improving service levels. Even where systems are kept in-house, large savings are possible.

IT outsourcing has helped many companies to reduce their costs significantly while improving the service quality. It not only frees up your financial and human resources to focus on more strategic initiatives, but also gives you the scalability and flexibility you need. Ultimately, outsourcing is about delivering the strong operational foundation cheaper, faster and better, so you are ready to take on future challenges.

ITV has signed deals with Apple and Google in a bid to increase collaboration between staff and enable employees to work remotely. It will replace up to 80 percent of its PC workstations with Macs and also begin using Google Docs and Gmail, the report states.

ITV chief technology officer Paul Dale said “When I arrived at ITV, one of my tasks was to implement a company-wide plan for workplace technology in order to enable our staff to deliver ITV’s transformation plan.”

ITV has signed deals with Apple and Google in a bid to increase collaboration between staff and enable employees to work remotely. It will replace up to 80 percent of its PC workstations with Macs and also begin using Google Docs and Gmail, the report states.

ITV chief technology officer Paul Dale said “When I arrived at ITV, one of my tasks was to implement a company-wide plan for workplace technology in order to enable our staff to deliver ITV’s transformation plan.”

ITV has signed deals with Apple and Google in a bid to increase collaboration between staff and enable employees to work remotely. It will replace up to 80 percent of its PC workstations with Macs and also begin using Google Docs and Gmail, the report states.

ITV chief technology officer Paul Dale said “When I arrived at ITV, one of my tasks was to implement a company-wide plan for workplace technology in order to enable our staff to deliver ITV’s transformation plan.”

Oracle has acquired Ksplice, technology provider for updating Linux, for an undisclosed sum.

Ksplice's technology will enable zero downtime updates, with no reboot required, resulting in improved system availability, security and reduced operationing costs.