Lead stories

E-mail On The Go

Sept 23, Plain Words Exclusive

A new generation of handheld wireless devices could make laptop and notebook computers a thing of the past for business people on the move.

Research in Motion's BlackBerry wireless devices, for instance, are currently sweeping through the business community in the U.K. and Europe. More...

Hi-Tech Cars

Sept 23, Plain Words Exclusive

When you are in the market for a new car you want to know certain key things about performance, fuel consumption, and safety. You might also want to know what gadgets are built in as standard - such as air-conditioning, sunroof, and central locking. But in the not-so-distant-future, you may be asking whether the car parks itself and whether it has zero emissions.

By 2012, cars will still have a steering wheel and most will still have a petrol engine. But electronics will have replaced the majority of mechanical systems. And it won't just be top-of-the-range vehicles; midrange models will also be buzzing with sensors, cameras, computer screens, and Wi-Fi connections. More...

Extra

How To Write A Report - And Meet The Deadline - Without Having To Miss Your Game Of Golf

September 23, Plain Words Extra

Okay, you might not play golf. But like anyone in the business world, you will be interested in ways to create more free time and reduce stress levels in your life. If part of your job requires you to write technical or business reports, you'll know what a headache it can be - getting the wording right and working till all hours to meet the deadline.

The fact is it takes a lot of skill to communicate information efficiently and accurately - not to mention the time involved. But you can write those reports and meet your deadlines without the stress when you follow Plain Words Report Writing skills course - and you take the credit!

Plain Words Report Writing shows you how to :

• Target your audience and analyse their needs
• Gather your data and select the relevant information for your audience
• Structure your writing to maintain your readers' attention
• Select words and phrases that will aid and not confuse the readers
• Edit your draft for maximum impact

In other words, you will make maximum impact in minimum time. For more details about the Report Writing skills course, contact Plain Words now on: 01635 202013 or send an e-mail to .

E-Business news

Britain's Broadband Access Well Ahead

Sept 10th, Vnunet.com

Britain is making good progress towards its goal of having the most competitive and extensive broadband capability among G7 countries, stated e-commerce minister Stephen Timms at the Broadband World Forum earlier this month. Timms praised initiatives such as British Telecom's trigger level programme and related community projects - saying they have been fundamental in driving up demand and helping to roll out broadband.

He added that there is still a key role for the government to play in making broadband services more widely available. This is especially true in rural areas where service providers find it hard to build a business case because of lower demand. "By November we will have set up nine Regional Aggregations Bodies," he said, "[which] will go out to service providers to show a long-term demand for broadband in rural areas to justify providers offering services." More...

Shopping Carts Let Down Britain's E-Shoppers

Sept 10th, Vnunet.com

A study by web performance firm CatchFire Systems claims that 90 per cent of UK online consumers have been forced to abandon web transactions due to shopping cart failure. Some 70 per cent of these lost transactions were worth £200 or more and involved financial services, gambling, purchasing consumer goods or booking flights. More than half of the consumers interviewed said they had been forced to move to alternative shopping channels, such as call centres and retail outlets. Others either gave up completely or switched to competitors.

The most serious complaint uncovered was of websites that crashed at the end of the transaction or while the payment was processing.

"Poor website performance is still plaguing the online industry," said Nigel Thomas, European marketing director at CatchFire Systems. "Consumers being kicked off websites during purchases is like someone being thrown out of a restaurant in the middle of a meal - it is inexcusable. Our research shows that online consumers have zero tolerance for delays." More...

Technology Drives Efficiency, Say Executives

Sept 5th, ZDNet

More than half of UK management say their companies have become more efficient in the past three years, with technology cited as the main reason, according to a new survey. The SAP Efficiency in Business survey was carried out in conjunction with UK online for business, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), amongst others, and questioned almost 2,000 employees from middle management to board level.

The difficult economic climate has forced most companies to cut back. But 81 percent said technology was the main driver for positive improvements in efficiency. This was particularly the case in the aerospace and defence industries, oil and gas and the public sectors.

Liz Grant, director of ePolicy and delivery at the DTI, said in a statement that the survey shows firms can improve performance through the effective use of Information Technology. "Real business successes can only be achieved when an integrated approach is taken to issues relating to people, process and technology," she added. More...

Teleworking Good For Your Health, Says DTI

Sept 2nd, ZDNet

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is backing a new initiative that aims to show how flexible working practices can reduce employee stress levels. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and CEEP, a European organisation representing public sector employees, have published guidelines to help companies avoid many of the technical and human problems associated with remote working.

According to the DTI, around 2 million people in the UK already work away from their offices using technology, and this figure is increasing by 400,000 every year. Between 1997 and 2001 the number of teleworkers grew by 65 percent.

Employment Relations Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said that modern technology is changing the way UK businesses work: "Using technology to work away from the traditional office environment has the potential to bring a wide range of benefits to both employers and employees. It is important that these benefits are realised and exploited fully." More...

IT Overhaul For UK Public Sector

Sept 8th, Vnunet

Early this month, e-envoy Andrew Pinder outlined far-reaching changes to government IT strategy that will standardise processes, and possibly lead to the appointment of a chief information officer (CIO) for the UK's public sector. Speaking at a National Computing Centre event in London, Pinder said local government had wasted billions on creating home-grown IT solutions to get services online. He said moves towards greater standardisation had now begun as a result.

"With a bog-standard HR or finance process, it's not immediately obvious to me that someone at a local level can invent a better way of doing it than other people," said Pinder. "We need to pick a standardised way."

Brian Westcott of public sector IT association Socitm agreed there is scope for more standardisation. "But I certainly don't think the government should tell us to buy a particular HR or finance system," he added. Westcott recommended wider use of the kind of tendering used for police systems, under which buyers are given a choice of three or four systems approved by the Home Office. More...

Technology round-up

UK Launches Revolutionary "Eyes-In-The-Sky"

Sept 10th, Vnunet

The way the world monitors and manages natural and man-made disasters will be dramatically improved by revolutionary UK-built microsatellites, the Department of Trade and Industry announced earlier this month. The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) is a group of satellites dedicated to monitoring disasters from space. Developed by UK firm Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), DMC is designed to provide more frequent and reliable images to relief agencies.

Three 100kg satellites are to be launched on September 26th, joining AlSAT-1, the first DMC satellite, which was launched for Algeria last November. When fully deployed, the satellites will provide images of anywhere in the world. They will also be able to make frequent return passes over the same site for rapid updates or to obtain information if cloud cover has hampered previous attempts.

Science minister Lord Sainsbury, who launched the scheme, said in a statement: "DMC will be an important tool to help limit the effects of both man-made and natural disasters worldwide. By providing near real-time images it will inform and improve relief efforts, enabling aid agencies to target critical assistance to those in need." More...

2 Million Computer Users Talk About The Weather

Sept 12th, Silicon.com

A new experiment in grid computing has been launched - with the aim of helping to predict climate change over the next half century. The online climatology research was announced on September 11th at the British Association science festival at Salford University. Two-million PC users from around the world will be able to download software from the Met Office to take part in the effort, which hopes to give scientists a glimpse into how the climate might change over the next 50 years.

The software, known as the Climate Prediction Model, has only previously been run on the Met Office's supercomputers. But the Model - which will simulate a period of decades of climate change at a time - has been adapted for PC or laptop use and will run in the background on users' computers while they would otherwise be idle.

Speaking at the science festival, Myles Allen, a climatologist from Oxford University, said: "Thanks to chaos theory we can't predict which versions of the Model will be any good without running these simulations, and there are far too many for us to run them ourselves. Together, participants' results will give us an overall picture of how much human influence has contributed to recent climate change and of the range of possible changes in the future."

The Model can be downloaded from www.climateprediction.net. The question is, if they succeed in predicting the weather, what will us Brits have to talk about? More...

Off-beat news

Smart Sofas - Couch Potatoes' Dream?

Sept 15th, Ananova

An Irish university has developed a computer-linked sofa that allows users to control cookers, kettles and lights or order take-away meals from their seat. The smart seat will be able to work out who is sitting on it by the weight registered on special sensors, and recognise the settings of appliances in its room. It will even try to make users feel at home by offering a voice greeting when it detects a presence.

But will it turn people into couch potatoes? A scientist working on the project said this was not the intention: "This system could be fitted to a child's cot and keep a watch on babies as they sleep. It could also be utilised to monitor people with illnesses such as Alzheimer's, making sure, where possible, that they are not at any risk on some occasions." More...