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.
Why is IT so primitive?
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- Created on 12 August 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Computing is wonderful, possibly the most wonderful thing to happen to humanity in the past couple of centuries, certainly it rates up there with the exploration of Space, the Automobile, Air Travel, Broadcasting, Telephony, Photography and the other major transformational influences of our age. We can communicate instantly with people all over the world, create art from our photographs and videos with an ease and sophistication that would challenge any darkroom technician only twenty years ago, share our knowledge and passions, and learn from the knowledge of countless others who have similarly shared their insights online. As a force for good Computing is unrivalled in exposing injustice, helping farmers across the globe to grow more and better crops to feed the world, sharing medical knowledge ….
Through the eye of The Needle
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- Created on 29 July 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Christine and David moved to the island in 2012, bringing their business, “The Needle”, with them. As the island wishes to encourage more technology entrepreneurs to relocate here I thought it would be useful to have a chat and discover how the experience of bringing an Internet business to the Isle of Man has been for them.
Outsourcing IT
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- Created on 14 July 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In a previous article I wrote about the difficulties of outsourcing management and administration of your IT systems and the need to build a relationship with your outsourcer. In this one I’ll try to cover some of the technical characteristics you should take into account.
The Relentless March of Micro
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- Created on 29 June 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
If I had to name the single biggest event in the history of Computing it was probably World War II. The need to read encrypted German radio signals catalysed UK efforts to develop electro-mechanical and electronic machines capable of breaking the German codes, resulting in the first electronic computer, Colossus, in 1943. The theories and knowledge developed at Bletchley Park by people like Alan Turing, Max Neumann, Tommy Flowers and many others created the concepts of the computers we have today.
Whose Data Is It Anyway?
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- Created on 17 June 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Membership of the EU is a controversial topic, some in the UK believe they are better off in, and some out. The latter largely base their justification for a “Brexit” on the excessive intrusion of EU legislation into what they believe should be sovereign matters - and in general I agree with them, but there is one piece of Eurocracy that I think we should be thankful for - the Data Protection Directive (DPD).
They’ll Put The UK In Your Pocket
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- Created on 02 June 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
Recently I wrote about an island software house that has built a sustainable business by serving specific local market needs, but ultimately one has to accept that the Isle of Man is a small place and to grow successfully most ICT businesses need to serve off-island markets.
AFD Software, based in Ramsey, is a prime example. Almost all of their over 7,000 business customers are in the UK, with a small percentage in the Rest Of The World; the company is one of our principal exporters and epitomises how the ICT sector can drive exports unaffected by the logistics of operating from a small island.
Outsourcing IT, It’s Not Easy
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- Created on 17 May 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In a previous article I wrote about outsourcing software development, in this one I’ll cover some aspects of outsourcing your IT.
What do you do if you’re not big enough to employ IT staff? If your IT needs are simple and you’re lucky you have a tech-savvy worker who will do the odd IT tasks alongside his real work, but for many small and medium sized businesses the answer is to engage an external company to supply, configure and maintain your IT - in other words you outsource it. Larger companies commonly also outsource IT, usually in the belief that an external IT company will have more diverse and expert specialists who will be able to deliver IT cheaper than an in-house IT person or team, and sometimes to take advantage of lower labour rates abroad.
Are You On Their Payroll?
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- Created on 05 May 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
If I asked you to name a software supplier used by six hundred employers on the island you’d probably reply “Microsoft”. If I asked you for another you would probably struggle. Oracle? Their software is largely used by much bigger companies than those on the IoM. Canonical? Probably not. Sage? Hmmm, maybe. DPN? Who?
e-Commerce 4 U ?
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- Created on 22 April 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
The Isle of Man economy is in the back of the Postman’s van. Yes, seriously, we are shopping more and more online for books, clothes, gadgets, toys, even frozen foods, the catalogue of retail goods arriving on the island from the UK by post or courier is constantly growing.
And with it sections of our own retail economy are going down the pan. Why? And what can we do about it?
