Irish firms turn to IT outsourcing

Spending on business process and IT outsourcing in Ireland will surge 30 percent this year, according to Irish research firm iReach. The company expects spending to top EUR450 million by the end of 2008, thanks primarily to the anticipated slow-down in the Irish economy and the need for businesses to closely manage costs. Furthermore, iReach predicts managed services to grow by 25 percent to hit EUR150 million this year. Managed services has been growing by around 24 percent year-on-year, according to Oisin Byrne, managing director of iReach, who said the success of managed services "has given IT managers the confidence to consider outsourcing business-oriented tasks, such as print services, postal services, document processing, help desks and call centres." Byrne sees this trend continuing and in fact extending into areas such as human resources, finance and customer service in the coming year. For more on this story see ENN.ie.

Cyber attacks set to rise in 2008

There was a significant rise in attacks on Irish computers in the first six months of 2007, and this year will see an increase in email and instant messaging (IM) fraud. So says a new survey from the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre, part of the company's European Development Centre in Dublin. The report said Microsoft's Windows Defender detected 166,522 incidents of malware on Irish PCs in the January-to-July 2007 period, a 44 percent increase over the previous six months. Globally, email and IM fraud increased by 27 percent and 37 percent respectively in the first half of 2007, with predictions of a continued rise in 2008. One of the biggest growth areas for online threats is electronic greeting card scams, which already account for nearly one in 12 infected email messages. Another area set for growth is social engineering attacks, whereby techniques are used to manipulate people into divulging confidential information. For more on this story see BusinessWorld.

Online shopping hits the mainstream

Over 85 percent of internet users worldwide have made an online purchase, and more than half have made at least one purchase in the past month. That's according to a new survey from Nielsen, which found that the market for online shopping has grown 40 percent in the past two years, to 875 million people. "As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn't surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the internet when it comes to researching and buying products," said Jonathan Carson, president, international, Nielsen Online. Globally, the most popular items for online purchases are books; clothing, accessories and shoes; videos, DVDs and games; airline tickets; and electronic equipment. According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the sites they know, with 60 percent saying they buy mostly from the same site. When choosing an online store, one-third said they used a search engine or surfed around to find a shop, while one-quarter relied on personal recommendations. Download the survey results (Word doc) from the Nielsen website.

Consumer tech can improve productivity

Consumer technologies can improve productivity for staff at small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) while outside the office by 30 percent to 40 percent, according to a new study by Yankee Group. The research firm says the SMB working enviroment has not changed significantly in the past 30 years, whereas improvements in internet connectivity are changing the work/life balance of staff, empowering an 'anywhere' culture. "Ubiquitous connectivity is becoming a reality, and SMBs must adopt consumer and business technologies to improve employees' work/life balance and drive productivity," said Steve Hilton, vice president of Yankee Group's enterprise research group. Blogs, wikis, smartphones, wireless laptops, instant messaging and online travel services have the greatest impact on SMBs, according to the report, increasing productivity by 25 percent to 50 percent for mobile employees. However, the study also noted that employee productivity was reduced by voice-only phones, online community simulation Second Life, online TV service Slingbox and video-sharing website YouTube. For more on this story see VNUnet.com.

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Vishing

Although not new, this particular method of scamming consumers has seen an upsurge of late. Vishing makes use of social engineering and internet telephony (VoIP) and takes its cue from phishing, wherein fraudsters attempt to trick unsuspecting email users into disclosing their bank details for the purpose of stealing from their accounts. Criminals are now using vishing to target mobile phone users, sending out emails or text messages urging recipients to call a particular number in order to resolve a "security issue" with their debit or credit card. Criminals can take advantage of the savings offered by VoIP to set up low-cost call centres where staff, who may be unaware of the identity of their employer, can take personal details from users who phone in.

Kingsley Hotel, Cork, March 2-4
This event invites practitioners, developers and academics to connect and discuss the latest trends and happenings in the world of social software (for example, blogs, wikis and social networks). The conference features three keynote speakers from Silicon Valley who will talk about their 'Web 2.0' experiences and future plans for the emerging 'Web 3.0'. A workshop on the topic of 'social network portability' will also take place.

Intelways styles itself a "one-stop online search service", aiming to cater for all your internet search needs in one location. This handy tool boasts the simplicity of the Google home page, while offering a myriad search options. Simply input your search term of choice in a box at the top of the page, and then choose what kind of search you want to run. Google, News, Images, Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, Digg, Amazon, and eBay are just some of the dozens of options available.