NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 19 June
19-06-2007
by Stephen Errity
IBM says role of CIO changing | Norkom named no.1 for anti-fraud software
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) should be better rewarded for their contribution to business, consulted earlier on in the strategy process, given greater organisational control and afforded greater opportunity to develop their skills in areas outside of IT. That's the message coming from IBM, which released a survey on Tuesday outlining the changing role of the CIO in today's workplace. The company's CIO Leadership Forum Survey showed that while 84 percent of CIOs believe that technology has become central to their company's business, only 16 percent believed their employer was taking full advantage of it. Along with last year's Global CEO study, the survey revealed that the integration of technology with business is becoming increasingly important. The survey concluded that the position of CIO can no longer be seen as a support role and must be transformed into a business leader position.
Financial institutions in North America, Europe and Asia have named Dublin-based Norkom as their top provider of both anti-money laundering and anti-fraud software solutions. A survey was carried out by industry publication OpRisk & Compliance. "The anti-money laundering and anti-fraud technology markets are extremely competitive ones at the moment. There are a large number of solution providers in both spaces, which makes Norkom's position at the top of both rankings a particularly remarkable achievement," said the publication's editor Ellen Davis.
UK data centre and managed services firm TelecityRedBus has announced it is to invest STG50 million in a new data centre in London. The Powergate facility will be one of the highest specification data centres in Europe, with a planned 25 megawatts of resilient power and approximately 50,000sq feet of capacity. The facility is expected to be ready for customers in the second quarter of 2008. The investment is in response to growing demand for outsourced co-location, hosting and managed services in the UK, and specifically in London, where current data centre facilities are reaching capacity.
Blackrock, Co Dublin-based Arantech, a provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions to communications service providers, has won two major industry awards. The company's touchpoint CEM solution won 'Best new OSS/BSS product' at the TeleManagement Forum Excellence Awards at the end of May. The same product also won Frost & Sullivan's 'Global Stratecast Customer Service Assurance Innovative Product Award'. Arantech is one of a number of Irish exhibitors at the CommunicAsia 2007 event in Singapore.
Gordon Stewart has been appointed as Financial Controller of IrishJobs.ie, Jobs.ie and NIJobs.com, the Irish operations of international online recruitment company Saongroup.com. Stewart joined Saongroup.com in March 2006 as a financial accountant with IrishJobs.ie. He trained as a chartered accountant with Gaby Smyth & Company in Ballsbridge, a practise specialising in arts and entertainment clients. He holds an honours degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Limerick and is an associate member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Several thousand Italian tourism websites have been infected by viruses that are funneling confidential financial data to a server in Chicago. The attack has been dubbed 'the Italian Job' by observers. Internet security firm Trend Micro said it detected more than 4,500 travel sites in Italy that have been infected. The compromised sites were mainly small tourism sites bearing Italian web domains, including www.adriahotel.it, www.bestoftuscany.it and www.mothertheesacause.info. Surfers are only vulnerable to the attack if they are using versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser that are not up-to-date. Updates are available at www.microsoft.com.
Dublin computer recyclers Camara received a visit on Tuesday from the newly-appointed Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources Eamonn Ryan. Staffed primarily by volunteers, Camara take in old computers, refurbish them and donate them to schools and colleges in Africa. They also send groups of volunteers to Africa to provide IT training to local teachers. The charity is based at North Wall Quay in Dublin 1. The Minister singled out Camara as "a tangible example of a charity whose innovative and environmentally responsible policies benefit not only Ireland through reducing the waste we generate and send to landfills, but in turn schools and colleges throughout sub-Saharan Africa." He noted that Ireland will dispose of 4 million working computers over the next 10 years and called on government departments, businesses and individuals to donate their obsolete computers to Camara.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 