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computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 1
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
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How IT supports Cape Town citizens
LocaL counciLs in the uK couLd Learn vaLuabLe Lessons from cape town, where sap software is used to manage aLL of the city’s services
14-20 May 2013 | ComputerWeekly.com
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computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 2
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
byod takes off, caN blackberry
catcH up?
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the week in it
Jobs & recruitmentFormer Olympics CIO Gerry Pennell to take up Manchester University jobFormer cio for the London 2012 olympics Gerry pennell has a new job, starting as director of it at Manchester University on 29 July. pennell left his role at the London organising committee for the olympic Games in november last year and was subsequently rewarded with an oBE in the new Year’s honours List.
PC hardwareAcer sets sights on SME market as corporate PC sales figures drop offAcer is targeting Uk sMEs over the next five years, aiming for a 50-50 split between enterprise and consumer mar-kets. simon turner, regional director of Acer northern Europe, said it will make significant moves into the sME market over the next five years. its business mar-ket currently accounts for a double-digit percentage of its Uk sales, he said.
Government & public sectorCabinet Office confirms public cloud first policy as third G-Cloud goes livethe cabinet office has confirmed that cloud-based it will be mandated as the first choice for all new government it purchases. the announcement comes as the third G-cloud supplier framework goes live. some 708 companies are on the new framework – including 368 firms new to G-cloud – with 80% of all suppliers comprising sMEs.
Cloud computing servicesDomino’s Pizza plans to move web services to the cloudDomino’s pizza is looking to move critical workloads such as web services to cloud infrastructure. the Uk pizza delivery chain has been using Rackspace’s infra-structure as a service (iaas) and platform as a service (paas) products for its testing and development environments for the best part of a year.
Financial servicesSainsbury’s Bank outsources banking IT following £248m deal with Lloydssainsbury’s Bank is to move its customers off the systems of Lloyds Banking Group following the retailer’s £248m acquisi-tion of the bank’s 50% shareholding. sainsbury’s will move to off-the-shelf sys-tems from Fis and provide customer call-centre services in-house. sainsbury’s Bank profits over the past 12 months increased 38% from £16m to £22m.
Privacy & data protectionMcAfee buys Stonesoftintel’s security business McAfee has announced it will acquire Finnish next-generation firewall firm stonesoft in a $389m deal. stonesoft’s firewall technology will round out McAfee’s net-work portfolio of its ips network security platform and Firewall Enterprise for the high-assurance market segment, the company said. n
Most InfluentIal WoMen In uK It: noMInatIons opennominations are now open for computer weekly’s most influential women in uK it list.
now in its second year, our women in it awards focus on role models and it leaders making a dif-ference in the future of it. Judges will narrow down the nominations to a shortlist of 25 women based on the nominee’s influence, achievements, profile, leadership and potential.
readers will then vote for their choice of the most influential woman in it through an online poll.
access the latest it news via rss feed
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 3
Home
News
slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
byod takes off, caN blackberry
catcH up?
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the week in it
access the latest it news via rss feed
Source: Compuware/Vanson Bourne
30% of companies do not use customer data
82% of companies mask customer data
56% think test data security negatively affects quality assurance processes
62% of companies use out-of-date customer data
data used In testIng MaInfraMe applIcatIons
OutsourcingProcter & Gamble could move IT in-house to maintain competitive edgeUs manufacturer procter & Gamble may move outsourced work in-house in a bid to retain control of it that can affect its competitiveness. the firm is looking closely at its contracts, including a multi-billion dollar agreement it signed with EDs in 2003.
Hackers & cyber crime preventionUK universities receive £7.5m cyber security research fundingoxford University and London University will receive £7.5m government funding for cyber security research. the govern-ment and research council funding aims to address the national shortage of cyber security experts and boost the number of doctoral graduates with relevant skills.
Database softwareInvestors sue HP for $1bn over botched Autonomy takeover dealhewlett-packard (hp) investors have launched a class-action lawsuit over the company’s botched acquisition of Uk firm Autonomy for $11.7bn in 2011. Damages could exceed $1bn. in november 2012, hp wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn after discovering what chief exec-utive Meg Whitman termed “accounting improprieties” and “significant strategic misrepresentations” of the value of the cambridge-based software firm.
Financial servicesBarclays bank indexes machine data to comply with complex regulationBarclays bank has turned to machine data indexing technology from operational intelligence firm splunk to deal with the demands of the more complex regulatory banking environment created following the financial crisis of the 2008 credit crunch and its aftermath.
Business applicationsWindows 8 sells 100 million units Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 operating system has sold more than 100 million copies, roughly matching the per-formance of Windows 7 in the six months after launch. Despite a slight slowdown after outpacing Windows 7 in the first month, Windows 8 is still selling well, the company said.
Government & public sectorNHS England to publish technology roadmap in move to online servicesnhs England is to publish a technology roadmap for commissioners investing in it and informatics, according to its Putting Patients First business plan. in line with commitments to put all patient records online by 2015, nhs England said 50% of practices will offer the facility to book appointments online by April 2014, with 100% offering the service by March 2015. n
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 4
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
byod takes off, caN blackberry
catcH up?
dowNtime
analysis
Touch-enabled interface struggles for a foothold in the enterprise and there are hints that the much-loved Start button may return . Cliff Saran reports
Microsoft rethinks its strategy as Windows 8 adapts to learning curve
Amid lacklustre take-up of Windows 8 and a declining pc industry, Micro-soft could be set to rethink its strat-
egy for Windows 8.in an interview with the Financial Times,
tami Reller, head of marketing and finance suggested that Microsoft would change “key aspects” of how the software is used.
tami Reller admitted that the learning curve with the company’s new user inter-face was “definitely real,”which suggests Microsoft will reintroduce the much-loved start button in Windows 8.
speaking to computer Weekly earlier this year, newham Borough council cio Geoff connell, said users were not ready for the touch-based user interface (Ui) of Windows 8 that replaces the start menu in Windows 7.
there appears to be little appetite among corporates for touch-enabled enterprise apps. Geoff connell, for instance, is not con-vinced touch is good for business use.
“i think the jury is out at the moment on whether the businesses will want to go to
Windows 8 desktop in the workplace, par-ticularly with the interface,” he said.
“if users get used to it on surface as an ipad alternative, then that could be interesting, but i’m not currently seeing the demand or any really worthwhile benefits over Windows 7.”
connell is not alone. Many large organisa-tions are busy upgrading the older Windows Xp software to Windows 7.
however, ollie Ross, head of research at it manager’s group, the corporate it Forum, said the touch Ui is more intuitive com-pared with a normal graphical user interface (GUi): “it is a particu-larly attractive quality for those looking to deploy business intelligence or where the user requires additional informa-tion in the field, such as in a shop floor-type scenario.”
Microsoft’s Reller argues that the Windows store is a success. “We’ve sur-passed 250 million apps downloaded in the first six months and almost 90% of our
the windows 8 homescreen and below, the microsoft start button from previous windows
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Intel CEO predicts
rock-bottom prices will fuel
PC growth
PC market decline casts
doubt on future of
corporate PC refresh cycle
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
byod takes off, caN blackberry
catcH up?
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their notebooks from plunging.But prices are set to fall. intel cEo paul
otellini said haswell, the next generation of 22nm core processor after ivy Bridge and Bay trail, will significantly lower the cost of mobile computing.
“Looking at new form factors that they can design around our new chips, haswell in particular and maybe Bay trail, and Windows 8 enabling touch, the explosion in form fac-tors and the competitiveness of that platform is going to be substantially different, at price points down into the $300-$400 range ena-bling touch,” otellini said.
Microsoft has shipped 100 million licences of Windows 8 in the last seven months, but this has not been enough to stem the decline in pc sales, which have suffered due to the rise in popularity of low-cost tablet devices.
As the quarterly pc shipment data from iDc shows, businesses and consumers are not convinced by premium hybrid devices that combine tablet and pc functionality.
As a business tool, the pc is not going away, but Microsoft has lost sight of the core value of Windows, namely backwards compatibility. hopefully, it will listen to its enterprise customers and perhaps offer an alternative to the touch Ui. n
app catalogue has been downloaded every month,” Reller said in a blog post, adding that Microsoft will release an update to Windows 8 later this year.
A preview of the update, codenamed “Blue” is expected in the summer, and will provide more options for businesses and give consumers more options for work and play, according to Reller. she added that Blue
would deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportuni-ties for the Windows ecosystem.
Among the barriers Microsoft faces is that touch-based Windows 8 professional devices are considerably more expensive than devices that run Windows Rt – the low-powered, non-corporate version of the operating system.
the vision of one device for desk use with a keyboard attached and undocked for on-the-go tablet computing is expensive. intel core i5-based hybrid Windows 8 pro devices on Amazon start at £750.
this is reflected in research from analyst ihs. Duke Yi, senior manager for display
components and materi-als research at ihs, noted that the incor-poration of
touch into notebooks does not just benefit consumers, as manufacturers will also find that adding this technology will be an effec-tive way to keep the average selling price of
› Windows 8 fails to stem PC decline› Tom Baker, Sunderland City Council
› Everything you need to know about Windows 8
“I’m not currently seeIng the demand or any really worthwhIle benefIts over wIndows 7”geoff connell,
newham borough councIl
loWer roIindustry watchers generally agree that the lower acquisition cost and limited functional-ity of a tablet like an ipad or android device should make it easier to support when compared with a laptop pc. unlike a laptop, tablets are usually not upgradable, so it has limited scope to improve the hardware and software updates are handled over the air. when it breaks, it is often easier for a user to replace the tablet, than for an it support engineer to attempt a repair.
however, windows 8 pro devices are derived from fully-fledged pcs so they are more complex than cheaper tablets, which potentially means support costs will be the same as a laptop. windows 8 has not been shipping long enough for enterprises to assess the total cost of ownership of a windows 8 devices compared with rival tablets and traditional laptop pcs.
analysis
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 6
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
strategy retHiNk
tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
eurostar’s it
editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
byod takes off, caN blackberry
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case study
The retail giant’s approach of measuring, modelling, testing and acting has proved successful, paving the way for future projects. Lindsay Clark reports
Tesco uses supply chain analytics to save £100m a year across its stores
In April, tesco’s financial results made the headlines as the Uk’s largest retailer declared its expensive excursion into the
Us market was coming to an end. But the documents also revealed a drop in returns from capital employed, due to operational, regulatory and economic factors.
capital employed may seem like account-ancy jargon, but it is a term it could tune into. Understanding its importance was one of the driving forces behind an analytics programme which has saved tesco £100m in annual supply chain costs.
Because a significant proportion of capital is tied up in stock held in depots, for exam-ple, the onus is on supply chain manage-ment to minimise stock levels, according to Duncan Apthorp, programme manager, supply chain development, at tesco.
the company uses Matlab modelling tools from MathWorks to simulate performance of its distribution depots based on four years of sales data held in a teradata data ware-house. Feeding demand forecasts into the model shows where stock can be optimised.
the project has saved about £50m through reduced stock levels, according to Apthorp.
it is just one of the projects executed by an analytics team which has grown from five to 50 people over the past six years.
Accurately forecasting demandthe group also used regression testing to understand correlations between weather data and sales patterns. it found that not only do sales of certain products, such as barbecue food, rise in warm weather, but demand also varies according to location and context. A warm day in scotland will produce different demand to the same tem-perature in the south. similarly, demand on the first weekend of a hot spell will be differ-ent to one in the middle of a heat wave.
Factoring weather into tesco’s demand fore-casts has helped it to avoid having too much or too little stock, saving £6m each year.
similar techniques have been applied to understanding demand patterns caused by special offers, cutting out-of-stock by 30% on these items, said Apthorp.
factoring weather into demand forecasts has helped tesco
to avoid having too much or too little stock
Applying data analytics
software to the hospital supply chain
Supply chain analytics
offers cost, revenue
advantages
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 7
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slow start sees wiNdows 8
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tesco saves tHrougH supply cHaiN aNalytics
How sap Helps officials ruN
cape towN
web platform uNderpiNs
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editor’s commeNt
opiNioN
buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
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trial verses control measurement,” he said.trials start small and are allowed to “fail
fast”. ideas which appear valuable on early trials are then tested on a larger scale in around 25 stores. “With three month’s data you’ve got all the proof you want for all the senior stakeholders to say yes,” said Apthorp.
successful trials also help to engage man-agers furthers down the chain with new ways of working. “the store director becomes the man who is saying, ‘this is fantastic’. he will then talk to his colleagues, and suddenly you have got stores phoning you up asking you to have it, almost before you’re ready to launch it,” he said.
Discount algorithmsone successful change to working practice has been in the discounting of food towards the end of its shelf-life. previously left to managerial judgement, algorithms built by the supply chain analytics team now pro-duce discounts transmitted to handheld devices in-store. taking out the guesswork has saved £30m of wasted stock, according to Apthorp.
this series of successful projects has helped the analytics team gain the ear of the top management team, allowing it to build on its approach of measuring, modelling, testing and acting.
“We have proven track record of success that means that we have access to some very senior people,” he said. n
computer models produce a coefficient which is fed into tesco’s live order manage-ment system, adjusting the amount suppliers are expected to deliver each day. Run on an iBM system Z mainframe, the system man-ages stock orders from thousands of suppli-ers, worth around £100m every day. But the mainframe’s reliability comes at a cost.
“if i want to put new software into that mainframe, there is one update every six months. And typically i have a year’s lead
time to get that software cued up, written by the it guys and delivered. if i have a simple change, i can get it done more quickly. But for big substantive things, it’s a year,” he said.
As such, Apthorp’s team has to ensure that the changes to the ordering algorithms are correct. Mistakes would be costly. to avoid them, the team built a computer model of tesco’s supply chain, which can run on a desktop, and applied new scenarios to it. “We can run 100 stores for 100 days in about half an hour. We can figure out quickly whether what we are doing is right and we can optimise that,” he said.
Modelling and testingcomputer simulations are also used to try out new ideas for best practice within store. tesco then tests ideas successful in simu-lation in the real world, creating its own experimental data.
“it is very easy to put a change into some stores and not in others, and make careful
computer sImulatIons are used to try out new Ideas for best practIce wIthIn store. tesco then tests Ideas successful In sImulatIon In the real world, creatIng Its own experImental data
case study
algorithm-generated discounts are reducing wasted stock
Tesco rolls out Microsoft
Office 365
Tesco’s £65m datacentre strategy to drive online
growth
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buyer’s guide to clieNt computiNg
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case study
Transforming the city’s operations, SAP provides a multi-dimensional view of Cape Town’s citizens and helps meet their needs. Cliff Saran reports
How SAP helps councillors run Cape Town and empower strategy
For the past 10 years, sAp software has been running the city of cape town, south Africa.
the enterprise resource planning (ERp) system, which was originally installed to transform the way the city is run, is still going strong despite political change.
it is one of the largest sAp implementations in local government. it encapsulates 420 business processes and handles 1.2 million consolidated invoices per month.
the city took the radical decision to spend almost £35m on software and an it system at a time when many people lacked basic neces-sities such as running water and a roof over their heads, says current cio Andre stelzner.
the software has become fundamental to the city’s success, however, helping to reduce debt, which has enabled cape town to achieve an A+ credit rating, says stelzner.
cape town has a population of 3.7 mil-lion. the council has 26,000 employees and is responsible for delivering everything
residents need, including healthcare, electric-ity, water sanitisation and transportation, as well as services normally associated with local government, such as housing, refuse collection and libraries.
stelzner says the system can empower political strategy although, in reality, he admits sAp’s core value is that it provides a set of procedures that the council and its employees follow to run the city.
so from a political perspective, there is not much scope for radical change, since the way the city operates is encoded into the sAp
Wik
ico
MM
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CIO of Eskom Sai
Laher aims to deliver world
class IT
Standard Bank uses SAP
to bring mobile banking to
communities
“we [IncentIvIsed] accenture to create local sap managers”andre stelzner,
cIo, cIty of cape town
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stelzner says the project had two main stakeholder groups: the politicians and the bureaucrats. “the politicians want to make a better world, while the bureaucrats look for efficiency,” he says. “these two groups need to be balanced.”
City of Cape Town’s call centreit becomes integral to empowering social change, he says: “if social upliftment is important to politicians, how can you achieve this from an it perspective?”
he says asking such questions moves the conversation away from the amount of money being spent on the computer system.
sAp presents a single record of the citizen. in the system, there is one unique identity for that person, irrespective of their interac-tions with the council. “We create a multi-dimensional view of citizens so we can build services around them,” he says.
this means the system can identify vulner-able people who cannot afford to pay bills, and provide discounts or free services rather than expend time and money on debt collec-tion, which is not cost effective.
one of the early wins on the project was around improved accounting. “From day one, we had itemised billing with 98% accu-racy, which meant people felt they could be caught out if they didn’t pay,” says stelzner.
the system paid for itself in 36 months, and cape town is now in a strong financial position, he says. n
system. policy change can only occur if all stakeholders are involved.
City-wide SAPDevelopment started in 2000 and the sAp system went live in 2003. it was implemented by the services company Accenture, which was incentivised to make cape town’s sAp system manageable.
“We [incentivised] Accenture to create local sAp managers,” stelzner says.
this has led to the emergence of a local sAp industry, and some of these sAp experts now run their own it consultancies that work for large sAp users in the city.
Rather than implement sAp piecemeal, cape town is using sAp for its entire back office, including logistics, human resources (hR) and finance.
“We were lucky – we did not try to retrofit sAp,” stelzner says. “We looked at how the best organisations in the world run business processes like hR and logistics.”
cape town is continuing to invest in sAp. it now provides employee self-service and citizen self-service.
“We are putting more cRM [customer rela-tionship management] functionality on top of back-office systems,” says stelzner. the city is applying a bit of artistic licence to the imple-mentation, by deploying sAp modules in areas that go outside of the product’s original design objectives. the sAp real estate module, for example, is used to manage graveyards.
the city is also looking at using sAp for land management and for safety and secu-rity, which covers the police and fire services.
stelzner says cape town is rethinking the ERp graphical user interface (GUi) for users. “in a city context, everything is spatial, so we integrate sAp with our geographic infor-mation system,” he says.
Managing stakeholdersA large percentage of people are mov-ing to cities, which puts pressure on the
services the city provides. cape town also faces the additional challenge that
its population is predominantly poor.
› The ROI of Social CRM› SAP finds out what matters to its clients
› Birmingham signs biggest software deal
netWorKIng In cape toWntelcos generally target wealthier areas in the community to develop broadband ser-vices, leaving poorer communities lacking connectivity. cape town is tackling this by laying down a 300km public network. over the next five years, this network will be extended to cover the whole city.
the city’s policy is to support private sector competition in the broadband mar-ket, so operators are able to offer broad-band services on top of the city network. it is also starting to build a wi-fi mesh for poor communities.
case study
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interview
Eurostar website IT is just the ticket
Eurostar cio chris-tophe Lemaire recently oversaw
the launch of the com-pany’s new website, one
of its biggest technology deployments in a decade and the cornerstone of Eurostar’s new it architecture.
For Lemaire, the new Eurostar.com platform is more than just a site relaunch. “this was a significant investment and one of the largest information system projects we’ve done in the past 10 years,” says Lemaire.
the previous website was designed in 2002, which is ancient in the world of e-commerce, he says. “so the experience as a customer was limited – previously the number of clicks required to make a book-ing was 12, plus plenty of additional things to enter each time you go to the website. it was cutting edge 10 years ago, but not any more.
“now the site takes five to six clicks, and the experience is a lot more personalised, even if you are not part of a loyalty scheme. For example, as on most recent websites, there is the option of storing credit card details for an ‘express checkout’ next time you book,” he says.
the project took two years, with the site launch just the first of a number of changes.
“this summer, we will add real-time train information, something expected by custom-ers and people waiting for customers in our train terminals. At the moment, the only way to see that is on the information board at the station,” says Lemaire.
In-house and outsourced developmentBecause Eurostar’s products are not tangi-ble items, with ticket availability subject to many variables, the systems underpinning ticket sales are more complex than standard e-commerce platforms.
“the systems are very complex, with the product you buy being built for you in real time,” says Lemaire.
this meant an entire rebuild was required, with capgemini Uk being appointed for the web tier.
Eurostar has 1,700 staff in total, with the information systems team less than 50 people. this means it has to outsource it services and maintenance, while keeping skills around systems architecture, business analysis and service management in-house.
“We don’t have many developers. on all our new projects, we tend to buy existing systems and outsource the remaining devel-opments,” says Lemaire.
“We have learned a lot during the Eurostar.com project. We wanted to build a new site, but also the first brick of a new distribu-tion system. there are lots of ways to buy a Eurostar ticket – contact centre, mobile – which are based on different systems. With the website we wanted to introduce a tool-box which makes most of the logic behind the customer interface reusable, this inter-face being the only ‘bespoke’ part.
“We will also use the software we bought and adapted for mobile, the contact centre
Lemaire: the new web platform is “a significant investment and one of the largest information system projects we’ve done in the past 10 years”
CIO Christophe Lemaire talks to Kathleen Hall about improving the customer experience, from ticket purchase to the provision of real-time travel information
Eurostar outsources to
build an IT infrastructure
of its own
Eurostar cuts 170
apps in IT infrastructure
overhaul
CW500 interview
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and for the train terminals,” he adds. this will enable Eurostar to reuse the it
and payment systems behind the website for the rest of its operation. “our plan is to reuse, so it’s a bit like we have bought a Lego box. the information system roadmap for the next four years is to start with the website, and expand this architecture for distribution, financial and operating sys-tems,” says Lemaire.
“Building the site was something we had to do, as the previous one was too old, but it was also an opportunity for us to think beyond that,” he adds.
Personalising the servicein the longer term, Lemaire wants to use business intelligence (Bi) to improve miss-ing capability around customer information. “We are asking, what is the information we need to provide innovative services? the way to design systems is probably going to be more data-driven than process-driven, as was previously the case,” he says.
the value of the data is there already, he says, but if a customer is not part of a loyalty scheme or does not travel frequently with Eurostar, it is likely that they will have to pro-vide most of their details every time they buy a ticket. Lemaire admits its databases hold a lot of customer information that it should be using in a better, more integrated way.
“We are also planning to improve our capability to analyse bookings globally. We need to better see trends and patterns, or spot speculative bookings that can be dam-aging to our business. We can’t sort that out without a better organisation of all the data we collect and operate from,” he adds.
the company will be working with third parties to develop this area of operations.
“We’ve also been working with the sales and customer services departments
to get a vision about what they need to know about our customers now and in the medium to long term. We started with what was achievable in the short-term,” he says.
senior executive buy-in will be a key suc-cess factor for the Bi project, according to
Lemaire. “it’s not a normal project with a clear business owner. it is not a traditional investment in technology, where the cio can be the sole sponsor. it’s a mixture of tech-nology and massive new capabilities for the business. Data crosses everything, so the only business executive in charge of that may well be the cEo. What we have chosen to do is to have multiple cross-functional business sponsors,” he says.
costs won’t make the project easy, as it involves significant investment and touches everything. “the important thing is not to rush,” he says. “there are so many business possibilities, and it is not cheap. You need to
dig into a few case studies – so many things can be done – and find a few potential ideas. Find the ones you think could be powerful for building additional revenue.”
he says it is important to have informa-tion about a customer when they contact the call centre, such as past journeys and ticket types, as the travel options available may dif-fer depending on the type of customer.
For Lemaire, the personalised service ena-bled by Bi could give Eurostar the future edge in a competitive travel market. “Being more aware of our customers and using that infor-mation in a smart way could translate into small gestures, such as little things mentioned in our dialogue with the customer. And in the context of competition, i believe those things could make a difference,” he says. n
Eurostar CIO Christophe Lemaire spoke to Computer Weekly at the UK CIO Committee Event by Global Business Events
› Guide to mobile business intelligence› Create business value from social intelligence
› Online gambling sector bets on BI
interview
“buIldIng the sIte was somethIng we had to do, as the prevIous one was too old, but It was also an opportunIty for us to thInk beyond that”
Prior information notice: Youth Employability & Guidance Service - Data Management, Tracking and Careers Service in Schools London Borough of Newham is seeking expressions of interest in delivering a range of services to support the delivery of local youth employment & guidance services in the borough. We are seeking expressions of interest from a range of organisations who could deliver all of the identified service components for a one year period. These components cover both data management services and direct careers services to be delivered in Newham schools. The interested provider will need to provide a Client Caseload Information System (CCIS) that meets the national requirements and will enable robust reporting across each of the three service components described below. The anticipated total value of the contract/s to be awarded is approximately £440k. TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of Employment) applies to all three service components and should be taken into consideration on submitting an expression of interest.
Please complete the Expression of Interest form accessed via the following link: www.newham.gov.uk/currenttenderopportunities and send to Shah Islam at [email protected] by Friday 24th May 2013
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 14
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editor’s comment
Seeking the influential women helping to change the face of IT
We are proud to launch our second annual quest to select the 25 most influential women in Uk it, this week.
the issues affecting women in technology have become more important and high profile in the past 12 months. national newspapers have picked up on the theme too.
in that time, we have also launched a Linkedin group for women in it, which has proved extremely popular. Women in it is a thriving community of interest and a positive influence on the wider profession.
Last year’s programme, which saw thomson Reuters cio Jane Moran voted the most influential woman in Uk it, was a big success and generated a lot of debate. We have since seen a definite increase in the number of female it leaders attending our monthly cW500 net-working events – although they are still a minority.
the issues that restrict women to barely 18% of the Uk it workforce have not gone away though – a macho, male-dominated, geeky image; inflexible working pat-terns; difficulties catching up with new technologies for women returning after breaks to have children; and so on.
But there has rarely been a wider appreciation of the problem and of the benefits of having more women in the it workplace. More it leaders say they want to recruit more women – although often the challenge is finding enough women with the right skills to apply.
the it industry is changing the way everyone works and lives – with flexible and remote working becom-ing key to resolving work/life balance issues, as well as making organisations more agile and mobile. it leaders need to take the initiative to make the it profession one which exemplifies such principles and comes to be seen as one of the most female-friendly sectors to work in.
it needs a workforce that has the skills, experience, and diversity to innovate – and reflects the diversity of the people using technology every day.
it is often said that women are less likely than men to promote themselves. identifying the most influential women in Uk it is our way to help get over that – and if you know a female in it who deserves greater recogni-tion, please let us know. n
Bryan GlickEditor in chief
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of the trends discussed, indicate there are risks to be addressed.
security and compliance feature very highly among perceived risks. Quality issues arising from DiY solutions are also perceived to be potential problems.
Many of the other factors mentioned relate to the potential for time to be wasted, especially via increased support burdens. the possibility that user productivity could be negatively affected also gets a more than honourable mention.
Enabling user empowerment could raise it overheads as well as costing the organisation more via fragmented procurement.
Effective tools and managementtackling these issues leads back to the nature of the underlying infrastruc-ture required to deliver flexible services. together with comprehensive, yet flexible core it-enabled business systems, highly empowering organisations also tend to pro-vide a more versatile set of productivity tools.
But again, it all comes back to manage-ment. organisations with a well-enabled workforce need comprehensive management tools and processes to handle user-driven activity. But good tools alone cannot support anything and everything.
technology has a major role to play in empowering users, but solutions must be well thought out and planned, with appro-priate resources made available. BYoD and other empowerment initiatives cannot be implemented safely on a zero or nega-tive budget. n
opinion
For user empowerment to be successful, the right culture and mindset must be combined with the right tools and effective management. Tony Lock reports
Empowering users: BYOD and more
Many organisations say their people are among the most valuable assets they have. While this statement is
entirely accurate, providing the best working conditions and tools that allow the people to flourish is anything but an exact science.
Empowering users to be creative holds great potential to help organisations quickly exploit new opportunities, but with much of business now dependent on the use of it systems and personal productivity tools, enabling a workforce can also entail risk. Do the benefits achievable justify the effort in combating such risks?
Freeform Dynamics recently ran an online survey to investigate user empowerment, in which 544 respondents, mostly it profes-sionals or power users, shared their thoughts.
Many it suppliers today stress the rise of bring your own device (BYoD) as an exam-ple of user empowerment, but real benefits arise only when the right culture and mindset are developed. Relying simply on new access devices and technology fashions is not the whole picture. For user empowerment to be successful it is important that end-to-end it solutions be put in place to permit users to make business decisions effectively. But the organisation also needs to ensure that users can act rapidly on such decisions.
Business benefits of empowered usersof the benefits potentially available through user empowerment, people-related benefits are particularly well represented – factors such as improving employee morale, enhanc-ing productivity and increasing creativity and innovation are recognised by significant numbers of respondents. it is interesting to note that benefits such as making it easier to recruit and keep staff, things with which BYoD is heavily associated, lag far behind.
Business risks must be addressedin terms of technology, the respondents, many of whom may well be early adopters
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Tony Lock is programme director of Freeform Dynamics. This is an edited version of the article. Click here to read the full version online.
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Buyer’s guide
The market for workplace services is evolving rapidly as a conventional and highly mature approach to desktop and desk-side management yields to a transformed workplace services environment in which assumptions about customer preference, behaviours and even devices are up for grabs.
Workplace services are increasingly associated with a mobile user and no longer linked to a fixed physical location. this desire to access services wherever and whenever with whatever device is reshaping the evolution of workplace services.
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VMware CIO: Bringing the
consumer experience to the
enterprise
CW buyer’s guide:
Consumerisation
Workplace IT services in flux: wherever, whenever, whateverEnterprise computing is in upheaval as the emphasis shifts towards automation and user-device provision, write Bill Martorelli and Wolfgang Benkel
Buyer’s guideClient computing part 3 of 3
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Buyer’s guide
User requirements and expectations are changing in the post-desktop era. new require-ments, such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud – along with new engagement models, such as “workplace as a service” and more business value-based pricing types – are driv-ing the change from desktop to workplace services. increasingly, users expect a consumer-grade experience in the workplace and, as a result, it organisations are obliged to support additional types of devices, such as tablets, smartphones and other devices in the enter-prise context, while increasing the user’s autonomy through self-service and social technologies.
the focus of workplace service management is shift-ing from physical to virtual. the focus is shifting from traditional, physical delivery and management to virtual, remote delivery, where support functions are highly automated and the focus is on user self-service.
A corresponding shift is reducing the emphasis on desktop image management and application packaging, with greater prominence for delineating the personal from the corporate in bring your own device (BYoD) scenarios and harnessing Gps-enabled support for mobile devices.
this shifts the focus of workplace services delivery, allowing it greater independence from the end-device hardware (whatever device); supports all variations of mobility (wherever, whenever); and increases the pro-ductivity of users (whatever device), by shifting on-site responsibilities and efforts to the user community.
Evolution of workplace services the rapid inclusion of new device types, new delivery methods – such as the app store – and BYoD models may still be young in the context of workplace ser-vices, but are maturing rapidly and are increasingly prominent in today’s workplace.
Beyond that, more firms are providing a wider array of workplace devices such as tablets to their employees and increased access to mobile applications. Growth in numbers, through the proliferation of devices, may serve
WorKplace servIces
n mandatory elements: service desk, field support (on-site support, managed desktop services); service provisioning (order management, asset management); and workplace software manage-ment (application packaging, image creation, patch management, antivirus, security, software distribution).n optional elements: desktop infrastructure services including active directory, file and print services, email and collaboration services, Lan services, voice services, mobile device manage-ment (mdm), user administration services, terminal server and virtual desktop services and desktop as a service.n additional elements: consulting services around workplace management such as assess-ments, improvements and activities for innovation.
“supplIer capabIlItIes In geographIc presence, ecosystem partIcIpatIon and propensIty to partIcIpate In multIsourced scenarIos are varIed, so a consIstent user experIence across geographIc regIons cannot be taken for granted”
computerweekly.com 14-20 May 2013 18
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Buyer’s guide
to compensate suppliers who are seeing their revenue per device decrease. But most suppliers recognise that new delivery models eliminate cost-intensive, low-mar-gin, on-site activities and provide the basis for managing future changes effectively and efficiently, with shared (cost-efficient) delivery models.
The importance of local flavourthe global workplace delivery model remains a work in progress. Many it professionals understand that work-place services must be delivered consistently across geographic regions but with local flavour, such as local language support.
in response, most workplace services providers are optimising their global delivery models through process standardisation, tool standardisation and integration, and expanded geographic presence and alliances with local suppliers.
While consumerisation, automation and self-service all tend to reduce the amount of on-site work required, some local support capability is still needed. supplier capabilities in geographic presence, ecosystem partici-pation and propensity to participate in multisourced scenarios are varied, so a consistent user experience across geographic regions cannot be taken for granted.
customer satisfaction hinges on the user experi-ence, not service level agreements (sLAs). outsourcing user computing activities — especially the help desk — has disillusioned users. But today’s users expect a consumer-grade experience. “Green sLAs are no longer enough,” one supplier observed.
to address this, suppliers are pursuing customer satis-faction improvements as never before. they are employing a number of alternative research methodologies to measure customer satisfaction, as well as harnessing customer experience models – such as personas and analytics – to improve the performance of service desks and all user activities.
suppliers and customers have recognised that customer satisfaction is one key element indicating how well service provisioning from the it organisation and external providers is aligned with users’ demands and expectations. More importantly, the high visibility of workplace services contributes a lot to the success or failure of outsourcing. this means
that customers who consider outsourcing workplace services activi-ties will now need to keep customer satisfaction first and foremost in their plans.
customers must actively manage their suppliers for innovation. Because of the rapid change in technology and user expectations, suppliers must be prepared to innovate to remain competitive. Yet,
paradoxically, customers do not believe workplace services suppliers are highly innovative in the customer environment. “innovation is clearly an area they have not mastered,” one client said of their services provider, a common refrain among the client reference interviews conducted. n
“supplIers and customers have recognIsed that customer satIsfactIon Is one key element IndIcatIng how well servIce provIsIonIng from the It organIsatIon and external provIders Is alIgned wIth users’ demands and expectatIons”
This is an extract from The Forrester Wave™: Global Workplace Services, Q1 2013, (March 2013) by Forrester principal analysts, sourcing and vendor management, Bill Martorelli and Wolfgang Benkel
› MDM is no BYOD silver bullet› Photo story: BYOD with VMware
› BYOD 2.0: Moving beyond MDM
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Many would agree bring your own device (BYoD) has already happened. the question now is how organisations deal with it and what the consumer push to open up the variety of corporate devices means for BlackBerry.
increasingly organisations are adopting a more open approach to letting employees use their own devices.
Aviation regulator, the civil Aviation Authority (cAA), is the latest body to move to a BYoD policy. it chose software from mobility management supplier Good technology to enable a BYoD strategy. previously the organisation had up to 400 BlackBerrys. the technology allows the cAA to control personal devices through apps which sit on their phones and tab-lets. All corporate functions are conducted through the Good technology software.
nic stevenson, assistant director at the cAA, said efficiency was the key factor in making the move to bring your own device. “We were looking at something to make it easier for our staff to do their work, if they are required to work remotely, and using devices outside the
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Freedom vs control: The
consumerisation of IT
A virtual solution to
consumerisation
Users drive BYOD take-off: but can BlackBerry catch up?Aviation regulator CAA is the latest business to embrace BYOD but it remains to be seen if BlackBerry can keep its competitive edge, writes Kathleen Hall
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office. particularly as the organisation itself works in an international environment,” he says. “Whether staff are travelling to airports or working cockpits, mobile working is a funda-
mental part of the business. “it is a flexible system where, if people want to use Android or ios, they can do, but we are
also providing devices if people don’t have their own or are not comfortable using their own in every situation. it allows people to work more flexibly without the need for carrying lap-tops. For example, when i travel to our base in Gatwick from London it takes just 30 minutes, so i wouldn’t bring a laptop.
“As a regulator, we are very rules-based and we can be a late adopter on some things, so we are really pleased to embrace something new that works for employees and the company.”
Richard Absalom, analyst at ovum, says that, in its latest survey, 40% of consumers in the Uk said they were already using their own devices to access corpo-rate information – with and without their organisations’ consent.
he says the consumer push was the key driver behind BYoD. As such, most companies are now at least think-ing about putting policies in place.
“the question is in putting policies together, every company is different. We are dealing with a range of different attitudes and employees and what works best for them. Every cio has BYoD on their mind at the moment,” says Absalom.
“our advice is to start with employees and work out what we are doing already and what we want to do.
“A lot of people see it as a cost-cutting measure, by getting rid of the hardware. our advice is not to think about it that way, as you are bringing in third-party management solutions, airtime costs and managing devices in-house can also get expensive.
“the case is around managing security risks, productivity and engagement, and the extra working time it can get out of people. cios are worried about having control of data, knowing what kind of data people are accessing and being able to keep control of it.”
BYoD uptake is happening everywhere across the board: “Email is the key tool workers are using to access on their own devices, with most admitting that friends showed them how to access email rather than being showed how to by the organisation – something which can easily be achieved if the it department has opened up Activesync,” Absalom says.
there is currently a boom in the mobility management market, delivering ways of securing things easily while giving a user experience that consumers want.
“BYoD has happened, but in term of companies managing it, that is still nascent,” says Absalom. Mobile device management (MDM), mobile app management, persona manage-ment, document management and iD management are all growing areas.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth over last few years, with hundreds of suppliers in the BYoD management market,” he says.
Choose your own deviceBusinesses are also provisioning more devices by a range of different companies, but retaining ownership of the hardware.
“this is an attractive option for some companies as it is easier to control the tariffs, rather than working out reimbursements for personal contracts. there is also some push-back from employees in having their devices remotely managed by the employer,” says Absalom.
Leigh Ellis, web and iphone developer at construction company Lnt Group, decided to migrate off BlackBerry and develop an Apple-only estate with the roll-out of 1,700 iphones.
“the case Is around managIng securIty rIsks, productIvIty and engagement”rIchard absalom,
ovum
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“We don’t really see having an Apple-only estate as a move away from the BYoD trend, instead we saw that many people were wanting to use their own Apple devices as BYoD and we wanted everyone to have access to the same tools and materials,” says Ellis.
“By providing each member of staff with an iphone we were able to concentrate on one platform which make everything easier, from managing security principles to developing our in-house app for employees to use.
“We saw the move to providing devices for everyone as an opportunity to really secure our infrastructure. it gave us a vehicle to implement new rules and measures that would better lock down our network and, with the tools provided by our chosen MDM solution, it was especially easy to translate our planned requirements into reality.”
Lnt Group uses Absolute Manage to provide mobile device management for the devices.“i realise that such a project would not be possible for many companies and think that
BYoD is certainly the way to go in these cases. BYoD is what your people want, so you might as well be prepared for it,” Ellis says.
The BlackBerry propositionEllis says the company would have given BlackBerry more consideration had it been making this decision now, with knowledge of BlackBerry’s latest Z10 device. “however, the much-needed revamp could also bring about some new teething problems which we wouldn’t like to risk being the guinea pigs for,” he says.
“BlackBerry may have taken a couple of years too long to bring themselves up to date with the current market and we will have to wait and see whether they have done enough to secure a revival. its saving grace may be its heritage and the fact that many businesses change that slowly that BlackBerry’s misgivings will be stepped over.”
BlackBerry became the standard mobile device for businesses because it was the only one that could provide push email services. it seems that many businesses have taken a long time to re-evaluate what is available in the marketplace as other manufacturers have been able to do this for many years now, says Ellis.
ovum’s Absolom believes that a growing amount of hardware and software in the market is starting to challenge BlackBerry’s dominance in security.
“BlackBerry is in tough position, having some success with BlackBerry Z10. But in this envi-ronment the reason Apple and Android are so successful is that they have been bought into by the consumer market. But BlackBerry is still a great enterprise proposition, as companies like security,” says Absolom. BlackBerry is likely to struggle selling to consumers, he says, as it has fallen behind substantially in this market.
“there is also competition from the Windows phone, which may seem like an attractive proposition to enterprises,” he says, adding that Microsoft is likely to throw a lot of resources behind developing its mobile strategy.
“While BlackBerry is also doing more in the software management space – working to support ios and Android – if it moved to just becoming a software company that would be a huge comedown in revenue,” adds Absolom.
Rob Bamforth, analyst at Quocirca, agrees that getting the consumer buy-in is key for BlackBerry to win back employees and with them the enterprise.
“Given the apparent appeal of Apple and Android, there does seem to be more pull on those platforms from a consumer and BYoD perspective. BlackBerry and Microsoft are doing some
interesting stuff, but i don’t know if the devices are appealing enough,” he says.For cAA’s stevenson, having a range of multiple devices is a more modern way of working.
he says the organisation would not have reconsidered its move to open up the number of mobile devices, even if the BlackBerry Z10 had been released at the time.
“We want to move to a more open environment, allowing people to choose from a range of devices they can choose themselves. it’s certainly not a BlackBerry-versus-iphone issue.” n
› Can BlackBerry 10 woo the business world?› How to turn BYOD into productivity
› A guide to embracing IT consumerisation
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downtime
inspired by Aladdin knowledge systems, has much to teach us.
As sane, Bowie took storage to a new level of theatricality. the lightening stripe Flash, which decorated Bowie’s schizo-phrenic alter ego, heralded a new era of hyper-speed data retrieval.
We could indeed be heroes if only we had dual redundant datacentres. n
Bowie’s influence on the development of computer storage technologyDowntime, fresh from Bowie’s retrospec-tive at the V&A Museum, found ourselves considering the great man’s influence on the development of storage arrays.
Bowie’s interest in storage began early with his 1967 debut anticipating the rise of the Massive Array of Idle Disks – some two decades before they become common place in the it department.
For many, Ziggy Stardust is the apogee of Bowie’s storage career. Who can forget Bowie’s prescient call for data dedupli-cation technology in his 1972 song Five Years: “My brain hurt like a warehouse/i had no room to spare. i had to cram so many things to store everything in there.”
But to let Ziggy eclipse Bowie’s influence on storage would be folly. Aladdin Sane,
only happy When It raIns
night driving can be unnerving at the best of times, but add some ominous rain and it can be a scary experience.
the traditional headlights offer some solace but the bulbs bounce off the rain drops, making your view akin to niagara falls rather than the road you want to focus on.
fear not though, as the brains at intel have been working on new technology to rid your vision of these pesky droplets. working with a projector and a camera, the system is able to predict where the rain drops will fall and project an image blotting out the water and showing you the road ahead, rather than the shower.
with a latency of just 13 milliseconds, it is impressive how quickly the system can make these predictions and projections, but it will be much slower before the technology will come to mar-ket - intel predicts it will be in new cars within the next 10 years.
we never thought we would look forward to driving in the rain but bring on the april showers!
Read more on the
Downtime blog