Information

Valuing Data and Information

Details: Created on 27 March 2013; Written by Steve Burrows

Our stewardship of “things” - assets of some sort - normally depends on value. We will take better care of a MontBlanc fountain pen than a Bic biro, we pay more attention to the management of large funds than the change in our pockets, and we apply far more rigorous accounting processes to the goods in our warehouses than the items in our stationery cupboard. In determining our approach to stewardship we pay significant attention to value, how then do we value the data and information we hold in our organisations?

What Does FATCA Mean for Data and IT?

Details: Created on 16 February 2012; Written by Steve Burrows

FATCA (foreign account tax compliance act) is a US law that comes into effect on 1st January 2013. It affects all financial institutions worldwide which manage US investments or have US citizens as clients; for the purposes of FATCA non-US financial institutions are Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs). FATCA permits the US to apply 30% witholding tax on any payments by US institutions to FFIs who do not cooperate with FATCA, either through non-participation or non-compliance - in short it is in the interests of almost all financial institutions worldwide to register for FACTA participation.

FATCA has enormous legal and technical implications for the data handling processes and IT systems in financial institutions.

Is Data the new Health & Safety?

Details: Created on 16 May 2011; Written by Steve Burrows

For years, decades, business owners have bemoaned the ever-increasing burden of Health & Safety legislation, not necessarily because of the need for workplace safety, but for the bureaucratic mechanisms involved, the supervision / enforcement processes, legal considerations, employee / union relations and so on.

Creeping up on the outside, un-heeded by many directors and businesses, the Data Protection legislation has been getting teeth. In April 2010 the new Information Commissioner secured power to award fines of up to £500,000 for Data Protection breaches. At the time many, perhaps most of us, ignored this development thinking that it would only be for massively extreme cases, such large fines would not be awarded in real life.

The three currencies of business

Details: Created on 20 December 2010; Written by Steve Burrows

Why companies should have a Chief Information Officer.

In business there are three currencies; talent, finance and information. How do I come to that? It’s pretty simple, consider the way we work and what we value. The Finance element is obvious, most businesses have a Finance Director or CFO (Chief Finance Officer) whose responsibility encompasses not only accounting, but the management and exploitation of financial resources, whether they are cash, creditors, debtors, leveragable assets, contracts, negotiable documents etc.

The Cost of Disinformation

Details: Created on 19 December 2010; Written by Steve Burrows

As businesses we regularly publish information. This website gives information about our services and snippets of news about our business etc. The information we publish to the public is intended for the public and open to public scrutiny, so most responsible businesses try to publish honest, accurate information. If the information we ought to publish will cast us in a less than flattering light then we usually avoid publishing it, remaining silent being preferable to self-incrimination or deception.

There is no T in CIO

Details: Created on 06 December 2010; Written by Administrator

Information Technology - what does it do? What do people who work in IT do, and what do they think they do?

I'm a Chartered Information Technology Professional. I've been working with computers for three decades. I know what I do, but I increasingly have the perception that many in IT, perhaps even the IT industry as a whole, have lost their way.

SBA

EU e-Privacy Directive