New Publications are available for Office automation - computing
http://dl-live.theiet.org
New Publications are available now online for this publication.
Please follow the links to view the publication.Centralised outstation configuration management and control in the utilities
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/ic_20070565
As business relies more and more on systems like data warehouses and business intelligence (Bl) presented through dashboards, there comes with this an inherent and increasing risk. (1) Do you really trust the information presented to you? (2) Do you really know where it came from? (3) Do you really know what you would do about it if it as wrong? (4) Do you really know it is accurate? Bl now looks to source its underlying data from many disparate systems, including real-time and historic telemetry data, which by its very nature is an order of magnitude more complex in management than it's pure IT based equivalent. This presentation provides an overview of the approach Capula and Southern Water took to address these issues, culminating in the development of Capula Oneview. We look at the identification and scoping of the problem, the development of the solution and the realisation of the benefits.Knowledge management: an overview & its impact on software industry
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/ic_20070767
Knowledge management involves the identification and analysis of available and required knowledge, and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop knowledge assets so as to fulfill organizational objectives. Knowledge management helps management in taking informed and better decision. It also helps in creating intellectual capital for the organization. The importance of knowledge management is software industry is incredible. Knowledge management helps in improving execution and coordination across the organization, which is a challenge for software industry. Knowledge management also helps in increasing speed to delivery and precision of execution for software industry. A case of Patni computers system highlights the importance of knowledge management in software industry.Service delivery platform and the merging of IT and telecoms
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/ic_20060425
The article consists of a Powerpoint presentation on service delivery platform and the merging of IT and telecoms. The areas discussed include: IBM; Telco industry; next generation SDP; service delivery platform; Web service; service oriented architecture; SDP ontology.The realization method and application of resource sharing in manufacturing grid
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/cp_20060904
Networked manufacturing is essentially a kind of information sharing, and e-manufacturing is the extension and outspread of networked manufacturing and e-commerce. The key which manufacturing develops in network environment lies on realizing manufacturing resource sharing and collaboration under the distributed environment. Manufacturing grid (MG), which was the application of grid technology and information technology, provided a feasible way for the manufacturing resource sharing and collaboration in the distributed environment. The WSRF (Web service resource framework)-based MG resource sharing architecture was proposed. With this architecture, by constructing resource description model, a manufacturing resource can be encapsulated to a WS-resource service and deployed on the MG, thus the heterogeneous and geographical distributed resource sharing can be realized. With a QoS (quality of service)-based resource searching and scheduling, the resource discovery and scheduling combining with all or part of the TQPS (time, quality, price, service) properties can be implemented, so the optimal manufacturing service can be provided for the MG customers. Finally, an application on rapid prototype resource was taken as an example to illustrate the practicability and feasibility of the architecture.Implementing a software measurement program in small and medium enterprises: a suitable framework
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/iet-sen_20080026
The successful implementation of software measurement programs is not an easy task. Software measurement program implementations sometimes fail, and this failure is frequently caused by their definition: the measurement program does not provide the required information, the data required are difficult to obtain and so on. The definition of measurement programs is even less encouraging in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), since most of the outstanding measurement program models are not suited to these types of companies. Additionally, the literature provides few cases of measurement program implementation, which could be used as a source of reference for good practices through which to successfully perform these activities. A measurement program definition framework suited to SMEs called MIS-PyME is used to implement a measurement program in the software development and maintenance department of a medium company. The result of this measurement program and the good practices detected from this experience are expounded, along with the benefits obtained using MIS-PyME in contrast to our previous experiences of using the goal question indicator metric.Finding the fruits of 'failure' [innovative organisation failure]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060208
The author argues that apparent flops should be seen as innovative organizations to redouble their efforts. For all companies, but particularly those in the IT sector, making the most of your intellectual property assets is a must. These are the company's crown jewels, but they should not be so tightly locked up that they cannot be used to their utmost. The solution to a struggling product already exists within most organisations - it just needs to be found; and, to find it, a culture of innovation must be inculcated. Creating that culture enables companies to release their internal resources to make the most of their assets. Innovating also leads to diversification, encouraging companies away from having all their eggs in one basket. The problem for many IT firms is that their staff is sealed in organisational cells from which they have scant productive interaction: engineers and technicians are in one cell, marketing team in another, and management and financial colleagues in another still. Opening the cells requires a fundamental decision to be taken: the board must accept that innovation can go backwards as well as forwards and sideways. It must give its staff the time and space to succeed - and also the freedom to fail.The IT professional: a social history
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060306
Popular perceptions of IT professionals have evolved in line with their status and with the evolution of the technology itself. The author looks at how the white-coated computer boffin grew into one of the organisation's most important people.Investing the 'trust dividend'
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060303
Building a trust-based relationship with an outsourcer benefits from a framework that defines expectations and elevates contractual arrangements beyond mere cost-saving considerations. Outsourcing is one answer to this business environment. Yet companies who neglect actively to manage their relationships with IT outsourcing partners are missing out on a `trust dividend' worth up to 40% of the total contract value. Outsourcing IT is most successful when viewed as a business strategy, not a transaction.Data centres off the rack?
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20081008
Rack space is still scarce in London's data centres, but indications are that an end to the capacity crunch is in sight. Despite growing deployment of blade servers and virtualisation, the demands on UK data centres continue to escalate. New data centre build-outs in the Greater London area have been further inhibited by legislative requirements, designed to ensure that new data centres meet specific environmental requirements before planning applications are approved. The migration of power-hungry applications to the outlying areas will then free up space in central London data centres and erode the business case for building more facilities in London. This approach would mean that significant amounts of floor space would be freed up.No-compromise route to open source
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20050605
The fact that products based on open source environments have won acceptance within enterprise IT shops is evidenced by the growing number of deployments and the movement of Linux to a top tier operating system (OS) among major independent software vendors. In these environments - as in anywhere business critical functions perform - availability of applications and data is a primary issue. Several factors that must be taken into account during the building of a highly available IT infrastructure based on open source technology. The author explains that high availability (HA) considerations still apply in an open source environment, but the migration must be carefully managed.Learning curves
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20080909
Comparisons have long been made between the skills involved in mainstream engineering and those demanded by the engineering of IT systems. Both are directed at the construction of projects for practical applications, and use technology and scientific principles to deliver practical applications. Software projects are now described as being 'built' or 'architected' - rather than 'written' or 'designed'. The implication is that IT professionals could benefit from aclose study of mainstream engineering. The concept of computer engineering has been around for decades - indeed, accredited computer engineering degrees have existed since the early 1970s. The longer-established fields of study have a bias toward component design and, as such, a knowledge of related sciences is often regarded as essential to better understanding.Backup bungle [operating system installation management]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20070806
If you've never installed an OS it can seem a daunting prospect, but it's generally perfectly straightforward, if rather boring. You select a few obvious options, language, location etc, and then sit around while the installer does the real work. In practice, a Windows installation is a bit more of a drag because, once you've got the OS sort of installed, you have to install the various device drives to finish the job. With Linux, the drivers are, in principle, installed along with the OS, making everything much easier and faster. The author recounts his problems keeping his new Linux workstation up and running.Cred - or croak? [environment friendly data centre]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20082012
The 'greening' of data centres has been a descant to the corporate utterances from most of the operators and equipment vendors selling into that industry. Many data centres took the green pledge not only because they affirmed its principles and didn't want to damned by default, but also as they realised that IT in general was receiving more than its fair share of criticism. Not only were data centres using vast amounts of energy to run servers, power control units, cooling and air-conditioning units, but the resultant heat generated was not reused constructively. The attention this brought raised the spectre of regulation, and the data centre sector rapidly realised that it needed to be seen to be acting to address environmental issues to offset any possibility of legislative controls from outside agencies.Exposed: email's worst habits [IT email management]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20080908
Bad email practice undermines enterprise efficiency and saps network resources - yet by observing some simple best practices, email's value as a corporate facilitator can be vastly improved.Adding value to the organisation
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060605
This paper deals with adding value to the organisation with the help of SFIA.The skills framework for the information age (SFIA) defines technological skills that underpin the IT profession. SFIA consists overall ICT skills definitions with technical skills provided as sub categories that range from strategy and planning to business support. To add value to the business might involve time-to-market, project effectiveness, organisational bottlenecks, staff recruitment and retention. The fundamental description of skills, levels and roles becomes the knowledge base of the business. And that's really where SFIA comes in, providing an off-the-shelf starter set of definitions. At the core of any technology business is competence management: a process to measure, assess, develop and deploy staff. It informs many strategic aims and objectives, such as faster deployment of staff to projects, reduced staff turnover, improved technical project deliveries, or easier mergers and acquisitions. Competence management is a core knowledge base of defined technical and business skills is at the heart of any competence management system. Applying these skill definitions to company structure, personnel development and project management has the potential to deliver fundamental answers to a wide range business issues.Trading places [IT investment]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060402
Finance directors are often frustrated at their inability to understand and measure return on investment in IT. IT directors are often frustrated because their fellow directors do not appreciate the complexity of the challenges that they face. In extreme cases this can lead to a complete breakdown in communication and trust between these two key parts of any management team. So the author envisaged an organisation where the CEO had devised a unique approach to breaking down these communication barriers. Cultural misunderstandings are one of the reasons organisations fail to get the best out of their IT investment. In this article, the author investigates what benefits might accrue if the techie and the bean counter-swapped roles for a couple of days?How green is your IT?
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060604
This paper deals with computing infrastructures which are packed with noxious substances, but they are getting a lot more environmentally friendly and cost-efficient to boot. Computer equipment has traditionally been stuffed with hazardous materials from the cadmium in batteries to lead used for soldering. Power consumption is also an increasing problem. Industry watchdog monitor the environmental effects of the electronics industry. Lead oxide and barium are found in CRT monitors, can, be replaced with LCD. Data centres from a material point of view are loaded with non-environmentally friendly materials that have large scale batteries and UPS systems, and that technology includes lead. Thus, today companies are striving to produce green desktops and servers. The regulations will help make computing environments greener. Much of the power benefit can be offered by virtualisation, which is a concept offering huge environmental benefits for data centre managers. Virtualisation gives each application its own operating system, and lets multiple different operating systems run on a single server at once. In most cases, making green decisions in the computing environment saves company money from its capital expenditure budget or reducing the data centre's facilities by lowering energy consumption. In spite of the rhetoric around corporate social responsibility, the real driver for environmentally friendly computing is financial gain.IT professionals' irks and bugbears
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060602
This paper deals with IT professionals irks and bugbears. The workaday things that drive IT folk is not the big challenges, the boardroom standoffs, scraps over budgets, and end-user ingratitude, but the little everyday annoyances. IT has a high irk quotient such as some late hours and high stress levels when major projects are running late or a system failure needs fixing. Some of the annoying things that IT professionals face are boring conference presentations most of which would be cancelled since the advertised speaker is unable to attend and which makes professionals loose enthusiasm and disinterested. Another issue is with users who think they know more than the professionals. The other problem they face is being asked for advice about computers and computing. They also have issues in sorting out the IT store room and software licensing.Counting the cost of IT projects
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20040104
We discuss about counting the cost of IT projects. Estimating the cost of a project has to be the most thankless task in IT, but it should be one of the most important. We also discuss how we justify projects when we do not try to find out the real cost. Estimates are need for three reasons: the first is to justify a project. It enables the cost to be compared with anticipated benefit. Second is the estimate used to enforce the discipline which is needed to make the project succeed and the third is to improve software production procedures and evaluate the effects of process improvement.The wireless enterprise: two years on
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/cce_20030102
A report on the wireless enterprise published a couple of years ago was a wake-up call to the ICT industry, which until then had largely ignored the opportunities posed by enterprise, rather than consumer, mobility. two years later, has anything really changed?Just plug-in and go [utility computing]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20050304
The big-iron computer suppliers do-not agree on many things, but they have all decided to pull in the same direction: to a place where the IT service is something you just dial into and rent. The suppliers believe the time is right to get technologies in place that reassure customers their data will not somehow get mixed up with someone else's and that the business models are now there. Paul Marsh looks at what is happening in utility computing and whether all the components are there to make it work, this time around. Utility computing has been with us for a while. 'Service-centric' IT arrived with some fanfare with the emergence of the first generation of application service providers (ASPs) and storage service providers (SSPs). The term 'utility computing' is being applied to both inhouse and outsourced IT capabilities. The benefits of using a utility hardware infrastructure hinges mainly on the cost savings that can be made from deploying hardware in an on-demand fashion. Software on-demand offerings appear to make most sense to small-to-medium sized companies.Have data? Will travel [IT security threat]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et_20081510
This paper deals with IT security threats. Just when organizations felt they were gaining the upper hand in their defence against external IT security threats, comes a rise in problems caused by internal risk factors. Often termed the 'enemy within', malicious hacks on the enterprise system launched from the system itself remain in the minority compared to instances of data leakage-the unintentional and/or illicit loss of secure information into an insecure environment. Organization's that bother to check are finding that considerable quantities of data are trotting out through the staff entrance. Trend's Corporate end user study 2008, which surveyed 1,600 corporate end-users, found that the loss of proprietary company data and information was ranked as the second most serious threat at work, following viruses. Respondent considered this to be 'more serious than most other threats such as spam, spy ware, and phishing. IT departments could do much to reduce data leakage by shoring-up internal IT security procedures with the practice standards of ISACA's COBIT IT governance standards, as well as those of ITIL IT service management documentation. Implementing these tools would go a long way to staunching data leakage.Managed chaos [data management]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20050503
Data management (DM) is often just seen as a subset of PLM (product lifecycle management). Three trends have brought a new impetus to the discipline of data management. One is compliance with financial and, in this case, environmental legislation. Another is globalisation as the distribution of functions across multiple geographic sites within the same company continues. And then there is a related factor: outsourcing, as services, manufacturing and design activities are transferred to third parties. In this article the author examines these three trends that have boosted the discipline of data management.IT compliance: where does the buck stop?
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060601
This paper deals with IT compliance and outsourcing. Its not always clear who bears the regulatory compliance liability where the IT function is outsourced. Corporate compliance are two words that are being increasingly broached in IT departments and boardrooms, as industries in all sectors face a growing number of regulatory compliance deadlines. IT will bear the brunt of responsibility in enabling businesses and organisations to meet legislative stringencies, especially as many affect how they must store and be able to retrieve data, for instance. IT itself forms a large part of the corporate procedures that fall under the scrutiny of the incoming legislation. This means that IT systems have to be up to the mark or their owners risk penalties. Although the legislations are clear in their requirements, a very fuzzy area for many is exactly which party must be compliant when it comes to outsourcing. One of the key objectives of outsourcing is effective risk management and passing as much responsibility as possible to the service provider.Climbing skills [skills framework for the information age]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060403
The skills framework for the information age - SFIA aims at giving IT professionals the `soft' skills they need to prove themselves as on-a-par business process managers. For the employee, SFIA provides tools for a definition of development opportunities, and the ability to see how this relates to the employer's needs. The principles of SFIA dovetail into those of the Prof-IT initiative, which works toward a `roadmap' for establishing chartered status for IT professionals. Effective skills management with SFIA should result in lower project risk and a more cost-effective use of `human capital'. This applies particularly from the application of the right skills at the early stages of a project, where concept feasibility and overall design are determined. Senior ICT people can then challenge business requirements, get right the foundation for successful implementation, and manage suppliers.When push comes to crunch [IT return-on-investment]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et.2009.1913
ROI return on investment is an acronym that looms large in the IT lexicon, but try to pin down a standard definition for it, and you'll soon be foxed. The principle reason why it is so hard to define is because the term's meaning changes broadly, depending on the project and the clients' needs. Its multiple definitions do not stop the term from being bandied around, however, and in erratic economic conditions it is important that IT professiona" who may be engaged in negotiation with vendors or integrators. ROI is often measured using a mixture of tangible and intangible factors. Larger organisations are able to see financial returns much more clearly, and can devise an ROI focused on cost savings, etc; but for smaller IT departments, such as Malcolm Burrows' team at petfood brand Butchers Pet Care, the focus is on building relationships.The top ten challenges facing IT professionals
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060503
For IT professionals there are no easy days; the job is going to bet more arduous, more demanding. As they find themselves approaching the end of the 21st century's first decade, battle-scarved IT vets and greenhorn techies alike look with trepication toward the run up to 2010, and wonder what new and daunting developments lie in wait for them.Health & safety: what every IT professional should know
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20060206
Information professionals are mostly employed in offices, but their working environment is often quite unlike that of colleagues in other departments. IT staff whose job role requires them to spend a lot of time in close proximity to densities of computer kit are likely to find themselves spending much of their working day in surroundings configured to meet the needs of machine, rather than man. IT staff are more exposed to H&S risks than anyone else in the organisation; and they are prone to putting themselves at risk by ignoring the rules of safe practice.China goes soft on the west
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070302
It may not be apparent, but software is already big business in China. According to the country's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), software sales in the country grew almost a quarter to hit 480bn ($60bn) in 2006, overshadowing the UK's software market. Exports of software from China are more modest, although they don't compare poorly with many developed countries, such as the UK, according to the Chinese government's own figures. (3 pages)Canada - do attitude [IT professionalism in Canada]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070202
Canada has been striving hard to bring a formally-recognised IT professional certification to the industry for almost 20 years; so, what can the rest of the world learn from its experience? The current debate surrounding the need for a chartered IT professional status stretches further than the UK, and some other countries have made significant legal headway in establishing it; Canada is a prime case in point. Canada has been a leader in promoting IT professionalism at the highest levels. Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) works with universities to accredit their computer science programmes, so that graduates can use their degrees as a stepping stone to ISP designation. Creating a legally-recognised professional certification for IT practitioners is one thing but getting it widely recognised by industry is quite another. CIPs continue to lobby provinces concerning the former, while working with national and international organisations to do latter. Canada is a little over twice the age of the fledgling IT industry that it is trying to formalise and refine into a chartered profession. It has embarked on a significant challenge, and the UK can learn much from following the course of its progress.Alliances key to Japan's move into enterprise IT
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070601
There are excellent examples of computer, software and services companies that have made it big in the wider world - Fujitsu and Hitachi, say - but, aside from them, Japanese players in the global IT space are few and far between. There's no doubting Japan's achievements as a high-tech powerhouse, but is has not made the inroads into the corporate IT market that match its dominance of consumer electronics.The six steps to better boardroom/IT understanding
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070104
It's time business leaders grasped a little more about the technology driving their business if they want to keep ahead in the competitive commercial world. The need for the chief information officer (CIO) to better understand business, the need for the IT manager to engage more with his internal clients, the clamour for IT departments to deliver while cutting costs; it appears IT manager baiting has become a new sport for board directors of UK plc, but not all business owners and IT professional agree to disagree. Our six point memorandum calls for boards to be reasonable in their expectations of IT.Applying intelligence to outsourcing options [intelligent IT outsourcing]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070201
Many organisations have, to an extent, resorted to an 'all or nothing' attitude when it comes to IT outsourcing. However, as the overall complexity of technology, the depth of knowledge, and the expertise required to manage it has increased, the possibility for an 'all-things-to-all-users' IT department has become less viable. The key to deriving real benefit from outsourcing lies in identifying the parts of your IT infrastructure that will truly benefit from being managed out of house. Intelligent outsourcing challenges the idea of in-house versus outsource because, instead of an 'all or nothing' approach, it applies both models strategically to maximise the performance of the back office. Considering compliance, flexibility and cost among other variables relevant to business needs, those in charge can decide which processes are better handled in-house and which are more efficient when managed by a specialist. A fast-paced and constantly changing working environment requires a fast-paced and constantly transforming technology infrastructure to support it. As companies focus more on improving the productivity of its workforce and business processes to keep up with the needs of the current environment, the technology and the issues faced in managing it have become more complex.The final run [IT paradigms]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070603
This is the last issue of Information Professional before it morphs into the IT section of Engineering & Technology magazine's 24 January 2008 issue. The author looks back at some of the shifting IT paradigms that the magazine has covered since its inception.Reskilling for compliance
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070101
It is wise for any IT professional to acquire additional competences to their technological skills - understanding more about legalities and liabilities, understanding specifics of various compliances and clarifying your personal liabilities in respect to compliance failure, for example. This ensures that you personally are covered and less likely to unknowingly fall foul of compliance problems.State of the tools [SOA tools]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070505
Where there is a new movement in IT, support tools are sure to follow. The world of the SOA is no exception, with a host of products springing up that claim to deal with the issues that a move to the architecture bring up. According to a study carried out by analyst firm Aberdeen Group, organisations that made the investment in SOA infrastructure - such as enterprise service buses (ESBs), repositories and registries - are significantly out-performing companies that just develop and use web services without these support tools.Moving the model [software licensing]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070604
As software licensing models get more complicated they are soaking up more of IT specifiers' time - and patience. Why has it become such a pain to sort out? (3 pages)Because IT is worth it [IT management]
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/inp_20070607
IT departments faced both good and bad news in 2007. The good news was that their budgets were on the rise. The bad news is that they have to work harder for the money, having lost more traction with the board. Too often the underdog in the enterprise pecking order, the IT function needs to get an image makeover so it can unleash its contribution to the bottom line. We are seeing very little discussion around turning risk management into topline benefits right now.Translating a typical business process modelling language to a Web Services Ontology through lightweight mapping
http://dl-live.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/iet-sen_20060042
Bridging the gap between enterprise modelling methods and Semantic Web services is an important yet challenging task. For organisations with business goals, the automation of business processes as Web services is increasingly important, especially with many business transactions taking place within the Web today. Taking one approach to address this problem, a lightweight mapping between Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language (FBPML) and the Web Services Ontology (OWL-S) is outlined. The framework entails a data model translation and a process model translation via the use of ontologies and mapping principles. Several working examples of the process model translations are presented together with the implementation of an automated translator. FBPML constructs and process models that could not be translated to OWL-S equivalents highlight the differences between the languages of the two domains. It also implies that evolving Semantic Web technologies, in particular OWL-S, are not adequate for all service modelling needs and could thus benefit from the more traditional and mature BPM methods. On a more interesting note, this is effectively the first step towards enabling a semantic-based business workflow system.