Business systems and software selection

News, opinion pieces, legislations and best practices aimed at helping members make better use of their IT in their businesses and those of their clients.

  • Flat or falling IT budgets the norm this year

    04 Apr 2012 (IT faculty premium content:

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    IT departments will have their budgets frozen or even experience budget falls in Europe and North America in 2012 according to analyst Gartner.

  • Apple's surge

    08 Feb 2012 (IT faculty premium content:

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    It’s been a mixed year for the Cupertino powerhouse. But the death of founder and inspiration Steve Jobs has done nothing to dent its march to become one of the biggest companies in history.

  • Euro crisis gives CIOs a big opportunity

    08 Feb 2012 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Chief information officers have an unprecedented opportunity to show how IT can add value to businesses in the wake of the euro crisis, says a recent report by analyst Gartner.

  • Comms watchdog maps out digitally dispossessed

    08 Feb 2012 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Research by Ofcom suggests about 900,000 UK premises do not have a choice of all four 2G mobile networks and 7.7m people do not have access to all five 3G mobile networks.

  • The real business benefits of social media - top tips

    28 Nov 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    The accountancy profession seems to be split. Can social media really work for accountants?

  • Control, management and audit issues

    20 May 2011

    One of the most important aspects of the IT Faculty's work concerns control, management and audit issues.

  • IT Governance - Examining IT and Business Change

    20 May 2011

    The significance of IT in the finance profession

  • The Future Face of the Finance Function

    08 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    In the last decade, advancements in technology have dramatically changed the way businesses operate. Information technology is now integrated through virtually every aspect of a company and often is the driving force behind it.

  • The Secrets of Silicon Valley

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    What makes Silicon Valley so special and what can the UK learn from this experience?

  • Practices - top technology tips

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Three practices share their top technology tips

  • Customer relationship management: the road ahead

    30 Mar 2010 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Customer relationship management is an understandably important topic for companies. Analyst Gartner has been looking at its near future

  • UK Government launches National Plan for Digital Participation

    30 Mar 2010 (IT faculty premium content:

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    The UK Government has long believed that digital inclusion is important for everyone in the 21st Century. Now the National Plan for Digital Participation has been launched.

  • Social networking in business on the rise, policies in short supply

    23 Feb 2010 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Study confirms that consumer based social networking is widely used at work, but that a lack of policies to manage its use put businesses at risk

  • Social networking to replace email?

    23 Feb 2010 (IT faculty premium content:

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    According to one set of predictions, by 2014 social networking will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20% of business users

  • The future of the mobile and wireless industry

    23 Feb 2010 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Wireless communications is increasingly important to business users, and the coming year looks set to offer plenty of challenges

  • Doing better on IT returns

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    In 2009, the IT faculty published Measuring IT Returns. This report aims to help management apply financial measures more effectively to IT investments. A year on from publication, the faculty decided to test its work with a panel discussion at the International Conference on Information Systems.

  • Analyse social networks to inform strategy

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Understanding how social networks are used within your organisation can provide useful business intelligence

  • View from the front line

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    How do CFOs and FDs gain greater competitive advantage whilst minimising their company’s costs?

  • Budget constraints affect software development and integration

    25 Nov 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    A tightening of the purse strings in IT departments is having a negative affect on software development and integration

  • The changing nature of the workplace

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Workforce mobility and using personal technology for work are both on the rise

  • Top Google search terms during 2009

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Facebook, Michael Jackson, Spotify, Swine flu. What do they all have in common?

  • Listing the most reliable laptops brands

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    An analysis of failure rates of more than 30,000 new laptop computers uncovers the most - and least - reliable brands

  • The way we use mobile phones is changing

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Mobile email and texting lose out to the mobile Internet and downloading

  • The written word direct to your retina

    25 Nov 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Electronics company NEC has come up with a headset that has the potential to translate on the fly

  • Opportunities and risks for UK businesses

    25 Nov 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    The UK government's Digital Britain strategy will enhance the Internet's reach opening up opportunities and risks for UK businesses

  • Non-Latin top level domains get the go-ahead

    25 Nov 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    The introduction of non-Latin characters into top level domains has been hailed as biggest change to Internet since its inception

  • Are you 'information-savvy'? Probably not

    21 Dec 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    According to a recent survey only 20% of UK citizens are 'information savvy'. The Chartered Institute for IT wants to change that

  • On balance

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    We consider the value for-profit enterprises create in terms of distributable profit to shareholders.

  • Nearly half of businesses don't measure website effectiveness

    30 Oct 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Despite putting effort into setting up and maintaining a website, many UK businesses don't have a way of measuring its effectiveness

  • Facebook is the second most visited website in UK

    30 Sep 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Facebook is the second most visited website in UK

  • Nokia good, Nintendo bad, Acer, Panasonic, Sharp somewhere in the middle

    30 Sep 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Greenpeace's regular review of consumer electronics ranks companies according to various green criteria

  • Business sustainability and green IT - what you need to know

    08 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    It's time for accountants to plan for the inevitable changes in business practices

  • Looking beyond technology

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Reporting from the faculty round table event that took place in Edinburgh in June 2009 on the topic of IT value and measuring IT returns.

  • Portfolio Pie

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Are for-profit and not-for-profit organisations really different deep down?

  • Risk and resilience in a recession

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Business leaders are constantly having to examine and revise their resilience plans in line with the rapidly changing economic environment.

  • IT Investment in a Recession

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    A Lesson from History: Kirstin Gillon considers some of the implications for investing in IT in 2009.

  • SaaS experience is underwhelming

    20 Aug 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Any organisation considering Software as a Service model might find Gartner's recent finding that SaaS is not quite up to the hype worth perusing

  • Domain name free for all - are you ready?

    28 Jul 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    ICANN, the body which manages Internet domain names, has announced plans to extend the number of domain name extensions available.

  • Are IT costs saving being missed?

    07 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Responding to the recession, Thomas Lemon highlights some commonly overlooked opportunities for cost reductions

  • Value Management - time to start asking questions

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    A response to research carried out by ISACA on the value of IT

  • Monitoring Email

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Doing away with the idea of a central database is excellent as the Government has an appalling record on data protection.

  • Gorgeous dashboards

    01 Jan 2011

    When faced with large amounts of data, the effect can be overwhelming. Jonathan Teller discusses a recent book offering solutions to presenting maximum information in an accessible way.

  • Make the most of your website

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Top tips for building effective websites

  • Cut now, suffer later

    24 Jun 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Cutting staff may not be the best way to save money - in fact it could simply build trouble for the future

  • Working from home a legitimate cash-saving strategy

    24 Jun 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    More people are working from home since the current financial difficulties started

  • The carbon footprint of email spam

    27 May 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Find out how you can reduce your carbon footprint by tackling email spam

  • Twitter as a business tool

    27 May 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    You might thing Twitter is the preserve of celebrities and consumers, but analyst Gartner thinks it has potential for the business too.

  • IT Governance: Here we go again...

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    A major IT enabled business project is challenged by cost and time overruns, inadequate functionality, deferral of benefits achievement and failure to meet its defined objectives.

  • The In Formation Age

    20 Jan 2011 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Considering the perspective of organisations which seek to make profits.

  • Harnessing social computing

    27 Mar 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Social computing

  • Is software rental the next big thing? Part one

    27 Mar 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Internet Service Provider Pipex thinks that offering SMEs the opportunity to rent software, rather than to have to buy it outright, makes good business sense.

  • Is software rental the next big thing? Part two

    30 Mar 2009

    Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite is part of Microsoft Online Services, a sizeable venture designed to foster the use of various Microsoft applications and services over the air rather than relying on the holding of local copies of software.

  • Broadband speeds clarity arrives

    08 Jan 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    Ofcom has brought into force a voluntary Code of Practice for Internet Service Provides which should ensure that consumers have a clearer idea of the broadband speed they can expect.

  • Cyber cynicism has negative effect on UK businesses

    07 Jan 2009 (IT faculty premium content:

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    The Chartered Management Institute has been busy working on a survey of Internet use in UK businesses. Its conclusions point to businesses being wary of both the benefits of technology to business development and workers' personal use of it in company time.

  • Improving your online retailing

    01 Jan 2011 (Finance and Management faculty premium content:

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    A number of common mistakes can lose online retailers sales. Guy Mucklow explains what - and what not - to do.