Irish firms facing eCommerce issues

The main barriers to online selling for Irish firms are payment security problems and customers not being ready to engage in eCommerce. That's according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, whose 'eCommerce and ICT' report for 2007 surveyed more than 6,600 businesses across a range of sectors. The study found that the percentage of firms conducting sales online in 2007 was roughly the same as in 2006, with the manufacturing sector at 32 percent, services at 27 percent and construction at 8 percent. eCommerce sales accounted for 19 percent of turnover for the manufacturing industry, 21 percent for the services sector, and 1 percent for construction firms. Other barriers to eCommerce cited by firms already selling online were uncertainty concerning the legal framework and that their products were not suitable for internet sales. Download the survey (PDF) from the CSO website. (See elsewhere in this issue for more on online payments.)

IT fraud troubles Irish businesses

Over half of Irish businesses have experienced fraud in the past year, with the largest risk being in the area of 'computer fraud' - the theft of electronically stored information or denial of service attacks. That's according to Ernst & Young's annual 'Fraud Risk Management Survey', which showed that other key risk areas were payment fraud, intellectual property fraud and false accounting. The main source of fraud was found to be internal staff (70 percent), closely followed by external parties (65 percent). The study said the majority of internal fraud was committed at middle management level or below, perhaps reflecting the growing access of staff to data such as payroll and customer information. More than half (57 percent) of respondents believe that failed internal controls led to a fraud incident taking place, while almost half said they had established a dedicated unit to tackle fraud, and nearly all respondents had at least one anti-fraud policy in place. For more on this story see BusinessWorld.ie.

UK firms fail to make contingency plans

More than one-quarter of UK firms do not have a disaster recovery plan in place, and half of the plans that do exist have not been tested, according to new research from accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite the fact that 92 percent of companies surveyed believe that disaster recovery is "an important driver" of their IT spending, over half have no plan or an untested plan. While the study found that 99 percent of firms back up their data and 86 percent do so on a daily basis, 15 percent of companies do not store their back-ups off-site. The report said that 31 percent of companies had no contingency plan in case of systems failure or data corruption, and 10 percent of businesses found the contingency plan they did have to be ineffective. Martin Sadler, director of Hewlett-Packard's Systems Security Lab, one of the organisations that put the survey together, said that disaster recovery systems were vital now because almost all businesses are heavily data-dependent. For more on this story visit Out-law.com.

Dropping green IT is a false economy: Gartner

Companies tempted to cut back on 'soft' IT projects such as green computing in order to save money could end up with major bills further down the line, according to a new study from Gartner. The research firm's analysis of green computing found that dropping environmental initiatives could prove very expensive. Power saving in particular was listed as a key way of cutting costs and reducing a company's carbon footprint. "Faced with an economic downturn, many organisations tend to cut back on soft programmes such as green efforts as a cost saving measure," said Steve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner. "However, companies need to pursue these low-risk initiatives as they often provide quick returns that are especially attractive in a cost-cutting environment. Green PC initiatives typically do not add significantly to ongoing operational costs, and the small upfront costs are usually easily recovered 12 to 18 months after the programme begins." Gartner recommends buying only eco-friendly PCs that have advanced power management, for example. For more on this story visit VNUnet.com.

Checking out new payment methods

Virtual world: cutting costs and complexity

Open Office XML

Open Office XML, or OOXML, is an electronic document format, backed by Microsoft, that has just been approved as a global standard by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). The XML-based standard for storing files such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents has attracted much controversy, with opposition from open source advocates who back the rival Open Document Format, and scrutiny from the European Commission into the ISO voting process to approve the standard. Attaining ISO approval means that Microsoft will find it easier to bid for government contracts, which often favour the use of open standard products.

Royal College of Physicians, Dublin 2, April 8
This free event, organised by Oracle, will offer expert advice on the Data Protection act, a discussion of its impact on Irish organisations and strategies to ensure ongoing compliance. The keynote speaker is Billy Hawkes, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner. Presentations will also be given by representatives from Deloitte, Mattheson Ormsby Prentice and Oracle.

TradeProfessional.net is a newly launched business networking site aimed specifically at international traders. Set up by international trade e-learning specialist the Electronic Business School International (eBSI), the site already has 1,000 members located around the world and is growing rapidly. In addition to creating online networks of contacts, importers and exporters who log on can list job vacancies, post event notifications and trade leads, and set up keyword email alerts. Other options include joining trade-related discussion forums, checking foreign exchange rates, and reading the latest industry blogs. Registration is free.