The public sector is doing better at “”sticking to its knitting” than the private sector, according to a survey by accountants Ernst and Young on “”outsourcing” information technology.
Outsourcing is management jargon for getting others to do what you do not specialise in yourself _ sticking to your knitting. Thus accountants should contract the cleaning to someone else, rather than hire their own people to clean.
The survey showed nearly 40 per cent of government organisations were outsourcing over half their IT services, compared to only 15 per cent of the private sector.
Public-sector managers cited better service delivery and a means to access technology as the reason; private-sector managers citied cost and the reason for not doing so.
The survey adds to the general point that Canberra’s main industry is not tourism but housing, feeding clothing and putting screens in front of public servants.
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The Australian Information Industry Association forum for those who supply government has made costs of tendering to government its major issue this year, according to the association’s latest bulletin. The forum comprises most of the IT and hi-tech industry heavies.
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The association announced the opening of nominations for the National Awards for Excellence through Information Technology that it runs in conjunction with the Australian Financial Review.
Entries close next month. Winners announced by the Minister for Industry, Peter Cook, in October. Further information 2824700.
The industry has an annual revenue of $26 billion and exports of $1.6 billion.
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Link telecommunications has launched a war on answering machines, saying they are fine for home, but unprofessional for business.
They give the message “”I’m too busy and cannot cope with your call,” and mobiles are not the answer because they are often turned off.
Link provides receptionist and paging services (Phone 1800-038008). This item is not an excuse to give a plug for Link, but an excuse to run a couple of cartoons that come with the campaign brochure to brighten up these pages.
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The Business Software Association has nabbed a Newcastle computer dealer selling illegal copies of MS-DOS, Windows, Works and WordPerfect with computers. Penalty: contacting all customers and replacing all their illegal software with legal versions, damages and a written apology to BSA members.
Also on copyright, Playboy has settled a case for $1000 with writer Lee Lockwood for republishing in electronic form (CD-ROM) without his permission an interview he did with Fiedel Castro in 1967. This is a sleeping giant, not Castro, but the issue of copyright over the translation of old paper works to electronic versions.
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Netcomm, Australia’s biggest modem producer, announced it is moving into the UK market after record sales revenue in Australia last financial year. Netcomm has been yo-yoing on the stock market recently, with a high in the past year of $1.40 and a low of 55 cents now back up to 68 cents.
Colleague David Ives just back from leave in the UK says modems are hellishly expensive there (the Poms always were an uncommunicative lot), so expensive indeed that he did not replace his broken one there. So there is a market for the Australian company.
The other task for Netcomm is to get all communications software publishers to include its brand name and models in the modem lists during set-up.
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The big international modem producer Hayes has announced a new bulletin board in Australia, which will include product support. (The number is 1800 633431.) There is a bit of a Catch-22 here. If you can access an electronic bulletin board, why do you need help with the modem. Anyway the voice number is 03 7424111.
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The number of licensed users of the graphic interface program Microsoft Windows doubled in the past year to 50 million (at about $60 each, given discounts, that’s an awesome lot of money for Bill Gates). Anyway Windows is to be replaced next year with a program called Chicago (though they will be compatible). I cannot understand why it was not called Curtains for Windows.
And Microsoft has announced that Chicago will come with many more new games. More tripe when you cannot get a good Windows version of Mah-jongg or Scrabble.
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For information freaks: The Internet _ A Global Information Highway and Hypercard 2.2 are the two topics for the Apple Courseware Focus Group meeting tomorrow (TUESDAY) 7pm-9pm at Apple, 31 Theisiger Court, Deakin. Also the National Library Interactive Information Kiosk is on display at the National Library. Further information from Mike Fagan