Cwjobs.co.uk > Careers advice > News

Register free to visit Infosecurity Europe

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:41:17 +0100

Infosecurity is Europe’s largest gathering of the Information Security industry, and is an opportunity to meet other professionals and see the latest products, trends and services on the market.

Taking place on the 23rd-25th April in London’s Earls Court, there will be over 12,500 security professionals from across the industry in attendance. With over 350 exhibitors and more than 100 free seminar sessions to attend, it’s an ideal place to network, exchange ideas and shop for new products and services to help keep your company up-to-date.

Want to visit the event? Registration is completely free. Find out more at www.infosec.co.uk, or click here to register.

IT retail expertise in demand

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

As online retail booms and UK shoppers flock to the internet, IT professionals are the people keeping the virtual tills ringing. Already the biggest virtual market in Europe, the UK has to be ready for more ’manic Mondays’ - the busiest online shopping day ever before Christmas.

Christmas shoppers spent £1.4m online in a single minute on 7 December 2009 as the digital high street boomed. The day, dubbed Manic Monday by journalists, was the single biggest day for online trading the UK has ever experienced.

The UK is the largest online shopping market in Europe, but there is still room for growth as online sales catch in-store sales. If sales increase by 10% every year from this year (e.g. the current rate), it's projected that about €40bn will be spent by UK consumers online in 2014.

€24.7bn was spent online in the UK last year, and an additional £3bn is expected to be added each year for the next five years, according to research from Forrester Research. The research also found that UK citizens are more prolific online shoppers than continental Europeans, with 48% making a monthly online purchase compared with the European average of 32%.

But online sales are not only a fact of life for consumers. Retailers are becoming more reliant on online sales, and companies such as John Lewis are investing heavily in integrating online shopping with traditional channels.

"Much of the overall retail sector's growth in the US and the EU over the next five years will come from the internet," said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

"To maximise that growth, e-business professionals will have to help enable a multichannel strategy that responds to consumers' increased desire to hop between the offline and online worlds and their increasing mobile and social behaviour. The retail innovators over the next five years will demonstrate customer enablement across all touchpoints, not just via a PC-based web browser."

CWJobs has thousands of jobs to search from over 600 companies and across all sectors and locations.

Search for IT jobs:

- In the public sector
- In telecoms
- In banking and finance
- In Online Jobs

Responding to the mobile challenge

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

Mobile web browsing is developing at speed, with the iPhone leading a renaissance in the development of mobile applications. So it's vitally important that companies get their mobile strategy right. IT blogger Tim Anderson tells CWJobs about changing assumptions.

Few assumptions are safe in the IT industry. A few years back, it was obvious that that PCs running Windows were beating the Apple Mac into a tiny niche. Things look different now. If you planned your IT strategy on the earlier assumption and have not changed, you are now getting it wrong.

Another not entirely unrelated area is the significance of the mobile web. Mobile phones have had web browsers for as long as anyone can remember; but for most of that time actually using them has been frustrating and slow. Remember trying to scroll a tiny window around some web page broken by non-functioning Javascript or CSS, looking for a critical piece of information such as an address or schedule?

In consequence, the extent of mobile browsing was small and mainly focused on niche areas like travel.

It all changed with the iPhone. Those contracts are expensive, but once you buy in you generally get an unlimited data connection, and more important, a decent browser which is a version of Safari, built with WebKit. That same engine is now used in many other devices, not least those running Google Android. Suddenly, users do want to use their mobiles to browse the web; and they will be hitting your web site or application and trying to use it.

Check your stats. I run another blog at itwriting.com, and when a reader complained about its appearance on a mobile, I added a wordpress plugin which both fixes the layout and reports the traffic. According to the plugin, 5% of the traffic was from mobile users. Once the site was fixed, the figure grew dramatically, to over 15%.

A tech news blog is just the sort of thing that appeals to mobile users, so those figures will not apply in every case. The point though is this: all those assumptions about limited mobile usage which once seemed safe now no longer apply.

Here's another line I often hear. There's no need to optimise your site for mobile, since the more advanced mobile browsers work fine with normal web sites.

Unfortunately that is not the case. They work much better than older ones, true. However, the displays are very much smaller and the connection speed often much slower than on the desktop. If you want your site to be a pleasant experience for mobile users, you will likely have to deliver customised content for them.

Does everyone get this anyway? If you have a few spare minutes, head over to mobiReady and try out a few sites; or download the Android emulator; or of course use a real device to test sites that you are involved in or interested in. I did so before writing this piece, discovering that the web still looks very broken once you go beyond the top sites.

The positive spin on this is that optimising for mobile can be a relatively easy way to gain commercial advantage.

Talking of safe assumptions, one that seems good right now is that the number of web-connected mobile devices is going to grow rapidly in the coming years. Optimising for mobile was always the right thing to do. Now it is essential.

- Tim Anderson

Search IT jobs:

- Contract jobs
- IT support jobs
- Graduate jobs

The rise of the freelancer

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

According to the Professional Contractors Group, there are 1.4 million freelancers in the UK and the flexibility added by this community is contributing some £21 billion to UK GDP. In these challenging times, the value of this resource has never been more significant.

New research from the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), the trade body that promotes and protects the interests of contractors and freelancers in the UK, has revealed the fundamental importance of freelancers and contractors to the IT sector.

While the economy as a whole is in the doldrums, freelancers are still estimated to be adding around £21 billion to GDP every year.

Freelance IT workers can be found at every level of industry and every sector, from banking and retail to the public sector, from basic support roles to the very highest levels of technology management.

Bringing flexibility to any organisation, the use of freelancers helps to manage risk and unlocks innovation and talent.

Freelancers can quickly plug in to your business to bolster expertise and improve speed to market. While your competitors ponder their next move, you could have a team of freelancers delivering yours!

Further links:

- Get a 15% discount on Professional Contractors Group membership
- Find out more about becoming an IT contractor
- How to set yourself up as a company
- Understanding contractor finance

Search IT jobs:

- Contract jobs
- IT support jobs
- Graduate jobs

The growing demand for specialist skills

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

Freelance consultants and contractors could consider the relationship between a thriving technology sector and the UK's future economic growth, says the head of an influential UK skills council.

According to Karen Price, Chief Executive of e-skills UK, the sector skills council for business and information technology, workers that have expertise with information technology and similar areas are likely to play a significant and growing role in the country's economic future.

She stated: "A focus on technology and technology skills is the key to creating sustainable economic growth in the UK."

Technology "holds the key to innovation, global competitiveness and improved public services," claimed Mrs Price in her keynote speech.

Even while the economy continues to suffer, there are a number of areas that benefit from freelance and contract work. From web design to environmentally-responsible manufacturing, self-employed people with specialist skills in technology and IT are in a position to take full advantage of the plethora of new work opportunities in such rapidly emerging markets.

"In order for the UK to remain globally competitive, it must remain at the forefront of IT research and development", she said.

"The technology sector delivers disproportionate direct employment growth and gross value added contribution."

Search by salary, role or location when you apply online today.

Further links:

- Get a 15% discount on Professional Contractors Group membership
- The rise of the freelancer
- Find out more about becoming an IT contractor
- How to set yourself up as a company
- Understanding contractor finance

Search IT jobs:

- Contract jobs
- IT support jobs
- Graduate jobs

The growing importance of social media

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

A CWJobs survey of jobseekers has shown that they're turning to the internet to find jobs. And that means that social media are becoming increasingly important to jobseekers and recruiters alike.

The internet has taken over from trade magazines as the main source for jobseekers, but it seems employers and recruiters may not be taking advantage of it as much as they might. And that's potentially damaging, because innovation in online recruitment is speeding up.

Thanks to the economic crash, and the effect on information-centric industries such as financial services, jobs in IT these days are still relatively hard to come by. Almost a third of recent graduates are unemployed, and more than a quarter of those that are in work gross under £10,000, according to CWJobs' recent survey of 5,000 jobseekers.

No wonder, then, that IT workers are turning to the web, with its high volume and fast turnover, to track the latest opportunities. Around 70% of respondents use generalist job sites on the internet with lots of different vacancies. Around half of all candidates look for job opportunities specifically on a potential employer's website, while just under half of them go to specialist industry websites to find their next appointment.

Twitter has grown dramatically in significance in the past couple of years. Whereas it used to be a site for inane chatter about what you had for breakfast that morning, it is now a site both for that same inane chatter, and for more serious things, such as passing on news links, asking questions of your community - and finding jobs.

While some companies are certainly making strides in optimising their social media strategy, there's a long way to go before people realise the significance of sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, the three most-used social media sites among the CWJobs' survey base.

LinkedIn is used more by contractors than permanent staff. This is probably because contractors need to score gigs far more regularly than full-timers, meaning that they have to network more. Services such as Twitter garnered around 10% in both camps.

But 29% of jobseekers surveyed say that they don't use social media sites at all, although given the incredible growth in the popularity of these sites, and the dire situation of the economy following the financial crisis, that is likely to change throughout 2010. As individuals begin to realise that it is possible to find jobs using these outlets, they're likely to catch on and begin firing up sophisticated (and free) social media management tools such as Hootsuite.

So, for recruiters and candidates alike, if you think that social media is for teenagers, think again. The web will continue to play an increasingly important part in the recruitment process - and those who choose not to play will be missing out on a big opportunity.

- Danny Bradbury

Further links:

- Follow CW Jobs on Twitter
- Top 5 CV tips
- How to write a winning cover letter
- Get the professionals to assess your CV

Search IT jobs:

- Contract jobs
- IT support jobs
- Graduate jobs

Pay freeze continues despite IT jobs surge

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

Nearly 46% of IT directors plan to hire personnel in 2010, three times the number who plan to shed jobs (17%) according to research from ReThink Recruitment, the technology staffing company.

Figures show that the IT recruitnent sector is slowly returning to growth. The European Information Technology Observatory, the market research company, said last week it expected global IT sales to grow 2.9% to €2,300bn (£2,072bn) this year following a 1.6% decline in 2009.

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies, which represents more than 150 technology staffing businesses, has also found an increase in demand for IT contractors since the start of the year. Contractors are usually the first into and out of a recession, as it is easier for companies to curb use of such external services during tough times than to cut permanent staff.

However, despite the influx of new workers, it seems that IT workers are no more likely to receive pay increases in the coming fiscal year than the rest of the workforce. Over half the IT directors who responded said that pay freezes currently in place will continue through 2010.

IT workers have already been hit with two years of pay austerity, longer than the pay freezes that accompanied the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000. Seven in 10 IT staff either had their pay frozen or cut in 2009, and contract rates have remained broadly unchanged.

However, Michael Bennett, a director of ReThink recruitment, says: "As IT departments beging hiring again, they will increasingly have to poach personnel from rivel organisations, which will fuel rapid pay rises."

Further links:

- Join the Professional Contractors Group and get 15% off membership
- Becoming a contractor
- Get Jobs by email

Search IT jobs:

- Contract jobs
- IT support jobs
- Graduate jobs

New Hewlett Packard jobs for Ireland

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

With Hewlett-Packard’s announcement of new jobs to be created in Dublin, the digital landscape in the Republic of Ireland just got that bit more crowded. The company has vacancies for engineers, partners and distributors and will require candidates with high-level technical skills and language capabilities.

The company said that the high quality of the available talent plus local wage competitiveness were the key factors in its decision to create 60 new jobs to its global solutions centre in Belfield, Dublin.

HP plans to consolidate its European operations at its Belfield facility, in order to provide high level technical support to a customer base spread across Northern Europe and the Benelux countries.

The new roles are for first-line support to customers, on-site engineers, partners and distributors. The company is looking for individuals with the necessary technical experience and language capabilities (fluency in English and one other relevant European language).

HP country manager Martin Murphy said the challenge to the Irish Government as it emerges from the economic downturn is to articulate why firms like HP and Google have chosen to put roots down in Ireland and why others should follow their example.

"Ireland has to solve the competitiveness equation. We haven’t solved it yet – Ireland needs to get super-competitive if we are to compete with the future nations of the earth. We have to have an investment strategy for this industry – what is going to attract good people and what will retain good people?

"We talk about creating a Silicon Valley-style culture – the challenge to the government is to articulate compelling reasons to do this."

Further links:

- Search for jobs at Hewlett-Packard
- Search for jobs in Northern Ireland
- Search for graduate IT jobs
- Search for IT contract jobs

Graduate hiring frenzy begins

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

It’s one of the great and incontrovertible truths of tech that, as sure as night follows day, what happens in the US market will cross the pond and happen in the UK before too long. In this case, that can be only good news for the UK.

US computing giants Microsoft have just announced a $3.5 billion investment plan to create over 10,000 IT jobs in the US, before the end of summer. If previous expansion plans are anything to go by, the announcement is certain to have a positive effect on graduate recruitment in the UK, since Microsoft will seek to match its expansion with similar increase in its other key territories.

Only a year after it was forced to shed jobs in order to fight the effects of the recession, Microsoft and other large IT companies are starting to embrace initiatives that will see them hiring significant numbers of graduates by the end of this year.

The move represents something of an about-turn for Microsoft. As recently as the beginning of 2009, they were planning to cut over 5,000 jobs. But it seems that, just one year later, the software behemoth is now crying out for new recruits.

There are hundreds of graduate jobs to browse on CWJobs. Demand for analysts, network and security wannabes remains high, while newly qualified computer graduates who are keen to learn are still popular with recruiters.

Further links:

- Search for Microsoft jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs
- Search for banking and finance jobs

Manifesto puts IT skills first

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

Some of the biggest technology companies in the UK have released a joint manifesto in an effort to kickstart economic growth and employment.

The heads of leading IT & telecoms companies as well as CIOs from all sectors of the economy have joined together with e-Skills UK – the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology – to publish the e-Skills manifesto.

According to the e-Skills manifesto, the areas of education, innovation, productivity and government policy are all in urgent need of improvement if the UK is to compete in the high-skill IT sector. The organisation also predicts that, over the next decade, at least 110,000 people will be needed in the technology sector each year if planned growth is to be maintained.

Businesses behind the manifesto include Logica, IBM, Cable & Wireless, HP, Cisco, Quicksilva, National Grid and BA.

The manifesto claims that the great majority of future job creation in the developed world will be technology and IT-based, putting skilled IT workers at the heart of new industries such as the low-carbon and bio-technology sectors.

Andy Green, CEO of Logica and chair of e-Skills UK's IT and industry board, said: "To succeed, both the public and private sector need to become more innovative and more productive. Modern economies are driven by skilled people. The UK needs more, many more, of these skilled people."

e-Skills said that the technology workforce is at least on the right track, having continued to grow throughout the recession, even while the unemployment has risen to nearly 2.5 million and is expected to increase throughout 2010.

Larry Hirst, chairman of IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa and chair of e-Skills UK, said: "Partnership between employers and government is the key to making sure the UK has the technology skills it needs.

"We also need to make employer-backed IT degrees central to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) agenda."

Further links:

- e-Skills manifesto
- Search for telecoms jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for banking and finance IT jobs

Why do employers want graduates?

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

There is a common misconception that modern degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, perhaps due to the increase in the number of courses on offer and the massive influx of people into higher education.

But research conducted over the last few years confirms that, when it comes to getting the careers they want, graduates still have a strong advantage over those who go straight from school into employment.

A study of graduates from the Warwick Institute of Employment Research (WIER), Class of 99, found almost 75% of respondents were working in a job related to their chosen career just three years after finishing university. More than 80% said they were satisfied with their career progress to date.

So, despite its somewhat tarnished popular image, a degree still confers a definite edge when it comes to recruitment – and not just because it demonstrates a qualification in a given subject.

Graduates are also prized by recruiters because going to university will equip them with other qualities that are invaluable in the workplace. By the time they've finished their course, they will have matured and developed a range of useful skills.

These include:

Teamwork

Doing group assignments, joining an after-hours club or playing competitive sports all help develop your ability to work as part of a team.

Leadership and initiative

At university, you need to learn to work on your own initiative, finish assignments on time and take responsibility for your output. Taking the lead on group projects also helps.

Problem solving

The ability to analyse and solve complicated problems should come naturally to anyone who has studied maths or computer science to higher education level.

Written and verbal communication skills

Writing essays, taking part in tutorials and giving presentations as part of your course all build your ability to communicate clearly.

Time management

For many people university will be the first time they've been left to their own devices when it comes to managing an academic workload.

Decision making

When you’re at school, most decisions are made for you. Going straight into the workplace, where you're accountable for the decisions you make, can come as a quite a shock for those who haven’t been through the buffer zone of higher education.

Self-reliance

It's not until young people leave home and make their own way in the world that they become fully independent. Employers know that going into higher education gives young people the ideal opportunity to become more mature in a safe environment.

With so many more people getting degrees – especially in popular growth areas like IT – it pays to stand out from the crowd. Doing voluntary work, even if it’s in an unrelated area, will help you develop important workplace skills. It also shows you as a person with values prepared to commit to something for reasons other than pure financial gain.

Vocational and sandwich courses have also come into their own in recent years. A report by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Employer and University Engagement in the Use and Development of Graduate Level Skill, showed that many employers preferred graduates with sandwich degrees. This is because they believe these graduates have gained practical experience and know what to expect from the world of work.

Whichever way you look at it, doing a degree is always a good idea – it's a big step on the road towards the job you really want.

Further links:

- Understanding the different IT roles
- Everything you need to know about CVs and applications
- How to perform in interviews

Search IT jobs:

- Search for IT contract jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Digital economy to create 25,000 new jobs

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

The government has announced a raft of new measures that aim to boost the digital economy by placing technological innovation at the heart of future governance. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, said, "I want Britain to be the world leader in the digital economy which will create over a quarter of a million skilled IT jobs by 2020."

Some of the key plans include:

Broadband access for throughout the UK
The creation of a MyGov portal allowing individuals to personalise their access to public servicess
The creation of the Institute of Web Science
An online inventory of all non-personal datasets held by departments which will be minable for information by developers and businesses
A Number 10 iPhone application providing users with news, video and audio

The PM said in a recent speech that for Britain to continue to be a world leader in the digital economy, every citizen should have broadband internet access, although he did not go so far as to define a minimum speed.

Brown said that the MyGov web portal would seek to provide everyone with a dashboard for public services. "It marks the end of the one-size-fits-all, man-from-the-ministry-knows-best approach to public services," he said.

The plans rely on the use of open source technology, allowing access to a plethora of developers and businesses, and mitigating the need for large-scale changes to government IT infrastructure, and are backed by £30 million of new funding.

Brown compared the second wave of superfast broadband to the advent of electricity and claimed that Labour were investing in digital infrastructure to ensure it was available to 90% of the public. He did not set a date, but has previously said a 50Mbps network will be available by 2017, partly paid for by the new 50p tax on phonelines.

Further links:

- Digital Britain

Search IT jobs:

- Search for IT contract jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for Graduate IT jobs

IBM invests in young talent

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:41 +0100

Global technology giant IBM is so convinced that young people and graduates are essential for it to remain at the forefront of technology, that it’s putting its money where its mouth is by providing an extraordinary variety of schemes, ranging from internships through to e-mentoring programmes, in order to secure the next generation of IT workers.

The corporation currently employs approximately 20,000 people in the UK alone and hires an average of 150-200 graduates per year, with another 250-300 students entering IBM’s renowned 12 month internship programme each year.

Interns are given plenty of opportunity to work across all areas of the company. In doing so, they receive a unique insight into the world of business and technology, as well as a deeper sense of commitment and ownership of their company.

Mark Wakefield, IBM’s corporate citizenship manager, said: "Our interns grow immensely during the 12 months, both in terms of their self-belief and the breadth of practical skills they gain. It’s also mutually beneficial for the organisation, which gains from having a fresh injection of bright, creative minds and individuals who are bursting with enthusiasm, flair and a willingness to learn."

For a multinational software company, IBM goes to unusual lengths to secure the best talent. It's approach to recruiting young people sets it apart from the more traditional recruitment techniques of its competitors.

From secondary school pupils through to undergraduates in search of a placement year, no stone is left unturned; IBM provides employment opportunities and support networks to young people of all ages.

Frances Revel, who is studying for a degree in marketing at Newcastle University and is currently completing a one year placement with IBM commented: "I was worried about how I will be able to apply my degree when I graduate, so this placement has proved invaluable. Immersing myself in working culture and having the chance to experience such a challenging role has given me a real focus on what I want to achieve in my career."

Further links:

- Search for IT jobs with IBM
- Search for Graduate IT jobs
- Search for IT contract jobs

Labour's high-tech job promise

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

The current government has promised that it will create at least 100,000 skilled jobs, including IT jobs , in Scotland in five years, as it intensifies its efforts to switch to a high-tech economy.

Scottish leader Iain Gray made the commitment as the first full day of campaigning got under way for the UK's general election.

"Labour will bring at least 100,000 skilled jobs to Scotland by building a high-tech economy," said Mr Gray. "Scotland has a series of industries, like the premium food and drink sector, that we need to support to build our economic future.

"We also have world-leading potential in green jobs, computer games, biotechnology and a host of other industries." All parties are continuing to focus on their plans for economic recovery.

The announcement comes just days after the Prime Minister said he would invest £30 million into the digital economy by placing IT at heart of future governance.

Gordon Brown said, "I want Britain to be the world leader in the digital economy which will create over a quarter of a million skilled IT jobs by 2020."

Voters go to the polls on 6 May.

Further links:

- Digital economy to create 25,000 new jobs
- Manifesto puts IT skills first
- New Hewlett Packard jobs for Ireland

Search IT jobs:

- Search for IT contract jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

The continuing rise of IT outsourcing

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Half of all businesses that outsource their IT services are planning to outsource further services in the coming years, according to a survey of businesses conducted by the National Outsourcing Association.

Over 60% of businesses are planning to outsource services that are currently run in-house. Companies within the banking and finance sector were the most confident about using outsourcing.

But businesses are looking for more from their agreements, especially as the recession bites. On average, businesses are looking to cut some 15% from their costs from future deals, as compared to the average 10% reduction they demanded before the recession.

Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA, said, "Outsourcing has traditionally been seen as a cost saving mechanism for business, so during the torrid 2009, it is not surprising that interest in outsourcing is continuing to grow.

"However, continued focus on cost above everything else means that many are pushing through higher-volume, low-cost contracts over shorter timeframes. This short-termism can be dangerous and these kinds of contracts frequently fail.

"That said, it looks like suppliers still have some work to do to ensure they are fully catering for what users want in 2010. This is likely to be an ongoing issue as users continue to seek new cost savings from less-mature providers and locations around the world."

With over 10,000 vacancies from over 680 employers to browse, there’s a huge variety of IT opportunities on offer with CWJobs. IT professionals can drill down into our jobs database and search by specific skill set, salary and location before applying online today.

Upload your CV and reach employers directly. Alternatively, get the latest jobs by email.

Further links:

- Labour's hi-tech promise
- Manifesto puts IT skills first
- National Outsourcing Association

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Working in the Republic of Ireland

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

The Emerald Isle is a hotbed of IT jobs, with some of the world’s biggest names as residents – Google, eBay and Microsoft to name but a few. Team that with great pay and rapid career progression and the attractions of the so-called Celtic Tiger become apparent.

1. IT is big in the Republic of Ireland

The IT sector is vital to the Irish economy, generating approximately €50 billion each year, and employing 70,000 skilled people.

Manufacturers of computer parts, such as IBM, Hewlett Packard and Dell, are all now resident in Ireland, as are leading US software developers and vendors, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Oracle and Symantec, all of which have based their operations centres here.

So it should come as no surprise that Ireland has now become the number one place for software development in Europe.

Homegrown talent can’t be overlooked either. With around 600 local software development companies, the Republic of Ireland has overtaken the US as the biggest exporter of software in the world. Around 60% of all software sold in Europe originates from the Republic of Ireland.

2. What jobs are out there?

There’s a demand for skilled IT professionals in all fields. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment lists computer systems managers, analysts, programmers and testers among positions eligible for green card permit status.

The Republic of Ireland is suffering from a shortage of qualified IT workers. People with flexible and adaptable skills to readily adapt and respond to ever-changing demands, technologies and processes are in high demand.

The most in-demand positions are for specialists in SQL, .NET, C#, Java, Unix and XML as well as IT project managers, developers and business analysts.

3. What can you expect?

It’s still a relatively young sector, so the average age of employees tends to be around 27 or 28. This means the workplace is often lively with good opportunities to socialise after hours. It also means that career paths are not rigid — if you’re talented, your career progression will be rapid.

If you have a degree in a computer-related area, your starting salary could be anywhere between €20,000 and €30,000.

4. How do you get a work permit?

Jobs with salaries of €30,000 (£23,500) or more are eligible for work permits which are issued directly to employees. They are usually granted for an initial period of two years and can then be renewed for a further period of three years.

Work permit holders are allowed to apply for family reunification after one year..

There are also green card permits, available to most occupations with annual salaries of more than €60,000 (£47,000).

If granted, a green card permit is issued for an initial period of two years. After this, it can be renewed indefinitely and permanent residency can be sought. The green card system also allows for immediate family reunification.

5. What’s the process?

You must have the qualifications, skills and experience required for the job, and be directly employed and paid by your prospective employer. They, in turn, must be trading in Ireland, registered with the Revenue Commissioners and with the Companies Registration Office.

Either you or your prospective employer can make a new application for work permits. You’ll need to do this with the Employment Permits Section of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

You’ll need to include:

• Two recently taken passport-sized photographs
• Documentary evidence that a labour market needs test has been undertaken
• Documentary evidence of your certified qualifications

Your application will take around 2-3 months to process, and can cost up to £850 for a two-year stay. If this is your first time working in Ireland, then you’ll usually have to stay with your new employer for 12 months. After that, you can move to a new employer and apply for a new work permit.

6. Living in the Republic of Ireland

For many, the Republic of Ireland has a magical lure. Aside from the lifestyle and the famous Irish friendliness, few places can claim to be as green, or have as many miles of rugged, unspoilt coastline.

Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Galway are some of the most popular places, and have the most IT jobs.

_______________________________________________

With over 8,000 vacancies from over 650 employers to browse, there’s a huge variety of IT jobs on offer with CWJobs. IT professional and contractors can drill down into our jobs database and search by specific skill set, salary and location before applying online today.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Further links:

- New Hewlett Packard jobs for Ireland
- Enterprise IT set to rise
- The continuing rise of IT outsourcing

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Enterprise IT set to rise

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

A new survey of chief information officers by the market research group Gartner suggests that though IT budgets may remain flat, or increase only slightly, in 2010, this is a good time for CIOs to make fresh efforts to adopt new technologies.

Gartner surveyed a group of CIOs in the US; but its findings are equally applicable to the UK IT sector. The Gartner report implies that while the UK inches out of recession, IT leaders should be prepared to move from cost-cutting regimes to actively seeking gains in productivity and innovation.

Mark McDonald, Gartner’s group vice-president of programmes, said, "CIOs see 2010 as another tough year; 41% expect continued business contraction, while 53% see stabilisation and 6% see actual real growth coming," he said.

Outsourcing services

The recession spurred a renewed focus on cost-cutting measures, including the locating of software in environments separated from the underlying hardware – a practice known as virtualisation – and the outsourcing of commodity services.

By continuing to adopt these technologies, the industry can make its next tentative steps towards its long-held dream of self-automated systems.

50% of respondents expected the look of IT and their role in it to change as the economy lifted. "People know that IT is strategic but it's the operational issues that get in the way of realising that value," said MacDonald,

"2010 should be the year that we make the transition from IT being a resource-based back-office function to becoming a results-based source of innovation and advantage."

__________________________________________________

At CWJobs.co.uk, there is a huge range of IT jobs for you to explore, spanning all skills and sectors. Search by location or keyword to browse the latest jobs, or upload your CV.

Further links:

- Digital economy to create 25,000 new jobs
- The continuing rise of IT outsourcing
- Pay freeze continues despite IT jobs surge

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Outsourcing ushers in coalitions and soft skills

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

As our political parties continue to jostle for position, UK plc is entering a new era where negotiation is the name of the game. For IT professionals, this will be played out in the outsourcing arena as the public sector looks to strike deals in order to slash costs.

The IT world - and, indeed, that nature of IT jobs - will mirror the new political order in more ways than one. Government ICT looks set to embrace outsourcing to reduce its own slice of the national deficit. In the same way, outsourcing requires IT suppliers and users to put their vested interests aside and agree an implementation and cost plan that delivers shared benefit – a kind of ‘national interest’, if you like.

Management jobs, where such skills are particularly essential, will come into even sharper focus. IT pros can prepare for their role in the new era and beef up soft skills by building on their use of collaborative technologies, recommends the Institute of IT. “Collaborative technologies are big drivers of skills such as negotiation and team working”, says IITT executive consultant Allan Bellinger. “It’s never a question of simply opening the software tool and pressing ‘go’ – there are skills to learn and apply, too”, he adds.

Opportunity knocks

There will be no shortage of opportunities in the near future to buff up your negotiation skills according to outsourcing specialist, Burnt Oak. Robert Morgan, CEO predicted “The Tories are very likely to extend spending on IT projects in the short term to reap mid and long term benefits of consolidation”, but any rainbow coalition is expected to turn its sights on public sector spending to cut the deficit.

Enterprise applications

The private sector is likely to join the outsourcing-fest with the London School of Business predicting greater outsourcing of applications. A report, commissioned by Fujitsu, found that enterprise applications represent 40-60% of corporate IT budgets, but have yet to be significantly outsourced. In part, say the report’s authors, that’s because many companies have yet to get a handle on how to hand over enterprise applications to third-party providers.

This lack of knowledge seems to back up the conundrum of soft skills that Bellinger neatly describes: “you don’t know what you don’t know”. However anyone can improve, he says, if the issue is made visible. In this new pro-outsourcing era of collaboration, you could do worse than reach out for someone in your virtual team today.
_______________________________________________

With over 8,000 vacancies from over 650 employers to browse, there’s a huge variety of IT jobs on offer with CWJobs. IT professional and contractors can drill down into our jobs database and search by specific skill set, salary and location before applying online today.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Further links:

- New Hewlett Packard jobs for Ireland
- Enterprise IT set to rise
- The continuing rise of IT outsourcing

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Cloud computing calls for new skills

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Cloud computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, is fast becoming a reality, which means a wave of new jobs being created as the international drive to agree global standards intensifies. [Published 18/5/2010]

The latest initiative announced by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) last week aims to fuse 26 different standards across the globe in order to create a single ‘cloud ecosystem’.

The fruits of this labour, says Bilel Jamoussi, chief of the Study Groups Division ITU, will be "job creation and job mobility on an international scale". New jobs and skills will be required in end-user departments and the supplier side of the information and communications industry.

"Job creation and mobility will occur in multinational companies that operate across different jurisdictions, governments and in other parts of the private sector," he says.

While ratifying an international standard may take a while, the open source research director with Ovum, Laurent Lachal, believes the culture of cloud computing is already pervading the IT department: "CIOs are interested in developers who can use asynchronous messaging and build stateless applications. The idea of developing multi-tenancy applications is also gaining ground."

Lachal reckons it’s as important to acquire the new culture as hard skills. IT pros can prepare for the new era by learning to be as comfortable utilising third party resources as those built in-house.

And, while participating ITU technical experts beaver away today to create the network protocols, transport layers and security for tomorrow’s model, individuals, businesses and universities need to be ready, too. "There is a new set of skills that have to be developed and cultivated for working in this new paradigm", says Jamoussi. He predicts the following trends for ICT skills deployment.

1. In-house application development

In a future cloud-scape, in-house IT staff will be used less for routine management of servers and infrastructure and more to develop mission-critical applications. A new level of customisation will also be required to ensure applications work properly over the cloud environment. There are three considerations of especial importance:

• applications can cope with time delays in transmission
• ensure that broadband provision is elastic enough to cope with variable usage
• security is sufficiently robust for valuable IP to be located outside the enterprise perimeter.

Search for application development jobs

2. Data centre optimisation

The running of the new super-data centres is also expected to require specialisation. Currently, data centres tend to be co-housed alongside the rest of the IT department and staff. In the future, these specialist staff will need to:

• check that connections between data centre and clients operate at a sufficiently secure level
• operating system licenses are in good order
• take care of arising optimisation concerns.

Search for data centre jobs

3. Rise of the digital asset manager

With many valuable applications and services both in-house and third party needing to be accessed in the cloud and required on a ‘need-to’ basis, a new type of manager will be necessary to oversee the consumption from — and interaction with — this lofty new universe of data. The digital asset manager will need a mix of project and programme management skills with good auditing know-how, financial management and IT expertise thrown in.

Search for cloud computing jobs | search for virtualisation jobs

______________________________________________

With thousands of vacancies from hundreds of employers to browse, CWJobs has a huge variety of permanent and contract IT jobs on offer. IT professionals and contractors can our jobs database and search by specific skill set, salary and location before applying online.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

IT spending cuts confirmed

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Government ICT projects have been targeted alongside quangos, first-class travel and advertising campaigns in a fat-trimming exercise amounting to £6.2 billion cuts in public spending. [Published 25/5/2010]

A total of £9.5 million of IT spend has been earmarked, with details of how the cuts fall to be disclosed later. "The cuts are just a start and are intended to send a shock-wave through government departments" confirmed David Laws, Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

David Chan, director of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University London, takes a ‘cup half-full’ view of the preliminary cull and thinks it’s a great opportunity for government ICT departments to retrench. "Given how expensive it is to make a civil servant expensive, the likelihood is that it will be cheaper and more effective to train up government IT workers to take on more responsibility for strategy and delivery", he believes.

However dispensing with the expensive but always-on services of suppliers such as Cap Gemini and IBM will require a new and resourceful mindset. "To paraphrase JFK, ICT government workers should ask not ‘what their Department can do for them but what they can do for their department’" says Chan.

The new austerity-era is also a fillip for Open Source, Linux and all those developers who are happy and able to collaborate in coding shareware. "It’s a nonsense that the Government is paying shed-loads of money for software license fees when there is free Open Source code that can be used", he said.

[Search for open source jobs | search for Linux jobs]

Alan Downey, head of public sector services, KPMG, looks ahead to "when the tap is turned back on" and believes more projects will be delivered wholesale by the private sector. "There’s a sorry history of contract management in government and a game-changing move will be to shift that responsibility out to the private sector" he predicts.

David Clarke, CEO at BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, said, "As a matter of principle, there is no such thing as an IT project or programme. Information technology underpins and enables the implementation of all government policies and programmes and more effective use of IT is the only way the government has of reducing overall programme costs and improve efficiency."

Clarke added, "It would be disappointing to see the critical role that IT and IT professionals play in enabling the implementation of government efficiency savings and in developing the information society to slip down the Government's agenda by the scrapping of some Government "IT projects."

Spending cuts at a glance

• £95m through savings in IT spending

• An immediate freeze on all new IT spending above £1m

• £1.7bn will be saved in delaying or stopping government contracts and projects

• More than £120m expected to be found through a freeze in civil service recruitment

• £600m by cutting the cost of quangos

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Further links:

- Cloud computing calls for new IT skills
- Outsourcing ushers in coalitions and soft IT skills
- Enterprise IT set to rise

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Swindon wi-fi city creates tech jobs

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

London has ambitions to become the wi-fi capital of the world by the 2012 Olympics with every lamp post and bus stop destined to become wireless hotspots, according to London’s mayor, Boris Johnson. [Published 28/5/2010]

The bad news (for Boris, that is) is that Swindon got there ahead of London – it has just finished wi-fi-enabling a northern suburb called Highworth in a pilot exercise, which will be extended to the rest of the city in the coming months.

[Search for wireless jobs]

Jobs for network cadre

The good news is that the pilot has already created many new jobs with the first tranche going to network experts and technicians. To date, a 30-strong army of network and software engineers has been hired for the pilot implementation and that will scale rapidly as the rest of Swindon is wirelessly enabled.

"The key people we need at this initial stage are network planners, engineers and also the software engineers to do the optimisation and configuration when there are problems with signal," reports Rikki Hunt, chief executive officer of Digital City, the company tasked with talking Swindon into a new digital era.

Some of the thornier tech problems that Digital City has had to solve include how to maintain signal around an undulating neighbourhood and how to turn old-fashioned lamp posts into hosts for wi-fi. “When they’re kitted out with a time switch rather than a solar sensor, then you get problems”, says Hunt.

[Search for network engineer jobs | search for software engineer jobs]

Developers cash in on wi-fi wave

Hunt outlines the opportunities for local IT jobseekers and the business community: the wi-fi city is already creating a second wave of jobs for the IT community as developers start to code and package applications to run over the network. "Some popular apps are already emerging, including a security webcam device, which can monitor private and business properties," he explains.

Additionally, a team of CRM experts currently maintains and tunes the back-office system. A third tier of jobs is expected to arrive soon in the shape of customising and managing wireless apps for the local business community. These jobs will be hoovered up by the local small and medium business tier.

[Search for CRM jobs]

Hunt is upfront about the lesson learned in the innovative task of turning lamp posts into wireless hot spots and happy to share his knowledge with the London mayor. Project Wi-Fi London has signed up 22 London boroughs already for its scheme.

With thousands of IT vacancies from hundreds of employers to browse, CWJobs has a huge variety of permanent and contract IT jobs on offer. IT professionals and contractors can our jobs database and search by specific skill set, salary and location before applying online.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Small but beautiful ICT

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are being cast as the protagonists of the thin-client revolution and the creators of green computing jobs. The conclusions of new research confirm SMBs as innovative users of ICT, and may chime with enterprising jobseekers. [Published 2/6/2010]

SMBs around the globe employ 80% of the world’s work force and generate more than half of its GDP, according to Access Markets International. Research by IT analysts Gartner Group has also indicated that medium-sized businesses worldwide will increase their IT spending in 2010 by 5.4% over 2009 spending levels.

Researchers at Lancaster University have found that SMBs are set to be the main beneficiaries of thin-client computers, which access applications remotely, rather than storing them locally on disc. Compared with traditional PCs, thin clients cut maintenance costs by 71%, hardware and capital expenditure by 61% and energy costs by 51%, the study found.

"Thin client coupled with cloud computing, higher network bandwidth, more advanced security and choice of business application offers real economic benefits to SMBs," said Liza Layzell, CEO of Thinspace, sponsors of the Lancaster research.

In its SMB Partner annual report, 2010, Microsoft confirms that Software as a Service (SaaS), and thin client are identified by SMBs for achieving both cost reductions and growth. Growth in demand for thin client and remotely-hosted software services will see more jobs in the reseller sector which services these smaller companies, anticipates Microsoft, and also in the SMBs themselves.

“Small and midsize businesses are an important part of every economy and technology is the backbone of many SMBs. IT can help drive the efficiencies and growth that will spur SMB stability as they help lead us to economic recovery,” commented CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.

A second study, Not So Little Britain, was commissioned by mobile phone company O2 to investigate the opportunities that lie ahead for the small business sector. Conducted by SWQ Consulting, the study based its findings on an analysis of SMBs’ economic contribution to the last economic cycle between 1998 and 2008.

SWQ found that during the period small businesses outperformed larger competitors in creating computer-related jobs and activities by 63 per cent. It also concluded that small businesses had a competitive advantage over bigger companies in the green industries because of their strength in distribution and diversity and their flexibility to respond quickly to commercialise emerging markets.

Search for SMEs, VARs and resellers plus thin client jobs.

With thousands of vacancies from hundreds of employers to browse, CWJobs has a huge variety of permanent and contract IT jobs on offer. IT professionals and contractors can search by skill, salary and location.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Further links:

- Swindon wi-fi city creates tech jobs
- It spending cuts confirmed
- Cloud computing calls for new skills

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Raise the profile of your professionalism

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Employability is the name of the game in today’s competitive market, and there are a few ways you could add an edge to your credentials. Seeking chartered status as an ICT professional or training for a qualification in your particular field is one option for boosting your professional profile. [Published 04/06/2010]

The British Computer Society is currently on the road promoting its Transformation Programme and trying to persuade its membership that professional qualifications are the route ahead. A total of 20,000 have charted status out of a membership of 70,000.

A recent survey by Information Systems Audit and Control Association found that respondents felt continuing education was important for obtaining a job in information security (72%), and also for promotion within a career (78%). In addition, 84% of respondents stated that education was important because it added value to their role in security.

Tim Holyoake, head of strategic business services for Software AG, gained Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status in March and feels it is a formal recognition of his years of experience that customers and employers look for. The process required him to get up to speed in the less familiar area of service management as well as grounding him in techniques he was more comfortable with.

“It’s an important recognition of experience and skills. You wouldn’t hire an architect to design a new building unless they were charted and it should be the same with IT systems and architectures”, says Holyoake.

For those starting out in their IT career, a qualification to consider might be the City and Guilds ICT Practitioner Apprenticeships, or its equivalents around the country. The more experienced may want to try for Professional Certificate in ICT Practice, which is endorsed by the Professional Certificate in ICT Practice.

If you’ve limited funds or time, there are ways of other ways of ‘maxing’ your experience in a current job - and presenting a more professional face in your CV, too.

Flag up soft skills

As IT departments shrink and jobs shift to suppliers and contractors, workers will have to get better at relationship management and the softer skills. If you have any experience of leading a project, or working in teams, flag this up on your CV

Use your allowance

Large numbers of employees don’t take their full training quota because they’re too busy with the day or they run out of time. If you plan for training courses as you would do for a holiday and clear your desk and delegate your responsibilities, you’ll have a clear head for learning on the course.

Attend training freebies

Check out what suppliers are offering by way of free seminars as sweeteners to train in their new technology. The launch of SQL Server 2005 and Vista were accompanied by a road show of seminars and free training vouchers.

Local treasures

Check out what free training is available by your local council as inner city areas in regeneration zones may still have budget to spend. Even if it’s not possible to gain access to a .Net or C# course using this funding route, there will be a host of programmes available in soft skills.

Or you can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly.

Further links:

- The thin-client revolution
- Swindon wi-fi city creates tech jobs
- Cloud computing calls for new skills

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

New jobs for security specialists

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

Security technology professionals are enjoying a boom time as continuing economic hardship makes business data vulnerable to sabotage. A survey has found that 70 per cent of UK financial services firms spent more on security in the past year, and the threat from within was their gravest concern by Helen Beckett [Published 09/06/2010]

Deloitte's 2010 Financial Services Global Security Study reported that data loss prevention strategies and security policy management were focal points for activity. Greater investment is being driven by increasing numbers of security threats alongside more regulation, according to the firm of consultants.

Access management a favourite

Security specialist, Richard Walter, chief technology officer of Overtis Systems, confirmed that the prevailing climate of vulnerability around data has created a new focus. “The network and perimeter are locked down; it’s all about identity and access management now. This piece needs people who understand the technology and business process – and are able to talk to the managers of people – the HR department. It needs a hybrid individual”.

The current and vigorous interest in security matters has created demand for three types of IT professional, reckons Steve Smith, managing director at Pentura, an IT security consultancy. “The first is the accredited professional with ISO 27001 who understands best practice and can communicate this to the employer or client”, he says.

[Search for IT security jobs]

Enter the pen tester

Second is the seriously techie type who walks the fine line between hacking and penetration testing. “This kind of individual is extremely focussed and derives personal gratification from testing systems to discover their vulnerabilities,” according to Smith. Systems to come under the scrutiny of the penetration tester could be websites, telephones, internet or any other kind of digital system.

There are a variety of badges of accreditation that pen testers can go for. Until now, the CHECK qualification has the badge of choice and accredited individuals were in demand. This is being superseded by the Tiger scheme, run by non-governmental committee , while the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) offers a number of options.

[Search for IT tester jobs]

New hybrid needed

Third, in Smith’s view, is a hybrid kind of role of security person. “This individual has a thorough understanding of data products and can help business consultants to build security policies around their usage.” Basically, they bridge the gap between business and technology in the security world.

And, as long as laptops are left lying around and discs go missing in the post, security specialists of all flavours will stay in demand. While the information commissioner is handing out more penalties for breaches of data privacy, so board members will be willing to spend and hire in order to batten down security.

Other findings from the Deloitte report include:

• 75% of UK financial services train employees to identify and report suspicious activities, are higher than the global average of 64%.
• 44% of firms globally and 35% in the UK see identity and access management tools as a priority, although this is significantly behind the US industry's 67%.
• 80% of UK respondents were most likely to fully implement encryption for mobile devices, with compared with a 42% global average.
• 75% of respondents either have, or plan to have, a security strategy within the next 12 months.
• Only 20% of respondents are very confident in their ability to thwart internal breaches compared with 50% when asked about their ability to thwart external breaches.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up for regular jobs by email.

Further links:

- Raising the profile of your skills
- Small but beautiful IT
- Cloud computing calls for new skills
- Outsourcing ushers in a new era
- Enterprise IT set to rise

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Calls for quality assurance get louder

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) call for compulsory safeguards for major government IT projects could signal the start of a new focus on quality assurance. It proposes an assurance system costed at £8.3 million annually that would better disseminate information to key decision makers, thus reducing the risk of project failure.

By Helen Beckett [Published 10/06/2010]

Project management of software and information architectures in any sector presents a considerable challenge as Rex Gibson, business development director of Focus on Training, explains. “Its origins are in the construction and engineering industries where it was conceived to aid the delivery of tangible, solid products”.

[Search for project manager jobs]

The difficulties of managing ‘intangible’ products are escalated in central government where, according to the government watchdog, "high-risk projects are frequently large scale, innovative and reliant on complex relationships between diverse stakeholders. Such projects frequently present a level of risk that no commercial organisation would consider taking on. Projects can fail to deliver to time, cost and quality."

A variety of qualifications currently attempt to prepare projects managers for the difficult job and contain a component of quality assurance. Prince 2 is the standard in government circles for practitioners while the Association for Project Managers offer complementary training of appropriate behaviours for project managers. A parallel qualification for managing the delivery of services is ITIL and this has a heavier focus of managing ongoing process.

Bright future for analysts and testers

Looking to the future, Gibson predicts that a fresh interest in quality assurance will affect project management at both ends of the spectrum of disciplines, and will require more business-analyst and software tester roles.

"A role of QA is to make sure you define goals that are appropriate to the business need," he says. Similar to the function of business analysts, “it’s about defining the level of fit between any service and the needs of the business,” says Gibson. Equally, at the other end of the quality assurance ‘factory belt’, there has to be more thorough software testing in place, he says.

The NAO has proposed that government can build on its successes by ensuring that the new system of assurance does the following:

• has a clear mandate
• is non-optional
• is outcome-focussed
• is built on a higher and more exacting evidence base
• triggers further interventions where necessary
• provides the ability to plan and resource assurance activity
• systematically propagates lessons learned, and
• minimises the burden placed on projects.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

- New jobs for security specialists
- Raising the profile of your professionalism
- The thin-client revolution
- Swindon wi-fi city creates tech jobs
- IT spending cuts confirmed
- Cloud computing calls for new skills

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

New skills needed for World Cup 2010

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:40 +0100

While you’re tweeting about Robert Green’s fumble or England’s wonky midfield, spare a thought for the FIFA data centre team keeping you and the World Cup networked. An army of staff are carefully tending 75 supercomputers expected to serve more than 5.5 billion page views over the contest, 1.3 billion more than the last World Cup in 2006. And a gigantic two petabytes (2,000 gigabytes) of storage have been allocated to satisfy fans’ appetite for video streaming.

By Helen Beckett
Published 15/6/2010

Matt Stone, head of new media at FIFA, said: "This is the first social media World Cup, where ordinary fans can become instant pundits from their living rooms. Slough was the natural choice for FIFA.com to house its additional bandwidth requirements. The state-of-the-art venue offers security and will ensure rapid delivery of the online experience to fans".

Hewlett-Packard is also reflecting on the present and future skills requirement of its data centre staff as it embarks upon a global consolidation. With data centres getting smarter and moving to a ‘lights-out’ automated model, HP is cross-fertilising the skills of its software development team and operations team internally.

Today’s data centres are a unique blend of workflow and manual effort. In the future, more workload will be done in fewer square feet which means that the technical architecture becomes more important. And as they become more intelligent environments, the level of automation will be greatly enhanced. This means injections of new skills in three places in the lifecycle according to Chris Moyer, Chief Technologist of HP Enterprise Services, EMEA.

1. Design skills will always be needed

"At the front end of the building process, a lot more thought is going into the technical architecture. The new architects and designers require a mindset a little like that cultivated by the pioneers of artificial intelligence and rules-based systems”, says Moyer. "It’s a question of working out all future scenarios and building rules.”

However, not every situation and problem can be anticipated up-front and so the level of sophistication of data centre operators has to be upgraded, too. “Trying to automate the tasks conducted in data centres is not as straightforward as trying to automate a mortgage process, for example,” explains Moyer.

[Search for Information Architect jobs]

2. Operators to handle more complexity

Operators are going to have to get very good at handling unexpected conditions as well as routine tasks, such as simply allocating more memory to server on a server farm. "The world is already highly virtualised and operators are used to having one layer of abstraction between them and their servers. The next generation of data centre will take abstraction and complexity up another level," confirms Moyer.

[Search for data IT jobs]

3. Project managers

The HP consolidation will require a huge data migration. Good project managers and programme managers will be in demand in order to synchronise and coordinate work schedules.

HP said that the data centre skills upgrade will permeate through UK and Ireland sites, as well as its three centres in the US that have been designated for consolidation.

[Browse software jobs, data centre IT jobs and IT design jobs]

With thousands of vacancies from hundreds of employers to browse, CWJobs has a huge variety of permanent jobs, IT contract jobs and IT graduate jobs on offer, as well as the most IT jobs in London and IT jobs in Scotland.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

National IT Skills Academy signs CEO

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

Every year the IT and telecoms professional workforce creates 110,000 new IT jobs with 21,000 of those expected to come directly from education, according to the Government. ICT students and recent IT graduates are therefore especially interested in the professionalisation of the sector and acquiring industry-endorsed accreditation that can assist them early on in their career.

By Helen Beckett [Published 18/06/2010]

The arrival of a CEO, Tony Read – a former CIO of Nortel - at the helm of the National Skills Academy for IT last week brings one step closer the launch of a national register of IT professionals. The register is being set up to help individual professionals and employers make a better match between their respective skills and IT jobs.

The Academy claims that its register will bring IT skills assessment, development and certification together in one place. “It is designed enable school leavers and graduates to boost their skills and demonstrate their expertise, and so accelerate their careers and earning potential”, said Karen Price, CEO of the Academy’s parent, e-skills UK.

“For both employers and IT professionals, the National Skills Academy for IT will make it easy to find high quality professional learning, including a comprehensive portfolio of industry-valued courses and options for gaining new certifications and qualifications,” promises Price.

The Academy will enable IT professionals and graduates to create an IT professional profile within the National Register for IT Professionals. This will provide a mechanism that recognises and validates their qualifications and business skills acquired throughout a career.

The Register will use a consistent language that employers understand and have helped to formulate and the Academy sees this as an advantage a professional qualifications territory is getting more crowded. The British Computer Society offers chartered status for experienced IT pros while aimed more at the entry level are The Engineering Councils’s ICTTech and the City and Guilds’ ICT Practitioner Apprenticeships.

Nonetheless, endorsements from Microsoft, Logica and Hewlett-Packard, especially for new learning technologies, suggest that suppliers are keen to have influence over a nascent portfolio of industry qualifications. UK employers that so far have pledged their support for the National Skills Academy for IT to date, include Accenture, British Airways, BT, IBM, Logica, Microsoft and Sainsbury’s.

Meanwhile professionals at all stages of their careers are invited to sign up the professional status they need and allowing them to track all their skills in one place.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Online retailers expanding IT after stellar results

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

Online shopping continues to be the darling of the fashion retail sector with IT skills and technologies playing a key role in its ongoing strong performance. Warehousing systems, enterprise resource planning systems and better business intelligence all feature in the IT strategies of those online retailers recording stellar results, writes Helen Beckett.

Asos hiring skills

Asos, the online fashion retailer, reported strong end-of-year results and is looking to IT to help it reach a sales target of £1bn in five years' time. Asos IT director Dan West confirms he will be investing in software development and testing roles, project management, technical architecture and IT service delivery roles. Among the IT purchases planned to keep its fashion ahead of the high street is a £40m new data warehouse.

[Search for Online jobs | search for project manager jobs | search for test jobs]

The company has increased IT expenditure by £700,000 and, alongside new purchases, it will continue to develop and enhance core systems. During the year, it replaced its warehouse management system and completed its migration to a tier-one data centre. Ongoing IT activity includes the replacement of its buying and merchandising system, due to be completed in 2011.

Mulberry invests in warehouse

Web shopping was one of the best performing businesses for luxury goods retailer Mulberry, which reported i June overall sales growth of 23% to £72.1m for the last financial quarter. A warehouse module, implemented last autumn, has kept the handbags flying out of the stockrooms while a further £300,000 has been earmarked for a new ERP system.

The success is part of a UK-wide surge in online sales. In May, web retail sales rose by 22% compared with the same period last year, according to the latest IMRG-Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. The increase suggests that online shoppers spent the equivalent to £73 for every person in the country during the last month alone.

Surge in online retail

Asos’ CEO Nick Robertson said: "We believe online fashion will continue to outperform traditional retail channels. We are at the leading edge of our sector and see enormous potential to drive our business forward, both in the UK and internationally."

Next year Asos plans to launch an eBay-style marketplace, where customers can re-sell their unwanted clothes, and websites for the US, France and Germany are also in the pipeline. Robertson has commented that as a pure online player, Asos is ideally situated to exploit the online shopping. "Fundamentally, the internet is the retail channel with the greatest potential.”

Retail experience premium

The Asos chief’s comments bear out the findings expressed 18 months ago in a study by the European Commission about the retail sector’s readiness for e-business. At the time, only one in ten retail outlets employed IT practitioners. Today, IT and retail are such desirable partners, it’s possible to study for a ICT in retail business qualification.

However, there remains a widening skills gulf between the pure players and the supermarkets with their delivery businesses on one side, and all the rest on the other. IT pros with retail experience with the heavy-duty players will find that their skills are definitely more than a fashion accessory.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

- National IT Skills Academy signs CEO
- New skills need for FIFA World Cup 2010
- New jobs for security specialists
- Raising the profile of your professionalism
- The thin-client revolution

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Mobile handhelds fit for cloud computing

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

Microsoft’s announcement of a platform for enterprise handhelds, along with ongoing work on wireless standards, confirms that cloud computing is coming to wireless devices. Software developers will be busy as the Microsoft announcement gives businesses the green light to start migrating applications. But governance of the cloud lags far behind the latest innovations and will require an input of policy and management skills down the line. By Helen Beckett.

Enterprise devices

Called Windows Embedded Handheld, the platform is Microsoft’s enterprise version of Windows Mobile and will include more robust management and security. The new application platform will be based on Microsoft Silverlight and Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a video announcement last week.

"These releases will provide proven management and security functionality, while giving customers confidence that investments in handheld enterprise devices and line-of-business applications will be protected over time by an extended support lifecycle", said Ballmer. Microsoft's Windows Embedded team is "focused on extending Windows and the benefits of cloud computing to the world of specialised devices”.

The first version of Windows Embedded Handheld is due to be released in six months' time and will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5. However, the second iteration — scheduled for release in the second half of 2011 — will be based on "Windows 7 technologies, according to Microsoft.

[Search for project manager jobs | search for software jobs]

Open standards to boost wireless

Efforts to make the wireless cloud a bigger and richer data zone focus on achieving this through the use of open standards. Funambol is a mobile open source project designed to allow any wireless device to access, share and synchronise a wide variety of data and rich media with a ‘mobile cloud’.

The project, which started life in 2001 as Sync4j open source project, cites findings to suggest that open source is succeeding in the consumer market. Market research firm NPD claim that Google’s open source Android platform has already eclipsed Apple’s proprietary operating system in the US mobile handset market.

Governance needed

Cloud computing – even without the wireless component - makes IT governance more difficult by introducing an additional layer of complexity which businesses need to understand. Governance of cloud computing is too reactive, technology-centric and piecemeal and must improve dramatically, according to technology analyst Ovum.

It warns that cloud governance is suffering from the same flaws affecting other IT governance areas, and that a new approach is needed as cloud computing cannot thrive without an effective governance framework that promotes and ensures coordination between IT teams.

Laurent Lachal, Ovum senior analyst, said: “Most IT governance efforts are prompted by new regulations or by the need to keep up with uncontrolled service oriented architectures (SOA), software services, virtual machines or public cloud services – whereby governance starts when the public cloud bill is much higher than expected.” Search for developer and governance jobs

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Germans win again - this time at IT

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

No, it’s not yet another hiding in the World Cup knock-out stages. It's the results of research assessing ICT recovery across Europe.

By Helen Beckett [Published 29/06/2010]

A survey of 300 decision makers in the UK, France and Germany found that German IT bosses found it relatively easier and less stressful to manage projects, budget cuts and to track IT assets. English IT managers have fared worse than their continental neighbours according to the report, Rebirth of the IT Budget, by market research company Dynamic Markets.

"All of Europe has suffered during the recession, but in the UK, IT directors have felt the pain more,” said the report’s author, Cherry Taylor.

[Search for IT manager jobs]

Commissioned by Numura Software, the research found that:

• More UK respondents said IT budget values have been affected in some way (65%), compared to France (46%) and Germany (47%).

• More UK respondents said IT budgets have been reduced (42%), compared to France (28%).

• More said new IT projects have been affected (55%), compared to Germany (33%) and France (32%).

• More UK respondents said more senior people are involved in sign-off (35%), compared to Germany (21%) and France (19%).

The theme is not uncommon in its other European research, according to Dynamic Markets, who said the outcome may partly be cultural. Whatever the reasons, said Taylor, "Germany tends to emerge as a shining star in these studies".

Too much pressure?

However, the report also identified that pressures of low morale and a blame culture burden English ICT managers disproportionately; a mirror, perhaps, of the problems their compatriots face on the international football scene.

• A total of 28% ICT decision makers say it [the recession] has been demotivating for them personally; and more UK IT decision makers (35%) feel this way, compared to those in Germany (22%).

• This is understandable, since 23% think, if things go wrong due to a lack of IT investment, it is still the head of IT who picks up the blame; and once again this applies to more UK respondents (31%), compared to those in Germany (15%).

However, across the board, the report exposed concerns that deep cut-backs over the past two years may have permanently damaged the status of IT in the organisation.

Similarly, the recession has done nothing to alleviate the back-office image of the IT department, confirmed Taylor.

"The perception is that it is still tucked away in the basement and this makes it hard to sell the business case for new technology", she pointed out.

While the Germans were the star performers of this piece of research, happily the prognosis was good for all participating countries including the UK: IT departments are fighting back by using IT more efficiently, automating processes, and carefully managing their IT assets.

The report also shows that 15% believe their IT budgets will recover by the summer, and 45% by the end of 2010. "There is an increase in optimism," said Taylor. "Most people anticipate an increase in budget in 2010."

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

- New skills needed for Fifa World Cup 2010
- New jobs for security specialists
- Raising the profile of your professionalism
- The thin-client revolution
- Swindon wi-fi city creates tech jobs
- IT spending cuts confirmed
- Cloud computing calls for new skills

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

IT support staff become ambassadors

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

News that global insurance firm Torus is piloting iPads and has already saved thousands of pounds in 'paperless' board meetings has made the headlines. News of the boardroom technology coup by Apple is sending ripples through the IT support community, which has so far shunned consumer devices in order to keep desktop devices ‘locked down’ and manageable by the IT department. By Helen Beckett [Published 01/07/2010]

Consumer devices infiltrate enterprise

However, the trendy consumer device, which has only been on sale in shops for the past month, has infiltrated the boardroom of this multinational giant to plaudits from Torus’ executive staff. A total of 29 executives at the insurance firm are piloting the device for the business and are also testing iPads to run line-of-business software and to administer IT systems.

At paperless board meetings, directors swap their usual wads of paper document packs for iPads. Torus was typically printing 1,600 pages for each document pack, which had to be sent by courier to board members in Bermuda, Jersey and London.

The iPads paid for themselves in the first full board meeting because of the savings in printing and courier costs, said the company.

[Search for IT support jobs]

Role of desktop support changing

Principal analyst with Ovum, Roy Illsley, said that as the core role of many devices is changing within IT, so too is the role of the desktop support teams.

"Either they recognise that the business user is technically savvy and let them manage their own device, letting them take on more of a business support role to enable these new devices. Or they can adopt a ‘bunker mentality’ and attempt to lock everything down."

The lock-down response which also greeted the arrival of PDA in the office a decade ago may not be so appropriate in today’s business environment, warns Illsley. Business users are going to say ‘we’ve got our own devices and we want to connect to cloud services’.

"Over three million iPads have been sold since it launched just a month ago. Compare that to the 2.5 million thin–clients [pared-down enterprise device] units shipped for the whole of last year and this sort of tells us where people want to spend
their money”, said the analyst.

Business role for support

Illsley paints a future scenario where IT desktop support staff field such queries as the business executive who wishes to use an iPhone for a presentation rather than a laptop. Here, the support professional would check whether the iPhone could securely connect to the relevant data layer and be synchronised to the Active X directory to keep the laptop in synch.

This connection and synchronisation capability could also be commissioned by the support staff as an app and released for use on an iStore for roving, corporate users. "Support would consist of shorter bursts of bespoke work", predicted Illsley.

A recent report has simultaneously highlighted the key role of helpdesk staff as ambassadors for the IT department.

"IT reputation has suffered in the economic downturn and our study shows it makes sense to put the best communicators on the frontline with the rest of the business", said Cherry Taylor, author of Rebirth of the IT Budget, a study commissioned by Nomura Software.

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Learning from the digital detectives

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

As a new malware threat to UK banks raises the alarm, security guru Amit Klein reveals what it takes to work at the top in digital security. By Helen Beckett [Published 06/07/2010]

Internet browser security company Trusteer has identified a new strain of malware targeting UK banks and detected by fewer than 20% of antivirus systems because it is a regional variant. Additionally, Trusteer reports its discovery of two UK-specific Zeus botnets, which consist of UK-based computers and only target UK-based banks.

Tips for digital detectives

Against a backdrop of increasing cybercrime, the work of the digital police digital remains critically important to keep UK consumers and businesses safe online. With demand for good security specialists remaining strong, the chief technology operator and founder of Trusteer, Amit Klein, described to CWJobs the qualities required to succeed.

"Above all, you need someone who has a sharp and logical mind who’s not distracted from the main problem. Analysis of malware can be a long and frustrating process and you need to be able to reach firm conclusions from your investigations", explains Klein.

Reach the right conclusions

Klein also highlights the value of quantitative thinking in his security team: "If I ask someone in interview how many terabytes there are in a petabyte and they start fumbling, it’s not a good sign."

Understanding the guts of computers and how they work is key: understanding the CPU, the operating system and the compiler is critical, in order to conceptualise how malware could infiltrate a system.

The final piece of the security professional’s ‘photofit’ is reverse engineering. "It’s necessary to be able to take a binary file and understand it without having to actually run it," says Klein. For this kind of patient detective work, a mathematical or science degree might be evidence of the right kind of thinking but, by itself, is no guarantee of competence.

Do your groundwork

"One of my best researchers has no formal academic degree” says Klein, adding, "I’m not convinced that these very specific capabilities are the kind of thing an academy can teach."

For IT professionals with a nose for digital detective work, learning how to do the groundwork is the best start, confirms Professor John Walker from Information Systems Audit and Control Association. He suggests that IT pros with security aspirations should find a job with one of the major financial institutions.

“The biggest threat is that people don’t realise that there’s a threat out there. The perception within organisations is that ‘we’ve all got our anti-virus installed’ – but it’s often past its sell-by date.”

Be ethical

A good security professional is always agnostic about product and service and has no particular allegiance to a vendor, says Walker. Ethical behaviour is another pre-requisite: “I know of a security professional who opened an email he knew was infected with a virus because he wanted to see ‘what happened’!”

On another occasion, Walker observed an overconfident IT worker make a bad judgement call on a virus infection.

“Every piece of hardware on the network had its permissions blown wide open – he went to lunch and told no one. It cost the bank £2million.”

[Search for security jobs | search for banking and finance IT jobs]

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Virtual brainstorming new weapon of Scotland IT

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

Countries with large ratios of landmass to population tend to be good at telecommunications and are often ahead of the digital curve. Finnish mobile phone manufacturers Nokia are at the forefront of a global market and Finland has just introduced a citizen's right to broadband, giving everyone the right to a one-megabit broadband connection. By Helen Beckett [Published 08/07/2010]

Near neighbour Scotland is also recognising the value of digital communications and networking and plans to develop a Digital Scotland strategy. According to the strategy documents, "The digital economy is a great thing. It benefits the social economy by eliminating distance, clearly something the Highlands and Islands could really benefit from."

Digital connection means that Scottish IT professionals no longer have to travel to, say, Motherwell to find out how to obtain their board’s buy-in for information management governance: instead, they can reach out online to their colleagues for tips and advice.

This kind of sharing and caring with peers - and even competitors - will be of huge value to the current generation of IT managers everywhere as they face a new set of challenges. According to John Harris, the new chairman of the Corporate IT Forum (Tif), their role will be less about techie trouble shooting and more about influencing and persuading.

"IT is maturing, and IT professionals will finally get the chance to be what we have always wanted to be - business people who understand technology well. If you can see the wave of change coming, you can give customers what they need," he said. The forum cites an example of how virtual brainstorming helped one member.

"A member of one of the Forum's petrochemical organisations emailed us directly for help regarding his company’s current manufacturing systems. He wanted to talk to some other companies manufacturing in the chemical and non-chemical industry. He wanted a general meeting to discuss how manufacturing systems are organised, pitfalls to avoid and lessons learned.

"He was working to a tight schedule and needed input from peers as quickly as possible. The Forum responded by putting him in touch with another petrochemical organisation and a retail organisation. Discussions have already taken place."

Scotland will continue to maximise all forms of digital communication to compensate for its geographical separation.

Search for jobs in Scotland

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

The benefits of IT mentoring

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

The Charities Security Forum (CSF) is launching a mentoring programme designed to enhance IT security knowledge and practice in the UK non-profit sector. Many charities in the UK non-profit sector lack dedicated information security personnel, and mentoring is being seen as the solution with benefits for both mentor and mentee. By Helen Beckett [Published 14/07//2010]

Credit card payments risk

CSF’s mentoring scheme will pair less experienced or non-security people with more experienced practitioners within the member charities. The security forum has grown from six to 60 member charities since it's creation in 2007 and includes big names such as Barnardos, Oxfam, the RSPB and Shelter.

Many charities rely on credit card donations but, according to the latest Information Breaches Security Survey, about 10% of them do not encrypt the information. The CSF admitted that some members will not have heard of the card payment standard for information security - PCI DSS.

Behaviour biggest risk

For all organisations, including charities, the focus has shifted to managing behaviour and risk, rather than technical breaches. According to the IBS survey, conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, reported virus infections over the past ten years have strikingly declined.

"Virus infection has dropped from the largest cause of security incidents (which it has been for the last decade) to fourth place out of five. Meanwhile, the number of companies infected has fallen back to levels last seen in 2000,” concluded the survey.

In contrast, unauthorised access by outsiders is not declining and remains at four times the level seen in 2000. The survey says there is no room for complacency and flags up areas of exposure it discovered.

13% have detected unauthorised outsiders within their network.
9% had fake (phishing) emails sent asking their customers for data.
9% had their customers impersonated (e.g. after identity theft).
6% have suffered a confidentiality breach.

Mentoring mutually beneficial

The CFS programme will not only facilitate skills and knowledge transfer but also enhance the professional development and managerial skills of the mentor.

"A successful mentor/mentee long-term relationship can work wonders for the development of skills in both the mentor and the mentee”, confirms soft skills training company, the Impact Factory.

The Glasgow Institute of Counselling confirms the mutual benefits of mentoring for both parties:

"For the mentors it increases their levels of personal satisfaction and fulfilment by fostering creativity and objectivity. It enhances their professional synergy with the organisation. It also fosters development of advanced interpersonal communication skills," says education business manager at the institute, Simon Carr.

And for the mentored there are also career benefits, says Carr: "It opens a path to promotion and better job prospects by increasing the confidence and self esteem."

Search for IT security jobs | search for IT management jobs

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

New era of austerity good for IT contractors

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:39 +0100

The coalition government crackdown on IT spending in the public sector could result in more jobs for contractors in government departments. This is the view of Sean Young director of Spring Technology who predicts that new budgeting models will see a rise in contracts of between three and six months. These will be required in order to keep ICT projects underway and the machinery of government moving. by Helen Beckett [Published 16/07/2010]

"The public sector will hire a lot more contractors. They will deliver on skills requirements by cutting down on permanent staff and hiring contractors. The length of these contracts will not necessarily be a reflection of the need for skills but more a requirement of government budgeting", says Young.

"The current projects will be ongoing”, agrees David Bloxham, managing director of GCS. He believes that ICT capacity will have to maintained in order to service this need but that provision will be shifted from in-house to the large third party suppliers such as Capita and Northgate.

Meanwhile, the Con-Dem government is poring over ways of reducing the cost of ICT in public sector and has invited suggestions from the supplier community.

At a meeting this week between ICT suppliers, the paymaster general, Francis Maude, reportedly told attendees that the government wants 20% cost reductions. Furthermore, suppliers would be expected to deliver 40% savings over three years, according to Computer Weekly.

While the coalition government expects suppliers to reduce their profit margins, it is also open to ideas about how the government should change its procurement and consumption of IT services. Charles Hughes, partner with management consultant AT Kearney, says that these would most likely be delivered through three different procurement models.

Outcomes based
Outcomes are defined in advance and then as each phase is released, the supplier is paid. This model has been implemented successfully by the MOS for some time.

Risk share
The cost of actual delivery is known by both parties but some of the value is wrapped up in the delivery of benefits. The more benefits that are delivered, the greater the fee paid to the supplier. In this way n element of risk is shifted to the supplier.

Results-related
This is similar to the ‘no win no fee’ charged by legal firms – and in the delivery of highly complex software, the requirements analysis would have to be nailed down.

Whichever model is adopted, as Hughes explains, "Procurers have to be able to handle different models, which are more complicated and require maturity. The days of good old time and materials or rate-card based contracts are no longer acceptable to anyone."

Search for IT contractor jobs

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Variety the name of the IT support game

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

New figures released showing a fresh appetite for PCs on the desktop will surprise those who predicted the demise of the rich-PC diet within corporations. Worldwide PC shipments reached 82.9 million units in the second quarter of 2010, a 20% increase from the second quarter of 2009, according to the Gartner Group. By Helen Beckett [Published 20/07/2010]

"Businesses did not upgrade PCs in 2009, but we are now seeing a PC replacement cycle," said a principal research analyst at Gartner. The main driver for the upgrade is moving off unsupported Windows XP SP2 onto Windows 7.

Although XP will be supported until 2014, companies replacing PCs now will most likely be installing them with Windows 7. Support and change management specialist with the Alturos consultancy, David Crowfoot, confirmed that in his public sector consulting role, he sees an enormous variety of desktop devices and configurations.

"The thing that has surprised me is the lack of standardisation and hence the variety of support that is necessary. The greater the variety of devices and platforms and office applications running on them, the more complex the support requirement," points out Crowfoot.

"It's a bit like an old boiler. Things start out simply enough but over the years things get bolted together and this adds even more complexity into the support". All this means that anyone going into IT support will need to master a wide range of skills, with Macs going up the popularity list in businesses, according to Gartner.

But Crowfoot maintains that the most important attributes for the support specialist are a pleasant phone manner and unflappability. "Interpersonal skills are often underestimated in this arena. Often when people phone a support desk they are not happy. It’s down to that person to fix the problem, and, just as important, to convince the caller that they are getting a good service".

Predictions for the desktop:

- Desktop virtualisation is becoming increasingly prevalent. We expect that 60% of all enterprise PC configurations will use at least one piece of desktop virtualisation technology by the end of 2012.
- Organizations are developing a pattern of skipping "plumbing" releases of Windows, and we expect Windows 7 to be the last traditional operating system (OS) upgrade.
- Macs will continue to require some level of enterprise attention as users demand choice and bring them into the workplace.

Recommendations for end users:

- Examine alternative methods of client computing and weigh options against total cost of ownership (TCO). Carefully estimate migration costs.
- Plan for a Windows 7 migration and focus on settling on the OS as a key long-term platform.
- Prepare for an increasing demand in Macs. To support Macs, organisations have to add skills and improve the management of Macs, implementing security and support policies, processes and tools.

(Source: Gartner Predicts 2010)

Search for IT project manager jobs | Search for IT support jobs

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Cable makes the case for IT students and graduates

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

In a speech last week about higher education, business secretary Vince Cable acknowledged a special need for science and technology graduates, who are badly needed by industry. Cable is leading a rethink by the coalition government about how higher education courses should be funded more equitably. By Helen Beckett [22/07/2010]

A key plank of his speech proposed a student tax rate to be levied instead of tuition fees, thus linking the cost of study to earning power accrued after graduation. But Cable also said, "The state does have a particular funding role in supporting subjects where the evidence suggests that there is a large social as well as private return, and which are costly to teach. STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects come into this category."

The CBI currently estimates that by 2014 there will be unmet demand for 775,000 roles requiring higher level science, technology, engineering and maths. Around 60% of businesses expect problems recruiting staff with STEM skills over the next three years. Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) further shows that only 6 per cent of UK graduates are engineers compared to15 per cent in continental Europe.

The most recent report by UKFI for early 2010 says that skill shortages, especially for engineers, are the most single important concern of prospective foreign investors. The evidence suggests that there are continuing shortages of STEM graduates, and Cable commented, "We clearly need to be advertising the attractive remuneration returns to prospective students a lot more clearly."

Cable’s words may give heart to students considering their career direction and also to graduates currently looking for jobs. Despite recent scary headlines about too many candidates chasing job applications, the need by industry and business for qualified IT professionals remains pressing.

If you're a graduate looking for ways to supplement your academic qualifications in order to become more employable, there are also options to consider:

Seek out your nearest cluster
The West Midlands, Cumbria and Hampshire are among those regions offering work placement, career advice and training within ICT clusters. Clusters are designed to encourage small businesses to take on graduates from local universities and to deter students leaving for technology hotbeds such as Reading, Swindon and London.

The West Midlands’ initiatives alone have created bursaries to support 1200 graduate placements for business in the region.

Enhance your employability
You could do worse than follow the IT Management for Business model, which includes work experience and mock interviews to improve students’ job prospects. Winner of the Loughborough University 2010 employability award, Andrew Richardson, was an ITMB student.

His course included the opportunity to hone interview skills and receive feedback and advice from employers. "The mock interview days were awesome," he says. "They were really challenging and enjoyable and very motivating to students when you have actual face time with employers."

Search for graduate IT jobs | Search for engineering jobs

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

Fire crews get mobile IT

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

A mobile data system will provide fire crews in Northern Ireland with vital access to operational information during emergencies. Fire engines will be equipped with a mobile data terminal and the upgrade represents a "significant improvement" on the current paper-based system. By Helen Beckett [27/07/2010]

The investment in the new technology tops up previous spending of £1.5m on a Tetra digital radio system for Northern Ireland's fire service and the investment of £700,000 on the upgrade of a command and control system.

According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers consultancy, the contract is typical of other technology roll-outs in the province. "Most of the IT transformation work we undertake is a move away from a paper-based system, and is driven in part by the desire to remove duplication and reduce cost", said Paul Atkinson, PWC partner with the Belfast office.

Additionally, he confirmed, "80 per cent of all change projects here have an element of IT in them. There is an increase in both private and public sector IT implementations". This is in spite of the challenging economic climate.

PWC has two offices in Northern Ireland and is seeking to maximise on the proportionally higher numbers of IT graduates that come through the higher education system in order to mop up local work. Neighbouring Republic of Ireland has long since carved out a reputation for excellence in software engineering and also the provision of offshore call centres and technical support.

Atkinson said that PWC is in hiring mood in its NI offices and in particular is seeking to recruit ‘returners’. “We’re interested to hear from professionals with skills and experience who are looking to come back”.

Snapshot 2010
• The overall number of vacancies fell throughout the year, there is still a reasonable level of recruitment activity with one in ten ICT companies currently recruiting, predominantly software development and technical support roles.
• Despite the current labour market conditions, four in five companies with vacancies suggest they are finding them hard to fill with technical and leadership skills, and experience (ranging from 2-5 years for technical and software roles to 10+ years for senior management) lacking in particular.
• Company optimism has picked up with over half of ICT companies more optimistic about the general business situation than they were three months ago
• The outlook more generally for 2010, is rosier with a third of companies expecting to increase the number of ICT staff employed at their site and just 1% expecting a decrease. Whilst for many, recruiting new staff is not expected to pose problems, one in four companies still anticipate recruitment difficulties mainly because of a lack of skills and experience in applicants

Search for IT jobs in Republic of Ireland | Search for IT jobs in Northern Ireland

You can upload your CV today and let employers contact you directly, and you can sign up to receive regular jobs by email.

Further links:

Search IT jobs:

- Search for contract IT jobs
- Search for IT support jobs
- Search for graduate IT jobs

Search IT sectors:

- Search for banking and finance IT jobs
- Search for public sector IT jobs
- Search for telecoms jobs

New cyber security challenge announced

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

Prospective security pros are being invited to take part in a cyber security challenge as part of a national effort to ramp up digital security. Recruiters who have lamented the lack of security awareness among the IT workforce are also encouraged to join the 23 ICT sponsors of the competition. By Helen Beckett [Published 28/07/2010]

A virtual treasure hunt will entail participants looking for flaws on a dummy website and answering questions about what they discovered. A further challenge will task teams with defending a network against a series of attacks carried out by security professionals. The challenge will run on several dates between September and December and prizes include bursaries to universities.

Take the challenge

A key objective of the challenge is to increase the numbers of skilled computer security workers in the UK. "Defending all of our interests in cyberspace is a relatively small cadre of talented and highly skilled public sector and private sector cyber security professionals," said Baroness Neville-Jones, Minister of Security.

Forensic adviser with management consultants, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Kris McConkey, stresses that penetration testing is the preserve of the hobbyist who may tread a fine line legally. However the ‘commercialisation’ of hacking by criminal gangs means that there is a growing demand for the kind of independent thinker who wouldn’t normally be associated with corporate life.

Push the boundaries

“The best people for this sort of work have a strong sense of curiosity and like to push boundaries,” says McConkey. Unfortunately, such practitioners do not tend to teach and nor are these skills the type that can be learned in an academic environment.

Forensic cyber geniuses and penetration testers typically perform poorly in psychometric tests, confirms McConkey. Cyber challenges therefore remain one of the best ways of flushing out budding talent. QuoStar, managed solutions provider to small and medium businesses, confirms that it is also difficult to recruit IT staff who understand business risk, a core part of security.

“The technical piece is the easy part and it is relatively straightforward to identify a security solution,” said Robert Rutherford, managing director of the firm. Instead, he says, it is developing an awareness of risk management that takes time.

Stick to process

QuoStar describes two typical scenarios involving security lapses: the first is the small finance company that thinks it is doing the right thing in backing up data each day, but stores the disk off-site - often unencrypted in a car boot.

“Unless there’s a real driver, businesses and staff do not take the necessary steps to secure networks and equipment,” says Rutherford. Another scenario is the company that relies on an ADSL line, which has never gone down, and consequently fails to put a contingency plan in place. “Until that line fails, they will not feel or anticipate the pain to the business and therefore do not take preventative steps”, warns Rutherford.

There is a widespread failure to encrypt, both by businesses and IT professionals, says Rutherford. “It never fails to surprise me the number of businesses that do not encrypt laptops. It is not a difficult thing to do, but simply gets put on a back burner.”

Search for IT security jobs

New digital strategy for Scotland

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

A high turnout of IT SMEs is expected at Scotland's first Startup Weekend in Glasgow next month where mentors will advise how to build proof-of-concepts and demo products. The country is also on the digital offensive with a brand new strategy, which includes the focus of recruiting the right skills. By Helen Beckett [Published 04/08/2010]

Organisers of the start-up weekend, sponsored by Glasgow Caledonian University, expect to attract more than 100 hopefuls to the 48-hour start-up event, with most of the business ideas expected to come from the IT sector.

Joe O'Brien, co-founder of software company Edge Case and organiser of the event, said, "The start-up scene in Scotland remains buoyant, despite the financial turbulence of recent years, and we are still seeing a steady flow of great IT products and services brought to market."

Scotland has an IT workforce of around 48,000 but IT and digital is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country, according to Scottish Enterprise. It contributes £3.4 billion to the gross value add (GVA) - around five per cent - but this has grown by almost 80% in the last ten years.

Digital spokeswoman for Scottish Enterprise, Ruth Andrew, said the new digital strategy aims to leverage the country’s strengths. “We have one of the best education systems, and perhaps in the world; but we need to ensuring that we are developing the best skills for the IT industry”, she said.

The Scottish IT Industry Strategy document confirms the need to hire and convert talent to IT purposes. “There is a wealth of technical talent in the Scottish IT market, and yet the industry faces a long-term skills supply shortage that could hamper its ability to reach its full potential, due to the decline in domestic uptake of academic IT courses”.

Scotland has outgrown its Silicon Glen hub origins, which was the product of a concentration of electronic manufacturing in the Stirling region back in the 80’s. Today, the region’s IT is vital and dispersed in pockets of excellence everywhere, from gaming and content management in Dundee, for example, to small technology companies literally in the middle of nowhere.

"Finance is strong here – we are the number two financial hub behind London”, Andrews affirms, while the country’s leading position in other industries has also opened up IT opportunities. Textiles and chemicals are advanced and there is need for niche and specialised IT to support them.

Scotland’s digital media facts

The digital media and software sectors in Scotland employ over 42,000 people in over 5000 companies (2006)
Companies in these sectors have a combined turnover of £3.16 billion per annum (2006)
Between 2005 and 2007, Scottish-based digital media businesses secured thirty five investments with a total value of £21.8m
One of the world’s most successful games, Grand Theft Auto, is produced by Rockstar North in Edinburgh. The most recent edition, Grand Theft Auto IV, in its first week sold approximately 6 million copies worldwide and grossed over $500 million
The sector has a GVA per employee of £65,291 (2005)

Apply for IT jobs in Scotland

Skills sought as UK confirmed Europe’s biggest ICT spender

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

Demand for IT skills is on the rise in the energy sector as research confirms the UK as the biggest spender on utilities IT in Western Europe. By Helen Beckett [Published 05/08/2010]

The report by IDC Energy Insight estimated market size and made forecasts for the Western European utilities industry between 2009 and 2014. Among its main forecasts are that IT spending will reach $8.8bn in 2010, rising to $10bn in 2014.

UK utilities companies are expected to have the deepest pockets when it comes to ICT investment, accounting for 19 per cent of the total spend on IT across all Western European countries.

According to Gaia Gallotti, research analyst at IDC Energy Insight, "In the UK, IT service, which makes up the largest share of spending in 2010, is driven by substantial investments in maintenance and support, implementation and operations."

The sunny outlook for the utilities and for ICT jobseekers in that sector is confirmed by management consultants, Accenture. Omar Abbosh, managing director of Resources, UK and Ireland for Accenture commented: "We see growth as UK utilities continue to seek operational efficiencies and this is reflected in a healthy application & infrastructure outsourcing market."

The nature of the liberalised market has also contributed to systems complexity in areas supporting industry processes, such as billing for example. Extra complexity requires greater levels of systems integration in this industry than others. Further, the UK’s low carbon transition will also force major change on utilities.

According to Abbosh, that does not merely mean investment in smart meters and grids, but in the skills and processes to process the vast volumes of data they produce. "Utilities are also investing in the skills and processes required to improve customer-centricity, given that the smart era will result in far greater interaction between utilities and their consumers," he said.

In line with IDC's forecast and Accenture’s comments, energy market regulator Ofgem, released a statement this week proposing new regulations and an estimated investment of £32bn over the next 10 years. This is designed to help meet low-carbon commitments and develop smart grids.

IDC's spending forecast facts

IT services would make up 63.7% of total IT spending for utilities in 2010
Software spending would equal 19.6%
Hardware spending would equal 16.7%

Experience pays handsomely in IT contractor market

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

Experienced IT contractors are prospering in a recovering interim management market, according to the July 2010 survey by management agency Russam GMS. By Helen Beckett [09/08/2010]

The survey of 11,000 interim managers across all sectors found that activity levels had increased by 11% over six months, while, on average, daily pay rates were unchanged: an average daily take-home pay of £592 in June 2010 matched December’s daily wage slip in 2009.

At the lower end of the IT spectrum, however, interims experienced a 5.7% drop in pay from £649 to £612, but this was at odds with the experiences reported by more seasoned IT interims. "I haven’t experienced a drop at all. I ask for £900 a day (unchanged for the last two years) and get it with no push back from clients," commented one respondent.

This interim manager further commented, "I suspect the sheer volume of interims - as a result of the recession - has dragged the average rate down, but I guess those who are career interims with solid experience will be successful. The rate reduction is probably due to commercial pressures of the clients and pressure on rates from new entrants willing to offer comparable skills at a lower rate."

Another respondent pointed out that recessionary pressures on the IT department have not abated – yet. "Most of my work is around IT departments, this has been one of the hardest hit areas of most companies as many companies’ boards still do not see any necessity to bring spending back to anywhere near maintenance level, never mind improvement levels."

Charles Russam, chairman of Russam GMS, said that sector plays a big part in determining daily rate and demand. “In the private sector, financial services are putting more work out to interims and the charity sector – now renamed the civil society – is busy although funds are still tight,” he pointed out. Interestingly, the research revealed that planned job cuts in the public sector have not yet hit the interim management market.

Russam remarked that the research highlighted four key trends for interim IT contractors:

Experience and tradecraft wins over being a beginner
Rates can differ hugely between sectors
Clients have slowed down over new IT projects
Pressure on rates apply at the lower levelss

Even the most highly paid ICT interim cannot afford to be complacent in this market, warned Russam, “Our advice to Interims is to be flexible, hone your skills and, where necessary learn new ones and look for opportunities through networking, Providers and personal contacts. Interims who are the most entrepreneurial will fare the best in this market.”

View from the top – salaries of interims

"My personal experience is the opposite of the survey findings but I had to change to a new industry sector – energy and utilities – in order to increase my lot. My rate has increased over the past 12 months from £800 last September, to £850 in January to £950 (a day|) at the end of June. Rates and opportunities didn't appear to be holding up as well in other sectors I was working in.

"I haven’t experienced a drop at all. I ask for £900 a day (unchanged for the last two years) and get it with no push back from clients. I also have never been so busy as I have been over the last two years, and I have been in the interim management game for the last sixteen years.

"Top rates are going up. I just secured a three month contract at £1550 a day."

Search for contractor jobs and project management roles

Boost your results and land a job with an internship

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

A computer sciences student at the University of Kent has just scooped Intern of the Year award and perhaps more valuable, a head start in securing a job on graduation.

David Couch who spent a year with chip manufacturer Intel expected internship to be worthy but not too exciting.

"I thought I was going to be spending every day in the office, but as part of my internship I travelled extensively and ended up running projects for Intel, which was fantastic."

Couch reckons internship was the highlight of his computer science degree course, where everything learnt could be put into practice in a real life situation. "I had very little idea what I wanted to do with my degree in computer science when I graduated, but doing this internship has shown me the career possibilities that are out there. And I feel much more confident about my employment prospects when I finish my degree."

Real way to gain skills

His enthusiasm is backed up by hard facts and employer feedback, confirms Bob Clift, head of the ITMB programme at e-skills, the Government agency for the ICT sector. "More employers are looking for more than just academic achievement in graduates. They want candidates who are motivated, mature and have experience of the workplace. A placement is the ideal way to gain that experience and acquire some of the business and interpersonal skills that employers so value when recruiting."

Employers have reported that the confidence gained by IT students on placements makes a huge difference to their performance in the recruitment process. Also invaluable is the practical application of skills and techniques that are difficult to teach outside the workplace. Not only this, but there is also evidence to suggest that doing a placement can boost a student’s final result by as much as a grade, reports Clift.

More internships available

It’s not too late for ICT graduates in the 2010 cohort, who did not experience internship as part of their degree, to become interns after graduation in order to boost their job prospects. Happily, there are many unfilled opportunities for work experience: despite the availability of placements, a dwindling number of students have been taking up these opportunities. In 1998, 30 per cent of IT graduates took a placement compared to just 20% five years ago.

The Government is working to reverse this trend and aims to lift the participation rate to 50 per cent of students in the UK within five years. Its strategy is to encourage ICT employers of all shapes and sizes to offer work experience placements to graduates while e-skills has developed its own internship in conjunction with universities and employers. On completion of an e-skills internship, students receive a certificate, which is nationally recognised by employers.

Northern Ireland ups ICT learning

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

The number of ICT learners in Northern Ireland has increased by 40 times since the offer of free ICT classes for all citizens and the real impacts on the economy are now starting to be realised. In Galway, for example, the success of software engineers is creating more job opportunities in endpoint security.

Government investment in ICT learners underlines their future importance to Northern Ireland’s economy and highlights the role of the current population of ICT professionals.

Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, has reported that 1,361 learners achieved 1,384 ICT essential skills qualifications in June 2010. “Free essential skills provision is delivering real results for our people by addressing the needs of learners and supplying employers with access to a high-skilled, demand-led labour pool,” he said.

Opportunities for ICT learners
The high take-up also indicates that the working population recognises the importance of skills development, especially in the critical STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. These subjects “will be central to our future economic competitiveness,” said Empey.

Prospective ICT professionals or improvers interested in free entry-level ICT classes are invited to log onto Careers Service NI or visit nidirect. While up-skilling continues apace, IT implementations in the public sector continue to play a major role in revitalising the region’s economy. Among the current crop of government projects hiring are:

In-mate management systems
Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) has set out to improve efficiency in the management of in-mates in prisons, which have an increasingly diverse prisoner population. Specifically, it aims to use ICT to comply with stringent data access, protection, and information security standards.

As a preliminary stage to the project, NIPS has commissioned Sopra Group to replace disparate IT and manual prisoner management systems with a single database and integrated, automated suite of tools.

Partner for public transport
Northern Ireland's Department for Regional Development is looking for a partner to develop an IT strategy. The IT strategy will support the development of intelligent transport systems, and the general business needs of the transport agency.

Key personnel who will responsible for providing the services will have a minimum of three years' experience of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, to include practical experience of delivering public transportation systems and the integration of such systems and supporting infrastructure."

Galway software success
In the Republic of Ireland and globally, Galway is strengthening its reputation as a software engineering hub as endpoint security specialists, Lumension, expands its global R&D centre. The security specialist opened its facility in the city only last October and plans to up its 30-strong staff to over 50 people by the end of 2010.

“Today’s announcement will create even more opportunities for skilled, team-oriented individuals”, said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe. "Eight of the world's top 10 technology firms are based in Ireland," he said, before going on to describe Lumension's expansion plans as "very encouraging for Ireland's information communications technology sector" and praising the work of the country’s software engineers that have helped the company exceed growth projections.

Search for jobs in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland jobs

Data centre explosion causes skills shortage

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:38 +0100

Microsoft is trying to get ahead of the curve in the fast-expanding data centre market with plans to produce pre-assembled components - or ITpacs. These pre-configured components for data farms would enable the easy delivery of hardware – and performance - in volumes from one to one thousand. By Helen Beckett [Published 03/09/2010]

This scalability is the unique proposition of ITpacs, reckons Kevin Timmons, general manager of Microsoft's Data Centre Services: "With the variability in our demand projections, it is as important to send out for one new server as it is to order 40-50,000 servers, and to plug them in at one time."

Greater efficiency a goal
Microsoft’s goal is to halve the time to market for the delivery of data centre kit and also to significantly reduce the cost. Timmons is pushing to cut the cost in next-generation builds of data centres by 50%. The move to make data centres far more modular and bespoke is certainly in tune with current thinking of the data centre specialists.

"Physical servers and fat storage that suck power and drink cooling resources are deftly humming themselves into obsolescence", said Craig Nunes, VP of marketing of utility storage company, 3PAR, earlier this year.

However, future challenges for the datacentre include not only becoming more efficient but also sourcing the necessary skills to manage emerging models. The modern datacentre demands that IT professionals understand multiple disciplines as well as the facilities infrastructure — and that is proving a headache for recruiters.

Management a challenge
The advent of the virtual machine and the model of ‘thin provisioning’ have brought other problems, says analyst firm, IDC. Chief among these is that virtualisation has changed the nature of datacentre management.

The European Datacentre Management Survey 2010 found a major concern among CIOs and IT directors, cited by 31% of respondents, was to integrate server, storage, and network management.

Giorgio Nebuloni, Research Analyst in IDC's Systems and Infrastructure group said: "CIOs are grappling with the consequences of virtualisation. While the benefits are clear, the impact on management is proving to be a challenge; new models for management will be needed to ensure that virtualisation continues to contribute positively to the datacentre."

Skills in short supply
And the good news? All these difficulties and complexities mean that IT pros with relevant skills are in demand. CIOs and IT directors anticipate spending on data centre staff will increase by 10%, IDC found, a rate that dramatically outstrips the overall growth in IT expenditure this year. Search for storage jobs, network management jobs and infrastructure jobs.

Search for storage jobs, network management jobs and infrastructure jobs.

IT in Scotland gets ready for a wind-powered future

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:37 +0100

Scottish offshore wind sector will generate 28,000 new jobs for the region by 2020 and a chunk of these will go to IT professionals. The report, jointly produced by Scottish Renewables and Scottish Enterprise, paints a bright picture for the country’s alternative energy industry - and for programmers with the right skills. By Helen Beckett [Published 03/09/2010]

Even for programmers with the preferred languages of C++ and Fortran, it’s advisable to enrol on a basic course in the industry basics, recommends Tom Hopkinson, managing director and founder of Scottish recruitment firm, Taylor Hopkinson. The good news is that these courses are generally both affordable and short.

For programmers adept in and with an understanding of how to apply these to the industry, there are opportunities springing up in five key areas, says Hopkinson.

SCADA: Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems consist of two parts: the control devices that are embedded in the plant plus the onshore supervisory system. The onshore data centre monitors and instructs all the wind turbine processes and collates data about the outputs. Scada systems are used in infrastructure, facilities or industrial plants, and experience here can be transferred to the smarter systems being developed in the wind industry.
Programmable logic controllers: Electronic devices are embedded in the turbines and the data read and manipulated in on shore data centres. They control the speed and direction of turbine and the pitch of the blade to ensure maximum energy production. Generally programmed in C++ and Fortran, the programming is technical and would suit coders adept in manufacturing and in safety-critical systems.
Smart grids: Software has to be written, tuned and maintained, which enables the energy consumption of households to be measured and logged. On the residential side, each house is kitted out with a circuit board with its own IP address which communicates with the power grid across the Internet. The central piece is the collection and analysis of the information and subsequent instruction to the relevant wind farm whether to produce more or less energy, depending on local household demand.
Communications software: The construction of smart grid and metering of houses will require sophisticated communications that enables the Internet to communicate through the power grid. Would suit experienced network engineers and architects down to the ground.
Visual impact analysis: Every wind farm built onshore requires planning permission and this in turn hinges on building a visual computer simulation of the farm. Planners and other interested parties can virtually view the proposed wind farm from different towns in the vicinity and perspectives in the immediate area. IT pros with experience in computer games and also computer-aided manufacturing packages are in the frame for this kind of work.

Further research published this year also gives the Scottish IT sector the thumbs-up: more than 1,000 IT graduates will be recruited this year according to the Scottish Technology Industry Survey. 63% of Scottish IT companies interviewed said they would hire more people this year.

Search for Scottish IT jobs.

IT sector bucks the trend while managers collar more jobs

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:37 +0100

The word ‘manager’ in an IT professional’s job title brings better job opportunities in the current jobs market is an insight to emerge from Report on Jobs. The latest monthly bulletin found that the ICT sector fared better than most during August and that permanent project and programme managers are set to be in demand. By Helen Beckett [10/09/2010]

Three sectors bucking the gloomy economic prognosis are ICT, engineering and accounting, confirmed the report, commissioned by management consultants, KPMG, and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Within the IT sector, project managers jobs, programme manager jobs, and business analyst jobs are the most sought-after roles by employers.

“There is more demand for ‘higher end’ roles”, confirmed Dave Pye, director of the REC Technology Group and CEO of recruitment firm, JM Group. However, even if your job title doesn’t contain the magic ’m’ word, there’s good news. The programme managers who approve projects then need to hire workers in other roles such as developers, testers in order to implement the work.

“For the most part, people in IT are feeling pretty chipper,” said Pye who added that there are an ‘active number of requirements being recruited for’. Talk of the double-dip recession should not frighten the IT community, in Pye’s opinion.

These pieces of good news occurred in the context of a report that concluded that growth weakened and pay rises slowed in the ICT sector. While the sharp spike in IT jobs reported by the REC in March this year diminished in August, however, there were more jobs last month than there were in August last year.

“A huge breath of fresh air swept through the IT community in March”, according to Pye, and there was a subsequent, sharp increase in the numbers of permanent and contract work. “It’s worth remembering that people don’t release jobs in August and December and so that factor is part of the slower growth”, he added.

However, the relatively good fortune of the IT community does have a geographic element, according to the report. Across all sectors, most appointments are occurring in the south, the south-east and in the City of London.

August IT job market facts

• The number of people placed in new jobs by recruitment consultancies continued to increase in August, but growth slowed further from March’s peak.

• Latest data signalled a further moderation in growth of demand for staff during August. Weaker increases in demand were recorded for both permanent and temporary workers.

• There was evidence of weakening pay pressures in August. Permanent staff salaries rose at the slowest rate for seven months, while temporary staff pay growth was at a five-month low.

• Although staff appointments rose at a slower pace in August, there was evidence of growing skill shortages.

Source: Report on Jobs

Search for business analyst jobs and project manager jobs.

Contractors advised to go for niche IT roles

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:37 +0100

Skills shortages are appearing in the IT sector, according to a UK labour market report, which smart contractors are well-positioned to fill. Report on Jobs, sponsored by Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG management consultants, found ‘tightening candidate availability’ and evidence of IT skills shortages. By Helen Beckett [Published 14/10/2010]

The bulletin also reported that pay was at a five-month low for contractors and that growth had weakened since the March peak. However, the August slow-down mirrored an industry-wide trend as few businesses hire during the summer break. Encouragingly for contractors, the IT sector, alongside engineering and accounting professions, performed better than other industries.

An interview with Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, sponsoring company of the report, put the following contractors on the wanted list for employers.

CAD contractors
"The economic climate is still challenging but there are areas of shortage where contractors are particularly in demand", confirms Brown. He cites CAD (computer aided design) designers and engineers as one area of shortage: "This is probably linked to the fact that the engineering sector is doing relatively well", says Brown.

Internet activists
KPMG has observed investment continuing to flow into Internet marketing jobs and sales functions as businesses turn to the web to maximise their profits. Increased online activity has translated into a bigger call for temporary Internet developers.

Cyber security specialists
"There’s a big push to build and support cyber business", confirms Brown, and a recent strong financial performance by digital retailers, including Asos and Mulberry, bears this out. Unsurprisingly, therefore, cyber security jobs remain a hot spot.

Middleware men
Another theme of straitened times is that companies are continuing their efforts to extract the maximum value from their IT systems. This has created a requirement for middleware experts, recruitment firms agree, while business intelligence is another hot spot for contractors.

But while the provision of cutting-edge technology skills offers a real opportunity for UK contractors, believes Brown, he has words of warning for what he calls ‘commodity contractors’.

"The public sector’s pay review and attempt to reduce the structural deficit means that many government departments will bring tasks such as project management in-house", he predicts.

The closer skills get to becoming commodities, the more likely it is that employers will bring them in-house, with a shake-out predicted. The good news is that the jobs being created are much higher value. "Traditionally," says Brown, "the UK has been pretty good at supplying these. Smart contractors will equip themselves with these new-generation technology skills”.

Search CWJobs for IT contract jobs
Search CWJobs for Online jobs

CIOs can delay no longer as spend on infrastructure begins

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:37 +0100

Spending on IT infrastructure is set to increase as companies bite the bullet and acknowledge they have simply run out of capacity. The findings come from Gartner Group, which surveyed 1,600 CIOs in the fourth quarter of 2009. By Helen Beckett [Published 16/09/2010]

Storage, networks and servers to gain
Commercial and public sector CIOs plan to increase capital expenditures by 3 per cent this year and smaller organisations plan significantly stronger IT budget growth. Areas of the infrastructure crying out for reinforcement include data storage, network bandwidth and server performance. A lot of companies are also anticipating the cloud and making infrastructure adjustments for this.

"The fact is that companies have been delaying upgrades for the past three years and have simply run out of time and space", said Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research at Gartner executive programs. Delayed upgrades include software platforms, such as Windows 7, as well as hardware infrastructure.

Data transaction volumes leap
McDonald cited the case of a large insurance client that had taken a 20 per cent hit on revenues and yet saw the volume of data transactions grow by 40 per cent. "It broke the rule that data infrastructure grows at the same rate as business and profits. The traditional view of an IT budget as planned administrative expense is showing signs of weakness in this economic environment".

The reason behind this disconnect is that organisations have opened up their systems to customers and the supply chain. A transaction does just happen internally but may happen in any part of the supply chain, and so volumes cannot be controlled or curtailed.

IT spending fluid in future
In the past, companies have finalised their IT budgets in the last quarter of the fiscal year. While 49 per cent of CIOs reported their budgets followed this pattern, many did not with 26 per cent of organisations finalising their IT budget in the first quarter of 2010, and 11 per cent of CIOs reporting that their IT budget have not been finalised at all. This indicates that IT spending is expected to be more fluid and respond to changing business conditions.

"Economic conditions are changing CIO spending priorities as the funds to upgrade infrastructure is being appropriated from reduced operating budgets," said Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research at Gartner executive programs. Size also matters in terms of IT budget outlook," said McDonald. "The larger the organisation, the tighter it is managing its IT budget in general, and IT operating expense in particular.

CIOs upbeat
CIOs' views on the future have improved since the start of the year, with more than 40 per cent seeing some form of economic recovery. However, the survey, which questioned CIOs about their economic outlook, changes in spending plans and spending priorities, found that 60 per cent of all respondents continued to see economic challenges.

Search for IT telecoms jobs and CCNA jobs.

'Return on prevention' is new black in seasonal ROI debate

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:18:37 +0100

If you’re a network administrator or a systems architect, the likelihood is you’ll be roped in to help out on a software audit in the next three years. As the economy focuses on nailing down costs, one in three companies expects to be asked to perform a spot-check, according to Fast Ltd, one of the leading authorities on software asset management and IT compliance. By Helen Beckett [18/08/2010]

The insight adds to the continuing debate on how best to cost-justify software investment or, equally, the risk and cost of non-investment and non-compliance. Straitened times in the IT department have tended to produce two different responses, according to Fast Ltd: a keener interest in how asset management can expose and reduce cost or, alternatively, a head-in-the sand approach towards software asset management procedures.

Calculating the costs

Phil Heap, head of membership services and products at Fast Ltd, conceded that evaluating the tangible benefits of software implementation is complex because of the difficulty of mapping out impacts across the organisation. However he recommended the cost of non-compliance as another valid calculation.

“If companies worked out the cost of settlement [of non-compliance] with a publisher, versus the cost and labour of purchasing and implementing licenses for desktops, this may make investment more palatable”, he suggested.

Extensive reach

The approach, dubbed the return on prevention, ROP, is being applied to other technology point tools on order to justify investment. Last week a study by the Ponemon Institute concluded that businesses should adopt its new metric in the field of security in order to save money. The formula tots up the benefit of technologies, controls and governance practices aimed at preventing or mitigating cyber attacks, human error and system weaknesses.

"We believe our ROP model can help make it easier for IT and IT security practitioners to make the business case for acquiring enabling security technologies and related control activities," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute.

A white paper on Calculating Return from the Cloud, published by the Open Group, also includes risk management among other more traditional methods, such as total cost of ownership (TCO). Mark Skilton, of the Open Group’s Cloud Computing work group and author of the white paper, used the five following metrics to measure the return of the cloud.

Metrics for measuring return from the cloud

1. Speed and rate of change
2. Optimising total cost of ownership (TCO)
3. Elastic provisioning to scale up and down to actual demand
4. Risk and compliance improvement
5. Access to business skills and capability improvement

Auditing accountability

With ROP likely to become an increasingly fashionable metric, a broad swathe of the IT workforce will also become more involved in the auditing process. IT managers tend to take responsibility for audits in the first instance, confirms Fast Ltd’s Heap, but often in a reactive scenario, after being approached by a software publisher for verification.

“A series of technical tasks are then delegated to different members of the team, such as network administrators or systems architects, and more companies are bringing project managers with broad-based experience onto audits; it’s not just a series of technical tasks but crosses the boundary into procurement, too,” emphasises Heap.

Browse our latest network engineer jobs
Browse our latest administrator jobs
Browse our latest system administrator
Browse our latest architect jobs