News and analysis to 21st September 2006
Microcide
The Indian state of Kerala plans to discourage its 12,500
schools from adopting MS Windows in favour of open source software. It may also
reflect a backlash against Western influences. Drinks specialists Pepsi and
Coca Cola have been banned from Kerala because their products allegedly
contained high levels of pesticides. Microsoft could contend that its products
do not contain any pesticides, the proof of which would be the high number of
bugs lurking in its software.
HP spyware
IT’s longest running soap opera, the HP boardroom, has
improved its viewer ratings by the news that it allegedly used underhand
techniques to establish who on the board was leaking confidential information.
Casualties to date include HP’s chairman Patricia Dunn, and George “the leak”
Keyworth who are leaving the board somewhere between immediately and January.
The underhand techniques were employed by the investigative agency hired to
detect the source. Their approach involved masquerading as HP directors,
journalists and the families of those under investigation, using a technique
known as pretexting, which enabled the investigators to gain access to phone
records. It is not known whether the ‘success’ of this recent campaign will lead
to HP offering high-end mailing lists to marketing companies, given their
ingenious techniques for extracting the personal data of senior executives.
The day of the RFIDs
On the basis that one day we will all be part of
Wal-Mart’s supply chain, it is significant to note the world’s largest retailer
plans to double the number of stores that use RFID technology for case-level
and pallet-level tracking by the end of the year. RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification) is essentially wireless electronic bar coding. Once the
suppliers are in shape there is every possibility that customers will be next.
Whether that is via a store card, tattoo or subcutaneous implant we will have
to wait and see.
e-Merald isle
Spending for 2006 in Ireland will almost reach $3bn according
to research firm iReach. Overall growth year on year is modest at 4%. PCs
account for 22% of spend, storage 8% and managed services 25%. The Celtic Tiger
appears to have substantial silicon implants.
Intel Slasheron
Chipmaker Intel is taking the blade to its workforce. The
number of staff to go between mid 2006 and mid 2007 is 10,500, a cut of about
10%. The aim is to save circa $5bn during the next couple of years and direct
its energies into stopping rival AMD eating its lunch. Intel is likely to
significantly reduce its marketing spend, which will reduce the head count in
the IT industry for blue headed mime artists by at least three.
Disconnecting for health
According to reports in the British press, Accenture is
braced to quit the UK National Health Service’s Connecting for Health project
for the good of its own financial health. There is apparently a $1.9bn ‘get out
of CfH’ penalty if Accenture walks. Director General Richard Granger is known
for taking a hard line with suppliers. In the past he has alluded to what
happens when one of the huskies pulling the sled becomes injured or a burden.
Like an injured husky, weak suppliers will be chopped up and fed to the other
suppliers. The other three principal suppliers, BT, CSC and Fujitsu are probably
licking their lips in anticipation. Accenture staff are probably reviewing
their security arrangements.
Freescale goes private
Motorola chipmaker spin off Freescale is looking to go
private. The latest offer is from a consortium led by the Blackstone Group,
which looks set to be the biggest tech privatisation deal ($17.6bn) ever. This
trumps Philips Semiconductor’s offer of $10.6bn (for an 80%) stake. The buyers
are attracted by Freescale’s focus on wireless chips, which might just possibly
suggest that they believe wireless technology is the future. Those of us
chasing the market should take note. Those who have a few pounds might be
tempted to raid the piggy bank as there is still time to make an offer.
Oracle zaps Sap?
Oracle impressed today by announcing that its net income
climbed 29% to $670million for the first quarter. In respect of new licence
revenue, its traditional database business grew 15%. But its enterprise
applications business grew 80%, in comparison to Sap’s 8% growth. Statistics do
lie, and it is possible that 8% of a big number is bigger than 80% of a small
number. Nonetheless Oracle seems to have got its ducks in a row in respect of
its acquisition strategy that has included PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel.
Whether it is really chipping away at Sap’s market share is not so
obvious.
