The most recent Comment from Incisive Media

The bonus bandwagon

Lynton Stock — 2009-11-12T09:52:00.000Z

Lynton Stock, Accountancy Age, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 09:52:00

Big bank bonuses aren't as bad as many commentators like to make out

Every time I read a newspaper, there seems to be an article castigating the banks that still want to pay bonuses even the likes of Osborne, Buffet and Soros are calling for a ban on “significant cash bonuses”. The banks argue they need to pay bonuses to remain competitive and avoid a mass exodus from the City.

I believe that paying bonuses is a good thing, setting aside whether bankers deserve such payouts. Now, I am not a banker and have no vested interest in banking other than not wanting to see a return of last year’s meltdown. So, why do I think bonuses are good for the economy?

The answer lays in taxation. If one of the government’s priorities is to reduce public sector borrowings, then an increase in tax revenues can achieve this. And so the exchequer greatly benefits from bonuses being paid out by the banks.

From 6 April 2010, the top rate of income tax hits 50% and the taxman would collect this top rate on bonuses as opposed to only 28% in corporation tax if the banks decided to scrap bonuses. So if the banks pay out bonuses of, say £1bn, additional tax will be collected of £184.16m. Adding National Insurance payable by both employer and employee, there would be an additional £138m collected by the exchequer, even after taking into account the tax relief a bank would obtain in paying the additional National Insurance.

Big bonuses have risen to £15bn in the past three years, which means additional tax revenues of £4.84bn. Now, I can hear some of you arguing if banks don’t pay bonuses, then the additional profits are more likely to be paid as dividends to its shareholders and the taxman collects on those dividends. Even if that happens, a substantial proportion of dividends are paid out to foreign institutions who will not be paying any tax, while dividends paid to UK companies also fail to attract any tax either.

So, my view is that bonuses are good for the economy and a way of maintaining the City of London. And shouldn’t the man at Goldman Sachs who advised Goldman’s not to invest in the sub-prime mortgage market be properly rewarded?

Lynton R Stock is a partner at Shelley Stock Hutter LLP

Steal a march on the competition

John Timperley — 2009-11-12T09:42:00.000Z

John Timperley, Accountancy Age, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 09:42:00

Forward thinking companies are in a better position to beat the recession and win new clients

A number of accountancy firms are currently making serious steps to race their way out of the recession. While the majority of their rivals are, understandably, focused on current business these rare few are looking ahead and creating a client winning edge.

Their aim is to come out of the downturn faster by marshalling resources and better organising themselves to serve up timely and highly valuable service packages that will satisfy future client needs. Such approaches are providing the forward thinkers with strong platforms for business conversations with both existing and new clients.

The first step these firms are taking is to bring together internal planning teams that draw on a mix of disciplines. These teams are working together to create services, products and business structures that will have more resonance with the firm’s markets in the mid and long-term future. Typically the teams are focusing on forthcoming changes in legislation and what the impact on clients will be; changes to market practices and business attitudes to risk services that, with a different delivery structure, can be “commoditised” to be more cost-effective for the client; and contacts’ changing attitudes to client service needs, adjusting the firm’s approach to better fit with the level of service different clients want.

Already, these teams have led a small number of firms to create more competitive fee structures for their services. It has also led a few to develop practical “thought leadership” activities, which are positioning up-to-the-minute expertise in the context of current and future market conditions. Research, business guides, articles, expert commentary, toolkits and products are being used to strike up business conversations with clients. These are helping firms forge closer relationships with target markets and spot new opportunities.

Some firms are also examining complementary dynamics in their client base and bringing clients together for mutual benefit. In some cases this has prompted st rategic business alliances, mergers and even clients investing in one another when bank funding proves elusive.

The clients of these firms are grateful for the positive interaction their advisers are making in their business and as a result are strongly loyal to and supportive of them.

John Timperley is managing director of The Results Consultancy

Don't be afraid to break the rules

Bryan Glick — 2009-11-12T07:45:00.000Z

Bryan Glick, Computing, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 07:45:00

The public’s growing enthusiasm for technology gives IT professionals an opportunity to reinvent their role in business and society at large

I want to break the rules. Why don’t you join me?

Specifically, I intend to break my own rules. In fact, I broke my first rule with the first word of this column. In my nine years as a Computing journalist I was always taught, and in turn taught others, never to use the word “I”. Readers don’t want to know about the writer they want to know what the writer knows.

These days, with the rise of the self-obsessed blogger, use of “I” is endemic. But for the purpose of this article, let’s ignore that for now.

You see, for once this column is about me, so it’s difficult to avoid the personal pronoun. The reason it’s about me is because this is my final, valedictory scribbling before I leave Computing for pastures new. And if the departing editor can’t break his own rules, what has the world come to?

What a nine years it has been. In my first month, I wrote about the collapse of dot com darling Boo.com, and gurus everywhere said: “The internet? Pah! It’s just another fad.” I guess you would agree that things have moved on a lot since then.

Let me tell you what has changed most for me. Before I became a journalist, I worked in the IT industry. In those days, whenever I met someone new in a social situation, the inevitable moment would arise in conversation when they would ask me what I did for a living. I would say: “I work in IT.” They would say: “Oh,” and spot someone else to speak to.

As a journalist, things got better. “I’m a journalist,” I would answer. “Really? How interesting,” they would reply. “What do you write about?”

“Technology.”

“Oh…”

But recently, things have changed. “Technology? That must be interesting,” they say, before telling me how cool their iPhone is, at which point I say: “Oh…”

I once wrote a column in defence of geeks. The world needs geeks, I said. Geeks nodded appreciatively. Everyone else said: “Oh…”

But now, everyone is a geek. Even my mum enjoys texting away. Everyone loves technology OK, we’re not quite at the stage where they all love technologists too, but hey, it’s a start.

However, those in IT need to consider why everyone is a geek. To me it’s clear: non-geeks are developing new technology. They have made it easy to use, fun, fashionable sexy, even. The most talked-about IT is the simplest a junior programmer could write an application that publishes 140-character messages onto a web site. Apple managed to become an iconic brand by making products for people who didn’t like technology. It’s about technology without all that complex geekery that IT used to imply.

And yet, I bet if I walked into most IT departments, I would be confronted with complexity. Much of that is the legacy of historic IT purchasing, but it’s also a legacy of historic IT thinking. Complexity is good, it keeps techies in a job. But it doesn’t make users like you much.

We are near a time when IT-savvy users can create their own applications or access someone else’s in the cloud, bypassing the IT team altogether. And what a waste of the skills and ideas in the IT department that would be.

Technology is changing the world. But are those in IT still stuck in their old ways? It is time for IT to come out of the datacentre. It is time to break the rules.

More comment at http://editor.computing.co.uk

We should all mind our own business

Computing — 2009-11-12T07:45:00.000Z

Computing, Computing, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 07:45:00

The privacy of our electronic footprints should be a defining political issue of the internet age

Perhaps good old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation will make a comeback, now the government is pressing ahead with its plan to oblige communications providers to retain details of all our electronic interactions.

While most people can understand the argument that mining such data helps law enforcement and security services, it is nonetheless a proposal that sticks in the throat for many.

During Labour’s tenure, the concept of the surveillance state has been introduced with almost as much stealth as the snooping itself. The Tories, recognising public unease, promise to “roll back the surveillance state” and stop the trend for big government databases. If they win power, it will be interesting to see whether or not such intentions are watered down in the harsh reality of tackling the UK’s national security challenges.

The privacy of our electronic footprints should be a defining political issue of the internet age.

But unlike the free, open and collaborative nature of the internet that has contributed to this problem in the first place, it is a challenge that is being addressed in a closed and authoritarian manner. As such, it becomes an easy brick to hurl at an unpopular government, when it could and should be an opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of the way the relationship between state and web-enabled citizen is changing.

If the government is to open up its data, it seems beyond churlish to want to obtain and exploit so much of our own.

Personal information – including personal communications – is just that: personal. And

technology is emerging that will allow us to securely manage our personal electronic footprint. It is not beyond the realm of innovation for this to be done in a way that allows the authorities to obtain our approval for access as and when required under suitable conditions – rather than the blunt instrument of total centrally directed retention.

The government should explore and invest in such technologies, for its good as much as our own.

Disabled users will be in Windows Seventh heaven

David Banes — 2009-11-12T07:30:00.000Z

David Banes, Computing, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 07:30:00

Microsoft’s latest release provides some much-needed help for users with special needs, says David Banes

The release of Windows 7 has been widely welcomed as a big step forward from Vista. But the benefits extend beyond obvious improvements, as it greatly enhances accessibility for disabled users.

The new Windows 7 On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) is resizable, with integrated word prediction. The old OSK was too small to be functional for many users. The ability to choose how much of the screen it fills is very user friendly, particularly when you combine it with a touch-screen device.

The magnifier now has a full-screen mode as well as a lens, allowing you to view a part of the screen at any one time. It is easy to use and quite readable at up to 200 per cent. This is now a great way to introduce levels of magnification to users without requiring any additional software. Display settings are now much easier to change and reset.

Voice recognition is a much-improved feature, facilitating easy creation of individual user profiles. For those unable to use a mouse or keyboard, a hands-free mode can also be used.

Windows 7 also comes with drivers to support tablet, touch and multi-touch interfaces – particularly important for those with learning disabilities – or unable to use a keyboard and mouse.

If there is a disappointment in Windows 7, it is that Narrator – the entry screen-reader in Windows – has not had much of an overhaul. But Microsoft can look towards its support of open-source NVDA software as an alternative approach. NVDA is free and available in a number of languages.

Windows 7 is faster while also offering a smaller footprint, making the uptake of some of these new technologies easier as well as cheaper for users.

The new compatibility wizard takes you through a step-by-step process to get software working with some simple changes. It is particularly helpful with older adaptive technology or legacy software.

Windows 7 is a giant leap forward for “non-standard” users real progress at last for the UK’s 10 million-strong disabled community.

David Banes is development director of national disability and computing charity AbilityNet

Something to shout about

Kate Hanaghan — 2009-11-12T06:45:00.000Z

Kate Hanaghan, Computing, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 06:45:00

Whatever your firm’s motive for going green, be vocal about what you manage to achieve

The Smart 2020 report by The Climate Group estimates that IT represents two per cent of the world’s human carbon output, mainly as a result of the huge energy requirements of systems such as datacentres, distributed networks, telephony and, of course, the multitude of related devices and equipment.

But has the recession killed off green initiatives? No, of course not. However, in the grand scheme of creating a more sustainable business, the majority of activities over the next year will centre on the “greening” of the IT function. Furthermore, it is most likely that these actions will be driven by the need to create energy-efficiency savings for the financial wellbeing of the organisation – so this is not primarily about saving the planet.

But carbon reduction is valid whether it comes as a by-product of a drive to lower energy spend or whether it is planned upfront as part of an environmentally aware business case. If you’re getting greener, it’s worth making some noise about it – whatever the real driver of those improvements.

Recently I have been amazed by those vendors that fail to be explicit about what environmental improvements they have been able to achieve within their own organisation. Although we often hear vendors talking about “drinking their own champagne”, green IT is an area where this is particularly compelling.

It gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their infrastructure capabilities, but also their commitment to, and understanding of, the sustainability challenges organisations face. And for those vendors who do not have relevant customers yet, it is a way for them to demonstrate what they can potentially do for you.

Broadly speaking, there is a mixture of expertise that has grown up within the vendor community. For example, technology-led firms such as HP and Fujitsu have been producing and refining the performance and maintenance of hardware over many years. And then there is consulting expertise that has been developed over a much shorter period of time – for example, Atos Origin and its relatively new Green Accounting offerings.

However, vendor offerings are evolving rapidly at the moment, so push companies to keep you informed of improvements or additional capabilities. If you are a UK IT leader, you will be aware of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the country’s climate change and energy-saving scheme. It is critical that you know as precisely as possible what your energy consumption and carbon output is – how can you improve if you do not know what you consume?

This is where vendor carbon reduction tools and methodologies can really help – although their capabilities vary considerably.

Delivering IT services to support a sustainable organisation – using IT to reduce the other 98 per cent of carbon emissions not produced by IT – is a big hidden opportunity to engage with broader organisational agendas for change. Greening the IT function is just the first step to proving how beneficial sustainability can be in terms of its impact on the bottom line, on people and on the environment.

If you are ambitious and have a passion for sustainability, consider how you might expand your role to become a sustainability leader within your organisation.

Kate Hanaghan is senior analyst at Bathwick Group. Bathwick’s recently published Sustainability Study is available at http://bae.bathwickgroup.com/bsi

Bankruptcy turf war

Accountancy Age — 2009-11-12T00:29:00.000Z

Accountancy Age, Accountancy Age, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:29:00

Spat between IPs and Official Receiver could lead to reduced choice and less expertise in the marketplace

There is currently much tension between private sector insolvency practitioners and the government’s Official Receiver over who should be doing exactly what kind of work.

The private sector insists that the receiver’s regional offices were set up to deal with bankruptcies involving only cash assets. In practice, the receivers are dealing with a much broader base of clients and the private sector feels like its work is being stolen. It is turning into a rancorous turf war.

Already at least one firm has decided that receiver’s activity means there is no point in serving the personal bankruptcy market. That’s not a good thing. If the private sector is forced out there will be little choice in the market and slowly the skill sets will be lost. Add to that the fact that Official Receivers are not regulated in the same way and you have a poor set of circumstances for dealing with bankruptcies.

The receiver and the private sector really need to agree just what work they will do. Only clarity will help all parties.

Further reading:

IPs draw line in battle for bankruptcies

Give the IASB resources to set carbon guidelines

Accountancy Age — 2009-11-12T00:28:00.000Z

Accountancy Age, Accountancy Age, Thursday 12 November 2009 at 00:28:00

With the Copenhagen summit on climate change imminent, we need to sort out international standards for reporting carbon emissions

We are just weeks away from world leaders meeting in Copenhagen to thrash out plans for reducing carbon emissions. At the same time accountancy professionals are acutely aware that companies, especially large multinationals, do not have a standardised accounting approach for dealing with the value of carbon on the balance sheet. That’s not a good state of affairs given the pressing need to integrate concern for the environment into every aspect of our working lives.

It’s no good simply blaming the International Accounting Standards Board. The organisation has been under pressure since the beginning of the credit crunch over the issue of fair value and numerous other problems and its resources are limited. Much of that distraction has been caused by governments and institutions dragging the IASB into responding to political pressure. And much of that has been an unnecessary drain on the board.

If we accept there is no bigger issue than the environment then we need to accept that the IASB needs to be resourced in way to deal with it. Politicians will need to recognise that too. As will the organisations providing the IASB’s funding.

There can be no better way to engage companies in thinking about the environment than if they have to consider the reporting requirements laid out in an accounting standard. If you want finance directors to grapple with the environment, give them an accounting standard to wrestle with. If accountancy really wants to play its part in improving environmental conditions, it cannot afford to put these issues off for very much longer.

Further reading:

Cracks appear in carbon emissions accounting

Making the most of vendor partnerships

Andy Horn — 2009-11-11T13:09:00.000Z

Andy Horn, CRN, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 13:09:00

Teaming up means success in a rapidly evolving industry, says Andy Horn

Margins on many traditional products are eroding, and resellers must expand their portfolios across value-added, contracted and managed services, which offer higher margins and meet various modern business needs.

We are increasingly working with many of our resellers to provide hosted and managed IT services for their end customers in the small, medium and even corporate segments.

In this context, partnership is more important than ever. We are finding that resellers want vendor reassurance that they are open to proper, long-term partnerships with closer and collaborative working practices.

Vendors need to provide resellers with innovative marketing programmes that help the two companies collaborate on, for example, defining processes for prospect registration and joint bids.

Transparency around active sales opportunities can increase trust and qualified prospects. This maximises time and effort and ensures we all get a measurable return on investment.

Joint marketing development funds and vendor-driven sales leads help partners use marketing tools such as "campaigns in a box" and co-branding opportunities.

Also, we believe resellers should look for vendors and suppliers with a defined product roadmap and team up to research new offerings – especially if there are potential opportunities to expand into higher margin offerings and managed services.

There is a definite opportunity in helping businesses cut their operating costs while improving their efficiency and processes. The most successful resellers will be those that integrate technologies that help businesses achieve these things.

Also, being easy to do business with is important. Resellers need to ensure their own business processes are as simple and efficient as possible for customers and prospects alike, and that they work with vendors that have the same philosophy and offer, for example, well-designed online portals and other tools.

Winning new customers takes resources, so another priority will be increasing share of wallet in established customer accounts. This requires an in-depth understanding of customers’ businesses, from their tactical business drivers to their company goals and overall organisational strategy.

ICT budgets are squeezed at the momen, so IT departments are getting quotes from multiple vendors. This means that account management will be a real differentiator.

We want to succeed with our partners, particularly within the SME market.

Andy Horn is head of SME business at Colt

Comment: Information overload is a price worth paying if it helps the planet

Simon Perry — 2009-11-11T11:47:00.000Z

Simon Perry, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 11:47:00

Analyst Simon Perry argues that the data deluge doesn't have to be bad for the environment

If you listen to the words used the world over by experts and (some) politicians as they call for action on climate change, there is a phrase that is repeatedly dropped in among the carefully crafted sound bites: "We need a joined-up approach."

While it is easy to dismiss this as yet another meaningless piece of speech filler flapping habitually from a spokesperson's lips, in actual fact it reflects well on the multi-disciplinary nature of both the problems of climate change and other environmental challenges, and the necessary social and business changes required in response.

Meanwhile, the pressure to re-establish global, national and corporate economic growth is inexorable. Green is good, but green growth appeals to a broader set of constituents along with having a more natural fit to the typical strategic business agenda. The question is, how to balance the seemingly conflicting agendas of the two goals.

The need for joined-up thinking on climate change in the context of economic growth is easier to identify than to deliver. One of the problems we have is that multi-disciplinary problems and solutions are by nature fantastically complex. The sources of information relied on to provide insight are numerously threaded and comprised of a wide diversity of data types. It is one thing to say, "We must reduce the ecological footprint of humanity's activities", and another thing altogether to actually draw up a successful plan for achieving the goal, virtuous as it may be.

In the datacentre all these challenges play out in the microcosm. The hard-headed business pressure to cut costs, along with the increasingly regulated need to reduce energy usage and trim emissions is balanced against an appetite for continual service delivery improvements and expansion in proc essing capacity. Meanwhile, most of the improvements facilities and IT managers have managed to achieve in datacentre operations in the past two years have really just been the harvesting of the low-hanging fruit. Further gains will require more than server virtualisation and datacentre thermo-optimisation.

IT's role in a low carbon economy is transitioning from being one focused on tweaking the electricity usage requirements of hardware and tackling the question of the embodied carbon in the components, toward providing the means to identify and navigate the strategic green direction for the business as a whole. Being a processing platform for the applications that enable effective governance of business efforts toward sustainability may become one of the mot important contributions of IT in the context of 'green'.

Looking back, the engine of economic growth throughout and since the 1990s has been one driven by phenomenal growth in business intelligence derived from information technology, fuelled by cheap energy and access to a globalised labour pool. Looking forward, to a world where we are counting and considering the cost of the emissions related to profligate energy consumption, the intelligence derived from an ever-increasing data set will help organisations identify the most sustainable path ahead, enabling effectively balanced growth against green.

The continued greening of the datacentre lies thus not in its net energy usage, but rather in its gross contribution to the overall reduction in resource utilisation and emissions of the business as a whole.

Struggle as they may today with information overload, datacentres face more of the same. Emissions cap and trading schemes such as the UK's CRC, the EU ETS, the hotly debated proposed American and Australian schemes and others will all require new data to be collected and reported.

In the past businesses have paid scant consideration toward the details of energy usage, and none toward the associated emissions. Gaining a detailed awareness of energy and emissions requires granular measurements of such things as what specific equipment and processes are using what resources.

IT will continue to find itself the collector and cruncher of ever larger and more diverse sets of performance data. As with financial and corporate performance hand-in-hand with the generation of new data will be the need to deliver reporting for internal and (regulated) external audiences under the requirements of the emissions trading schemes.

Information growth is therefore not a bad thing. Data collection and reporting is entirely with merit from the point of view of the environment if it enables a net reduction in emissions across the business by providing insight and enabling effective governance of sustainability efforts. Drown in data we may, but when it enables a more verdant set of decisions to be made for the business, "green screen" will perhaps mean something more forward looking than it does today.

Simon Perry is a sustainability expert and is part of the ThinkingString thought leader community.

Visit our dedicated Summit web site for more breaking news, views, analysis and video on the topic of Information Overload.

Comment: Three steps to a social media strategy

Dirk Singer — 2009-11-10T16:25:00.000Z

Dirk Singer, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 16:25:00

Monitor, register and engage, says communications adviser Dirk Singer

When it comes to social media in general and Twitter in particular, there are two things you can be sure of.

One, people will be talking about themselves. Two, in addition to talking about themselves they will be talking about brands – possibly even yours. That’s a potent cocktail that can wreck your brand's reputation, or perhaps enhance it.

Both these assertions are supported by recent research.

First of all, Oxford University Press did an analysis of 1.5 million words used on Twitter. 'I' was the most popular world after 'the'.

By comparison, in everyday speech 'I' is the 10th most used word, meaning it’s five times more popular on the micro-blogging service.

Secondly, Penn State in the US did research involving half a million tweets. Twenty per cent were about brands in some shape or form. Added to this is the results of another study, this time by Perfomics Marketing, showing that 44 per cent had recommended a product on Twitter and 39 per cent had discussed one.

What does this mean? Brands and products are part of our everyday lives. And as Twitter is a personal broadcasting system, people will be quick to pass on their experiences with them.

One example involving London Underground should give any customer-facing organisation, and that means pretty much any organisation, food for thought.

The other week blogger Jonathan MacDonald filmed a London Underground staff member verbally abusing an elderly passenger who’d had the misfortune of having his arm caught in a tube train door. That was on a Thursday afternoon.

By Friday morning it was on his blog and on Twitter. By Friday afternoon it was on the front page of the Evening Standard. The staff member in question, apparently a peace-loving 'Jedi', has since resigned.

The cycle from it hitting Twitter and it reaching the mainstream media was around four hours. How many organisations would even spot that something was happening online in that time frame?

Indeed, one of the misconceptions about Twitter is that it’s a place for people to exchange various inane comments. There is some of that, but its user base is disproportionately made up of bloggers, social media influencers and – yes, journalists (Sky News now has a Twitter correspondent).

These are people who spot things on Twitter and take them somewhere else. Twitter is effectively the bridge to other media.

So what can you do about it? At its most basic, a social media programme should involve three stages, the first two essential and the third highly recommended: monitor, register and engage.

1 Monitor – People are going to be talking about you whether you are present or not. You might as well know what they are saying about you! More to the point, you need to be able to head off any negative comment before it snowballs.

There are plenty of tools that allow you to do the job, many free. A good list is the wiki maintained by Ken Burbarry

2 Register - If you haven’t registered your brand profile on social media sites, you leave yourself open to anyone with an axe to grind doing so and poking fun at you.

For example, take a look at what’s been done with the Twitter profile of London commuter train service South West Trains (I’ve used them as a case study several times in the past and I’m amazed they haven’t yet done anything about this).

As a result, even if you do nothing else with them, at the very least register your brand profiles. It’s free, and namechk will show you where your brand identity is still available.

3 Engage – This is the more difficult, and also potentially more rewarding, bit. As we’ve already said, people will be talking about you online whether you like it or not, so you might as well be present to shape the conversation.

Fortunately, there are plenty of case studies of companies that have got it right online to guide you, thanks in part to social media pundit Peter Kim, who has created a wiki with examples of what a stack of brands have done online. Take a look, draw your own conclusions and plans, and dive in.

Or…ignore this space completely, wait for a crisis to blow up online, miss it completely, and be left to firefight when the mainstream media gets hold of it several hours later.

Dirk Singer heads up the digital division of brand communications agency Cow. He additionally blogs at liesdamnedliesstatistics.com and is on Twitter.

Singer was talking to V3.co.uk as part of its Information Overload Summit event, running from 10 - 12 November. Visit our dedicated Summit web site for more breaking news, views, analysis and video on the topic of Information Overload.

Winning business data gambles with the channel

Ged Simmons — 2009-11-10T15:16:00.000Z

Ged Simmons, CRN, Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 15:16:00

Business intelligence is coming to the fore for the mid-market, claims Ged Simmons

Too many mid-market organisations are basing critical long-term business decisions on inaccurate or poor-quality data. Sometimes, the gamble can pay off, with errors going unnoticed or financial losses kept to a minimum. But, as with every game of chance, there are winners and losers.

A survey IBM carried out among board-level decision makers in mid-market organisations found that nearly 70 per cent still used spreadsheets as the staple support of business decisions.

Thirty-five per cent of respondents said they provided data only on request, rather than proactively, in rolling reports that executives can view to gain visibility across the whole organisation at any time.

Nearly half of all respondents admitted they were concerned about the overall integrity of the information they used to make critical business decisions. About a third of companies said that spreadsheet use had a detrimental impact on their business.

There are numerous problems with data duplication and inaccurate information in spreadsheet-based systems.

But mid-market organisations are suffering from both a lack of confidence and the fallacy that achieving first-class business intelligence is too expensive.

Spreadsheet systems also often restrict access to information across the business. Around 60 per cent of mid-market businesses are coping with increased data volumes.

You'd think they would be making smarter use of it – but this is not the case. Manual aggregation of information and sharing of vital data via email remains widespread and must be stamped out.

Yet cost-effective business intelligence products exist that are tailored to suit mid-market organisations. With the right tool, businesses can perform first-class reporting, analysis, planning, budgeting and forecasting at an affordable price.

Channel players can make their mark here. Alongside specialist consultancy and advice, smaller organisations can now benefit from the reliable reporting and planning previously only enjoyed by larger companies.

With a consistent and reliable system, answers to previously tough questions such as ‘how are we doing?’, ‘why are we doing what we do?’ and ‘what should we be doing?’ can become clear.

This allows managers to make faster, smarter decisions to reduce cost and minimise risk. Mid-market organisations no longer need to gamble on their data.

Ged Simmons is country manager at IBM Cognos

How direct debits may bolster budgets

Georgia Leybourne — 2009-11-09T15:09:00.000Z

Georgia Leybourne, CRN, Monday 9 November 2009 at 15:09:00

Crediting key suppliers via corporate direct debit can help organisations to cut the cost of managing credit while freeing up valuable staff resources for more business-critical tasks

As the recession deepened, payment delays increased and SMEs now spend more time on credit control and managing cash flow.

The Faster Payments banking initiative offers real-time, provable bank transfers, putting pressure on organisations to use this approach to pay suppliers, and incur a £3-£4 per transaction fee.

With the cost of weekly and monthly payment cycles, cheque processing fees wrapped up in the overall bank charges, and Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services (BACS) fees, it has become very difficult to assess the true cost of payments.

When you add in Faster Payments, extended overdraft facilities where available, administrative costs associated with manual payment processes and finance staff dedicating more time to credit control, the business cost of making payments dramatically expands.

There is a pressing need for firms to address the rising costs of making payments and their associated processes.

One option is the use of commercial direct debits. These already account for the vast majority of consumer-to-business payment transactions. However, direct debits have yet to catch on among many businesses and organisations.

Since direct debits offer the payee huge advantages through guaranteed on-time payments and associated cash flow control, the resistance can only come from the payer community.

Yet direct debits also benefit the payer notably in reducing the administrative process of preparing and making payments. When the payment is due, it is scheduled and happens automatically.

The cash is debited from the bank account at a set time as expected unlike cheques, which can take days to arrive and are not always immediately cashed, putting further pressure on the cash flow management process.

Replacing traditional payment methods such as cheques with direct debits also reduces the risk of fraud, which is a growing concern in the economy.

Cheques being phased out

Furthermore, the banking industry and the Payment Council are expected to make it increasingly difficult and expensive to use cheques over the coming years in the build-up to phasing out cheques for business use by 2018. The early adoption

of direct debit ensures firms already have an alternative payment solution in place.

For the payer the transaction has no associated cost since the fee is paid by the direct debit originator. With guaranteed payments lined up, in-bound calls from creditors will significantly reduce, freeing up your finance team.

In the consumer marketplace, most organisations are actually charging more to those customers not paying with direct debits, to offset the additional credit control and administrative costs associated with cheques or over-the-counter cash.

While this approach is unlikely to be replicated in the business market in the short term, payer organisations can certainly take advantage of the guaranteed direct debit process to negotiate better payment terms from percentage

discounts to extending the traditional 30 days to 45.

This approach eliminates the need to impose Late Payment of Commercial Debt Act penalties, which only put greater pressure on struggling organisations that are forced to devote more and often senior staff resources to credit control.

With guaranteed payments, better relationships can be developed between payer and payee and settlements negotiated that are more favourable to both.

SME struggles

According to recent research by BACS Payments Schemes, UK SMEs are now owed about £30.4bn.

This is a direct result of an overdue payments blow-out of about 40 per cent in the past year. And that figure is up from £18.6bn in the previous 12-month period.

The impact of this late-payment trend may increase, with organisations forced to delay payments as they wait for key debts to be paid. This must contribute to the downfall of firms, as cash flow escapes their control and the costs of managing credit escalate.

Direct debit is a guaranteed route to payment that ensures better cash flow visibility and management and slashes the cost of supplier payments. It may also ease the renegotiation of payment terms adding value and creating a domino effect for more timely payments to be made across the board.

Georgia Leybourne is sales and marketing director at Albany Software

Opening up the public sector

Sara Yirrell — 2009-11-09T15:01:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell , CRN, Monday 9 November 2009 at 15:01:00

The public sector bidding process is one that prompts differing reactions from the channel.

Some love it because they have managed to get into the ‘inner circle’ of Catalyst and G-Cat, and others hate it because they feel it is an ‘old boys club’-style setup that just slams the door in smaller players’ faces without even giving them a chance.

This week Viglen has revealed how it beat the likes of Dell, HP and IBM to a lucrative Office of Government Commerce (OGC) deal -- OGC 11 -- proving that the smaller players in the market do get a look-in and that the business does not always go

to multi-national giants.

But more often than not we hear how the public sector contracts tend to go to the same old players, which eventually throws up the same old problems usually extra costs, delayed completion dates and increasingly complex technical issues.

Even Sir Peter Rigby, founder of SCH, has thrown his hat into the ring, claiming the process is unfair and far too costly for smaller UK players.

However, everyone I speak with lately is hopeful that a change of government will bring a much needed breath of fresh air to the public sector tender process.

One thing is for sure -- the situation can’t get any worse. Or can it?

Sara Yirrell is editor of CRN. Contact her at sara.yirrell@incisivemedia.com

Second-hand tape storage security risk

Anna Liden — 2009-11-09T14:55:00.000Z

Anna Liden, CRN, Monday 9 November 2009 at 14:55:00

While used tapes may offer budget benefits to IT departments, the security risks could cost firms in the long haul

In the market, there are more Linear Tape-Open (LTO), Digital Linear Tapes (DLT) and 9x40 cartridges circulating that are not as new as the shiny and perfect packaging leads customers to believe.

These tapes have had their ‘mileages’ reversed; they have been on the road for some time and then been recycled as new.

This tape recycling phenomenon is encouraged by the need of organisations to destroy their old tapes. The limited budgets endured by IT departments also give malicious used-tape sellers the upper hand. Such dealers can offer their ‘branded tapes’ for just one Euro below the market price.

At first glance, the low price offers a breath of fresh air to IT managers and their departments. However, such an offer is probably too good to be true.

Selling used tapes to be re-certified and resold to another organisation is a practice some IT departments have begun to employ. But selling used tapes may only produce a small amount of revenue and the competitive and security risks of this practice far outweigh any benefits.

Selling used tapes can also put a company at risk of violating regulations around privacy and records compliance.

When we examined four LTO Ultrium 1 re-certified tape cartridges bought on the open market, the results were shocking. Considerable residual customer data in the form of detectable signals was discovered on three of the four cartridges.

Of the hundreds of thousands of possible data sets, a random sample of eight data samples was reviewed. Remnants of an SQL database were discovered. A subsequent web search led to a database of DNA sequences.

A second study analysed a sample lot of 40 9840 recertified cartridges that we had procured from two different suppliers. In most of the cartridges, the directory was completely intact and, in some cases, the data map had not been erased.

Further analysis also revealed that suppliers had only performed a minimal write test of approximately 10MB on some cartridges. Shortcuts like this are appealing to the re-certifier because it takes so long to rewrite the full length of a 9840 cartridge.

Finally, some permanent errors appeared when we tested the used cartridges. We also performed a detailed analysis of one cartridge. A look at the Media Information Record showed that the last action taken by a user was a full read of the data. This was most likely done by the firm selling it.

What is worse is that the re-certifier did not attempt to erase the data, and neither the customer nor the re-certifier executed a data-security erase. Firms that buy such recycled, ‘good as new’ tapes may expose themselves to significant risk.

The US Sarbanes-Oxley legislation requires companies to store their valuable data for at least 10 years. Tapes are still considered as an inexpensive and reliable medium to comply with such legislative compliance requirements.

However, if a company is not aware of how much a cartridge has been used, there is a risk that the valuable back-up may be lost. Re-certified tape’s archival life expectancy is unknown because no reliable information is available on the condition of each cartridge.

And while new tape has an expected archival life of 15 to 30 years, re-certified tape does not. IT dealers and managers just like in the used vehicle industry must beware of hand-me-downs with the clocks wound back.

Anna Lidén is product manager of magnetic and commercial storage for Imation Europe