Welcome to B & M Bulletin, produced specifically for users of IT technical services. In this issue:
• Rising to the challenge of targeting resources
• Tech View: Application Servers - spoilt for choice?
• 10 Reasons to visit Guide Share Europe in October
• Real Skills. Real People - B & M's Penny Chalk
• Find out more about Guide Share Europe
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Rising to the challenge of targeting resources
Ahead of the Guide Share Europe UK conference in October, Amanda Dunn, Sales Director of B & M Europe, considers changes in resourcing strategies in the current climate
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Proud to sponsor Guide Share Europe
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On 28th and 29th October, the influential IBM user group, Guide Share Europe, will be hosting its annual UK conference, billed as the country's premier event to address the challenges of delivering and maintaining solutions based on IBM architecture and open standards. One of the key issues that will be explored at the conference is the challenge of how organisations can ensure that they target resources to gain maximum benefit to the business.
The effective deployment of resources to work is critical to the success not only of the CIO and the IT function, but also to the business as a whole. Whilst this is not a new challenge, it is particularly pertinent now given the current business environment. Fast-changing and increasingly tough markets are coupled with pressures from rising costs, shrinking margins, complex regulation and increased demands from customers - factors which combine to affect every area of the business.
The IT function has to support the company's business strategy and respond to these external drivers whilst keeping costs down, managing risk and delivering a clear return on investment. At the same time, it needs to ensure that systems are robust, highly available, deliver optimum productivity and are flexible enough to meet changing business needs.
As delegates at Guide Share Europe know, these issues are not restricted to the private sector alone. Public sector organisations throughout Europe have been tasked with providing more services with less money by improving infrastructure while ensuring that any expenditure will lead to savings over the medium to long term.
The challenge of targeting resources to gain maximum benefit has already had a demonstrable impact on the way that IT resources are deployed. Among our customers, we have seen a shift of IT technical resource from traditional maintenance operations to project support work - a pattern which can bring other challenges for the IT function to address.
Delegates at GSE will take away invaluable ideas about how to optimise their resourcing strategies and how to address the many challenges associated with delivering and maintaining solutions based on IBM architecture and open standards.
B & M will be exhibiting at the Guide Share Europe UK Conference at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth on 28th and 29th October. For more information on the conference, visit www.gse.org.uk/tyc
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Tech View: Application Servers - spoilt for choice?
As Open Source offers a wider choice of Application Servers, B & M's Technical Manager Paul Smith looks at the influences on organisations when making their decisions
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It is hardly surprising that Application Servers are growing in popularity when you consider that - in simple terms - they are able to deliver functionality similar to that of a mainframe directly on the Internet; particularly given that nowadays, everyone seems to be looking to the Internet as a 'magic key' to support their business model.
There is certainly a wide choice of Application Servers out there: Apache, Microsoft's .Net, JBoss and WebSphere to name but a few. As any IT support professional will tell you, each one has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the suitability for a particular task often comes down to determining with which one an organisation's IT function feels the most comfortable.
For instance, .Net tends to be favoured by departmental developers as it is quick and accessible to work with. The heavier-weight WebSphere, on the other hand, uses Java, thus making it (in many people's eyes) better able to handle complex applications. In addition, one of WebSphere's strengths is that it can eliminate many of the limitations of an organisation's existing legacy applications running under CICS, IMS and DB2 systems.
IBM took the plunge to actively promote Open Source systems with the foundation of Eclipse in 2001, followed by its decision to put Linux on the zSeries, and it continues to put a lot of development resource into Open Source today. In 2007, IBM released a free tool to allow migration from JBoss to Apache Geronimo - an action that was not as altruistic as it may have initially appeared as Geronimo is based on WebSphere Community Edition and, in my view, this decision says a lot about IBM's concerns about JBoss as a competitive product. A parallel issue arising from this is the difference between the GNU public licence and the Apache 2.0 open source licence. It is a matter of opinion as to just how significant these moves actually are for businesses.
The plethora of connectors and application server development kits now available pretty much allows any to any connection. The problem now for many organisations is not so much finding IT support professionals who know how to make connections, but finding specialists who can recommend which route to choose.
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10 Reasons to visit Guide Share Europe
With highly authoritative plenary sessions, ten working groups and a choice of master classes on topics including CICS and IBM Health Checker, Jerry Smart highlights the top 10 reasons to visit the Guide Share Europe conference:
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1. Meet ex-colleagues and old friends
2. Keep your technical knowledge up to date
3. Discuss technical problems
4 Learn about System z certification
5. Meet the exhibitors
6. Prepare for systems audits
7. Manage the compliance workload
8. Attend in-depth technical workshops
9. Exchange ideas
10. Learn a bit about yourself!
Come and meet B & M in the exhibition area at Guide Share Europe 2008.
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Real People, Real Skills - B & M's Penny Chalk
This month we profile Penny Chalk, HR Administrator
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Penny joined B & M in 2008 after spending three years in the property industry, specialising in the lettings market.
After studying in Somerset, Penny moved to the United States to gain experience in administration and working abroad at a company that specialised in educational tours. There, she was responsible for creating tour itineraries, updating the company website and office procedures.
On her return to England Penny continued to work in the travel industry and took the position of Foreign Exchange Assistant in a travel agency. Here she was responsible for the running of the Bureau de Change dealing with currencies, banking procedures, security and meeting sales targets. Within the office she also had the additional role of Ski and Snowboard specialist due to her knowledge of various resorts and conditions.
Penny later entered the property industry as a Lettings Negotiator in and surrounding the area of Portsmouth. Whilst working in this role she gained her certificate from ARLA who regulate and test negotiators in the residential lettings industry. She regularly appeared on the region's list of high flyers and her office also went on to win numerous awards for meeting and exceeding their sales targets.
Penny moved to the Basingstoke area in early 2008 to pursue a career in administration and took the position of HR Administrator at B & M in March, where she provides support to the Account Managers.
For the past few years Penny has been spending every opportunity she gets exploring the world, trying to fit miniature gap years into her holidays and finding paths untravelled. In the last year she managed to visit Virginia twice, Spain, Bruges, Southern Africa and Bulgaria, completing her snowboarding intermediate class. When she is at home she spends time watching movies, particularly pre-1950's cinema and French and German modern films, or enjoying a good book.
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The Guide Share Europe UK Conference 2008
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B & M is delighted to be a sponsor of and exhibitor at this year's Guide Share Europe conference at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth on Tues October 28th and Wed October 29th 2008. Come along to our stand and leave your business card for the chance of winning a luxury Fortnum & Mason hamper!
For more information, email sales@bmeurope.com or visit the event web site
www.gse.org.uk/tyc.
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