Teleworking gains popularity among SMEs

Almost one-third of owner-managers and senior executives in Irish SMEs work from home at least one day per month, but telecommuters are still finding it hard to get broadband. These were the key findings of a new survey carried out by TNS MRBI, which also found that 37 percent of telecommuters work from home in order to increase productivity and avoid the interruptions experienced in the office. Twenty-seven percent telecommute because it's convenient, while 14 percent say that it provides a better work-life balance. The survey found that there has been a slight improvement in the use of broadband, with one-third of those questioned saying they have broadband access at home, up from 23 percent in 2005. However, 50 percent of those who enquired about getting broadband found that it was not available. For more on this story read ElectricNews.Net.

Search engine submissions are vital for sites: survey

Almost 50 percent of small and medium-sized businesses are losing revenue because they do not submit their websites to search engines, according to a survey by web hosting firm Fasthosts, which warned that the SMEs who do not submit their sites are missing out on potential visitors and customers. Andrew Michael, chief executive of Fasthosts, said firms should submit their websites to search engines immediately after registering them and should update submissions on a regular basis. He added that relevant keywords should be included in homepages, meta tags and coding pages. Worryingly for those firms who do not submit their site to search engines, the survey revealed that 66 percent of internet users only look at the first two pages of search results. For more on this story see IT Week.

Government campaign boosts security awareness

Campaigns like makeITsecure have given a huge boost to Irish internet users' awareness of viruses. That's according to a new report carried out by market research firm Amarach Consulting, which revealed that 84 percent of work internet users now have antivirus software on their PC, up from 79 percent prior to the campaign. Forty-nine percent use an internet firewall, nearly twice the number using a firewall four months ago. In addition, the number of people who use password-protected files has increased to 48 percent, up from 31 percent four months ago. The study was carried out to measure the change in public awareness of IT security over the course of the four-month makeITsecure campaign. For more information read ElectricNews.Net.

Small firms underestimate security threats

Seven out of 10 small firms in the UK run the risk of losing their business because they are not equipped to deal with security threats from viruses, fraud and system failure, according to a study by the National Computing Centre (NCC). The NCC revealed that small firms are particularly vulnerable to the risk of losing their business because many of them don't believe they face the same risks as larger companies. The study showed that around 15,000 new viruses were discovered in 2005, yet almost 50 percent of businesses questioned in the survey said they had no plans in place to deal with these threats. For more on this story see The Register.

Improving communication through online collaboration

Automating your work flow

Case study: Alltracel

Mash-up

The term mash-up usually refers to internet-based applications that mix two or more different online services together. A typical mash-up may take information from one source, such as a map from the likes of Google Maps, and overlay it with local content. The term originates from the practice of mixing two or more music tracks together. One local example of a mash-up is dartmaps.mackers.com, a website that takes real-time suburban rail information from Irish Rail and then plots it onto a Google Map of Dublin, so that commuters can see exactly where trains are by clicking on the moving icons.

27 March, National Software Centre, Mahon, Cork
it@Cork is running an evening seminar on how to use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to gain business. RSS is an easy-to-use tool that can complement corporate newsletters and blogs and increase traffic to your website. Among the speakers at the event are Fergus Burns of Nooked.com, who will talk about how to set up RSS feeds; Elaine Lucey of the Central Statistics Office, who will outline how the CSO is utilising RSS to distribute information; and Rob Burke and Dave Northey, who will demonstrate how Microsoft Ireland is making RSS consumption easier with the forthcoming Office 12 and Windows Vista operating system.

The International Network for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (INSME) is a non-profit association whose mission is to stimulate transnational cooperation and public and private partnership in the field of innovation and technology transfer to small and medium-sized enterprises. The organisation's website offers a host of information for SMEs, including news, advice, good practice, case studies, and information on financing and available training programmes.