The recent Slammer worm computer virus could infect non-Microsoft products, including security tools, according to security advisory site SQLSecurity.com. It believes businesses are at risk from further infections if they fail to patch up all vulnerable software. The worm froze the Bank of America's 13,000 cashpoint machines and badly affected Continental Airlines' ticketing service.
A lack of content management is damaging the profitability of many organisations, according to IT research company Butler Group. It reports that 60% of a typical corporation’s value is represented by its knowledge capital, much of which is tied up in unstructured content such as business documents, web pages and emails.
Outsourcing IT operations to India can lead to savings of over 50% and offer significant productivity improvements, according to India’s IT trade body. The National Association of Software Services Companies, which represents India’s software and services industry, claims problems with infrastructure and communications are offset by savings elsewhere.
A new computer system for magistrate’s courts has cost twice as much as expected and is still unfinished. The National Audit Office said the Libra project will cost tax payers #390m despite being initially signed off at #156m.
IT services company SAP has defied critics of its ‘ambitious’ 2002 profit target by producing an operating margin of 22.7%, against its 21% forecast. The group recorded a $1.8bn(£1.16bn) operating profit before charges for its stock-based employee incentive programmes and acquisition-related costs, a 15% increase year-on-year. License revenue fell by 7% in Q4 2002 but the figure compared favourably against its competitors such as Oracle (-34%) and Siebel (-37%) over the same period.for the March Softworld Accounting and Finance show at London’s Olympia.