Thinking(s)
We think (perhaps too much) about Organisations, the Functions they perform, the Information needed to execute those functions, and the Technologies used to implement them. We capture some of our thoughts in writing to share them, please choose a particular category from the menu above.
Yet Another Cyber Leak
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- Created on 05 April 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
In January last year I wrote “The Isle of Man, in common with other so-called tax havens, is a prime target for professional information theft. Switzerland, Jersey, Luxembourg and the BVIs are amongst those recently targeted for the theft of customer data from banks and CSPs, so imagining that it probably won’t happen here is delusional”. Well now we can add Panama to the list of victims. I’m sure the board of Mossack Fonseca have been busily managing their crisis and ensuring that the door is more firmly bolted. At the time of writing I’ve no idea how this leak happened, suggestions seem to be that an email server was exploited but the scope and scale of the documents exposed would indicate that there’s far more to it than this - apparently the leak is of around 2.6 terabytes of data, that’s 2,858,730,232,217 bytes, encompassing c. 11,500,000 documents.
The Ascendancy of Linux
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- Created on 22 March 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
You’ve probably heard of Linux, used by techie hobbyists and for some things on the Internet, but serious businesses like yours probably use Microsoft. Linux, you will likely have been told, is unsupported, too risky, insecure, not ready for prime time, for geeks, skills are too rare or whatever.
Bring Me Your Women
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- Created on 05 March 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
We are periodically reminded of the huge crisis faced by employers of ICT workers. The European Commission says “It is estimated that there will be 825,000 unfilled vacancies for ICT professionals by 2020”. The Isle of Man Government controversially recently removed work permit restrictions for all but the most junior and unqualified of ICT workers (and perhaps even more controversially we discovered that the Minister for Economic Development cannot tell the difference between a half and a quarter) with, we are told, the support of the Institute of Directors, the Chamber of Commerce, the Manx eGaming Association and other employer representatives. Obviously there is a desperate shortage, employers simply cannot find enough techie workers to go around.
Build or Buy
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- Created on 22 February 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
One of the perennial, and often most difficult, questions faced by organisations when considering new software to automate business processes is whether to buy off the shelf, or build their own. It is rare that off the shelf software functionality is a perfect match for business needs so the temptation to commission a bespoke package, either developed in-house or by a third party, is common.
Agile and Customer Focused
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- Created on 08 February 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
Agile and Customer Focused - this has to be a major aspiration for many companies but how many really achieve it? Both of these attributes are tough to deliver, but at least one IT company in the island is succeeding.
Antelle IT was formed in 2004 by Tony Jones, as a developer of business software. The company started life in Tony’s bedroom, with him as the sole employee, before graduating to the garage (the clichéd first home of so many IT companies).
An Authentically Digital Company
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- Created on 25 January 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
An Island Destined for Digital Success
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- Created on 12 January 2016
- Written by Steve Burrows
From time to time many of us pause for breath, look around, and ask how we are doing compared to our competitors, so I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at the tech scene in Jersey.
IT's a Social Thing
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- Created on 30 December 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In my last article I touched on “Digital”, which became one of the most dominant business buzzwords of 2015. Over the last few years we have seen the emergence of Digital, and the Chief Digital Officer, (CDO) in government and business, as organisations start to respond to the new world order and realise that in order to engage with people they must be online and that their organisations must become online citizens. Of course there are plenty of people engaging with each other in the “old” ways, and the majority of organisations are a long way from embracing Digital or appointing CDOs, but the transition is underway. Over the past five years the Digitalisation (can that really be a word?) of organisations has acquired unstoppable momentum in response to society’s usage of ICT.
The Year Ahead
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- Created on 15 December 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In my role as leader of ELITE I was recently invited to represent the UK at the annual two-day conference of the European CIO Association, EuroCIO, which was held in Berlin earlier in December.
We all know what these associations and conferences can be like, they generally fall into two categories - those attended by a lot of bit-players, or the real deal. Having watched presentations by the CIO’s of Allianz, Thyssen Krupps, Belgian National Lottery and Solvay, and had discussions with the CIOs of The Dutch Post Office, Total, Agfa Gevaert and Lagardere amongst others, I think one has to conclude that this was the real deal. Well over a hundred top CIOs from across Europe attended what was a very serious conference with real horsepower. There are 10 National CIO bodies affiliated to EuroCIO and a number of very large corporate members; between them they represent over 900 major corporates, 600,000 IT employees, and a consolidated IT budget of c. €150 Billion - this was a conference for the big hitters. That’s all without a contribution from the UK - my invitation was to discuss the possibility of the UK’s national group for IT leaders joining EuroCIO.
e-Business vs. ICT
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- Created on 01 December 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
It has long irked me that DED lumps e-Business and ICT into the same pot. Acquaintances in Government are aware of this frustration, it doesn’t endear me to DED Civil Servants, but it remains a sore point because until we address it we’ll never achieve our potential as a creator of ICT.
Luddites Rool OK
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- Created on 17 November 2015
- Written by Steve Burrows
In some circles Luddite has become a term of disparagement, someone unable to cope with new technology. The reality of course is that the Luddites were skilled workers who saw that new technology had the potential to de-skill and devalue their jobs, potentially making them redundant - a phenomenon we now call Technological Unemployment. It is undoubtedly true that technological innovation steals jobs, and it is a moral problem I have wrestled with most of my working life - my early years in computing were largely focused on developing technologies to make people redundant, and the theme has continued as an integral if intermittent part of my work ever since. Far from disparaging the Luddites I respect them, they were shrewd enough to see the future.
Thinking(s)