IT Matters
Steve Burrows wrote the IT Matters page for the Business News section of the Isle of Man Newspapers Examiner newspaper between July 2014 and June 2018 - 100 articles - as a pro-bono initiative to raise awareness of the importance of corporate IT matters in business within the Isle of Man.
That Database
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- Created on 14 December 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
The Government wants a centralised, comprehensive, database of citizens. They tell us that they currently have around sixty databases which are used by a couple of hundred IT systems. Unsurprisingly the Government has difficulty keeping all these databases complete and up to date, so they hold bad data about citizens - out of date address, occupation, marital status, duplicate records, missing records etc. Failing to ensure that personal data is accurate is a breach of data protection. It’s a common problem, many larger organisations used to have multiple databases which were supposed to hold the same, up to date, data, but didn’t. It’s easy to see why the government would want to fix this problem, it must hinder government efficiency, and it is a previously solved problem.
Productivity is Down
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- Created on 30 November 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
The major business event since my last article has been the UK Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and his recognition of the UK’s low productivity. I am delighted to see this, there have been several authoritative reports over the past couple of decades comparing the productivity of UK industry unfavourably with France, Germany and the USA, but to me it has felt as though the UK, and by extension the Isle of Man because of our strong business connections and similarities, has plodded along the same old path in denial of the problem.
UK follows Manx example …
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- Created on 17 November 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
… and shoots itself in the feet with both barrels.
More of that later, but let’s start with a little characterisation of IT workers. They generally fall into four categories - employees, contractors, freelancers and consultants.
Employees are the permanent “on payroll” workers who provide continuity of service and knowledge, handling most of the business as usual (“BAU”) workload of providing and maintaining IT. Most employers aim to keep these folks long term.
AI, it’s smarter than you
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- Created on 02 November 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
When I were a lad AI stood for artificial insemination; when I was eleven years old we were taught about the AI of cattle in graphic detail - I can’t remember in which subject the topic came up - which knowledge was received with many juvenile blushes. As I recall we were taught about AI before we learned about human reproduction. Today however AI has, for most of us, a very different meaning.
Smart Island
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- Created on 19 October 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
So here we are with a nice shiny new House of Keys, and with one exception new ministerial responsibilities - a new dawn for the island although with a general consensus that dawn has brought a red sky and the expectation of storms ahead. The one exception in ministerial responsibilities is of course the Minister for Economic Development, who has been lumbered with the same portfolio he held prior to the election albeit with different partners in the CoMin team. The DED Minister has not been slow to signal the need for change, reportedly saying that “more focus needs to be put on the local economy on the Isle of Man”, and the “private sector will show us the 'next big thing'”.
Do You DDoS?
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- Created on 05 October 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
Out there in CyberSpace a common technique for preventing people accessing a website or using an Internet service is the “Denial of Service” cyber attack. The rules of the game are simple, pick on a website (or email service or cloud storage provider etc.) and give them so many requests or so much web traffic that their servers or Internet connections can’t cope. The result is that their servers will either become so overloaded and unresponsive that for all intents and purposes they cease working, or they will actually crash. Either way the Denial of Service attack has succeeded because nobody can use the website, frustrating both the website operator and his customers.
Little Boys’ Toys
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- Created on 21 September 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
As I write I'm on the plane to London, to give a talk about the implications of Brexit for the UK's IT leaders, with a detour via the guitar shops of Denmark Street where I hope to try and buy another electric guitar. It's quite likely that I'll try it, love it, and then have to order one instead of walking out of the shop with the one I try. This, any older musician will recognise, is a Big No No. Musical instruments are individual, each has their own character, you can play two instruments of the same brand and model and they will feel and sound different.
Fintech Leader
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- Created on 08 September 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
Tucked away in sleepy Castletown is probably not the first place you would look for a global FinTech (Finance Technology) leader, but nevertheless in quiet upmarket offices on the edge of Parliament Square you’ll find one.
Virtual Systems is a spin-out from EIP, a consultancy and managed service provider to the mobile phone insurance industry, set up by ex-Carphone Warehouse executives. Phone insurance is a lucrative business, and through having the captive insurer for Carphone Warehouse on the island the Isle of Man has developed world-class expertise in this niche. EIP staff travel the world helping mobile operators and insurers to set up phone insurance schemes, devise products, market them, and establish claims processes and all the logistics of replacing or repairing lost, stolen or broken phones.
Last Chance
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- Created on 24 August 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
This article probably isn’t for you. Well it might be, we’ll come to that, but more likely it’s for your offspring. Have a gander then pass the paper over to the younger generation and tell them to get in quick …
For those leaving school, or university, this is a strange time of year. Decisions made recently, or about to be made, may influence the rest of your lives. Careers beckon, entry into the world of adult work. In a previous article I mused about the impacts of the next wave of industrial automation and the frightening forecasts that around a third of current jobs in the UK are highly susceptible to computerisation over the next twenty years. Where then can reliable long-term employment be found?
