IT WEEK • 19 JULY 2004
32 COMMENT What should overworked IT managers
do to reduce their burden and improve efficiency?
CONTENTS
32 ANALYSIS Wireless tags
in corporate supply chains
32 COMMENT A third of IT managers
say they work a seven-day week. If
that is true, they need to take a
long hard look at their working
practices, argues Mark Street
37 ANALYSIS Radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless tagging
promises to improve supply chain
management for big retailers, but
will the systems be secure enough?
MANAGEMENTWEEK
WHERE TECHNOLOGY BECOMES BUSINESS REALITY
Editor: Madeline Bennett
Corporates act on IE flaw
ome IT directors are considering
prohibiting staff from using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser, following a recent security warning
from US security agency Cert.
Many of IE’s security problems stem
from a core file named iexplore.exe, which
is used by other services and applications
in Windows, most notably the Windows
Explorer file viewer. As a result, uninstalling IE can also affect the functionality
of Windows Explorer.
Oliver Schneider, an IT administrator
at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Germany, said he will allow IE to
stay on users’ machines but he has set up a
group policy to stop the execution of iexplore.exe, and so reduce security problems.
He has also changed the paths on the
machines so that clicking on the IE icon
leads users to the Opera browser.
“Yes, we had complaints [from users]
but nothing serious,” said Schneider. “Security was a good argument against IE.”
Other administrators are employing
more technical solutions to prevent users
S
from browsing with IE, inrity problem. The company
BROWSER SECURITY
cluding the use of a proxy
has announced that Service
How IT directors cope with
server to filter outbound Microsoft’s flawed browser
Pack 2 for Windows XP, due
requests for data.
next month, contains severSwitch to Mozilla or
One major hurdle for
al security upgrades and
Opera, for example
administrators wanting to
will fix many of IE’s flaws.
Leave IE but disable
move away from IE is the
“IE is a key value propoActiveX functions
fact that many web sites are
sition in Windows,” comOptimise web sites
optimised for Microsoft’s
mented Gary Schare, direcfor other browsers
browser and do not load
tor of Windows security
properly with others, such
product management at
as Mozilla and Opera. This is mainly beMicrosoft. “We know customers will
cause of IE’s native support for ActiveX
choose the browser that’s right for them,
and client-side scripting, which other
and they should. We readily admit that IE
browsers do not enable by default.
hasn’t been as secure as customers would
Security experts said they had long
like or we would like. But we really believe
warned about the dangers of the ActiveX
that customers will continue to use IE once
and scripting functionality in IE and were
they consider all factors.”
not surprised by recent attacks.
The latest backlash against IE was
“I think that the internet security issues
encouraged by vulnerabilities discovered
are so poorly handled that only particular
in the browser over the last several weeks.
forms of insanity would suggest that it has
Jacob Bresciani, systems analyst at the
ever made sense to allow client-side scriptUniversity of Alberta in the US, said, “Any
ing,” said Joseph Newcomer, a security conbrowser tied in so close to the operating
sultant and founder of FlounderCraft.
system will always be a slightly higher secu“[ActiveX] is wonderful for staging attacks.”
rity risk than the other browsers.”
Firms seek way past Explorer, p24
Microsoft has recently reconstituted its
www.eweek.com
IE development team to address the secu-
Whitehall IT saves cash
resources from administration to invest in
the front line,” said chancellor Gordon
he government last week said investBrown, unveiling his spending plans for
ment in new technology would let it
the next three years.
cut the number of civil servants by 84,000
But replying to the chancellor’s speech,
and deliver more efficient public services.
the Liberal Democrats argued that some IT
This vote of confidence in IT could
schemes, such as that for smart ID cards,
give fresh impetus to IT directors seeking
should be abandoned. “If the police need
funding for new projects and help them in
more money, then it should be the £3bn ID
the perennial debate over whether comcard scheme that is cut,” said Vince Cable,
puting delivers value for money.
the party’s treasury spokesman.
While some job cuts were exOthers also questioned whether
pected, following a review of govthe technology investments made
ernment spending by Sir Peter Gerby the government were sufficient
shon, the job losses announced were
to meet Brown’s promises.
greater than the anticipated figure
Kevin Simmons, head of govof around 40,000 posts.
ernment financial management at
“It is precisely because the pubIT services firm Atos Origin, said
lic sector has invested £6bn in new
the public sector is torn between
technology, modernising our abilitrying to make savings through
ty to provide back-office and trans- Brown: £6bn standardising processes, and trying
actional services, that I can... release invested in IT
to deliver a greater choice of servGareth Morgan
T
itweek.co.uk
E-GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCIES
chancellor has said that £6bn
• The
spent on IT for public services has
•
•
led to improved efficiency.
The government says this will help it
to cut 84,000 Civil Service jobs.
Some question the quality of the
back-office systems in Whitehall.
ices for end-users.“They should take a leaf
out of the private-sector book,” he added.
“Many firms needed to offer more customer choice by customising products,
while keeping costs down. This means
investing in agile IT systems,” he argued.
Simmons questioned whether current
back-office systems are up to the task.“The
government needs to look at investing in
new systems. [Current back-office systems] would make generating the savings
within three years difficult,” he said.
In April 2002, government E-envoy
Andrew Pinder said that advances in online
government systems could cut up to onefifth of the civil service wage bill by 2012.
Peter Williams
© eWeek USA 2004
Dennis Fisher
Microsoft
Project rival
offered free
Management software specialist Niku
has launched an open-source version
of its Workbench project-scheduling
software for use on Windows desktops, attacking a market dominated
by Microsoft Project.
Open Workbench is offered free
at the first web address below, and
the source code will be available at
Sourceforge’s site next month, under
the Mozilla open-source licence.
The previous Workbench product
boasts 100,000 users within blue-chip
companies including BT and Unilever.
And it is currently being rolled out to
19,000 HSBC users worldwide.
Open Workbench can import
Microsoft Project-format files, which
can help teamwork and migration.
“Project scheduling has become
commoditised but is a critical tool for
project managers,” said Niku’s vicepresident of global marketing, David
Hurwitz.“So this is a terrific thing for
our customers and will bring
headaches to some of our competition, especially Microsoft.”
Matt Light of analyst firm Gartner
commented,“Open-source project
schedulers will let vendors focus on
meeting the demand for complex
applications – portfolio management
[and] IT governance and control.”
Light estimated Microsoft’s revenues from desktop project scheduling tools at “nearly $1bn”.
Through the move, Niku hopes to
sell more of its high-end server-based
Clarity software, with which Open
Workbench integrates.
Clarity runs on Unix or Windows
and combines tools for portfolio
planning and analysis with tools for
project, programme, financial and
process management.
www.openworkbench.org
www.sourceforge.net
31
MANAGEMENTWEEK
IT WEEK • 19 JULY 2004
Fantasy lifestyle creates misery
IT managers’ complaints that they are overworked and exploited will fall on deaf ears
unless they can prove they need additional resources to cope, writes Mark Street
T directors may be a bunch of
moaning minnies, according to a
recent survey by the Chartered
Management Institute.
At the very least they are
extremely miserable. Fifty-five
percent of IT managers say they
are overburdened and a third claim
they in effect work a seven-day
week just to get by.
A seven-day working week? Are
33 percent of UK IT managers
honestly claiming they are outdoing the sweatshop workers of
Indonesia in terms of how long
they have to work?
The poll also found that IT
managers were “disproportionately
unhappy” compared with all other
types of professional.
Do IT directors really walk
under a permanent dark cloud, in
stark contrast to the unbridled
exuberance of accountants and
the deep joy of dentists? I personally have always found them to be
quite a happy bunch.
I
More worrying was the fact that
a quarter of IT directors believe
they are working for a company
with the human resources skills of
Mark “Chopper” Read. A quarter
claim they work in an authoritarian environment and feel exploited.
As I scrutinised the figures,
trying to make some sense of how
this deep malaise has settled over
the IT industry like a particularly
stubborn low-pressure patch from
Gdansk, a startling realisation hit
me. The only reason for IT
directors to feel like this is if
there is a serious anomaly with
their reality/fantasy interface. In
other words, if they are living in
cloud cuckoo land.
Since time immemorial, the
sensation of being an exploited cog
in a large unfeeling machine has
been common. And I have yet to
meet anyone who says they are
really underworked in their current role and are begging senior
managers to increase their duties.
To me, the survey did nothing
more than highlight the political
naivety of many IT workers.
The high figures for dissatisfaction among senior IT managers
merely indicate that they need to
sharpen up their acts if they want
to fulfil their potential and claim a
position as central as that of the
chief financial officer.
If IT managers are genuinely
working a seven-day week, then
they really need to undertake a
complete review of their working
processes because something has
gone seriously awry.
If they are unable to solve the
problem by adjusting project variables such as delivery times, or by
delegating important tasks to other
experienced members of their
teams, then a time and motion
survey is called for.
Of course, if you can prove
beyond doubt that it really is
impossible to complete your tasks
with the resources available, then it
Wireless tags keep shelves full
Radio frequency identification tags could revolutionise the
control of supply chains, but security may pose problems
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS BY MADELINE BENNETT
adio frequency identification (RFID)
tagging has been hailed by some as
the future of inventory and supply chain
management. According to supporters
such as Wal-Mart in the US and Tesco and
Marks & Spencer in the UK, RFID will
make it easier to manage product lines
from manufacturing through to the shop
floor, and will help firms decide how much
inventory is needed, where and when.
Pam Lopker, president of supply chain
specialist QAD, said that RFID would have
a massive impact on
supply chains.“Most
manufacturers are
trying to manage
stock quantities at
their warehouses.
The next level is to
watch movement at
R
Lopker: monitor
products on shelf
32
the retail store, as products could just be
sitting on the shelf,” she said.
Looking 10 to 15 years ahead, Lopker
predicted that retailers will eventually
monitor how goods are being used in the
home. “Tags will be able to tell you what is
being consumed from the fridge,” she said.
“You can see preferences at a particular
season or time.”
Lopker noted that some drinks dispensers already connect to distributors, so
delivery trucks can be loaded with exactly
the right amount of cans. “If we had this
capability in people’s homes, supermarkets
could get the products to the shelves just
on time,” she added.
But it is not only retailers who see
advantages in wireless tagging. The Vatican
is using RFID technology to manage its
library of two million books and manuscripts. For this project, an RFID tag has
been attached to every book and manuscript, enabling staff to quickly identify
items by passing a reader along shelves.
The Vatican library previously had to close
for a month every year to check inventory
– using the RFID system, the task has been
reduced to half a day.
To help organisations with RFID projects, certain vendors are offering services to
plan and implement rollouts. BT and Deloitte & Touche recently announced a joint
RFID infrastructure implementation service to help organisations keep down costs
and comply with RFID mandates from
retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco.
However, security and privacy may be
issues for some deployments. Security specialist RSA offers an RFID risk-assessment
service and Blocker Tags, which can jam
RFID readers to ensure data stored on tags
is protected from unauthorised parties.
Mike Neuenschwander, senior analyst
at research firm Burton Group, said RFID
security is becoming more important as
the data contained on the chips becomes
more valuable. “The US is requiring its
closest neighbours to place biometric information on passports and include the
information in an RFID tag,” he said.
As the information on the tags will be
encrypted, software at each border cross-
is time to lobby the chief executive
and the chief financial officer for
additional resources.
And it is probably worth dropping in a few lines stating you are
unsure whether you will adequately be able to fulfil your company’s
obligations under Sarbanes-Oxley,
The Combined Code of Corporate
Governance, the Operating and
Financial Review and other new
rules for corporate governance.
Legal compliance and risk
management are ultimately the
responsibility of the board so it
needs to be informed if there are
problems in this area.
The moral of the story must be:
don’t get glum, get resourced. ITW
[email protected]
SUMMARY
tag projects have been im• Wireless
plemented by Wal-Mart,Tesco and
the Vatican library, among others.
technology should help
• The
retailers to get the right products
on the shelves at the right time.
and security may pose
• Privacy
problems for some applications.
ing will need access to the appropriate keys
– a potential management headache, according to Neuenschwander.
He added that Wal-Mart and other
retailers have decided to restrict RFID tags
on the shopfloor because of concerns
about privacy and about linking consumer
information to products.
However, QAD’s Lopker noted that
there had been concerns over privacy in
connection with supermarket loyalty cards,
and these qualms had been overcome. She
predicted that RFID would follow the same
pattern. “Everyone has their price, and
people will sign up [to allow use of RFID]
if the offer’s right,” she argued.
Lopker offered the example of fridges
already available that take an inventory of
their contents.“Users can program in trigger points for items running low and
receive alerts to restock. Or this list could
be sent directly to your local store.” ITW
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