Information management

Unilever puts SAP at the captain’s table

Consumer goods company Unilever works hand in glove with SAP in “speeding up its growth”, according to senior executives at the two firms Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Benefits of accessing data outweigh privacy risks for chronically ill

Over half of UK patients with chronic health conditions want access to their medical records and believe the benefits outweigh privacy risks Continue Reading

Betting on World Cup success

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to gambling site Betfair about the IT challenges of preparing for the football World Cup. We examine the strategy of cloud software pioneer Salesforce.com as it grows its role in the IT department. And we explain erasure coding – an emerging method for protecting storage hardware. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Wimbledon to analyse social interactions at tennis championship

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon will be analysing social interactions throughout tennis championship Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Travel group Expedia aims to predict your holiday plans

Travel group Expedia is developing technology that will predict the needs of its customers before they call about their travel plans Continue Reading

What’s new in SQL Server 2014

We give Microsoft’s latest release of SQL Server a test drive to find out if the new features really make the effort of upgrading worthwhile Continue Reading

By

• Tim Anderson

Met Office swaps Oracle for PostgreSQL

 Continue Reading

IT departments unprepared for internet of things

Only 41% of IT professionals are working on projects to prepare their business for the internet of things Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK airports lead move to cloud services

UK airports are at the vanguard of using cloud to develop innovative services, says Gatwick CIO. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Sapphire 2014: Plattner restates radical, in-memory computing future

SAP's Hasso Plattner restates his case that enterprise applications face a radical future, based on in-memory computing Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Sapphire 2014: SAP CEO McDermott declares war on ‘complexity’ and sets Fiori free

Bill McDermott, SAP CEO, devoted his opening keynote at Sapphire 2014 to declaring war on business process “complexity” Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

How big data brings big donations for charities

In this week’s Computer Weekly, hear how big data is helping charities to improve their fundraising by better targeting potential donors. We find out how the UK’s biggest newspaper publisher is moving its IT to the cloud. And we examine the options for datacentre cooling technologies to cut your energy costs. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Sensors offer big data users an operational analytics edge

Big data analytics processes on data from sensors and log files can propel users to competitive advantages, but a lot of refining is required first. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Author: Data mining projects depend on excavating meaningful data

In a Q&A, book author David Nettleton offers advice on avoiding data mining pitfalls and pinpointing valuable business data to mine and analyze. Continue Reading

By

• Melanie Luna, TechTarget

IT supplier insolvencies fall for first time as economy recovers

Technology companies have reached a turning point as insolvencies fall for the first time in 2014 Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wood and Henry Kirby

Seven best practices to boost big data governance efforts

Governing big data is much like governing other data, though businesses must adjust governance processes to accommodate larger, more varied data sets. Continue Reading

By

• Anne Marie Smith, Ph.D., Alabama Yankee Systems, LLC

Do predictive analytics projects require data scientists?

Expert Mark Whitehorn explains what skills are required for predictive modeling -- and whether business users can do the work of data scientists. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Whitehorn, University of Dundee

NHS shared services aims to end paper invoicing

NHS Shared Business Services hopes to eradicate paper invoicing by implementing an e-invoicing system that will be free for suppliers to use Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Business Objects use increases among SAP users, but Hana uptake low

More UK and Ireland SAP customers are using Business Objects now than even two years ago, but only 15% are using Hana Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Former shadow IT worker helps bring analytics data into the light

Ryan Fenner worked in a shadow IT unit at Union Bank for years. Now he's helping lead an IT effort to better manage BI data created in those shadows. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Shell thinks technology first in preparation for internet of everything

Shell is reshaping its business to think technology first as it uses the internet of everything to change its business processes Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

IT headcount lags behind growth in digital strategies

There is a huge gap in technology staffing for e-commerce operations, according to a new report from analyst Forrester Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Justifying the business case to update Oracle eBusiness Suite

To justify the upgrade cost needed to move to Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12, IT departments need consider how the implementation can deliver value. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Air Transport Industry Insights 2014

This report from SITA looks at the impact of business intelligence on airlines and airports. Continue Reading

New NHS e-Referral Service to use agile and open technologies

The new National Health Service outpatient appointment booking system will use agile and open technologies, the NHS has said. Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Retail's data challenge

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how data analytics is driving a new approach to customer relationship management within the retail sector. Customer who shops in multiple channels offer greater value to retailers. We find out how auction site eBay has developed a bespoke data analytics architecture to track every customer interaction. Continue Reading

CIO interview: Robert Teagle, European IT director, Starbucks Coffee

Robert Teagle leads IT across the 30 markets that Starbucks owns and operates in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

UK helping US military build intelligence software for drone targeting

The UK has been helping the US military build software to share intelligence for weapons such as drones for the past 14 years Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

City University London launches data science and cyber security courses

City University London will this year begin its first post-graduate courses in data science and cybersecurity. Continue Reading

CW Europe – May 2014 Edition

This issue of CW Europe looks at how European Union (EU) countries vary in sharing patient records and exchanging data. Continue Reading

Oracle updates Solaris, but is its server strategy sound?

Oracle has released a beta versdion of Solaris 11.2. But does Solaris and the Sparc server platform have a future? Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

SDL turns to cloud HR to join up businesses in 40 countries

The technology is central to the company’s strategy to integrate formerly autonomous businesses in 38 countries into a single operation Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Case study: How big data powers the eBay customer journey

With 50TB of machine-generated data produced daily and the need to process 100PB of data, eBay has an astronomic data challenge Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Gartner: CIOs spend more on BI as business growth returns

The return to business growth is driving IT spending among UK and Irish CIOs, according to Gartner's 2014 CIO Agenda survey Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Write-through, write-around, write-back: cache explained

Cache is vital for application deployment, but which one to choose – write-through, write-around or write-back cache? We examine the options Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Businesses look for tech solutions to big data security issues

The growing adoption of big data analytics applications is complicating data security challenges -- and creating a need for new security strategies. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Burns

Big data vendors should stop dissing data warehouse systems

Wayne Eckerson examines the analytics roles of data warehouses and big data systems and says he's tired of data warehouse bashing by big data vendors. Continue Reading

By

• Wayne Eckerson

Data collection practices spark debate on big data ethics, privacy

The increasing emphasis on collecting and analyzing big data is driving a debate on whether tighter privacy rules are needed to protect customers. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Burns

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has his Trustworthy Computing moment

In 2002, Microsoft chief Bill Gates sent out the Trustworthy Computing memo to staff. Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, had his Trustworthy Computing moment this week. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

EU data privacy authorities approve Microsoft Azure, Office 365 cloud services

The European Union's data privacy authorities have given approval to Microsoft's cloud services including Windows Azure and Office 365 Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Supermarket co-op stocks up on big data platform to help spur sales

Co-operative Allegiance Retail Services is deploying a cloud-based big data stack to replace a homegrown system that fell short on analytics power. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

Are retailers using data analytics to their advantage?

Computer Weekly looks at the challenges the retail sector faces in taking advantage of data analysis Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Workday sees opportunity for cloud financial management in Europe

Workday plans to push cloud finance and accounting services to enterprise in Europe, but observers say its background in HR technology may prove an obstacle Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

CIO interview: Leandro Balbinot, global CIO, HJ Heinz

Food giant HJ Heinz is gearing up to expand its international presence with a technology modernisation programme encompassing 23 countries Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

CW Europe – April 2014 Edition

This edition of CW Europe looks at data protection in Europe after PRISM, asking what the new EU data protection regulation is about and how it could affect your business. CW Europe’s security editor asked industry experts their opinion how the controversial reform and how it could affect the region. Continue Reading

Selecting the right SQL-on-Hadoop engine to access big data

Rick van der Lans explains why it's important to evaluate the differences in the technologies that make it possible to access Hadoop data using SQL. Continue Reading

By

• Rick van der Lans

CRM critical to digital transformation in India

Indian businesses integrate customer relationship management (CRM) investments with digital initiatives as customer interaction expands rapidly Continue Reading

By

• Anup Basti

Seven secrets of SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the principal interface for working with Microsoft SQL Server. However, many subtleties of this powerful tool evade even the most seasoned professionals Continue Reading

By

• Andy Hogg

Using NoSQL databases to gain competitive advantage

NoSQL is attracting growing interest from businesses - we examine three case studies: Amadeus, i2O and Temetra Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Grant Thornton spends £3m in move to cloud HR services

Financial advisory firm invests in cloud talent management as it gears up to expand its operations in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Analysis: Care.data – where next?

Following the public debate surrounding the NHS Care.data plan, it was unsurprising the topic dominated the UK’s largest health IT event Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

The digital CIO: How digital technology will change the way organisations work

If you are an IT leader, digital technology is likely to be a pivotal factor in your career over the next five years Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Mine machine data to boost business value

Businesses risk losing their competitive edge if they are unable to drill down into the information captured by machine-generated data Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Big Digital Leadership

This paper by digital strategist Ade McCormack, offers CIOs advice on turning digital technology trends into a business advantage. Continue Reading

Case study: How John Lewis conquered the web

An in-depth look at the inside story of John Lewis' £40m e-commerce strategy. Continue Reading

Oracle pushes Exadata servers aggressively against IBM PureSystems

IDC’s latest market share data for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), has shown that Oracle is beginning to grow its server business Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Committee report calls for “presumption of openness” with public data

The government should have a “presumption of openness” when it comes to public data, the Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) said Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Red Bull ramps up network for 2014 F1 championship

An extended relationship with AT&T will support RedBull Infiniti Racing on and off the track as it prepares its 2014 championship bid Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

British Gas uses SAS analytics to reach customers

British Gas, one of the UK’s energy suppliers, is to use SAS analytics to improve marketing efficiency Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Analytics across the ecosystem

Analytics is a key enabler for life sciences and healthcare organizations to create better outcomes for patients, customers and other stakeholders across the entire healthcare ecosystem, according to this research from IBM. Continue Reading

Gartner: How to build an online community

Gartner analyst Julie Hopkins explains seven ways to lure people to participate in online communities and shows how to choose the tactics that will best suit your business needs. Continue Reading

Thames Water pilots smart analytics with Accenture

Thames Water is six months into an 18 month pilot with Accenture Smart Grid to pilot real time monitoring to deliver an improved service Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Channel 4 CTO Bob Harris leaves to set up consultancy firm

Channel 4 chief technology officer Bob Harris is leaving the broadcaster at the end of March to set up his own consultancy business Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Hadoop 2 opens new vistas beyond current UK data management practice

Hadoop 2 enables a greater range of data-crunching tasks, beyond Hadoop’s previous scope of batch processing, directly within the stack itself Continue Reading

By

• Jessica Twentyman

HP Autonomy unveils healthcare analytics system for textual data

HP has unveiled a new healthcare analytics product to enable medical staff to interrogate text and data in relational databases Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Living with Google Glass – not quite useful enough to overcome the dork-factor

Businesses will use Google Glass first, says Simon Dring after spending a few days living with the technology. Continue Reading

By

• Simon Dring

Rural broadband roll-out row

In this week’s Computer Weekly, a small Lancashire village is at the centre of a row over rural broadband – we examine the complex arguments on both sides of an issue that goes to the heart of criticisms of the UK’s roll-out plan. The move to cloud and hosting is changing the market for datacentre technologies – we look at the implications for IT managers. Have you heard of Sepa? We explain why you need to know about the upcoming financial regulation. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Case study: Scottish Fire and Rescue advances national BI strategy with QlikView

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is using QlikView business intelligence software to bring together its data streams for external reporting and operational intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Teradata launches analytics product as SAP BW replacement

Teradata has released an analytics product for SAP ERP, as a full-blown alternative to SAP BW Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

HB Fuller sticks with HR in the cloud

Cloud based HR system gives adhesives maker the ability to manage its global workforce Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Using data profiling techniques -- and estimating the effort required

Data profiling is a key part of data quality efforts. Here's a simple formula for calculating the amount of time needed to profile a data set. Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

Big Data and Content Analytics: measuring the ROI

There is a high expectation for the potential value of big data analytics early adopters are achieving good results that are helping to drive decision making in the business, this survey of 340 technology professionals reveals. Continue Reading

Big data salary increases present cost pressure for Indian CIOs

As pressure mounts on CIOs to drive business growth through customer acquisition big data skills, which come at a premium, will put pressure on budgets. Continue Reading

By

• Viraj Desai

More than 1,100 DWP workers disciplined over benefits snooping

More than 1,100 employees at the Department for Work and Pensions have received official warnings since 2008 for prying into benefits records Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Minerals firm Imerys upgrades IFS ERP as economy lifts

Imerys has 30 different ERP systems around the globe. A plan to move to a single instance of ERP, thrown off course by recession, was achieved in 2012; other business benefits have accrued Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

CW500 Club in 2013

Computer Weekly's CW500 Club attracts the top IT leaders in the UK to talk to their peers about the topical challenges they face Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly Staff

NHS clinical research body uses QlikView to forward open data

The clinical research delivery arm of the NHS is developing an open data platform using QlikView Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Case study: London Borough of Islington’s smart working journey

The London Borough of Islington is using technology to ensure its staff are as productive as possible travelling along a ‘smart working journey’ Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Nokia Solutions Networks HR rejects best of breed for best of platform

Nokia Solutions and Networks has chosen a ‘best of platform’ approach for its global HR programme in the wake of a reduction in staff from around 80,000 to 50,000, consequent to a restructure in 2011 Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

700,000 benefit claimants miss out on Universal Credit deadline

The secretary for work and pensions has admitted the Universal Credit benefit scheme will miss its 2017 deadline Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Tech spend to increase in 2014 as executives explore big data

Over three-quarters of chief financial officers plan to increase technology investments in 2014 Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Intel x86 and IBM Power CPUs: Which, when, why?

There are only three processors left in the market for mission-critical applications. Which should you chose ? Continue Reading

By

• Terry Keene

Mobile business intelligence adoption slows, BARC BI survey finds

Mobile BI adoption is slowing and much vaunted social media analytics are little deployed, according to the latest BARC BI global survey Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

IT budgets to rise by 3% in 2014 as companies step up spending on mobile

IT spending will increase by 3% in 2014, up from 1.8% last year. But shadow IT spending will add another 40% to technology budgets Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Jaguar Land Rover builds data sharing infrastructure

Jaguar Landrover (JLR) has used a proposed data sharing standard to improve car development within its product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Pegasystems CEO Alan Trefler plans his next move for the $500m software company

Alan Trefler discusses his plans for Pegasystems, the BPM and CRM specialist that has grown into a $500m a year company Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Case study: McGraw-Hill Education mobilises with Salesforce

The educational resources provider utilises Salesforce to develop a mobile app and get its sales reps selling more on campus Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

Human Capital Management

Computer Weekly looks at the steps companies have taken to improve talent management; bridging the gap between the cost savings promised by cloud technologies and the value they deliver. Continue Reading

Procter & Gamble uses Teradata cloud analytics for global marketing

Procter & Gamble has 15,000 websites, but sells almost exclusively through retailers. This makes gathering intelligence on customers tough Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Future Gazing: The Future of IT in 2020

The next six years will see the influence of technology accelerate, and that will mean radical changes for the role of the IT department and the CIO Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

CIO interview: Paolo Cinelli, CIO, Ikea

Ikea's priority is to get closer to its customers using a multi-channel approach which combines digital and traditional methods Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Big Data analytics: Adoption and employment trends

The report identifies current and future adoption rates for big data by type and size of organisation in the UK Continue Reading

Data on the Balance Sheet

This report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), discusses the economic arguments for placing 'data' as an asset on the company balance sheet. Continue Reading

The trust advantage: How to win at big data

Without consumer trust, most of the trillions of dollars of social and economic value promised from big data will go to waste, this report from The Boston Consulting Group reveals. Continue Reading

Hands-on Oracle Application Express security

This book extract demonstrates how Oracle Application Express (APEX) can be vulnerable to SQL injection, using sample code. Continue Reading

IT spending up as companies invest in digital technology

Businesses are stepping up their spending on IT as they invest in strategic digital technologies, a CIO survey by Deloitte reveals Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Wellcome Trust maps big data genetics with DDN HPC storage

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has invested in DDN SFA10K HPC storage to support petabytes of big data generated by genetic mapping and research into diseases such as malaria Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Companies are not taking advantage of data analytics, research says

Research by Bersin by Deloitte shows that 86% of businesses have yet to progress beyond using their HR data to generate basic reports Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Government calls for more data scientists in the UK

The government is calling on industry and academia to help produce more data scientists in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Emulex ExpressLane and CrossLink boost HBAs for flash and Hadoop

Storage card maker Emulex has added QoS prioritisation for flash storage and leveraged RDMA via Fibre Channel to increase server performance in clustered operations such as Hadoop Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor