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PRIVACY UPDATE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE MARCH FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014

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W OMEN IN ICT: A SPECIAL REPORT FROM ACSW

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Information Age February/March 2014 | 3

30 New privacy principles on the wayIs your business ready for the changes?

33 Start-up employee share option plansStart-ups and investors have long complained that current tax rules for employee share option plans have a negative effect on the development of a vibrant start-up community.

35 Big data’s big questionHow many data scientists does the world really need?

69 Special ACS Women SupplementFocusing on the issues and triumphs of Australian women in ICT.

CONTENTS

New Privacy lawsWhat ICT professionals need to know


6 Facing up to the challenges of a digital worldNew ACS president Brenda Aynsley says the workforce is on the brink of enormous change and urgent action is required.

24 ICT skills for 2014: reading between the linesBig data and mobile may top recruiter’s wishlists, but employers are still looking for elusive combinations of tech and business skills.

27 Where to go?The latest ACS employment survey offers useful data for ICT professionals looking to take their career in new directions.

37 Of Internet-connected crockpots, cars and smartwatchesThe CES show floor illustrated how we’ve arrived at the Internet of Things.

39 The only way is upIT leadership lessons you can learn from failure.

42 A thorough examination6 software development lessons from Healthcare.gov’s failed launch.

46 Cloudy forecastingHow to determine if your application is suitable for the cloud.

49 Are IT people really this unethical?Our ethics editor takes issue with claims of a hidden underbelly of unprofessionalism in ICT.

52 3 ways CRM improves your business processesThinking realistically about your organisation’s needs will help you make the right CRM choices.

55 SDN in 2014: more of everythingActivity around software-defined networking (SDN) is escalating.

57 Don’t let the CEO wonder what you do all dayHere’s how to make sure your contributions to the business aren’t undervalued.

61 Browser beats all?10 reasons the browser is becoming the universal OS.

CONTENTS


DEPARTMENTS

8 CEO’s column

9 Editorial

20 ACS Foundation update

65 New members

68 Australian answers: honey bees with sensors swarm over Hobart

ACS NEWS10 Report reveals continued strong growth in ICT workforce

ACS president and fellow recognised in Australia Day honours

iAwards 2014 nominations open

Nick Reynolds wins IFIP Silver Core Award

Winners of the update your CPD hours promotion announced

Yasa V. Abeywickrama appointed chairman of the International Young ICT Professionals Group

14 ACS Branch Updates

VIEWS

21 How IT pros can use Pinterest for career growth

22 Wearables will reshape the way enterprises work

23 How venture capitalists destroy innovation

CONTENTS

Information Age February/March 2014 | 6Interview : ACS president Brenda Aynsley

What does it mean to be an ICT professional today? For the new ACS president, Brenda Aynsley, this question is a pressing one, and

something she says will characterise the disruption tech-nology will cause across every industry sector during her two-year term in office.

“To take a step back, there is a lack of clarity in the language around professionalism,” she says. “This is not just semantics; professionalism is at the very centre of the disruption ICT will cause in the next couple of years as we transition increasingly from old ways of doing things to the information-driven economy. My mission is to get people understanding the same thing when we say ‘professionalism in ICT’.”

Aynsley says that up until recently, ICT-enabled projects have been managed with an inaccurate and inadequate understanding of ICT. “ICT is a professional

discipline in itself, not an add-on stream competency to project teams alongside HR, finance and communica-tions,” she says.

“This is a particularly important issue as ICT-enabled projects become more complex and the risks of project failure increase.

“Professionalism can mean all sorts of things to dif-ferent people. The ACS and ACS members need to steer discussions so that the definition of professionalism includes the essentials that define it, things like ethical behaviour and continuing professional development, a willingness to take personal accountability for the work undertaken and a commitment to act in the public interest. As we’ve seen in so many recent ICT project failures, the cost of unprofessional behaviour and poor ICT decision-making is just too high.”

New trends and products in the technology pipeline

New ACS president Brenda Aynsley says the workforce is on the

brink of enormous change and urgent action is required.

By Deanne McIntosh

Facing up to the challenges of a digital world


will only exacerbate the issue of professionalism, Aynsley believes. “You just need to look at autonomous vehicles to see how important it is to get things right.”

Big data is another area where professionalism is critical, she says. “We need to be fearless in how we talk about these subjects. There is a balance between looking at the potential benefits of technology and our responsibility as a profession, to point out possible con-sequences and identify the risk profiles.

“In the case of big data, for instance, there is enormous benefit for businesses, governments and the community in providing better and more effective services but also a growing risk that people will find methods too intrusive.”

Drawing together the strandsAs chair of the IFIP International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) for the past three years, Aynsley is in a prime position to lead discussion on professionalism. IP3’s mission includes promoting professionalism in ICT by helping member societies create and administer profes-sional certification schemes. Through this process, the aim is to give the ICT profession the kind of recognition and prestige other professions like law, accountancy and medicine enjoy.

Of course, many ACS members have already taken the judgement that professionalism is critical by achieving Certified Professional status. Aynsley points to the ACS Employment Survey, which found that those holding Certified Professional status earned on average 11.4 per cent more than those holding vendor certifications alone, and 15.2 per cent more than those without any certifications. (Ed note: see our story in this edition on

the ACS ICT Skills Whitepaper.)“Certified Professionals are starting to reap the benefits

of this increased focus on professionalism,” Aynsley says. “They now have a way to show potential employers that they are different to those who haven’t had their skills, experience and competence verified. The days when companies would take on anyone that promised to solve their problems without having those claims validated are numbered.”

As well as the IP3 role, Aynsley has experience with the smaller end of town: for 18 years she has operated a strategic consultancy in Adelaide supporting small businesses.

And then there is the background in South Australia and how that will help speak for ICT professionals wher-ever they are, rather than the traditional focus of the eastern states. South Australia has been at the forefront of change facilitated by ICT for almost two decades, which provides valuable insights into the future for the rest of the world.

“I plan to have a very broad engagement across the entire ICT ecosystem,” she says. “Whether it is govern-ment, academia or industry, I want to hear all views on how we can improve professionalism in ICT to enhance outcomes.”

Aynsley is also the first woman to hold the office of ACS president. “I do hope I can be a role model and show more women that working in ICT is not just for men or for geeks! I will certainly be involved in encouraging more women to join the profession and take their place in industry and we’ll be setting up a program to focus on this goal through our ACS Women’s board.”

Enormous transitionAynsley told Information Age she is excited to take on the role as many of these challenging questions jostle for answers. “Australia is on the cusp of a huge disruptive wave,” she says.

Research by analysts at Gartner suggests that many CIOs are also concerned by the rate of change caused by ‘digitalisation’. Gartner’s annual survey results, released in January, found that 42 per cent of CIOs worldwide believe they don’t have the talent in their organisation to deal with these trends.

The results in Australia were worse, with 59 per cent ticking yes to the statement, ‘’My business and its organisation are being engulfed by a torrent of digital opportunities. We cannot respond in a timely fashion, and this threatens the success of the business and the credibility of the IT organisation.’

According to Aynsley, now is the time for a period of serious reflection.

“New job designations like data scientist are being created but we’re not sure who will use them or how. The ACS has a critical role in understanding how these changes are affecting the profession and how these job roles and skill sets will change, what it means for members for those in the profession and those who educate them.

“It is exciting and a bit daunting, too! But we urgently need to grapple with it. These challenges are a kind of ‘Y2K’ for ICT skills and should provoke serious discus-sion and planning for our future.” ¢

Deanne McIntosh is the editor of Information Age.

Interview : ACS president Brenda Aynsley

The President has set up a member’s blog where you can ask Brenda a question and share your ideas. You can access it here www.acs.org.au/news-and-media/blog

Information Age February/March 2014 | 8ACS CEO’S COLUMN

Welcome to the first edition of Information Age for 2014. One

of the highlights for me last year was the development of

the ACS Skills Whitepaper. This reinforced that the ACS

is the place to go as ICT professionals manage their career in our

fast-moving and rapidly evolving world of ICT. The whitepaper is

discussed in this edition by the ACS’ Andrew Johnson.

The whitepaper has formed the basis for a high-level briefing

in Canberra where we provided an overview of ICT job profiles and

indicators of skills mobility. This was so well received that we intend

to take the whitepaper on the road, so watch out for a local event

near you.

This whitepaper provides invaluable benchmarking data on

common competency profiles for 25 ICT roles using the Skills

Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

SFIA is the internationally recognised framework for ICT skills

and the acquisition by ACS of the MySFIA tool late last year places

the ACS at the forefront, nationally and internationally, of being

able to work with both individuals in their own career aspirations

and for organisations looking at workforce planning. This align-

ment of the career needs of our members and workforce plan-

ning needs of organisations is unique and a clear way in which

ACS is demonstrating continued leadership on skills issues, both

for ICT professionals and for Australia’s economy, by not only

addressing issues around the quantity of ICT skills but the quality

of ICT skills.

I would also like to congratulate all those who attended the

inaugural ACS Future Leaders Institute in early February. This was

a fantastic initiative where the leaders of tomorrow took part in an

intensive four-day live-in workshop to get the skills they need to go to

the next level. More information about the Future Leaders Institute is

covered in this edition.

Over the last year the ACS has made fantastic progress in

improving our relevance to members and our stakeholders alike,

but like all professional organisations, ACS outputs are only as good

as its inputs. That is, the more you involve yourself in ACS, the more

value you will get out of being a member.

The first thing I would encourage all members to do this year

is to log in and update your details, recognising that job roles,

mobiles, emails and even postal addresses change over time. Then

check out our whitepaper, our research resources, and the MySFIA

section of our website and make the most of ACS to give yourself

an unfair advantage. ¢

GAIN THE ADVANTAGEACS research and resources are helping members manage their careers for success.

Alan Patterson MACS (Snr), CEO, ACS

Over the last year the ACS has made fantastic progress in

improving our relevance to members and our stakeholders alike


© Copyright 2014 IDG Communications. ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited. Copyright on works submitted by ACS members is retained by the original owner.

EDITORIAL

How far is too far, when it comes to technology and jobs?

I recently read a story about fast food outlets in the US

creating apps for order taking. You can use the apps to order

your meal, pay for it and pick it up, saving your favourite orders for

next time. They even use GPS to work out when to start making the

order, alerting staff when you near the store.

In the future, some suggest, the stores won’t need cashiers

and, if they use a robotic kitchen set up, very few employees at all.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has a vision of drones to deliver its packages as

fast as possible and the company is said to be investigating the way

robots can help speed order fulfilment instead of its army of packers.

Already, my local supermarkets are rapidly rolling out self-service

checkouts, and reducing the number of staff.

Its clear technology is sweeping aside jobs and causing

enormous disruption. A recent article in The Atlantic magazine

suggested that nearly half of US jobs could be automated in one

to two decades (read it here: www.theatlantic.com/business/

archive/2014/01/what-jobs-will-the-robots-take/283239_ ). Is your

job amongst them? Probably not, with experts predicting most jobs

to go in manufacturing, administrative support, retail and transpor-

tation, but the effect on society of large numbers of job losses and

widening income gaps should not be underestimated.

Another article, this time in The Economist, suggests that

governments around the world are unprepared to deal with this

disruption and that the focus should be on education, especially at

the preschool stage. You can read more at: www.economist.com/

news/leaders/21594298-effect-todays-technology-tomorrows-jobs-

will-be-immenseand-no-country-ready. The story concludes with

this warning: “Today’s governments would do well to start making

the changes needed before their people get angry.”

Hopefully readers won’t brand me a luddite, but I think Australians

need to grapple with this issue in a deeper way than we have done.

ICT professionals deal every day with massive amounts of change

so maybe there’s some experience and insight to offer as other

industries come to terms with disruption? Technology has done so

much to improve our lives but this challenge will require optimism

that innovation will help find solutions as well as compassion for

those affected.

ROBOT REALITYHow should Australia deal with the challenge of job losses associated with automation?

Information Age is the official publication of the Australian Computer Society Inc (ACT) and is produced on their behalf by IDG Publications.

Australian Computer Society President: Nick Tate CEO: Alan PattersonLevel 11, 50 Carrington Street, Sydney NSW 2000P: (02) 9299 3666 E: [email protected] www.acs.org.au www.acs.org.au/infoageARBN: 160 325 931 Copies are distributed free to members of the ACS. All material in Information Age is protected under the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968.

Contributors to this issueAdam Bender, Steve Duplessie, Mike Elgan, Rob Enderle, Damian Fisher, Sharon Florentine, JP Gownder, Matt Hamblen, Rich Hein, Matthew Heusser, Andrew Johnson, Loretta Johnson, Grace Linsdale, Jennifer Lonoff Schiff, Mary K. Pratt, Adam Redman, Philip Takken, Peter Wayner, Minda Zetlin and the ACS Women’s Board.

INFORMATION AGEPresident and Publisher: Susan Searle, [email protected]

EDITORIAL

Editor: Deanne McIntosh, [email protected]

Production Manager: Mike Gee, [email protected]

Art Director: Lee McLachlan

Photographer: Ian Sharp

ADVERTISING

Cherry Yumul, [email protected] (02) 9902 2756

Managing Director: Davy Adams

Deanne McIntosheditor

Information Age February/March 2014 | 10YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News

Report reveals continued strong growth in ICT workforceThe ACS 2013 Statistical Compendium has revealed growth in the ICT workforce of almost 10 per cent over 2012, signalling the strength of ICT sales, operations and trade occupations. The good news for ICT continues with a slight increase in domestic university completions, which had seen a 55 per cent fall since 2003.

The contribution to GDP by ICT was also measured at 6.9 per cent, confirming the crucial role the digital economy plays in maintaining and creating local economic opportunity. This was further supported by an increase in both research and development and overall revenue in the industry.

“It’s pleasing to see the ICT profession continuing to contribute so meaningfully to the economy,” ACS president Brenda Aynsley said. “The ubiquitous nature of technology means these figures will only continue to creep upwards as more industries come to rely on ICT professionals in order to gain a competitive edge.”

However, the 55 per cent decline seen in the previous decade remains incredibly alarming, Aynsley said. “We need to develop a highly educated, appropriately skilled workforce to secure the economic future in Australia. Seeing an upward trend now in both domestic enrolment and completion will help promote technology education as a pathway of choice. As the digital economy continues to grow, having a technological qualification is becoming more valuable to employers and job seekers alike.”

The report also identified that over 28 per cent of the total ICT workforce is now female. Aynsley welcomed this, but called for more participation.

“It’s fantastic to see that almost one in three ICT management and operations employees are females, but the number falls below one in five when we look at technical and professional occupations. As a nation we need to provide more opportunity and support to women looking to enter ICT and we will continue to build on our strong record of encouraging women in the profession.”

ACS head of policy and external affairs, Adam Redman, encouraged every ACS member to download a copy of the report.

“One of the benefits of being a member in ACS is your ability to have a say in ACS advocacy to governments on matters that impact the profession in Australia,” Redman said. “We regularly meet with senior politicians and policy makers to improve outcomes for ACS professionals.

“Members can see a lot of our advocacy work on the public policy section of ACS, under the Information Resources tab. Last year, our campaign to ‘scrap the cap’ attracted support from over 2400 ACS members who told us the government’s proposal to cap self-education expenses was a dumb idea. You told us, we acted, the decision was reversed.”

Members can provide their views directly on the ACS Facebook page, @acsnewsfeed on Twitter, the ACS LinkedIn page or sending a note at [email protected]

ACS PRESIDENT AND FELLOW RECOGNISED IN AUSTRALIA DAY HONOURSACS president Brenda Aynsley and ACS fellow Peter Murton have been awarded medals of the Order of Australia in the General Division in the 2014 Australia Day Honours list.

A member since 1989, Aynsley was recognised for her service to the ICT sector. She was a founding member of the South Australian Internet Association, chair of the SA committee of the Pearcy Foundation from 2006 to 2012 and opened South Australia’s first internet café in 1995.

In 2013, Aynsley was elected as the first female president of the ACS and in 2008 was awarded honorary life membership of the organisation.

“Brenda’s contribution to the development of ICT in South Australia and throughout the country has been extraordinary,” ACS CEO Alan Patterson said. “This recognition is a fitting acknowledgement of her passion, determination and skill in developing the emerging profession of ICT. Her commitment to promoting the Australian ICT profession through overseas forums has seen her act as a representative of her country on many occasions, and I have no doubt she will continue to drive the profession forward.”

Murton has been recognised for both his service to information technology and the community. In 1958 he introduced the first computer into commerce in Australia at the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society. His service to the ACS has spanned over 50 years, starting as a member in 1961, serving as vice president in 1967, and then as president from 1968 to 1970. He remained a committee member from 1961 until 1992, and was awarded ACS Honorary Life Membership in 1977.

In addition to his work for the ICT sector, he has been heavily involved in the betterment of his community. He is a former chair and committee member of the Drummond Street Relationship Centre, honorary secretary of the Littlewood Charities Club and established Light up the Cliff in the city of Frankston in 1996.

“Peter Murton is one of the founding fathers of ICT in Australia,” Patterson said. “We are honoured to count him among our members, and hope that this recognition and his experience encourage others to follow in his footsteps.”

How do you keep ahead of the almost breathless rate of technological change? How do you master this change and turn it to your advantage? How do you meet those you need to know?

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iAwards 2014 nominations openThe iAwards 2014 is calling on today’s leaders in Australian ICT, as well as the innovators of tomorrow, to step forward and be recognised as it officially opens for nominations.

Championing new technology that has the power to positively affect society, the iAwards, together with its two major partners, the Victorian government and Hills Limited, celebrates ICT’s pioneers of today and creative thinkers of tomorrow.

As the only Australian ICT awards platform that takes its successful nominees from state to the national and international stage, winners of the iAwards 2014 will have the opportunity to compete with businesses from across Asia Pacific at the 2014 Asia Pacific ICT (APICTA) Awards.

With nominations now open, Australia’s best and brightest can enter via the iAwards portal before nominations close on 28 April.

The state iAwards will take place in June and July 2014, with the national iAwards and gala dinner taking place on Friday, 29 August. WINNERS OF THE UPDATE YOUR CPD

HOURS PROMOTION ANNOUNCEDACS has announced the winners of the Update Your CPD Hours promotion. The three weekly winners have each received a $50 JB Hi-Fi voucher.

Over 1000 ACS members had entered their CPD hours during the five-week campaign, with over 33,000 CPD hours recorded.

If you would like to register your CPD hours, just go to www.acs.org.au/logcpd and keep your ACS certification current.

Congratulations to all the winners:

WEEK 1: Steven White (SA), Craig Biessel (Vic) and Alex Crossley (NSW)

WEEK 2: Nyun Mui Lee (NSW), Tony Burke (NSW) and Brett Ogilvie (Qld)

WEEK 3: Suzanne Gogolin (Qld), Pradeepa Navaratnarajah (NSW) and Bob Coady (Canberra)

WEEK 4: Roy El Hachem (Vic), Jodie Hatch (WA) and David Turner (WA)

WEEK 5: James Couzens (Qld), Ashley Morgan Aitken (WA) and Adnan Syed (NSW).

PAST ACS YOUNG IT DIRECTOR SCORES INTERNATIONAL POSTYasas V. Abeywickrama has been appointed as the Chairman of InterYIT, a body reporting into IFIP. InterYIT is the umbrella organisation for all Young ICT professionals around the world, fostering communication between Young

IT Groups and promoting representation of young professionals in the computer societies as well as within IFIP. Previous to the appoint-ment of Yasas, the chairman-ship was held by ACS’ Joel Nation. IFIP is recognised by the United Nations and represents ICT Societies from 56 countries/regions, covering five continents with a total membership of over half a million.

CATEGORIES FOR THE 2014 iAWARDSDEVELOPMENT Research & Development,

New Product and Tools

INDUSTRY Industrial, Financial and Resources

PIONEER Pearcey Medal and Hall of Fame, Benson Entrepreneur Award, Victorian Government Inspiration iAward and the Start-Up Award

PROFESSIONAL CIO of the Year, ICT Professional of the Year, ICT Woman of the Year and ICT Educator of the Year

SERVICE Consumer, Education, Government and Health

SOCIETY Community, Regional and Sustainability

STUDENTS Secondary, Tertiary and Tertiary Postgraduate

YOUR INDUSTRY : ACS News

NICK REYNOLDS WINS IFIP SILVER CORE AWARD

The ACS congratulates Dr Nick Reynolds MACS Snr, from the Melbourne University Graduate School of Education, who has been

awarded an IFIP Silver Core Award.The International Federation for Information Processing

(IFIP) has two awards for service: the Silver Core Award and the Outstanding Service Award (OSA). Silver Core awards are

presented for service to IFIP.

Dr Nick Reynolds

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary

Key dates

www.iawards.com.au | [email protected]

Nominations for 2014

are now open

Nominations close

28 April 2014

State events

June – July 2014

Phase 2 judging

27 and 28 August 2014

National Gala Dinner

29 August 2014

Benefits

The iAwards program has proven year after year its unfailing capacity to

help companies achieve marketing kudos, media exposure, increased

business, industry recognition, networking opportunities, credibility and

international status. As the only truly international ICT awards program

in Australia, organisation winners of the iAwards 2014 will have the

opportunity to compete with businesses from across the Asia Pacific

region at the 2014 APICTA Awards (Asia Pacific ICT Awards).

Championing new technology that has the power to positively impact

society, the iAwards is driving ICT innovation forward by celebrating the

pioneers of today and creative thinkers of tomorrow.

Get started today

To submit a nomination,

follow these three easy steps:

“I would strongly

recommend

the iAwards for

organisations that

would like to see their

innovation and hard

work recognised, and

also realise the growth

potential for their

business,”

Visit the website:

www.iawards.com.au 1

Review the Eligibility

to Nominate webpage2

Upload your nomination3

Nomination domains and

categories

The iAwards celebrates excellence

across multiple domains which assists

nominees to identify the right category to

enter. The domains are:

• Development Domain

• Industry Domain

• Pioneer Domain

• Professional Domain

• Service Domain

• Society Domain

• Students Domain

Further information on specific categories

is available on the iAwards website.

Chris Gray

Managing Director, iCareHealth

Previous iAwards winner

Information Age February/March 2014 | 14YOUR SOCIETY : branch news

Leading the ICT conversation in TasmaniaFor Tasmania Branch chair Robbie Batten, who took on the role

in early 2013, this year will see the branch take the next step in

extending its engagement with more sectors of the community,

to help Tasmania use ICT as an engine for economic and social

development.

“It is now recognised that ICT is embedded into all facets of the

economy,” Batten said. “We wanted to connect at the highest level to

ensure ICT strategies and policies are focused on creating economic

and social benefits for the whole community.”

In 2012, the Tasmanian branch made the decision to alter the way

it engages with stakeholders and expand relationships with other

organisations, including government, industry, start-ups and not-

for-profits.

“Tasmania is a small state, so it makes sense for us to be

working with other groups, such as Startup Tasmania, the IT Service

Management Forum (itSMF) and other professional organisations”,

Batten said.

These efforts by the TAS-BEC have been recognised with an

invitation, late last year, for a branch representative to join the

Minister’s Digital Futures Advisory Council. According to Batten, this

cross-disciplinary group includes representatives from industry as

well as academics and economists.

“It’s a high-level policy advisory group with a very broad remit,”

he said. “The goal is to make sure ICT is delivering maximum social

and economic value to the state.”

What’s going on in your State?In this issue, Information Age begins a new regular feature profiling the activities of ACS State Branches.

Tasmania Branch chair, Robbie Batten.

Tasmania goes to the polls on 15 March and to ensure an

informed and constructive discussion takes place around ICT, the

branch has released a policy white paper. “The white paper covers

five key policy areas: the economic impact of ICT; government use

of ICT; capacity building; community and accessibility; and digital

literacy,” Batten said. (For a copy of the paper, contact ACS policy at

[email protected].)

The paper has been distributed to a wide range of key

stakeholders and has also been released under a Creative

Commons Licence with the aim of contributing to the conversation

about how Tasmania can use technology to grow and transform

the economy. The branch hosted a very successful ministerial

debate, moderated by past-ACS president Dr Nick Tate, in the lead

up to the election.

The Tasmania Branch has also been working closely with the

academic and research communities in the state. For instance, it

provided input to UTAS in the development and accreditation of its

new ICT curriculum.

“The first group of students will start next year,” Batten said,

adding that the ACS is working with the university to contribute to a

unit on the ICT professional as part of the degree.

The branch has also been working with education

stakeholders, such as the university, TasTAFE and the

Tasmanian Association for IT in Education (TASITE), to ensure

teachers and schools have the necessary support to develop

their technology skills. The goal is to ensure secondary school

students receive quality ICT education that inspires them to

pursue a career in technology.

The issue is a pressing one, Batten said, as “the University of

Tasmania had removed its specialist ICT training for teachers due to

lack of enrolments. This is a trend we really want to reverse.”

Beyond the election, ACS Tasmania has a full roster of

events. For example, it kicked off the year by supporting Go

South App Competition, which aims to celebrate the best apps

created in the state. Prizes include $4000 for individuals and

$10,000 for companies. ACS will provide independent judging

services for the competition, while the state government has

contributed the prize pool.

In a similar vein, there is iOS developer training (http://acs.

org.au/branches/tasmania/events/upcoming-events/event-

details?eveID=10286527714817) in February and other events

planned for later in the year.

A major opportunity for engagement is the upcoming 2014


iAwards. Batten said the Awards are recognised as the premier

ICT event for the state. The branch will also be working with

MasterClass 2014 and Australia 3.0 to incorporate aspects of

Tasmania’s successes from the last two years’ events into the

national program.

Now more than ever, Tasmania needs to focus on the importance

of ICT to our economy and how it will affect us in ways we may not

even yet comprehend, Batten said. The ACS believes that now is

the time for both the government and the Tasmanian people to take

the opportunity to look closely at the state’s current ICT policies.

The ACS is taking the leading role in creating strategies to drive the

Tasmanian economy into the future.

Start-ups and innovation in NSWKeeping pace with changing career expectations and the burgeoning

start-up community are some of the factors shaping the plans of the

NSW Branch in 2014.

According to NSW Branch chair, Warren Cammack, the rapid

growth of a start-up sector in the state is having far-reaching

consequences.

“NSW is fast becoming a hub for Australian tech

entrepreneurship,” he said. “There are over 30 organisations

providing co-working, incubation, and acceleration and funding

services in Sydney alone.”

For young ICT professionals, Cammack said, this sector is

proving an attractive career opportunity. “Members of the NSW

NSW Branch chair, Warren Cammack.

Branch Executive Committee (BEC) have experienced firsthand

the shifting career expectations of the younger generation of

IT professionals,” he said. “They are looking for fast-moving,

cutting-edge technology and want to see the work they do make a

difference, not just in Australia, but the entire world.”

Cammack said the NSW BEC is exploring new ways to support

members working at smaller companies and start-ups. Part of this

mission involves communicating some of the challenges start-ups

face to governments and advocating for change in important areas

like tax relief.

Cammack is not immune to the lure of the tech

entrepreneurial experience: as well as his day job at

Commonwealth Bank, he is currently working on a start-up

of his own. “I am fortunate to have a very interesting role at

CommBank leading a team who help to make the decisions

about how the bank will leverage technology in the future,” he

said. “On the flip side, I’m also dipping my toe in the water of the

start-up world with an exciting cloud service that will launch

this year. I’m hoping my experience of founding a company and

successfully obtaining external investment will help other ACS

members to understand everyone has the opportunity to launch

their own product.”

As well as helping start-ups through the resources of the ACS,

Cammack hopes to give the wider NSW membership exposure to

this segment of the market by hosting competitions and working

with incubators to give company founders access to technology.

The ACS can also highlight new career paths, he said, and provide

jobseekers with a heads up when new roles are advertised on its

jobs board.

The cutting edge of technology is also helping to shape the

agenda for events in NSW this year, he said. For instance, with

wearable computing and machine learning in the headlines, the

branch invited Professor Mary-Anne Williams to talk about social

robotics at the February Branch Forum.

Similarly, a highlight from 2013 for the branch was a presentation

by Kevin Kelly, who recounted his experiences as founding editor of

Wired magazine and what he saw as the future of technology.

“If looking back at how technology has evolved over the last 20

years and what we expect to see over the next 20 doesn’t excite

you, then I’m not sure what will,” Cammack said. “You can view the

presentation, ‘TheTechnium’, online.”

Building on research undertaken last year, the branch is

also trialling new ways to run events. The trial involved projects

managed by members other than those serving on the BEC. “This

benefits both parties,” he said. “Our members can experience a

greater number of events and professionals on the project teams

gain experience that they can put on their resumes.”

The other area where Cammack hopes the NSW Branch can

help shine light on local success stories is the iAwards. “We want as

many members as possible to nominate for the awards,” he said. “It

is a great opportunity to show Australia the innovative projects our

members are working on.”

YOUR SOCIETY : branch news


More options for South Australian membersThe SA Branch’s new chair, Jo Stewart-Rattray, has an ambitious

agenda for the ACS in the state, including putting ICT front and

centre in the upcoming election.

With South Australians due to go to the polls on 15 March,

Stewart-Rattray says the state branch is keen to ensure technology

is part of the political discussion. “We’ve written to both major

parties asking them to outline their stance on technology,” she said.

According to Stewart-Rattray, a big issue for South Australia is

the current debate around how the state can support technology

research and development – both existing efforts and new projects

– in the wake of declines in the manufacturing sector.

“SA already has extensive R&D; for example, smart devices for

white goods,” she said. “And it will be interesting to see how this is

pursued – and how we can contribute to the debate.”

In the ICT space, business in South Australia is building. “We’ve

recently seen an increase in technology professional services, which

had been quiet for some time,” she said. “Companies have more

money to spend now and I think it is an increased focus on security.

There’s now greater recognition in the business community that we

need to keep ahead of the bad guys and that spending on security is

no longer discretionary but rather has become a necessity.”

It has been a busy time for the new branch chair and for the

entire SA Branch Executive Committee (BEC), which met late last

year for a strategy day to plan for 2014. Stewart-Rattray said they

will be focusing on areas to improve services to SA members,

including how to keep them up to date with activities and feeding

information to and from the national organisation. “I’ve learnt

from my experience at another member organisation, as chapter

president at ISACA, that if you look after members and engage

with them constantly and learn what they need, they become your

best ambassadors for maintaining and growing membership,”

she said.

This connection with ISACA, an independent, non-profit, global

association focused on ICT governance and security, has already

opened new doors for SA members, with a co-hosted event planned

for 4 March. “We’ll also be investigating other opportunities to co-

brand events with other like-minded organisations to help members

reach their professional development goals,” she said. New ACS

president, Brenda Aynsley, has also been asked to speak at a major

ISACA event in February.

The BEC will be building closer ties with ACS special interest

groups (SIGs). A new monthly update, in addition to weekly info on

events, will feature a column from the chair. “We need to give space

to share stories about members doing things for the ACS and other

members,” Stewart-Rattray said. “In December, I was lucky enough

to go to the PC Recycling group Christmas lunch and learnt of a

wonderful project, undertaken by one of its members, to digitise

old tapes and branch material. This history would have been lost

otherwise. There are so many stories like this from our community.”

For more information on the SA Branch and upcoming events, go

to www.acs.org.au/branches/south-australia.

Digital jobs offer a lifeline for VictoriaWith the future of industry in Victoria a topic of major national

debate, the Victorian ACS branch seeks to ensure the focus is

on collaboration between government, industry and the

education sector to help Victorians move towards careers in

the digital economy.

News of Alcoa’s closure plans, Toyota’s decision to stop

manufacturing cars in Australia by the end of 2017, along with a

similar decision by Ford and Holden and a high-profile decision

to provide an aid package for food processor SPC Ardmona,

has brought home to many people the need to investigate how

Australians can train for jobs of the future.

According to Michelle Beveridge, the ACS Victorian chair, the

branch is working with the state government to promote ways for

people to develop new skills for “clever industries”.

As part of its role in advocating for members and industry, the

ACS Victorian Policy Government Relations Committee and the

Victorian Branch team responded to two major government policies:

the Draft Victorian ICT Workforce Development Plan and the ICT

Strategy Update 2014-2015.

“The ACS is not connected to any vendors and can offer

independent advice in this space,” Beveridge said. “We can provide

guidance as government departments begin to move to the cloud

and mobile services.”

On the issue of workforce planning, Beveridge said she believes

there is some urgency to helping Victorians up-skill. “Greater focus

Victoria Branch chair, Michelle Beveridge.

SA Branch chair, Jo Stewart-Rattray.



needs to be placed on dealing with issues at a number of places in

the skills supply chain, as well as asking employers to be a bigger

part of the solution,” she said.

The recommendation to the Victorian government is to use the

skills development framework already on offer – SFIA. The current

system, based on vocational training, may not be up to the task.

“The historical notion of VET qualifications mapped to a specific

vocational outcome no longer holds true in an industry that is

moving so fast,” she said.

It’s also argued that the VET system is more attuned to the needs

of trainees and school leavers rather than mature workers looking

to take advantage of skills shortages in ICT and, thus, funding

should be provided at the skill level.

“A number of the Victorian Branch Executive Committee

members are trained in the SFIA framework,” Beveridge said,

and can use their experience helping organisations adopt SFIA for

workforce development.

March will also see the branch host a major breakfast event

for International Women’s Day and feature two prominent guest

speakers: Andrew Walduck, CIO of Australia Post, and Jane

Treadwell, CEO of DesignGov, the Australian Centre for Excellence

in Public Sector Design.

According to Beveridge, the Victorian Branch is also in the final

stages of forming a SIG to focus on women in ICT. “It has been

two years in the making,” she said. “The SIG will provide a single

voice for women in IT to amplify to benefits of having and growing a

WA Branch chair, David Cook.

balanced gender perspective in IT together with stronger presence

and footprint.”

In fact, the Victorian Branch Executive Committee is reviewing

all SIGs after a recent planning day. “We’ve had a major refresh

of the BEC, with about half of the members new to the board,”

Beveridge said. “We identified four key themes central to our

future in Victoria: engaging members (new and existing), being

relevant by considering offering new services to members to

remain in tune with the changing needs of a digital economy,

promoting more widely our role as experts on the ICT industry,

and supporting our main aim in continuing to be the leading

professional association. We’re now looking at all our programs

through a more focused lens.”

Welcoming disruption in Western AustraliaSometimes distance can be an opportunity, rather than an obstacle.

According to ACS WA branch chair David Cook, Western Australia’s

position as a ‘frontier’ offers lots of ways for ICT professionals to

gain experience in a wide variety of cutting-edge technology.

“Graduates can find themselves, pretty quickly, in FIFO roles,

involved in large-scale IT-centred resource businesses and working

on cutting-edge technology like autonomous systems,” Cook said.

As well as autonomous vehicles, companies in WA require

sophisticated communications to overcome the tyranny of distance.

“Our Enterprise Architecture SIG is by far our most popular,”

Cook said. “Their meetings often get upwards of 100 people

attending.” He believes this might have something to do with the

needs of businesses in the state for professionals who can look at

ICT holistically.

“When you are working in remote areas, people are often asked

to take on an overview role rather than to specialise,” he said. “I

also think that as there is greater emphasis on IT understanding the

business and ICT’s increasing impact on the overall business, that

these professionals can provide a kind of social bridge.”

IT’s role as a boost for business is a theme for the branch this

year. WA’s conference, scheduled for May, will focus on disruption

and the opportunities for business in taking bigger risks with IT.

The conference, ‘Information, Inspiration and Innovation’, will

feature several strands addressing how these “weapons of mass

disruption” are changing IT’s role in business.

As well as big data, sessions will address disruptive teaching and

the role of MOOCs in consolidating the move to independent, online

learning; and micro disruptions, which Cook said will explore how

businesses can extend Agile thinking throughout the organisation.

There will also be a panel discussion called Leaders in

Disruption, with guests set to discuss how taking bigger risks in IT

can lead to bigger benefits.

“It’s about encouraging enormous leaps of faith,” Cook said.

“We are seeing this in the resources sector where large-scale IT

disruption like autonomous vehicles is achieving huge efficiency

benefits – to the benefit of shareholders and the business working to

supply the hungry Chinese market.”



support members in the territory.

When he spoke with Information Age, McGill was in the process of

interviewing for a branch manager. This appointment will provide a

valuable resource for the volunteers on the BEC as well as a way to

promote membership in the NT and support for members, he said.

However, activities at the branch have not stalled while it waits

for the appointment of this important team member.

“The BEC has held several planning sessions,” McGill said. “Our

focus is on growing membership and ensuring the value proposition

for members.”

A submission to the NT government’s Public Accounts

Committee late last year on ICT resulted in a follow-up invitation for

the ACS to provide more advice on this important subject. According

to McGill, the NT government is looking at ways to improve project

management and governance of ICT projects. The ACS has

suggested an independent review process to ensure projects are fit

for purpose and provide value for money.

On the issue of members working outside Darwin, McGill said

the BEC wants to find a “long-term and sustainable way” to meet

their needs.

“We’re in the very early stages of exploring ways to

expand into the regions,” he said. This involves analysing the

membership’s demographics to ensure events and services will

suit members. “It is at the concept stage,” he said. “Over the next

three months, I’ll be working with the BEC to flesh out a strategy

and a plan for implementation.”

speakers because of their remoteness, will now be able to access

experts from around the world. Tate said other possibilities include

using TedX talks and providing an online gateway for professional

development resources.

“We want to be a help to people in their careers wherever they

are,” he said.

The other issue for Queensland is the state government’s

plans to reduce staff numbers. A Senior Leaders breakfast to be

held in March will feature the Queensland Minister for Science,

Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, Ian Walker, and

Government CIO, Andrew Mills, to address the changing strategy

and what it will mean for the ICT workforce in the state.

In 2013, the branch launched a training plan to help members

potentially facing this issue and Tate said this will be something the

BEC will look at replicating in 2014.

Widening representation in the Northern TerritoryExpanding its presence beyond Darwin is a major goal of the ACS

NT Branch in 2013.

“We are pretty Darwin-centric at the moment,” branch chair

Peter McGill said. “We would like to expand to the regional centres

and look for ways to support members in the regions.”

For McGill and the Branch’s treasurer and deputy chair, the

last two months, following elections in late 2013, have been

spent getting to grips with how the ACS works and how they can

Shift online to beat tyranny of distance in QueenslandData analysis is pointing the way for new services for members

in Queensland. According to ACS Queensland Branch chair Dr

Nick Tate, with a geographically dispersed membership, “it

is just impossible for many of the members to get to events

because of distance.”

Last year, Tate spent significant time crunching the data to see

what was working for members in Queensland.

“We took data for membership, including gender, grade and

location, along with data from the ACS Statistical Compendium and

the Queensland Department of Education on students and combined

it with data on who was attending events, who was joining and who

was leaving,” he said.

The result is a data-driven policy to underpin the Branch’s

strategy in 2014 for servicing members’ needs and for expansion,

with an emphasis on online events.

“Anecdotally, we knew that members valued online events,” he

said. “A national online event was one of our most attended events

in 2013. Now we have the data to invest in videoconferencing and a

substantial move online.”

The Queensland BEC has tested the system using different

devices and situations, including sessions with the vendor in

Silicon Valley.

The move online has a number of benefits for Queensland.

Smaller chapters, which may have struggled to attract guest

Northern Territory Branch chair,Peter McGill

Queensland Branch chair, Nick Tate.



One possible avenue McGill is exploring is launching chapters,

along the lines of the Queensland Branch.

As well as members outside Darwin, the branch is also

looking at ways to diversify its membership and management.

One strategy is to target uni students with appropriate events as

classes begin for 2014.

Another area for work is gender diversity. “One of the key areas

we’d like to address is women in ICT,” he said. “We are currently

under-represented at the member and board level.”

Building on strengths in ACTFor ACT Branch chair Jeff Mitchell, 2014 looks set to offer new

opportunities, as well as major challenges for members in Canberra

and the rest of the territory.

Many of the ACT Branch’s members – around a third – currently

work for federal government agencies, with some facing uncertain

futures. “With the federal government talking about reducing the

size of government, this could hit our members hard,” Mitchell

said. “Departments that provide corporate memberships for their

employees are also under pressure to demonstrate why they should

spend that money.”

To help members deal with this potential job insecurity, the

branch is planning workshops devoted to developing resilience.

“They’re built around the premise that ICT professionals can take

control of their futures,” he said. “There is a set of skills – apart

from IT skills – that can help members navigate change.”

This theme of ‘personal career control’ was launched at

the branch’s conference last October and has proved popular,

Mitchell said, in helping ICT professionals make decisions about

their future rather than waiting to see what changes the new

government would make.

On the corporate side, the branch, along with national office

colleagues, has been working with the Department of Defence

CIO Group to bridge ICT skills gaps. This bespoke service involves

investigation of the department’s workforce planning issues and

then sourcing the appropriate training content. “The project was

very well received,” Mitchell said.

Alongside job uncertainty is the impact on the ACT as a whole.

Mitchell said the BEC is hoping to work with the ACT government to

address the issue. At stake is a vision of Canberra as a digital city

with a highly educated and digitally literate workforce, but if the jobs

go, employees may leave to find roles in other cities.

“If there is a decline in IT skills in ACT, the whole territory loses

out,” he said.

As well as the digital city focus, the branch is eager to help

members see the opportunities in the ACT – and members are

responding.

Its First Tuesday events, for example, have been attracting

upwards of 100 members keen to hear guest speakers and network

after the presentation.

New members on the BEC are also providing a boost

to the branch. According to Mitchell, last year’s election was

hotly contested and the board now boasts a younger and

more diverse membership. New appointees bring new ideas,

and one idea suggested by new board members is to reach

out to overseas ICT students. The result is a pilot of an

information session aimed at helping students interested in

working in Australia after their studies to navigate the visa

assessment process.

In fact, the ACT Branch is looking at the entire education

process and the role it plays in underpinning the ICT industry.

Research conducted with the University of Canberra’s Education

Institute last year asked kids about their impressions of ICT.

For the 202 kids interviewed, an ideal career would offer

interesting, well-paid work that makes a difference – something

they didn’t think was on offer in ICT.

Ways to overcome this perception and share the opportunities to

change the world through technology is something Mitchell is keen

to explore, both in the ACT and nationally.

“There is an opportunity to sell a different message,” Mitchell

said. “Some thought IT would be too hard or not lead to interesting

jobs, so there is a PR problem for the industry to overcome.”

As well as helping combat the drop in university enrolments, the

perception problem is an issue for Canberra’s goal of becoming a

digital city, he said.

“We have a shared vision with the ACT leaders that goes

from preschool to PhD. All the ingredients are there in the

territory.” ¢

ACT Branch chair Jeff Mitchell.


Information Age February/March 2014 | 20ACS Foundation Update

Geeta, what attracted you to studying IT?Ever since I can remember, I’ve been interested in computers. Initially I completed a Bachelor of Science degree focusing on physics, chemistry and maths. I then got the opportunity to commence a Masters in IT degree at the University of Ballarat.

Why did you decide to look for an internship?Finding work in the IT Industry is a real challenge, especially if you don’t have any experience. An internship provides students an opportunity to get work experience. The benefits of an internship include real-time work experience, the opportunity to enhance your communication skills, gain confidence and decide if this is the right career for you.

You undertook your work experience with BlinkMobile. What activities/projects did you work on?I started with BlinkMobile in the new release testing area. I wrote scripts for automated tests as well as performing manual tests. From there, I prepared reports for discussion with our support and development team. At the same time, I developed an understanding of the overall platform offering.

Later I was given the opportunity to move to the development team and now I am working with our very talented and experienced development team as a developer. The issues I used to find earlier in testing, I am fixing them now as a developer.

How did your placement with BlinkMobile prepare you for your graduate role?BlinkMobile provided me with a professional environment where I learned problem-solving techniques and developed specialised knowledge. I worked in a cooperative team environment where we share ideas with each other and come up with creative solutions.

My placement helped me to keep my knowledge up to date

with all the latest technologies. For example, I was able to work on BlinkMobile’s mobile enterprise application platform, which is one of the growing sectors of market at the moment. The toolset and technologies I learned then, I now get to use daily. It has prepared me very well for future.

What tips and hints would you give to high school and university students who are thinking about a career in IT?Always try and keep yourself updated with the upcoming technologies of your field. Use your full potential while working on assignments because assignments provide opportunities to research new ways of doing things. Share knowledge with your friends and colleagues.

Darren, What does BlinkMobile do and how is BlinkMobile growing?BlinkMobile develops a cloud based platform-as-a-service (PAAS) from which clients and implementation partners deliver highly customised enterprise apps. Blink Mobile is experiencing rapid growth on two fronts. Expanding geographically beyond Australia into new global markets while at the same time experiencing good organic growth as large enterprises become more aware that discrete one-off app development is an unsustainable strategy and they need platforms and infrastructure solutions to manage enterprise mobility solutions for the long term.

Why does BlinkMobile support IT students, like Geeta, with internships?BlinkMobile believes in giving students work experience and intern postings and exposing them to the workings of a highly innovative software development business. BlinkMobile has also found that internships are one of the best ways to identify potential new employees.

Describe the value that Geeta has brought to BlinkMobile.Geeta came to BlinkMobile to fill an important but still entry level role in our development team. After performing very well in that role and demonstrating her additional talents and capabilities, Geeta was offered the opportunity to take on more of a direct programming role.

Geeta’s extensive programming training and willingness to learn new skills has ensured she has a valued and long term future with BlinkMobile.

What advice would you give for IT students who would like to consider a career in IT?Take every opportunity you can to work with real commercial IT projects whilst you’re studying – for free if necessary. It will build up your experience, your network, your professionalism and you’ll get a much better idea of what you’re interested in. ¢

If you would like to find out more about BlinkMobile, visit its website at www.blinkmobile.com.au. If you would

like to find out more about work placements in the IT industry, you can visit the ACS Foundation at

www.acsfoundation.com.au.

Profile of a growing careerGeeta Katwal is a recent University of Ballarat graduate. She is now employed with BlinkMobile on the NSW Central Coast. Katwal and her BlinkMobile supervisor, Darren, sat down with the ACS Foundation to discuss her journey into the ICT industry.

Information Age February/March 2014 | 21Views : careers

Pinterest is not just for brides-to-be, foodies and fashionistas anymore. Indeed, as the site has grown and grown up, it has turned into a popular spot for businesses of all types, including technology companies, to showcase and share their products, services and know-how.

So how can CIOs and other tech pros benefit from Pinterest? Here are 11 tips from Abhi Khune, head of infrastructure at Pinterest, on how those working in IT or for a technology company can take advantage of Pinterest.1. Find and follow influencers. Your home feed is what you make of it. Search for colleagues or respected peers and leaders, such as Stephen Gillett, the COO at Symantec. Or see what other companies, such as CareCloud and IBM, are doing. Then follow those boards. 2. Follow leading IT news sources, such as the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, IDG Connect, TechCrunch and CNET. You can also search for all of the articles that are being pinned from a specific source by editing the URL and adding the website, e.g. http://pinterest.com/source/NameOfWebsite.com/. 3. Pin helpful articles and books. Find an article you don’t have time to read at that point, or discover a great business-related book that you want to read soon? Pin feature articles and books to read in the future to a board. 4. Find useful infographics, such as a Pinterest board on CIOs or search for other cool technology infographics.

How IT pros can use Pinterest for career growthBy Jennifer Lonoff Schiff

5. Create a board to track information on specific topics like the latest gadgets, information and security, big data, tablets and leadership. 6. Discover tech talks and webinars, via boards such as TED Talks. 7. Get career and talent search help. Looking for a new job? Search for terms like “interview tips” and “job search tips”. Also check out resume tips from professional organi-sations like ABBTECH and Inside Jobs, or do a search for “resume tips”.

Looking for talent? Check out what other compa-nies are doing to showcase their company benefits and culture. For example, Target in the US created a Target Careers account with boards for technology trends it’s following, career advice and information on its leadership team. 8. Research upcoming IT conferences, or get ideas for your own events.9. Create a group board to collaborate with colleagues.10. Find out what others are saying about your company. To see what others are pinning or saying about your company, type http://pinterest.com/source/YourWebsite.com into your browser.11. Find fun (yet practical) IT-themed office supplies and gifts. ¢

Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is a contributor to CIO.com and runs a marketing communications firm focused on helping organisations better interact with their customers, employees and partners.

Information Age February/March 2014 | 22Views : wearable computing

Although wearable computing receives a great deal of publicity today, relatively little has been said about the prospects for wearables in the enterprise. That’s surprising, because the

enterprise could be where wearables really take off.For consumers, wearables can carry a social stigma that might

hold back adoption. That’s not true in enterprises, where wearables will be seen as professional tools, as accepted as the UPS driver’s brown uniform. And wearable devices geared toward specific industry sectors don’t have to be all things to a mass market of consumers.

Here are a few enterprise-focused wearable devices that are already hitting the market.

Fitness wearables for the massesFitness is one area where wearables have made some inroads. But that market is a limited one. A Forrester survey revealed that just five per cent of US online consumers report using a wearable device to track their daily activity level. Though another 25 per cent express interest in fitness wearables at the right price, the reality is that many

“interested” consumers won’t ever actually adopt a device.However, if you bring the enterprise to bear on this market, the

potential increases. Fitlinxx, a healthcare wearables company, is working through providers of employee wellness programs, healthcare providers, healthcare insurers and fitness facilities to expand its reach to consumers who might otherwise never use a wearable.

For example, National Jewish Health, a healthcare provider in the US, created a weight-loss program that integrated Fitlinxx’s wear-able technology. Over 2000 people joined the 12-month program voluntarily. Those who completed the program lost five per cent aggregate weight on average and saw a 13 per cent year-on-year reduction in healthcare costs.

Stronger, easier authenticationOther vendors are targeting enterprises to distribute wearables to their employees. Authentication is a good example. Workers can be forced to respond to so many authentication requests in the course of the workday that it actually cuts into their productivity.

Most of these requests are addressed by just one of the three factors of authentication: something you know (a password, generally). An enterprise-focused vendor called Bionym, which was spun off from the University of Toronto, adds the two other factors – something you are and something you have – in an ingenious way. All three factors com-bined guarantee uniqueness, and the design of the Bionym approach adds persistence, which saves workers time by removing the need for repeated authentication.

Where the Bionym product is unique is by measuring heart patterns with an electrocardiogram (ECG), a completely individual identifier that is something you are. It offers persistence because the ECG is taken via a wristband – something you have – so that once authenticated,

a worker remains authenticated on all devices and applications until the band is removed. Something you know comes into play when the user accesses the Bionym application on a registered device.

New forms of employee collaborationAt their best, enterprise wearables enable new usage scenarios. Some of the most interesting of these involve collaboration among employees.

Sociometric Solutions offers smart ID badges with a difference: they track employees’ locations within the office and then correlate that data to track collaboration with peers. The badges also capture social signals (for example, is the employee listening to peers, or interrupting them?).

Company managers receive aggregate reports on trends, and individual employees can learn how they compare to peers. Say that successful people in your role spend 25 per cent of their time col-laborating with the R&D department, but you only spend 10 per cent of your time doing so. With this data, employees can work to improve their performance.

Vidcie by Looxcie employs head-mounted cameras to empower real-time video-based collaboration. For example, field services workers in manufacturing, telecommunications and other technically complex fields can stream videos of their current project and receive real-time input from peers. In the best cases, repeat visits can be avoided.

Ultimately, both IT professionals and business leaders should embrace enterprise wearables as an opportunity to increase worker productivity, create loyal customer relationships and drive business process reinventions for their companies. ¢

JP Gownder is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, serving infrastructure

and operations professionals.

Wearables will reshape the way enterprises workBy JP Gownder

Information Age February/March 2014 | 23Views : start-ups

A venture capitalist has one single job: to invest in companies that will become more valuable over time and return profits to investors in their funds, and to themselves. They do that job best, with the highest profits, when they fund the next big thing and turn the status quo on its head.

That sort of next-big-thing innovation either steals value (as in money) from the status quo (think Amazon versus retail) or creates net new value where none previously existed (think Google, which created a whole new industry).

For a VC, the investment cycle is completed with an exit: the VC-funded company is sold or goes public. The big exits historically have occurred when a company uses its VC funds to foster innovation and then competes to either crush the existing incumbent at its own game or create whole new games to be played.

But in the technology industry, we haven’t seen much of those grand VC investment cycles over the last 15 years. VCs are playing small ball. Most particularly in the area of IT infrastructure, they’ve stopped building companies that innovate toward the next big thing, and instead have been building companies that merely plug holes in the big incumbents’ portfolios. The big incumbents aren’t crushed; they’re just ruffled a bit, and then they buy up the new company that has a small-scale innovation, and the status quo lives on.

I don’t blame the VCs for this change in priorities. When the public market dried up in about 2000, the only viable exit left was to sell the VC-funded company to one of the big, deep-pockets guys in the same market. And if VCs are going to have a place in life other than being a role model for blue blazers in the workplace, they have to create returns for their investors (and perhaps more importantly, themselves).

For a long while, the IPO exit was pretty much dead. It became clear to VCs that it was a gross waste of time to try to build a company that had better stuff than EMC or Cisco or IBM or whoever. The innovative

little start-up that you funded might actually be able to pull that off, but then what? Where was the exit?

So companies were funded not to become the next Apple, but to become the proverbial “finger in the dike” for a big buyer. Innovation stopped occurring for the market at large and started occurring to plug holes for specific companies. And a lot of times the outcome has been that the start-up that was acquired had its innovations shelved so that they couldn’t interfere with their buyer’s ability to keep collecting money for non-innovative stuff.

This is what has been happening. Just about all of the VC-funded innovation out there has been sucked up by the incumbents. EMC has acquired over 30 companies in the last few years. Cisco has acquired well over 100 since 1999.

There have been exceptions, but they have been few and far between. 3Par and Data Domain come to mind. They had truly innovative stuff and defied the terrible IPO markets to create exits. In the end, they were acquired too, but at least it didn’t happen until after their IPOs and their chance to leave their mark on the world.

This state of affairs won’t last forever, but it won’t be going away anytime soon, either. Recent large-scale innovative successes will certainly get VCs’ attention (you know they sat up and took notice when Twitter went out at $25 billion). But when it comes to tech infrastructure, how long will it take for truly innovative companies to emerge that can change the way we operate as an IT society? It could be many more years. ¢

Steve Duplessie is the founder of Enterprise Strategy Group, where he is a senior analyst. You can read his blog

at thebiggertruth.com.

How venture capitalists destroy innovationBy Steve Duplessie

Careers : ICT skills Information Age February/March 2014 | 24

ICT skills for 2014:reading between the lines

Big data and mobile app development top the list for recruiters this year, but many companies are still looking for ICT professionals who combine technology expertise with deep business knowledge.

By Deanne McIntosh


You would have had to have been living under a rock for the past year to have missed the hype: big data cornered most of the headlines in 2013.

Now, recruiters are predicting, comes demand for ICT professionals who can wrangle massive amounts of data.

However, other opportunities exist for ICT careers beyond the big data trend. We spoke to Australian ICT recruiters for their take on the market.

Peter Noblet, senior regional director of Hays Infor-mation Technology, said that towards the end of 2013, business confidence started to rise, which he says should feed through into the labour market in the first few months of 2014.

“A big area of growth in 2014 will be crossover roles,” he says. “As the technology, marketing and finance worlds integrate, it will be key to find people who can move across all sectors, with multilevel knowledge.”

Big data: judging demandIf you’re looking to steer your career in the direction of big data, experts suggest you should broaden your focus beyond the technology to business issues.

“IT is mainstream now,” Noblet says. “It is just part of doing business. Employers are looking for technology professionals that know what questions to ask to harness the information gathered by big data projects.”

According to Noblet, anyone wanting to take on these roles will need to be able to communicate with many sectors of the business and, crucially, be able to persuade business leaders to invest in the technology.

“An intra-company approach is really key with big data,” he says. “We’re really seeing a merger with this role. Who owns big data? Marketing or technology? Both departments need to be involved.”

Alex Jones, associate director of technology at Rand-stad, backs up this emphasis on business understanding, but suggests it’s becoming critical for most ICT roles, not just business intelligence or big data ones.

“Employers see that understanding as an asset,” Jones says. “If they have two candidates with the same tech-nical experience they will look at the one that’s been more involved with the business and can show where IT added value.”

When it comes to job roles, Noblet says project man-agers and business analysts with experience in data manipulation projects will be in demand this year, along with more companies starting to look for data scientists.

And here’s another new job title for you: chief data officer (CDO). According to research firm Gartner, large global organisations are starting to appoint CDOs to manage data across an organisation.

Debra Logan, research vice president and Gartner Fellow, highlighted the trend in a recent blog post. Logan

wrote that there are currently 100 staff with this title, twice as many as in 2012.

The majority of CDOs are hired by American compa-nies (65 per cent), with 20 per cent in the UK. Gartner research also found that the proportion of female CDOs (25 per cent) is twice that for CIOs (13 per cent).

“Banking, government and insurance are the first three industries to adopt the CDO role and in that order,” Logan says. “However, we are now seeing other indus-tries following. For example, we saw the first significant appointments in the advertising industry in 2013.”

Go mobileThe other area employers are scrambling to find talent is the mobile app development market. Peter Noblet says there is strong demand for Javascript developers with HTML5 and CSS3 skills.

“Yet so few candidates combine both elements and are therefore able to build complete systems,” he says. “Given insatiable customer demand for apps and an improved user experience, the skills shortage will become a more pressing concern in 2014.”

According to Noblet, companies are looking to move beyond apps that are built for entertainment and points to Cricket Australia and the Nine Network’s app that successfully combines user experience with business value by driving cricket fans back to Nine’s site.

Careers : ICT skills


HybridsThe cloud is also having an effect on the hiring land-scape. Randstad’s Jones says demand is strong for profes-sionals who can navigate the privacy and security issues of moving to the cloud. Privacy and security knowledge is also required for mobile projects, he says.

Enterprise architects who can work on SaaS projects to pull all the pieces together are also in demand. “Busi-nesses are buying best of breed products and need staff to handle integration,” he says.

According to Jones, employers are also seeking ERP and enterprise software experts with scarce skill sets. “We’re seeing companies seek out the best technology from around the world, but then find there is no local expertise for these products.”

In the infrastructure space, Noblet says employers are looking for senior WAN and LAN managers with Cisco and Juniper experience but the landscape is shifting. “There are a number of challenger brands coming through,” which he says suggests that network experts, like those in enterprise software, need to closely monitor the vendor marketplace to keep their skills in line with business demand.

In fact, both Jones and Noblet suggest a willingness to embrace training will set candidates apart from the crowd.

“The world is changing rapidly and it will be smarter to recruit candidates who can – and want to – learn new skills, rather than candidates who may only be fit for today,” Noblet says. “Candidates should not only meet the required technical and soft skills for a role, but also possess an aptitude and desire for learning.”

Julie Mills, CEO at the Information Technology Con-tract & Recruitment Association (ITCRA), agrees that keeping skills current is crucial. ITCRA closely monitors the ICT contractor and permanent role market for its member organisations, who are mainly IT recruiters, and Mills says the challenge is for job seekers to do “the work to get the work”. ITCRA has a number of programs, for example, to help older workers keep to up-skill and keep their knowledge and certifications current.

ITCRA’s latest Skills Match Dashboard, which tracks the employment landscape in Australia, released in November, found that most ICT roles took just 16 to 17 days to fill. The dashboard results show SAP, infra-structure and Microsoft desktop support achieved fill rates below 30 per cent, which suggests a gap between the skills mix available and the demands of employers.

“There is a much bigger conversation nowadays about what makes a suitable ICT candidate than 15 years ago,” Mills says.

“It’s not just about IT skills now that IT professionals are not working in a back room. Now that businesses are leaner, candidates need to combine technology expertise with communication and social skills to be considered for the roles.”

AdviceSo what else can you do to keep pace with the changing local ICT market? As well as focusing on training, our experts suggest tweaking your resume to emphasise how the projects you were part of contributed to the business bottom line.

“Instead of listing soft skills, provide concrete examples in your CV that show your part in the business outcome and your role,” Noblet says.

Similarly, Jones suggests ICT professionals seek out opportunities to build their communication skills and business knowledge by working with as many facets of the business as possible. “We advise candidates to get involved as much as possible with a variety of stakeholders,” he says. “Candidates that can combine technology expertise and skills with experience that shows they are close to the business will have the brightest future.” ¢

Deanne McIntosh is the editor of Information Age.

Careers : ICT skills

Information Age February/March 2014 | 27Preview : ICT Skills White Paper

Where to go?The latest ACS employment survey provides important insights into the skills required across the job spectrum – essential reading for all ICT professionals planning their careers.

For a little over 20 years, the ACS has conducted employment surveys each year to track the local ICT marketplace. In 2013, a new section was intro-

duced to concentrate on skills.Respondents to the survey were asked to nominate the

top four skills they use in their current role using skills defined in the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

Over 5000 people responded to the 2013 survey. The results were then summarised in a white paper that iden-tifies the skills profiles for 25 common ICT job roles. These job roles represent the collective returns of 3629 survey participants.

Here, we provide a preview of the data collected in the white paper.


What does this mean for ICT professionals?Whether you want to benchmark your skills against other ICT professionals in your job role, or explore other roles that require your skills, the results provide a valuable resource.

The survey data provides a clear understanding of skills mobility both horizontally across ICT job roles of similar skill levels, and vertically. What’s more, you can see evidence of market demand for specific skills as well as the skill sets that offer greatest mobility in the ICT employment market.

For example, skills with strong horizontal mobility identified by the survey include systems design, pro-gramming/software development, consultancy and IT governance. In terms of vertical mobility, you may want to concentrate on systems design, IT governance, con-sultancy, programming and testing.

Preview : ICT Skills White Paper

The key finding from survey respondents is SFIA job size alignment for twenty five common ICT jobs. 3629survey respondents provide a data set that is unique and robust. SFIA Job Size Align-ment identifies the dominant SFIA classification by job role as shaded in grey.


You may be interested to see the substantial diver-sity and breadth of skills within each job role. Survey respondents were limited to identifying just four SFIA skills, yet collectively they identified a minimum skill range of 14 for business development managers, and a maximum skill range of 64 skills by ICT consultant respondents. The table on the previous page outlines the range of skills respondents identified in the dominant SFIA job size category.

“If every organisation used the same set of infrastruc-ture, software and hardware tools, and people with the same skills, there would be little differentiation,” Andrew Johnson, ACS chief operations officer, said.

“My interpretation of the survey data is that the breadth of skills reported highlights that people come to their roles from a wide variety of backgrounds, and employers recruit for a variety of different needs. It’s organisations identifying where they see a gap in the market and developing their business plans to add value in that space.”

The white paper presents skills profiles for 25 common ICT job roles and we feature four here to give you an idea of the scope of the data.

What does this mean for businesses?For an organisation, the skills profiles provide invaluable benchmarking data to compare the skills profile of your workforce with that of the broader ICT sector. Compa-nies can then use this analysis to support human capital strategic planning and more carefully target recruitment plans and workforce development plans. ¢

Preview : ICT Skills White Paper

Information Age February/March 2014 | 30Regulation : privacy

New privacy principles on the wayIs your business ready for the changes?

By Loretta Johnson


ACS members should now be working on setting up their privacy policies before new Australian Privacy Principles come into force 12 March this

year. After meeting with Australian Information Com-missioner, Professor John McMillan, ACS provides this summary of your new obligations as a service to members. We will also be holding awareness seminars around the nation in May-June.

If you are an “entity” under the Privacy Act, you will be required to ensure that privacy compliance is included in the design of your information systems and practices. From this date the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) will have extended powers to review your privacy policies, and some of the new obligations go beyond current principles.

The introduction of the APPs is one of the significant changes under the new laws. Currently, Australian Government agencies are covered by the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs), while the private sector is covered by the National Privacy Principles (NPPs).

Thirteen new Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) will replace the former NPPs and IPPs in March, establishing a harmonised, mandatory regulatory regime for the handling of individuals’ personal information by entities defined under the Act.

These reforms are among the most extensive introduced since the original Privacy Act was passed in 1988. They apply to individuals, bodies corporate, partnerships, any other unincorporated associations, and trusts. Small business operators are exempt, but in general a small business operator is defined as a business with an annual turnover of $3,000,000 or less for a financial year, unless an exception applies.

There are several exceptions but the one most relevant to ACS members is a business that discloses “personal information about another individual for benefit, service or advantage, or provides a benefit, service or advantage to collect personal information about another individual from anyone else…” This may include applications developers who fit within these descriptions.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has made it clear that ‘own motion’ privacy audits will be part of the new enforcement powers granted under the Act. This means the Information Commissioner can enter your business to conduct audits at any time, whether or not your organisation has had a previous privacy breach. Civil penalties up to $340,000 for individuals and $1.7million for companies can be applied by the Federal Court for breaches of these new APPs.

What are the key APPs?All thirteen APPs are central to the new privacy regime to be established on 12 March. They are structured to capture all aspects of the lifecycle of personal informa-tion – from consideration and collection to access and

correction. They govern a range of issues including direct marketing and cross border disclosure.

Where do I start?To ensure you comply with the new regime the best place to start is APP1, which sets the groundwork for the other twelve, and is also where the OAIC will look to assess compliance. This APP promotes a ‘privacy by design’ approach

to ensure compliance is built into all your information systems, policies and processes. You must implement practices, procedures and systems relevant to your activi-ties that ensure you comply with all APPs, allowing you to deal with complaints from individuals about the way you have handled their personal information.

Your privacy policy must contain certain elements such as how you collect and hold information, why you collect and use that information, correction procedures, and whether you disclose information across borders to other countries and (where practicable), what those countries are.

APP5 is closely related to the requirements under APP1. APP5 outlines when you must notify an individual that you are, in fact, collecting their personal informa-tion. Introducing a further requirement over current obligations, APP5 also requires you to notify how they can access and correct that information. If you are likely to disclose their information to an overseas recipient, you must also alert the individual as to the intended location of any overseas recipients of that information, where practicable.

These reforms are among the most extensive introduced since

the original Privacy Act was passed in 1988

Regulation : privacy

Professor John McMillan


Sending information overseasAPP8 permits cross-border information disclosure. It imposes as yet untested obligations on entities in Australia to take reasonable steps to ensure that anyone overseas who receives an individual’s personal information dis-closed by that entity treats the information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act. It also makes the APP entity accountable if the overseas recipient mishandles the information.

There are some exceptions to this requirement, including whether the provision of personal informa-tion to overseas recipients amounts to a “use” and not a “disclosure”, for example, a ‘use’ by a foreign office of the Australian entity.

APP8 is clearly aimed at trying to manage any further high-profile data losses and breaches such as the recent ones that have raised cross-jurisdictional issues. But the Privacy Act sensibly recognises there are circumstances where an overseas recipient may be legally required to deal with Australian personal information in a manner that would normally amount to a breach of our Act. For example, the Patriot Act (USA) may require the overseas recipient to disclose personal information to the US Government. In these circumstances, the APP entity in Australia would not be responsible under the accountability provision for the disclosure required by that Act.

New guidelines availablewww.oaic.gov.auTo clarify new concepts, the OAIC has released the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) guidelines to assist businesses and government in compliance.

“March 12 will see the biggest change in privacy law in 20 years, and the APP guidelines are an essen-tial tool for the implementation of this change,” Aus-tralian Information Commissioner, Professor John McMillan, said.

“We have put a lot of work into producing the APP guidelines, including extensive public consultation, so that we can maximise their usefulness to business and government,” he said. “The APP guidelines not only outline minimum compliance requirements, they also provide practical examples of best practice.”

Enforcement approachThe OAIC will adopt an “enforcement pyramid” approach to this new regulatory regime. As a first step, the OAIC will expect individual complainants to try and resolve their matter with the organisation or entity before referring it for investigation by the OAIC. Once accepted by the OAIC as a review matter, resolution through mutual agreement and conciliation will be normal practice. If that fails, other tools available to the Office are determinations, enforceable undertakings and civil pecuniary penalties. As indicated earlier, these penalties are considerable.

The private sector has been working with the Privacy Act and its attendant concepts for over twelve years now, so these developments should not come as a surprise. In addition, the current reforms were introduced eighteen months ago for public consultation and most of the obli-gations are not new, but rather revised or expanded.

What should you do?If your procedures and policies are robust you are on the

way to best practice. In any case, some practical steps are:• Be ready for 12 March with your APP policy based

on ‘privacy by design’;• Review your information security plan to make sure

your systems comply;• Review your data breach processes. Although

legislation covering mandatory notification of breaches was not passed last year, acting quickly to mitigate any damage is the best way to protect business reputation, and

• Start doing Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) for every new project. The OAIC provides a PIA Guide to help you www.oaic.gov.au at “Privacy Guides”.

Business reputationBest practice privacy policies are becoming market dif-ferentiators, most especially since recent research by the OAIC indicates that 60 per cent of Australians have decided not to deal with organisations because of privacy concerns and 48 per cent believe that online services and social media pose the greatest risk to privacy and information security.

If your organisation shows leadership and good con-sumer education surrounding privacy, it may well deliver positive competitive outcomes for you. The OAIC is conducting Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) in May 2014 and is inviting entities to sign up as PAW Partners to indicate their commitment to privacy. Various events and opportunities are available for you to display your privacy best practices. ¢

If you would like to participate this year, send an email to [email protected] to sign up as a PAW partner for

PAW 2014.

Regulation : privacy

Information Age February/March 2014 | 33ICT industry : start-ups

Start-ups and start-up investors have long complained that current tax rules for employee share option plans (ESOPs) have a negative effect on the development of a vibrant start-up community in Australia.

WHAT

THE

ALL ABOUT?

FUSS

Start-up employee share option plans

By Philip Takken

IS


Start-ups are integral to creating a modern digital society and economy and the support of the federal government is therefore of great importance to the

start-up community. The sector is ‘swimming upstream’ already due to its lack of accessibility to significant cus-tomers and funding and its relatively high salary costs.

However, change is on the horizon. Treasurer Joe Hockey said in an interview with BRW last year that Labor’s changes had “put a handbrake” on start-ups and the Coalition would look at winding back Labor’s policy in its first term. Recently, the government commenced consultation meetings with stakeholders and the hope is that tax legislation will change down the road to provide a more fertile ground for growing start-ups.

What is the fuss all about?Besides the complexity and costs associated with setting up employee share option plans, the main criticism is that under the current taxation regime, employee share options are taxed at a time other than when employees receive the proceeds from exercise or sale.

For an employee who accepts share options from a start-up, it means that he or she needs to pay taxes upfront, but the potential benefit of a share option might never materialise as significant uncertainty about the start-up’s viability and success remains.

The consequences of this tax legislation should not be underestimated. It means simply that start-ups are hamstrung in their ability to retain and attract top talent as there is no alternative to adequately compensate

employees besides offering competitive salaries, which is difficult for them due to lack of funds.

Arguments about missing out on tax revenue from employee share option plans should not apply as start-ups generally don’t realise significant value (particularly in the first years after commencing operation), with a greater return to the national budget likely at later stages.

Solutions don’t have to be overly complicatedDeloitte made a submission to Treasury and the Depart-ment of Industry outlining a plan for reforming the taxa-tion rules surrounding ESOPs, which we believe would significantly improve the start-up ecosystem and help start-ups by allowing them to better incentivise employees.

A few simple suggestionsFirst, get the definition of a start-up right and apply it to the entities Australia is most seeking to incentivise. In its submission to Treasury, Deloitte suggests defining start-ups as “an Australian-based business with con-solidated revenue of $15 million per annum or less and providing (new) products or services for no more than 10 years in Australia”.

Second, simplify the set-up and maintenance of employee share option plans, including the share valuation methodology used for ESOP tax purposes. Deloitte’s plan also calls for standardised documenta-tion for ESOPs to be accessible on the ATO’s website to further minimise efforts to set up an ESOP and to increase access to such plans.

In other words, maximise the benefit of employee share option plans at minimum costs. The available cash needs to go to the development of operations in order to maximise the chances of the start-up’s success, rather than the set up and maintenance of complex employee share option plans.

Finally, tailor existing tax regulation of employee share options to recognise the unique circumstances of a start-up, including providing for concessional tax rates. In particular, employees should be taxed only upon the sale or disposal time (exit event, including IPO) when cash is available, and not at any time prior.

Lots to gainThe government would do well to reconsider the current taxation of employee share options more broadly to support the business community, productivity and employee engagement in general. In the meantime, the government’s review of employee share options and start-ups with a view to the development of a vibrant digital economy is a good first step.

In addition, it’s worth noting that by helping to create a more robust economy with more dynamic entities, the government will ultimately gain as most successful start-ups will be taxable in the long run. ¢

Philip Takken (MACS CP) is an officer on the ACS NSW Branch Executive Committee. He is a senior director

in Deloitte’s technology, media and telecommunications audit and assurance practice in western Sydney. The

views in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu or any

of its affiliates.

ICT industry : start-ups


?

ICT management : big data

The tech media buzz surrounding big data suggests that organisations should invest huge sums into hiring and retaining highly skilled (and highly paid)

data scientists. In reality, most firms will address their big data challenges by using data analytics technology and training employees they already have to turn big data into smart data.

Small businesses, big dataFor many smaller and mid-sized firms, the hype sur-rounding big data doesn’t resonate and probably won’t translate into hiring. Tim Herbert, director of research at US trade association CompTIA, says the challenges smaller businesses face aren’t truly related to big data,

“A lot of companies don’t actually have big data problems – they have smaller challenges,” Herbert says. Many of these data challenges crop up between IT and other departments such as marketing, finance, and business operations, as SMBs uncover their true business objectives and figure out how to make raw data into actionable intelligence.

BIGDATA’S BIG

QUESTION

How many data scientists does the world really need?

By Sharon Florentine


?“While they need to find ways to take their business

data and translate that into business intelligence, most of these SMBs are looking at data analytics and technologies like Hadoop and realising they don’t need anything as huge, powerful and scalable,” Herbert says.

CompTIA’s second annual “Big Data Insights and Opportunities” study, released last year, shows that many of these SMBs will instead invest in training and education for their existing employees rather than hire a formally trained data scientist.

“Hiring these costly, highly trained, highly educated data scientists just isn’t practical for most businesses, so they’ll put their money into what resources they already have,” Herbert says.

CompTIA’s study found that in most cases, SMBs will rely on existing business analysts and financial analysts, although these people will need additional technical training.

In many businesses, this is already happening. According to the study, sales and research departments saw their participation in big data-related initiatives climb from 17 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, to 27 per cent and 25 per cent.

Based on these numbers, it seems big data already is moving from its niche in the IT department and into many other business units and departments, but that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, Herbert says.

“Most companies may not realise that they have to first invest in making sure their data’s in a format that can best be analysed to derive value,” he says. “Finding

the technology to do that is the easy part. It’s finding and nurturing the analytical talent and expertise that’s hard, and that will take some more time.”

Large enterprises, larger data challengesRoger Gaskell, CTO of big data analytics vendor Kog-nitio, says the initial demand for data scientists will be higher at larger enterprises as these organisations try to squeeze every last drop of value out of their data and their sophisticated business intelligence solutions.

Most large enterprises looking for a competitive edge will jump at the chance to hire staff who can use the data they’ve collected to try predicting the future of the markets, sales cycles and trends, and customer behaviour rather than just react to what’s happened, Gaskell says.

“If you want some predictive analytics, you’re going to need to hire a few of these data scientists, but whole armies?” he says. “That’ll be too expensive.”

Instead, enterprises will find ways to train business and financial analysts, as well as the ‘average business user’ to perform data analytics using automated tools.

“The feedback we’re getting from customers is that they want just a handful – maybe three, or five, or seven – skilled and highly educated data scientists,” Michael Hiskey, Kognitio’s vice president of business development and marketing, says.

Enterprises will surround those data scientists with business analysts, then surround those people with a group of younger staff, Hiskey says.

Big data reality versus the hypeFor now, it seems the rush to mint highly trained, highly educated data scientists can be chalked up to hype and buzz, especially since the ICT industry is still in begin-ning stages of big data usage and relevance, according to Ankur Gupta, head of global sales and marketing at MetaScale, a Hadoop solutions provider.

“Sure, enterprises are looking for people with a sta-tistical and predictive modelling background that can dig deep into data, understand trends and how to spot them, but they also have to have the patience to wait until trends and activity become clear,” Gupta says.

“Right now, we see a trend toward companies wanting and needing that human touch, the expertise to parse data and use it to make decisions. But we’re in the early stage of big data development, and as technology catches up, we believe that companies will offload these functions to machines, software, to technology. You don’t need to hire 10 data scientists to do the job.” ¢

Sharon Florentine covers ICT careers and data centre topics for CIO.com. Follow her on Twitter @MyShar0na.

“If you want some predictive analytics, you’re going to need

to hire a few of these data scientists, but whole armies? That’ll be

too expensive.”

ICT management : big data

Information Age February/March 2014 | 37Trends : internet of things

The oft-used phrase “Internet of Things” is one emerging tech jargon abstraction that average users are still noodling over in order to better understand

and appreciate it. Here’s one reporter’s attempt to give it some meaning.

Let’s start with some concrete examples in the con-sumer electronics realm. At its booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, Belkin showed off a Wi-Fi-enabled Jarden crockpot. The crockpot uses Belkin’s WeMo technology to connect the slow cooker’s IP address to the Internet through a home Wi-Fi router. The company also showed a Wi-Fi-ready Mr Coffee

automatic coffee maker.Prices haven’t been announced for either appliance,

but users can control both devices over the Internet. They can turn on the coffee or heat up Irish stew from pretty much anywhere in the world, just as can already be done with a Nest thermostat and other devices.

The Wi-Fi capability allows an office manager to turn on the morning coffee pot in the break room before arriving or a catering firm to fire up the cooker at a remote location.

Dozens of fitness wrist bands and smartwatches were also on display at CES. For example, the Fitbit Flex can

monitor your heart rate, vibrate to wake you up or advise that your last night’s sleep was restless and disrupted. Other devices, like the new Pebble Steel smartwatch, are connected through Bluetooth to an iPhone or Android smartphone acting as a hub for using Wi-Fi or mobile to reach the Internet. Conceptually, a person’s bodily functions could be distributed to a doctor for further treatment or used to compare to a fitness database.

Amid the chaos of the CES are thousands of vendors and tens of thousands of visitors looking to view an esti-mated 20,000 new products. These products on display could hit store shelves this year, or might not blossom into consumables for up to a decade. Most are targeted at consumers, but Internet-connected devices, or “things”, are already running in industrial sites to control electricity generators, water pumps, traffic lights and more. Some don’t need to connect over the Internet at all; they can rely on a local network.

Smaller form factorsFor several years, the tech world has used small or embedded processors and computing devices in cars, smartwatches, tablets, PCs and smartphones. ARM, for instance, says that it works with nearly 250 device makers with 1000 ARM licenses to run ARM microcontrollers, tiny devices of just 2mm x 1.9mm and which help keep the “things” they are inside of smaller than ever.

More recently, short-distance (such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) and long-distance (such as 4G LTE, which is 10 times faster than 3G) wireless networks have vastly improved in functionality. The networks are faster, of course, but also focus on preserving battery power, as with Bluetooth Smart, based on the Blue-tooth 4.0 specification.

There are also more than one million smartphone or

The CES show floor illustrated how we’ve arrived at the Internet of Things.

By Matt Hamblen

Of Internet-connected crockpots, cars and smartwatches


tablet applications in each of Google’s and Apple’s app stores, and some of those Android apps even work the latest smartwatches.

The Nepture Pine smartwatch, due out in March, features a 2.4-inch colour touchscreen that will run most Android apps, allowing users to play the popular Angry Birds game in a relatively tiny form factor, for example. The watch’s multiple radios, which use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even 3G wireless, make it even more functional.

That may sound fantastic, but most analysts think the trend will be toward the development of much smaller, more fashionable smartwatches that can lure in more buyers, especially women. The trade-off is that smaller watches likely need their own apps; many smartwatches now support fewer than 20.

The price of sensors used in many devices has dras-tically dropped in recent years, also helping drive the Internet of Things. For instance, an accelerometer sensor used in a smartphone that cost around $US7 six years

ago now costs just 50 cents, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, which operates the CES.

You get the idea.

Mash-upWhat’s happening in 2014 is a massive technology mash-up of silicon, wireless networking, apps and data that can be stored almost anywhere and retrieved almost at any time, as long as the network is up and running and the devices have power.

On the power side, prices of batteries for portable devices are also dropping fast.

Casio unveiled a runner’s watch, the STB-1000, with two years of battery life. It can be connected to free apps on an iPhone via Bluetooth and will be available for Android later this year.

These products in the Internet of Things are not just physical and touchable parts, but also the data that can be as elusive as fairy dust but travels as electrons through

networks everywhere. Some people will laugh at a Wi-Fi-ready crockpot, but others who work out of the home and still need to prepare dinner will say “I can use that!”

Good enough, but what’s still missing is an answer to whether average users want to be constantly con-nected to data about their pulse and heart rate (or a number of other metrics) while running a 10K road race, or whether consumers

want constant access to any number of other data points in a car or home.

Given the sheer number of consumer electronics vendors showing Internet-connected devices at CES, the answer would seem to be that data on just about anything will be shared and available on many new com-monplace devices in the next two years.

A recent Wi-Fi Alliance survey of 1000 US residents over 18 showed that more than half already have a Wi-Fi-enabled household appliance, thermostat or lighting system. Wi-Fi is installed in more than four billion products already, and is expected to surpass 10 billion in 2018, according to ABI Research.

Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa says he personally uses a fitness band that can be connected to the Internet via Bluetooth, and a Wi-Fi weight scale that helps him track his weight history from a data stored in the cloud. “It’s useful,” he says. “I’ve had it a while, since I got married.” (Figueroa isn’t overweight, but says he doesn’t want married life to lead to a middle-aged bulge.)

Figueroa is amazed at the kinds of things being con-nected to the Internet, but says he had to chuckle when he heard of the Wi-Fi-ready crockpot. “What else are they going to connect?” ¢

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for

Computerworld. Follow Hamblen on Twitter at @matthamblen.

Trends : internet of things

Internet-connected devices, or “things”, are already running in

industrial sites to control electricity generators, water pumps, traffic

lights and more.

Information Age February/March 2014 | 39ICT management : careers

The only way is upIT leadership lessons you can learn from failure.

By Rich Hein

In the world of IT, things can and will go wrong. Failure can come from a number of events, such as rushing to get too much done in a single project instead of

breaking it down into smaller, more manageable projects. It can come from not allowing enough lead time for developers to do their part on the back-end, or even from a consultant or vendor that led you down the wrong path.

Data security issues in the workplaceWhatever the case, failure does happen; it’s to be expected. As the saying goes, life is “10 per cent what happens to you, 90 per cent how you react to it”. Failure doesn’t have to be a negative. With


the right attitudes and processes in place it can be edu-cational, informative and sometimes transformative.

You know from a logical perspective that you should learn from your mistakes. That is drilled into many of us from childhood. The problem, according to experts, is that in the corporate world, a lot of companies don’t handle failure well. They don’t have adequate processes in place to examine why something failed, but that is a huge necessary part of the learning process.

“Looking back over the past 15 years of our industry, I didn’t see enough thorough, objective reporting on these kinds of failures to help people like myself in the trenches,” Victor Lombardi, Rosenfeld Media consultant and author of Why We Fail. “I thought it was so important to learn these lessons that I spent two years researching and writing the case studies in my book. I selfishly wanted practical guidelines based on actual industry failures that I could use in my own work.”

In this world, if you can’t learn from your mistakes you are doomed to repeat them. In the business world, if you make the same mistakes a few times you could be looking for another career. Steve Jobs had failures in his career before he changed the game, as did Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and PayPal.

What separates bad leaders from good leaders and possibly good leaders from visionary leaders is their ability to gain insight from those failures that will help them succeed the next time around. These tips are from experts to help you make the most of bad situation and possibly avoid future IT project failures.

Create a safe-to-fail environmentFor large, complex companies, learning and evolving can be a slow road. Behaviour has to change at myriad levels. In order for IT to keep pace and deliver what the business needs to succeed, you’ve got to empower your team to try new things.

The problem arises when new things don’t work out and you or your organisation are more focused on placing blame then solving the problems at hand. How willing and enthusiastic will workers be to step out of the normal routine? The answer is, not very, so the question becomes, do you as an IT leader create an environment where people on your team feel comfortable to speak up and voice objections large or small?

Niraj Jetly, CIO of NutriSavings, an online employee wellness service set up by employee benefits company Edenred, says a safe-to-fail environment by design encourages creativity, risk-taking ability and innovation.

“It allows employees to experiment with new ideas and provides an environment where failure is an acceptable outcome,” Jetly says. “At NutriSavings and Edenred, we actively promote innovation and help our colleagues take calculated risks to ensure on-going learning.”

IT leaders, understandably, don’t want to create an environment where there is no accountability for failure. They can be concerned that if they appear too accepting

of failure, workers won’t necessarily be motivated to perform at their highest standards but rather what they feel they can get away with.

According to Amy C Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and author of the 2011 article ‘Strategies for Learning from Failure’, that isn’t the case. According to her research, there are in reality very few blameworthy acts that are what she calls “deliberate deviance”. The rest fall into more of a grey area where placing blame isn’t very easy or useful.

Don’t shoot the messengerJetly says failures are an inevitable part of business and technology, and empathy is the best way to respond to a failure. “Empathy communicates trust and people perform best when they feel trusted,” he says. “If a person is already low on confidence due to guilt of failure, our focus should be to help the person to come out of that guilt and later on help them reflect back on what could have been done differently.”

Avoid the blame gameAccording to Edmondson, the blame game is still such a challenge because it is so deeply ingrained in our psy-chology. As small children, we learn pretty early on if we do something wrong we get blamed.

It’s an emotionally unpleasant feeling that we don’t want to experience and we try to push it away. That childhood feeling follows us through our developing and adult years, and we bring it into the workplace for reasons that are both emotional and quite logical, as it is connected with promotions and other activities. We don’t want to be blamed for things going wrong, she says.

Do you as an IT leader create an environment where people on your team feel comfortable to speak up

and voice objections, large or small?

ICT management : careers


Own your mistakesIf it was your fault, don’t try to shift blame own up and move forward, Jetly says. “Everyone makes their fair share of mistakes. One of the lessons that I have learnt through experience, is that rather than defending yourself, accept the mistake as soon as it is realised. Early acceptance helps significantly in aligning efforts to quickly take corrective action. In addition this provides much needed peace of mind.”

Set up processes where failures are examined and learned fromFinding out why things went wrong is important and, of course, if there were blameworthy mistakes they should be handled, but the real purpose is not to find out who is at fault but instead to get to the heart of the problem, to find a solution, a workaround or a new direction.

“What you learn from [mistakes] is not to make that same mistake again,” Roy J West, founder and CEO of talent management firm The Roy West Companies, says. “That is the net sum. This is the most difficult concept to let go of, especially if you are the one with the clipboard and or the one with the hammer.”

Jetly likes to perform what is referred to as a “sunset review” or “post mortem” report and offers an outline on how this type of evolution typically goes. The designated meeting chair discusses the objective of the meeting and encourages everyone to share ideas without judging anyone else. Every team member is allocated pre-defined time to answer the following three questions:1. What went well on the project?2. What did not go well?3. What could have been done differently?

A designated scribe takes notes and after everyone has shared their opinion, the meeting is open for discussions and analysis.

“Though this may seem like a stretch at times, these meetings provide valuable insight into how things really went during the course of project and hold a store of valuable lessons for the future,” Jetly says.

Lombardi, on the other hand, says there has been a lot of progress in the past few years to combine itera-tive, testing-oriented methodologies like Agile with the metrics-based approaches of online marketing. “Formal methods such as lean start-up and customer development are essentially a way to reinstate the scientific method back into our work, almost like we’re reinstituting the practice of having R&D departments but in a more prac-tical, customer-oriented way that’s integrated with our normal project work,” he says. “Using these methods, my recommendations centre around distinguishing hypotheses from facts and knowing how to prioritise, test, and learn from your hypotheses.”

Be an effective communicator and know your workersCommunication skills are one of the most important skills an IT leader can have. Not communicating effectively has been the downfall of many an IT project. West gives the example of Don Clifton, former chairman of the Gallup Organisation and the father of strengths-based thinking, who believed that the fastest way to destroy someone was to demand or expect something of them they are not capable of.

“Failure is predictive when the person being charged with a task [or] mission does not have the talent to perform

to success,” West says. “It is also predictive when the [manager] has not provided the desired outcome with great clarity and is not focusing on what the employee does best.”

To be an effective leader, you often have to commu-nicate to people the reasons things are being done to help them understand what’s important.

Learn from the competitionSuccessful leaders help their organisations by looking at the mistakes and failures (as well as successes) of others in their industry. Being able to identify possible issues this way could help your organisation sidestep a problem that caused other companies to miss the mark.

Incentivise workersCreate a program where IT pros are encouraged to report unforeseen problems and have those who stave off failure are rewarded.

“Don’t fall in love with ideas, or personalities or pro-gress for the sake of progress,” Lombardi says. “When we remember that new, untested ideas are really hypotheses and run experiments to find out if they work or not, we’re on the path to avoiding failure.” ¢

Rich Hein is a senior writer, covering ICT careers and developer topics.

ICT management : careers

Being able to identify possible issues this way could help your

organisation sidestep a problem that caused other companies

to miss the mark

Information Age February/March 2014 | 42Software development : best practice

Healthcare.gov is arguably the US’s most public software failure of the decade, but the amazing thing about this story isn’t the failure. That was

fairly obvious. No, the strange thing is the manner in which often conflicting information is coming out. Writing this piece requires some archeology: going over facts and looking for inconsistencies to assemble the best information about what has happened and what lessons we might learn from it.

A thorough examination6 software development lessons from Healthcare.gov’s failed launch.

By Matthew Heusser


1. Sprints and iterations do not an ‘Agile’ project makeOne of the biggest arguments about the Healthcare.gov debacle is the development method. Pundits suggest that, since war room notes use terms such as sprints and story cards, the project used an agile approach. Moreover, since it failed, agile approaches do not inherently reduce risk. Then again, CBS News claims that Healthcare.gov reduced its schedule for testing from months to weeks, suggesting that Healthcare.gov was never properly tested.

In agile software development, the terms “sprint” and “iteration” mean the time for a new, completed chunk of software development to be designed, coded and fully tested, end-to-end. The standard length for teams to start with iterations is two weeks; improvement beyond that generally means shortening the iteration.

Many teams use “sprint” or “iteration,” only to insert waterfall concepts. Language such as “three architecture sprints, six coding sprints, two test sprints and two hard-ening sprints” is usually a clue that something’s wrong.

But there’s something else more sinister in the Health-Care.gov project.

2. The system produced the outcome, not the lack of testingIf you’ve worked on a waterfall project with a defined test phase, you know it’s not really a “test” phase at all. Once the first show-stopper bug is found, it’s actually a fixing phase.

To state that Healthcare.gov wasn’t fully tested implies that the test group either never found any show-stopper bugs or didn’t have the ability to halt the project. Given the legally required go-live mandate, the second option seems realistic.

One thing we do know for sure: the organisation rushed ahead with coding before it knew answers to questions. That’s no recipe for success.

We know because at go-live the JavaScript code itself was still full of filler text that a non-decision maker typi-cally insert onto a page or pop-up. Programmers know that something goes wrong but need to get the language approved, so they write lorem ipsum and move on. This is exactly the kind of thing that happens when people are under a deadline and can’t get answers to their questions.

Mike Adams, editor of NaturalNews.com, found dozens of critical JavaScript errors by simply viewing the source and following links. Here’s a small sample:

“TODO: add functionality to show alert text after too many tries at

log in”

“make sure we don’t try to do this before the saml has been posted if

(window.registrationInitialSessionCallsComplete)”

“Attention: This file is generated once and can be modified by hand”

“Fill In this with actual content. Lorem Ipsum”

“TODO: maybe modify the below to use a similar method instead”

People in the organisation must have known the site was not ready. Perhaps they spoke up and were overruled. We don’t know.

The problem at Healthcare.gov wasn’t a lack of testing. It was a lack of critical thinking. Still, the site did have a prime testing contractor. Sure, the testers didn’t have months, but they did have weeks. What were they doing?

3. Testing should be part of the delivery processSoftware services company QSSI was the lead test con-tractor on Healthcare.gov, providing services it refers to as independent verification and validation, or IV&V.

Here’s what QSSI has to say about its own IV&V process: “Our IV&V services are consistent with the latest systems engineering and process improvement models, and are derived from industry standards, including the IEEE Standard 1012 -2004 Standard for Software Verification and Validation and the CMMI process maturity framework.

“QSSI provides an objective assessment of products and processes throughout the project life cycle in an

Language such as “three architecture sprints, six coding

sprints, two test sprints and two hardening sprints” is usually a clue

that something’s wrong

Software development : best practice


environment free from the influence, guidance, and control of the development effort. Services include: criticality analysis, requirements analysis and tracing, software design analysis, milestone reviews and metrics, code review and analysis, document inspection [and] defect Investigation, plus training evaluation, planning, execution, reporting and witnessing.”

Look at the QSSI careers site and you see a lot of focus on these standards, policies and procedures; in particular, that IV&V involves tracing requirements to implementation.

That’s one aspect of product risk, but it’s certainly not a whole-process look. The agile manifesto changed the focus of software from “processes and tools” to “individuals and interactions” back in 2001. That same year, software engineer Joel Spolsky suggested it was possible to pass every functional test yet still have a product that isn’t usable.

The real reveal, however, comes from the 175 pages of war room notes from the early release of the website. The notes focus entirely on dealing with trouble tickets that occur in the field. There’s no connection to testing. At no point in the document – nowhere – does anyone go back and say, “Here’s the list of things deferred at go-live as known issues.”

The entire process is firefighting. Testing wasn’t seri-ously considered. If testing actually occurred – real testing, not fake testing – it failed to make any meaningful con-nection to operations or support or project management. Testing failed to recommend a no-go decision.

If testing can’t affect the schedule or product in any way, it’s just waste. Better to eliminate it altogether.

(After repeated phone transfers, no one from QSSI was available to comment on its testing of Healthcare.gov.)

4. Do it manually before you automateAfter a great deal of failure and public fall-out from Healthcare.gov, customers started to use the paper appli-cation process as an alternative. Sounds reasonable, until you realise the paper applications would be mailed to a customer service centre using the same Web-based technology to determine eligibility.

In other words, if you give up on Healthcare.gov because you can’t purchase insurance, you can mail a paper application to a processing centre where a human will try to enrol you manually in Healthcare.gov. That doesn’t work. Neither the federal government nor any known contractor has any way of ensuring eligibility manually. The lesson here is, if you have a large-scale

adoption and have to flip the switch, make sure you have a way to flip it back and can execute manually.

5. By law, the system had to be perfect, but it wasn’tHealthcare.gov must verify a would-be applicant’s eligibility from Homeland Security, IRS and Social Security systems, in real time, and enrol members electronically to any registered insurance company in any of the 34 US states that don’t have their own state health insurance exchange.

Information needs to be completely accurate, so every request needs to run-submit information, over Web ser-vices, to an insurance company. That means users click Submit, then wait for a back-end Web services call, and wait and wait and wait.

This is because the system was supposed to work in “real time” or synchronously. Except it didn’t.

It turns out that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created a spreadsheet with the basic rate table information. Healthcare.gov could have been a very simple process: type in zip code, click Submit, select age and family factors, get quote and get number to call to purchase insurance.

We know this smaller scope could have worked because it does work. A tiny company called OpsCost took that spreadsheet and implemented a website doing just that in fewer than two person-weeks. The site is thehealth-sherpa.com.

The real reveal, however, comes from the 175 pages of war

room notes... The notes focus entirely on dealing with trouble

tickets that occur in the field



This comparison is obviously unfair. HealthCare.gov had to do more, including end-to-end enrolment. Healthcare.gov customers were supposed to be able to sign up on a government webform and have the transac-tion automatically flow into an insurer’s system.

Instead of an 80 per cent system for a fraction of the cost, the customer insisted on 100 per cent by force of law. Lacking the capability to actually develop such a system, the contractors made their best attempts and shipped whatever they had on the end date. The results, while tragic, aren’t exactly a surprise.

OpsCost co-founder George Kalogeropoulos says the company’s biggest surprise while validating the market was that a huge number of customers wanted to window shop. They wanted a quote without giving up personal informa-tion such as phone number or Social Security number.

At go-live, Healthcare.gov worked on the opposite model, forcing personal information before allowing users to see a quote. (This policy has since changed.) That allowed Healthcare.gov to force users to agree to terms of service, and to connect to back-end servers at the IRS, Homeland Security and other agencies. Those are great features for the end of the process, but when your users want to window shop, perhaps less so.

6. Threat modelling mattersBen Simo isn’t a black-hat hacker. He doesn’t spend his time trying to “crack” things. He’s a developer/tester who knows how to view source code and use the

developer tab to look at back-end Web transmissions, mostly RESTful services. That’s exactly what Simo did with Healthcare.gov.

Simo didn’t succeed in signing up, but he did find a site that transmitted his username and email in plain text, loaded insecure resources and could reveal user IDs and email addresses through log-in notification messages.

Perhaps worst of all, the password reset feature results

in data combinations that could enable phishing attacks. An attacker logged in as you can get personal information from REST service responses, including name, address, date of birth and Social Security number. That’s exactly the kind of information identity thieves can use to get false credit cards or gain access to bank accounts.

It appears that Ben Simo was more concerned about personal information appearing on the Web than the people who made Healthcare.gov.

Simo’s analysis has been quoted in Time, on CNN and

during HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ congressional testimony. Simo is a former president of the Association for Software Testing, and I’ve served on its board of directors. We’re regular humans. How did one of us find not a single defect but a systematic mess?

It’s likely that security testing was faked, overlooked or ignored for Healthcare.gov, just like functional testing. Don’t let this happen on your watch.

Ultimate lesson from Healthcare.gov: take an incremental approachIt’s early in the Healthcare.gov lifecycle. We know the project’s failure was systemic – multiple failures on mul-tiple levels – but we don’t know exactly what did happen. Identifying all the issues might make for a good book some day, but it’s far too much for one article.

Putting together the six lessons here, though, and you’ll see a pattern: Healthcare.gov was a single, big bang roll-out that couldn’t be stopped.

At this early stage, if you can take only one thing from Healthcare.gov, it’s this: use incremental approaches such as betas, early testing and regular delivery of a completely tested system, in tandem with flexible scope to find risk before it finds you.

The saddest part about the Healthcare.gov failure isn’t that is so massive. The saddest part is that the failure was both predictable and greatly preventable. ¢

Matthew Heusser is a consultant and writer. You can follow him on Twitter @mheusser.

Putting together the six lessons here, though, and you’ll see a pattern:

Healthcare.gov was a single, big bang roll-out that couldn’t be stopped


Information Age February/March 2014 | 46ICT management : cloud computing

Cloudy forecastingHow to determine if your application is suitable for the cloud.

By John Humphreys


We know by now that cloud computing offers significant benefits, but is it ready for mission-critical applications? After all, failure of these applications can result in the failure of the business.

According to a recent survey, concerns about security and availability are the main barriers stopping organisations from moving mission-critical apps to the cloud. Only about 30 to 40 per cent of large enter-prise applications are in the cloud, most of which are for collaboration, conferencing, email and sales force automation.

If the concerns can be allayed, there are benefits the cloud can offer for critical applications, the most important being scalability and reli-ability. In many cases, cloud service providers can provide faster access to additional computing resources and have implemented a higher degree of infrastructure redundancy than individual enterprises have. These same providers can also elastically scale computing resources much more efficiently and cost-effectively, as resources can be shared across their customers.

Service providers have taken note of industry concerns and started to offer services built for these critical applications with higher service level agreements (SLAS.) A perfect example is The Bunker, a UK-based cloud services provider that provides ultra-secure hosting and cloud services for financial services organisations, technology companies, local government and other regulated businesses that place a premium on secure and resilient IT services. In fact, the company’s systems are housed in state-of-the-art, nuclear bomb-proof data centres. This is serious security for the company’s government, financial services and other business customers.

However, cloud is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some applications are a good fit for the public cloud, others are better suited for a private cloud, and some applications shouldn’t or can’t move to the cloud at all. Additionally, cloud services vary greatly from one provider to another, with different SLAs and capabilities.

When evaluating whether a particular application is suitable for the cloud, some of the factors to consider are redundancy, the application’s ability to migrate, performance, security and cost.

Questions to consider about the cloudWhat level of system and network redundancy is needed to ensure 24x7 application availability, and at what cost? While the highest level of availability could be achieved by duplicating all systems, storage and networking infrastructure, this is an extremely costly scenario that isn’t realistic for most enterprises. Instead, an N+1 approach, where individual assets can be the backup for multiple systems, can provide the availability level required at a much lower cost.

If considering a public cloud provider, has it proven it can provide the SLA the app needs? Should you have an alternative provider that can take over immediately in case of a failure or do you need to have a back-up system in place internally? What does that require in terms of duplicating data across two sites?

Is the application cloud-ready? Many legacy applications weren’t written with portability or virtualisation in mind, and may be tied to very specific environments that can’t be duplicated in the cloud. For example, they may run on older operating systems, require out-of-date drivers, use legacy databases or lack proper security. Other apps, like database or performance-intensive applications, may be best run on bare metal. These include many financial services trading applica-tions, where revenue is directly tied to how fast a transaction can be completed. Furthermore, regulations and industry practices may mean that public clouds are not yet a good choice for a subset of applications.

ICT management : cloud computing

Service providers have taken note of industry concerns and started to offer services built for these critical applications with higher

service level agreements.


Can your cloud provider support these requirements, and with the level of availability needed? Is this a good case for an internal cloud service instead?

Can the service provider deliver the level of performance your appli-cation needs? Modern applications are written in tiers and each likely has a different performance and availability requirement. The front end, or web tier, can be easily distributed to provide the scalability and availability an application requires. The middle tier that provides the business logic may also have been written to accommodate a distrib-uted server model for easy scaling and high availability. The back end, or data tier, is the most likely to require a single physical computing environment, so it is imperative that a defined approach to scaling and availability be put in place.

The questions to ask therefore are: can the cloud service enable dynamic scaling of compute nodes when required? Will your data volume overwhelm the network pipe to the cloud? Is the service provider set up to handle complex tiered applications? Does your database need a bare metal server and if so what does it take to provision and manage it?

Future of the cloudWhile security concerns remain in the enterprise world, they are less-ening as enterprises get more experience with cloud services and as service providers focus on enhancing security. The recent Future of Cloud Survey from North Bridge Venture Partners and GigaOM shows that security as an inhibitor is declining year-over-year from 55 per cent of respondents in 2012 to 46 per cent in 2013.

As organisations are realising the benefits of cloud computing, an increasing number are choosing an internal option. All recent industry surveys point to a growing use of internal clouds as ICT starts to transform internal infrastructure into more flexible and cost effective private cloud services.

Hybrid clouds, which bridge public and private clouds, are forecast to grow at a considerable rate, with the Future of Cloud survey predicting that hybrid clouds will be the most prevalent model within five years.

Cost factors are always an important consideration. Given the level of systems and network redundancy and availability required for mission-critical applications, an analysis of the cost of hosting these apps in-house versus the ongoing cost of using public cloud services must be done. Some of the most important factors to consider in the analysis include:• Internal hardware costs: are new systems required or can you

adapt existing infrastructure? Remember to consider the costs for fail-over and disaster recovery computing, storage and network infrastructure.

• License costs for third-party software such as hypervisors, databases and applications.

• Internal operational expenses for managing internal infrastructure and software, power and cooling costs etc.

• For capital purchases, the cost of capital leases and depreciation.While a quick analysis may indicate that an in-house deployment is

cheaper than ongoing cloud expenses, that may not be the case. Cloud providers are likely to have better economies of scale that translate into lower operating costs, higher availability and redundancy, and easier scalability.

All indications are that mission-critical applications are moving to the cloud at an increasing rate as new and more secure cloud services are offered in the market-place. Some legacy apps are being replaced by SaaS solutions, cutting down on the number of apps that can’t be moved.

The important point is that decisions about moving to the cloud need to start from an application standpoint, with a thorough consideration about viability, availability, performance, security and cost. Doing this work will point to the right cloud – public, private or hybrid – or maybe no cloud at all. ¢

John Humphreys is VP of sales and marketing at Egenera, a cloud and data centre infrastructure management software provider.

ICT management : cloud computing

All recent industry surveys point to a growing use of internal clouds

as ICT starts to transform internal infrastructure into more

flexible and cost-effective private cloud services.

Information Age February/March 2014 | 49ICT industry : ethics

Since June 2005, I have provided these regular articles on ethics and profession-alism in our industry, from a variety of

sources. Late last year, the editor sent me an article written in October 2013 by Dan Tynan, entitled ‘6 dirty secrets of the IT industry’, with the subtitle ‘IT pros blow the whistle

on the less-than-white lies and dark sides of the tech business’. Here is a link to the full article. It would be useful to read this first.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/6-dirty-secrets-of-the-it-indus-try-229416#disqus_thread

Dan Tynan is an experienced, award-winning IT journalist, with a large portfolio of work, including several articles with their titles in this fairly common, number-based format.

Here are the six dirty secrets he identified, with my very brief summary of each item:

Are IT people really this unethical?Our ethics editor takes issue with claims of a hidden underbelly of professionalism in ICT.

Mike Bowern MACS (Senior)


Dirty IT secret No. 1: When the IT fox is guarding the data hen house

System administrators abuse their position by accessing users files and network activities.

Dirty IT secret No. 2: When “retired” IT assets enjoy a surprise second career

Employees steal IT equipment no longer in use.

Dirty IT secret No. 3: Storing data in the cloud is even riskier than you think

It is risky storing data in the cloud.

Dirty IT secret No. 4: Your budget’s slashed, but the boss has a blank cheque

In medium to large organisations, senior people can get around purchasing procedures.

Dirty IT secret No. 5: You’re getting the short end of the customer support stick

Customer support is expensive.

Dirty IT secret No. 6: We know a lot more about you than you think

Organisations collect massive amounts of personal data from their customers.

A problem I have with this article is that the author makes a number of generalisations based on the opinion or experience of one or two individuals who work at a high level in relevant IT companies. No evidence is provided to support the claims. Also, it is debatable whether the

matters raised are really secret, dirty or not.However, taking the claims at face value, they raise a

number of questions of ethics and professionalism in our industry. They imply that IT staff behave unethically, and organisations are not aware of the problems that can arise from the facilities they use, and the decisions they make. Of course, that could always be the case, but there are ways to minimise those risks. The article is referring to IT professionals and organisations in the US; I hope I am not being naïve in thinking that these matters would not be so widespread in Australia.

ProfessionalismThe first secret relates to the behaviour of systems admin-istrators, who regularly access the data and network activities of their users – the term ‘mini-NSA’ is used to describe this practice. The article suggests that this happens in 50 to 90 per cent of organisations. The article does not report any motive for the system administrators accessing this information, or what they do with it.

The report of this secret is the only one which refers to the ethics of professionals. To quote, “In fact, only ethics keep IT people from misusing and abusing this power”; and “Enterprise security is only as secure as the ethics of trusted IT administrators”. So the article is implying that at least 50 per cent of system administrators in the US behave unethically.

At this point it is relevant to repeat the definition of a profession, from the Professions Australia website: “A profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge

and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others.

“It is inherent in the definition of a profession that a code of ethics governs the activities of each profession. Such codes require behaviour and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual. They define and demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues. Further, these codes are enforced by the profession and are acknowledged and accepted by the community.”

The administrators in Tynan’s article are referred to as professionals, but clearly they do not fit this defi-nition. Administrators in Australia may be members of the ACS, or the Systems Administrators Guild of Australia, SAGE-AU. The US has similar groups to which administrators may belong, including USENIX, and the League of Professional System Administrators,

Whether these issues are secret or not, they could mainly be

addressed if the organisations involved had a set of business systems covering purchasing

and contracting goods and services, and asset disposal; and a code

of ethics or conduct for the guidance of their professional staff.

ICT industry : ethics


LOPSA. All of these organisations have their own codes of ethics to govern their members. The values of the public interest, honesty and professionalism in the ACS code of ethics are relevant to this issue.

Case by caseThe second secret Tynan mentions is that employees steal IT equipment from their organisation that is no longer in use. One informant says he has never met someone from IT that doesn’t have a “collection” of hardware at home, meaning stolen hardware. The other informant says he has never met anyone in the industry with that particular mindset. This section of Tynan’s article has no supporting evidence. Also, it is no secret that some people in any occupation do steal from their employers.

In the third claim, the risk is that a company’s data stored in a cloud facility could be acquired during the investigation of an unrelated organisation, because it was stored on the same servers as that organisation. Law enforcement and other government authorities may have a legal basis to seize data storage systems, meaning that the data stored by all customers on a system may be impounded, and inaccessible to those customers. The secret is that organisations using cloud storage may not be aware of this risk.

I would expect IT professionals to be aware of this risk, and provide advice to implement storage solu-tions for their organisations to mitigate it. Perhaps the first question to ask is “what problem are we trying to solve by storing the data of our organisation and its customers on a storage system in a remote and possibly unknown location?”

The fourth secret, on IT purchasing in medium to

large organisations, has a format similar to some of the others. It starts with an unsupported claim made by one informant, followed by a rebuttal from another.

Here is the unsupported claim: “People at the senior leadership level have their own procurement pipeline. What takes an IT person eight months to obtain through official channels these execs can get in a few weeks, if not sooner. It’s what I call the Diamond Preferred plan. I’ve never worked with an organisation in government or private industry that didn’t have a secret procure-ment path.”

The rebuttal notes that there are formal ways to bypass an organisation’s purchasing procedures, for urgent projects. Surely all government departments in the US have purchasing procedures to ensure the proper expenditure of taxpayers funds; and medium and large companies have similar financial requirements? If this secret is true, what does it say about the work of financial auditors and other financial regulators? These people are professionals too.

It is not really clear what is the point of the fifth secret, about customer support. The president of a “boutique support firm” catering for small to medium sized enter-prises states, “IT support is a cheap commodity. Tools that do most of it for you are free, and computers require less knowledge now than they used to. Your neighbour’s daughter or the tech-savvy guy in accounting can prob-ably fix your computer as well as any IT company.” The rebuttal to this is that not all problems are the same, and these non-professionals fixing your computer may end up wreaking havoc. Surely, any IT professional would ensure that any contract would be the most appropriate for the technology being supported?

Public interestThe last secret opens with “Think the NSA has you under surveillance? They’re punks compared to con-sumer marketing companies and data brokers”. So what is the secret? We know masses amounts of personal data are collected when we use retail purchasing services, online or not. But how many people read the privacy policy of an organisation when they sign up to use its online services or loyalty card?

This claim illustrates the sort of dilemma that can occur when a professional is trying to follow the values of the ACS, and they contradict each other. Organisations that collect personal data would argue correctly that the services they provide from their systems, developed by professionals, help to enhance the quality of life of their customers.

However, these same professionals would recognise that the first value of the ACS is the primacy of the public interest, including the requirement to preserve the confidentiality and privacy of a person’s information.

Whether these issues are secret or not, they could mainly be addressed if the organisations involved had a set of business systems covering purchasing and con-tracting goods and services, and asset disposal; and a code of ethics or conduct for the guidance of their professional staff.

Finally, I suspect that “6 dirty secrets of the IT industry” will never achieve the success and circulation of “7 habits of highly effective people”. ¢

Mike Bowern MACS (Snr) is retired, and continues to support the publication of these ethics articles on behalf

of the ACS CCE.

ICT industry : ethics

Information Age February/March 2014 | 52Software : CRM

Go to any CRM vendor’s website and you’ll be inundated with wondrous tales of how the CRM system can transform your business, increasing

profitability and customer satisfaction at the same time. Providing executives with a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, enabling real-time responses to myriad customer problems, and improving sales pro-ductivity and predictability, all while whitening teeth and freshening breath.

The good news is that there isn’t a single lie in any one of those websites. (What they say has to be true in some universe, if not the one we inhabit.)

Of course, a CRM system itself doesn’t transform anything. It’s a piece of code providing visibility, auto-mation and follow-through. What actually will change business performance is the behaviour changes in your people and the process improvements enabled by the CRM system.

3 ways CRM improves your business processes

Thinking realistically about your organisation’s needs will help you make the right CRM choices.

By David Taber


Buying the best CRM in the world is like buying a Ferrari or Lamborghini. You won’t immediately win any races. In fact, by themselves, these cars won’t make you a better driver.

Seen in this light, a CRM system can be viewed as a tool that helps you realise your team’s potential. It’s like buying a better tennis racket or the coolest new skis. If your organisation doesn’t have the potential to really do what you want – to play tennis, as it were, or to ski – the CRM project merely exposes that.

Think realistically about your organisation’s readi-ness and the breadth of how you actually manage and cultivate customer relationships today. There are plenty of business categories that have yet to evolve to need everything that’s on the CRM menu. So let’s take a look at the big three CRM use cases.

1. The CRM system as a smart filing cabinetIn professional services firms and boutique financial services, for example, the main focus of the CRM system is to make sure everyone in the organisation knows the history of the relationship. The relationships are long-running, sometimes lasting decades, and there’s no classic sales focus.

One tell-tale sign of this kind of organisation: nobody has the word “sales” or “account manager” on a business card, and there’s little focus on traditional lead generation. Of course, transactions occur, but the real deal-making is done over dinner or golf. The sales cycle is implicit, and the deal stages may be as simple as universe, interested, negotiation and closed.

The focus of this use case is collecting and organising as much information as possible, as easily as possible, about prospects and customers. Key inputs are email, contact lists, address books, event planning/execution and documents. Key outputs are customer and prospect status reports and activity summaries by segment. Even in these simple systems, however, there’s a real need for mobile device access and remote collaboration. That’s why cloud CRM applications have been cleaning up in this area.

2. The CRM system for collaboration and coordinationIn companies focused on account management, renewal or up-sell business and multi-phase contracts – for example, large capital equipment manufacturing, OEM supply chains or commercial construction – the CRM’s main function is enabling collaboration and coordination among marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, service and support. In these companies, sales and support cycles are clearly delineated, typically embodied in up to eight discrete stages, even though they are complex and sometimes intertwined.

In addition to the scope described in the “smart filing cabinet,” the CRM system needs to be integrated with several other IT systems to provide at least daily updates to the customer “state of play”. Further, the system will need to have several lightweight workflows with alerting emails and user prompts to make sure the ball is moving down the field. Collaboration with customers is typically enabled using communities and user forums, live-chat

Software : CRM

Think realistically about your organisation’s readiness and how you actually manage and cultivate

customer relationships today


windows on the website, and customer support agents, all integrated with the CRM.

For organisations that need to do a lot of customer or prospect problem solving, a collaboration system such as Chatter or Jive should be integrated with the CRM to improve organisational responsiveness. This goes double if your company has a large set of Internet-based cus-tomers, as that’s where problems fester quickly.

3. The CRM system as taskmaster and process driverThis is the most ambitious CRM use case, with the biggest results for organisations that really are ready. High-per-forming B2C electronics, software, gaming and financial services, or B2B high-tech, all need highly synchronised marketing, sales and customer service organisations. There will be high quotas, high commissions and tight service level agreements, both internal and external.

Here, the sales and support cycles are closely measured and highly standardised. These companies often have multiple marketing, sales and support processes running in parallel; for example, standard versus 24x7 support, or enterprise versus SMB sales. In these organisations, you may see metrics even on predictions, such as forecast accuracy or models of backlog-burn-down rate.

In this use case, the CRM must do everything from the first two use cases while adding tighter linkage with other systems and business processes. Instead of advisory messages or read-only data, the CRM needs to become the heart of a giant state-machine. Workflows, approval cycles, escalations and management by exception need

to be implemented for marketing deliverables and pro-grams, sales cycles, order expediting, customer support and professional services. Collaboration will be more tightly integrated as well: call centre phones are linked to the CRM, and customer support is provided through self-support portals. This goes double if the company sells through multiple channels.

These are the most mouth-watering projects for CRM integrators and consultants. If you need all of this, budget accordingly.

Which CRM implementation is right for you?The foundation of each of these use cases is information sharing and increased visibility. Every CRM implemen-tation should see those benefits. The three CRM use cases described above can overlap, too. For example, one department in your company will operate at the collaboration and coordination level, while another uses the CRM as a task master.

That said, implementation and optimisation of the CRM system will be a lot easier if all users in any one department agree on which use case is in play. If there’s confusion, or if there’s a severe mismatch between what the system is “tuned” for and what the users are actually capable of doing in business process discipline, a muddled implementation and low probability of project success are bound to follow. ¢

David Taber is the author of Salesforce.com Secrets of Success, published by Prentice Hall, and the

CEO of SalesLogistix, a certified Salesforce.com consultancy focused on business process improvement

through use of CRM systems.

Software : CRM

Implementation and optimisation of the CRM system will be a lot

easier if all users agree on which use case is in play

Information Age February/March 2014 | 55Networking : trends recommend

We can expect an expansion and elongation of the trends in software-defined networking we saw in 2013 – more implementations by end

users, more work on standardising SDN APIs, more deployments of leading vendors’ products like Cisco ONE and VMware’s NSX, more vendor customisation, more industry consolidation and more killer applications.

“I expect that 2014 will be a rubber-meets-the-road for SDN, and vendor solutions will be put to the test to see if reality meets or exceeds expectations,” Bob Laliberte, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, says. “Given this environment, organisations will really need to deliver.”

All of this activity will help drive the SDN market beyond $US3 billion in the next two or three years, according to research from IDC and Infonetics Research. IDC believes it will reach $US3.7 billion by 2016, while

Infonetics is a little more conservative, with a forecast of $US3.1 billion by 2017.

The new year should bring more war stories; some will include tales of more stable implementation and the applications that ride on top of them. Cisco expects security automation, analytics and mobility enablers to be among the killer SDN apps for 2014.

Laliberte agrees on security. “Security … has consist-ently ranked as the top network challenge throughout this year and is top of the list for SDN solutions,” he says. “I would also expect solutions around WAN optimisation and [application delivery controllers].”

Other solutions will come from the ecosystem part-ners of the major SDN vendors, Laliberte says. He expects those ecosystems to be a major source of expan-sion in 2014.

“We need to see the fruits of the partner ecosystems

that were announced, so it would be great to see validated solutions coming to market based on multiple vendor ecosystems,” he says. “Perhaps consumerisation of IT takes hold in networking, and this takes the form of network app store as HP [has] suggested.”

This may be aided by a standard northbound API from the SDN controller to the orchestration systems and applications, Laliberte says. The OpenDaylight consortium is working on such an API, as is the Open Networking Foundation, which announced its intentions very recently.

A spokesperson for vendor Brocade says the company believes customers will include these as checklist items for 2014 purchases.

“Although it may still be too early for full SDN deploy-ments, a key decision-making criteria for infrastructure will be to ensure that infrastructure will support SDN

SDN in 2014: more of everything

Last year saw loads of activity in software-defined networking (SDN), including the introduction of Cisco’s response to the hardware-marginalising

trend. This year promises to be no different.

By Jim Duffy


going forward,” the vendor says. “Open architecture will be key to this future-proof strategy.”

But Laliberte believes SDN application developers may not wait for a standard before embarking on their work.

“I would anticipate that ecosystem partners will not wait for a standard to integrate their solutions where they believe a first mover advantage will yield significant market share gains,” he says.

Indeed, further vendor-specific customisation of SDN platforms – which include developers writing to non-standard APIs – are expected in 2014. The advent of SDNs a few years ago brought a lot of open standard hyperbole with it.

Merchant siliconeNow that vendors acknowledge the demand for SDN, they’re likely to do whatever they can to get customers to buy, and keep buying, their offerings.

Cisco’s Nexus 9000 switches and application centric infrastructure (ACI) fabric, for example, are widely regarded to be unique to Cisco, or proprietary program-mable network products. Cisco is expected to ship the lion’s share of its Nexus 9000 line in 2014, as well as the application policy infrastructure controller (APIC) for programming the switches.

The Nexus 9000 includes merchant silicon as well as Cisco-developed custom ASICs, and the APIC for ACI is a Cisco development as well. Cisco will sell the Nexus 9000s in two modes: standalone and ACI-mode. Standalone will use the merchant silicon and allow cus-tomers to pick and choose open source software and SDN controllers, like OpenDaylight and others that support OpenFlow.

ACI-mode will leverage Cisco ASICs and APIC, and deliver the full value of an ACI fabric – hardware

acceleration, deep visibility into application interaction and behaviour, and granular service level metrics.

But customers may demand that their suppliers come to some open middle ground with SDN. Whatever cus-tomised direction a vendor takes, a potential buyer might pull them in another.

“In 2014, customers will want vendors to bring order to the chaos and show the industry how SDN should be implemented,” Arpit Joshipura, vice president of product management for Dell Networking, says. “In a fragmenting market with numerous open source and open standards efforts, and competing vendor strategies, customers will vote with their wallets. Smart vendors will follow. Customers will force networking vendors to agree on a more cooperative, open approach that will make SDN practical and real.”

Cisco says it already has 305 “serious” customers for ACI at deals ranging from $100,000 to $100 million. Network virtualisation rival VMware also has a cadre of high-profile customers for its NSX product, including eBay, Rackspace and AT&T.

Network virtualisationAnalysts expect NSX implementations to be among those that accelerate in 2014.

“VMware’s NSX [will] achieve a number of customer wins in accounts where VMware already has a presence,” IDC’s Brad Casemore says.

Laliberte says he expects not only more NSX deploy-ments, but more network virtualisation solutions in general to be deployed given the large number of network virtualisation announcements in 2013. “I would also expect to see Microsoft HyperV network virtualisation make its presence felt in 2014 as multi-hypervisor envi-ronments expand,” he says.

On the commodity white-box switching front, where proponents include Google and Facebook, Casemore expects further inroads in those types of hyperscale and cloud data centres, but it can only break out of that rare-fied neighbourhood and into the enterprise with support from a major IT player.

Casemore also expects SDN to make further inroads into the enterprise next year.

“We will see some adoption of campus SDN, including some impressive deployments with regard to scale and scope,” he predicts.

In the service provider world, Casemore expects Juniper and Nuage Networks to compete aggressively for network virtualisation overlay business in carrier accounts with their respective Contrail and VSP offerings.

Brocade, too, predicts network functions virtualisation (NFV) will gain significant traction in carrier networks next year.

“NFV will gain prominence and drive new revenue opportunities for service providers by pulling managed services into the cloud, drastically reducing costs and increasing service agility,” the vendor says.

And finally, Casemore expects some significant deal making to occur in the SDN market in 2014. Many in the industry believe that Arista Networks, which markets itself as a software-defined cloud networking vendor, has plans to go public.

Something like that will happen with Arista and others, Casemore says.

“Arista’s IPO finally comes to pass ... or the company is acquired, perhaps by an IT vendor not currently a major player in networking,” he says. “We will see at least one significant M&A event in networking in 2014.” ¢

Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 27 years. Follow him on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.

Networking : trends recommend

Information Age February/March 2014 | 57Careers : business alignment

Robert Handler, an analyst at Gartner, will never forget one of his earliest consulting jobs. “I was asked to gather enough data on a CIO to fire him,” he recalls. Handler dutifully began researching

the CIO’s current and past activities but could find no obvious missteps. In fact, the man in question was the best CIO he’d ever met.

Eventually, he returned to the CFO who had given him the assign-ment to ask why the CIO was to be fired. The CFO answered, “’He’s spending a lot of money, and everything seems to be working just fine,’” Handler says. “And I thought, ‘I don’t ever want to be a CIO!’”

Handler had encountered one of the paradoxes of the ICT world: technological achievements often result in things not happening – bad things, like outages, lost data or network breaches. “On a good day in

Don’t let the CEO wonder what you do all day

By Minda Zetlin

If there’s no crisis or big project to work on, CEOs may wonder what ICT does all day. Here’s how to make sure your contributions aren’t undervalued.


IT, nobody knows you’re there,” Joe McLaughlin, vice president of an emergency roadside assistance company in the US, says.

Worse, top executives may know that you and your staff are there, but they think you’re updating your Face-book profiles while waiting for requests for help. Like the CFO who Handler encountered, they may assume that if they don’t see new technology being deployed or major problems being repaired, there’s nothing much going on. In reality, a good ICT person will, for example, “be constantly looking at resources to find out about zero-day attacks and other threats,” Mike Vitale, CTO at webcasting provider TalkPoint, says. “If there is a threat, the provider will put out a patch quickly. But then I have to find out, if I install the patch, will it stop part of the website from working? People don’t know about the blocking and tackling that goes on every day.”

Chris Brady, CIO at inventory finance provider NextGear Capital, says there is a misconception that you can simply stand up servers and “they will run in perpetual motion from that point forward with no care and feeding involved.”

That misconception is easy to understand. Corporate executives may think enterprise ICT systems are like home computers: you set them up and they keep running with little or no intervention as long as security updates and patches are set to automatically download. It’s hard to argue with the logic that servers costing $50,000 or more should have at least the same capabilities as the $1000 Macs or PCs sitting on their desks at home.

The same goes for the functions they’re accustomed to using easily in the cloud, such as email across many different devices. “A lot of IT teams for the past 10 years have been supporting Microsoft products,” Vitale says. “Then – boom! – overnight this executive has an

iPad and wants it to work on the network. People are getting rid of BlackBerries and want to use Android or iOS devices. It sounds easy to them, but it’s not. They just expect it to work, and if it doesn’t, there’s a good deal of anger.”

Indeed, ICT often goes unappreciated unless and until something fails to work as expected. “I’ve seen a lot of companies where business units can overrule IT,” Vitale says. That philosophy holds, he says, unless an

important tech function fails. “Then they’re waiting for the IT team to swoop in and save the day. It’s the most thankless job in the world right up until something goes wrong.”

But while it may be tempting to deliberately break something or allow it to fail so as to gain the recognition that comes with fixing a business-affecting problem, deliberately doing your job badly will not be beneficial to your department, your employer or your career. And there are better ways to get ICT’s value across to top executives, even when things are running smoothly.

Let them know what you’re doingJoel Dolisy, CTO at network management company SolarWinds, says there is a conception that if he’s

concentrating on BYOD, all the old stuff like server patching and firewall configuration can take a back seat.

“But those things need to be taken care of as much as the new shiny projects do,” he says. The solution is to provide regular updates on what ICT has accomplished, which he does regularly with his CEO to show him that “people are not twiddling their thumbs all week waiting for problems to happen.

“Executives are sensitive to money and to the total headcount devoted to the IT department,” Dolisy says. “Providing that information on a regular basis is pri-mordial, because otherwise people think the money is going into a black hole.”

That’s not a good situation. “There’s a clear danger that if IT is not communicating well with the rest of the executive team and providing transparency into day-to-day operations, a lot of mundane tasks will be trivialised,” he says. “At that point, it’s difficult to deal with. The only thing that comes from the rest of the executive team is pressure to downsize the budget and downsize the number of heads, and only work on the new shiny projects. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

Vitale says he wonders about how many jobs have been outsourced “just because the IT team did a poor job of explaining what they do on a daily basis.”

Keep it short and sweetWhile many CIOs agree that it’s essential to let upper management know about ICT’s activities and accom-plishments, they warn that the task must be handled carefully because of the many competing demands on top executives’ attention, and the danger that they won’t fully listen to a presentation about technology operations, much less read a report about it.

For McLaughlin, the solution is to give the CEO a

“Some CIOs think if they can do project delivery well they

should be heralded. CEOs think, ‘No, that’s your job’.”

Robert Handler, analyst, Gartner

Careers : business alignment


written report, but make it a brief one. “It’s very simple and executive-level, and it’s one page,” he says. “Basi-cally, the question is: are we winning or losing? If we’re winning, maybe the executive can move on to something else. System availability was 99.89 per cent. Do we care about the 0.11 per cent? Maybe not.”

Brady tries to casually mention to the CEO whenever her team completes a substantial project. Let’s say they’ve just updated the company’s mail servers to the latest version of Microsoft Exchange. “No one’s going to see anything other than that the mail server has changed,” she says. “But that’s a pretty big project for the infra-structure team. So if you take your high-level project plan and explain why you’re doing it and the effort involved, they’ll see that there’s a substantial project your team is doing.”

Use the right measurementsIf you want top executives to value ICT’s efforts, it’s important to communicate those efforts in terms busi-ness executives care about. That means learning which metrics those executives are watching.

“For our CFO, an important metric is [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] EBITDA,” Kevin Broadway, CIO of MetroPCS, says. “IT contributes to EBITDA one way or another. As we invest over time and our expenditures change, we make

it worse when we’re spending money. So if we twist the metric to invest more in IT, in theory you should see a positive effect on EBITDA over time.”

How does this differ from return on investment, a much more commonly used measure in ICT depart-ments everywhere? It doesn’t, or not very much. In both cases, the key challenge for ICT and finance is to go back and measure the economic effects of a project after it’s completed and has been in place for a while. Broadway adds one extra step by figuring out how those effects accrue to MetroPCS’s general profitability. “The one-to-one relationship isn’t necessarily there,” he says, “but it’s another way to look at IT’s contribution at a macro level.”

In fact, Chris Curran, principal and chief technologist at PwC, says that you should alert the CEO to ICT’s accomplishments only when there’s a specific benefit the CEO would value. “It will seem interesting to the business only if you can, say, demonstrate that integration after a merger saved 20 per cent of operating expenses,” he says.

When bad things don’t happenExplaining business value to CFOs and CEOs gets more challenging when that value is the reduced or eliminated risk of a technology failure. But it’s important to make the effort. “The onus is on the CIO to translate those risks you’ve identified and make a compelling case as to what the risk is to the business,” Dolisy says. “What is the impact to the rest of the organisation if these things are not taken care of?”

Dolisy notes that as a CTO who also functions as CIO, he’s in a good position to understand the direct financial effects on SolarWinds if an ICT system fails. “I have a rough estimate of the costs in terms of downloads

and conversions if some of those systems are down,” he says. “That’s the only successful strategy: to really understand what the value of the technology working is to the business so you can translate those technical risks and express them in the business’s language.”

Whatever the benefit you’re trying to convey, Vitale advises seeking professional help in getting your message across. “You can leverage your existing assets inter-nally,” he says. “The corporate communications group within an organisation is very powerful, and I would encourage IT leaders to be very familiar with the people in it. They usually handle internal as well as external communications, and they’re only a step away from the C-level executives.”

To take full advantage of this communication channel, Vitale recommends submitting regular “pseudo news releases” to the corporate communications department telling them about ICT’s activities. “Any mature organi-sation has a number of ways to distribute this informa-tion internally, including intranet sites and even email blasts,” he says. “If your company uses social intranet software such as Jive, Salesforce Company Communi-ties, Podio, etc., it’s a no-brainer that you should stay active on these sites.”

What if your company doesn’t have an intranet or internal social network? “Sounds like a great project for IT,” he says.

Meeting higher expectationsWhile it’s important to highlight the value of infrastruc-ture maintenance and projects that prevent bad things from happening, today’s CIOs must also recognise that the rules of the game have changed. The great CIO that Handler was asked to help fire because everything was working fine? “That was the story circa 1994,” he says.

“You should always be part of the conversation,

whether it’s about IT or not.” Kevin Broadway, CIO, MetroPCS



“In 2000, about 70 per cent of IT organisations were viewed as a necessary evil. Today, only seven per cent are seen that way, and 90 per cent of senior non-IT leaders view IT as important to the business. People expect you to deliver change.”

Unfortunately, not all technology leaders see them-selves as change agents, he says. “Some CIOs think if they can do project delivery well they should be heralded. CEOs think, ‘No, that’s your job.’ Being able to deliver projects is table stakes.”

ICT being taken for granted is “a very common problem,” Curran says. “I think it comes from a lack of recognition of the two potential roles for IT. One is an internal-facing role about keeping the lights on, sup-porting the infrastructure and processing transactions. The second is a market-facing role to create new value around products and services.”

Not understanding that second role gets ICT organi-sations in trouble, he says. “There’s a lot of confusion about roles and responsibilities, and partnering across business functions is harder. But it’s how IT can bring potential value to the business.”

The most successful CIOs understand both roles, and initiate customer-facing projects. “My team knows the business: we are not order-takers,” Brady says. “We create new ideas and let the business know what we’ve come up with. We say, ‘We think it will make a difference, what do you think?’ We don’t wait for them to come to us.”

That approach made a huge difference to NextGear’s fortunes when the GFC hit in 2008. ICT had recently launched predictive analytics for its loan portfolio, and the analysis turned up a troubling trend: car dealers who borrowed from the company were keeping inventory in their lots longer and paying back loans more slowly than they had in the past. After discovering that, NextGear

determined that it could help keep its borrowers in business (and paying their loans) by encouraging them to sell hard-to-move cars at auction and avoid being overstocked. “We were able to spot warning trends six months earlier than our competitors,” Brady says.

It all goes along with the philosophy of continuous improvement, she adds. “Just because a process is working well doesn’t mean you should be happy with it.”

Besides, as Broadway says, if you content yourself

with keeping things running smoothly, you risk taking yourself out of the top management loop. “You’re not actively applying your acumen to the business problems of the day, so you’re not part of the conversation,” he says. “And you should always be part of the conversation, whether it’s about IT or not.” ¢

Zetlin is a technology writer and co-author of The Geek Gap: Why Business And Technology Professionals

Don’t Understand Each Other And Why They Need Each Other to Survive.


THE BRIEF LIFE OF A PMOWhat’s the average lifespan of a project management office or leadership role? In many companies, it’s two years, according to Robert Handler, an analyst at Gartner, which does regular surveys of PMOs.

“We noticed a pattern,” Handler says. “A project blows up, and someone in the company says, ‘It can’t happen again – how about a PMO?’ So the PMO is up and running, and for the first year everything is great.” Eventually, Handler says, the PMO manager gets bored and starts adding other functions such as IT governance, asking project owners to report on a regular basis, which merely has the effect of annoying them. No more projects blow up, but many are slightly late and/or over budget as is common throughout the ICT world. “So the PMO gets blamed and then disbanded,” Handler says.

That might be the wrong move, though, because the PMO was serving a real function. Statistically, he says, about one project in six will go horribly wrong – hugely over deadline or over budget or both, or is not completed or adopted. If that didn’t happen while the project management office or oversight person was in place, it’s because the PMO was doing an effective job.

“Somebody has to do that work,” Joel Dolisy, CTO at SolarWinds, says. “Someone has to work with stake-holders and define their requirements.” Unfortunately, he says, “people treat the PMO like it’s a black box and they want magic from it, because they don’t want any of their own business processes to be affected.”

So how do you keep a PMO alive past that dreaded two-year mark? Begin by limiting its activities to what’s needed to keep projects on track. “We have a director of project management rather than a whole office,” Joe McLaughlin, vice president of IT at AAA Western and Central New York, says. “A PMO is generally full of bureaucracy and needless Microsoft Project reports.”

McLaughlin reduced the complexity at AAA’s PMO, and vastly simplified the requirement document to one that’s written in plain English and is easily understood. Once it’s filled out, he says, “we don’t ask them to review requirements. Instead, the director of project management sends back a one-page scoping document that basically says, ‘This is what we think you want to do – is that correct?’”

In general, he says, “we try to be a lot more user-friendly. We’ve eliminated most of the weekly reporting meetings, and try to only focus on meetings that actually produce work. You read these articles that say, ‘You have to do this, this and this.’ Well, you don’t. You have to do what works.”

Information Age February/March 2014 | 61Software development : operating system

A bazillion years ago in Internet time (aka 1995), Brendan Eich, Marc Andreessen and the rest of Netscape looked at the World Wide Web and saw a sparsely tagged world of static

documents, a computational desert where a programmer’s seed could find no purchase.

They had a different vision: pixels inside the browser rectangle as alive as any user interface. They wanted to add a bit of Turing-complete computability so

that programmers could make the pages jump. JavaScript was the answer.In the beginning, macho C programmers gazed at their creation

and laughed. They joked about JavaScript as a toy for primary-school kids to pop up alert boxes. Eich, however, saw a way for programmers

to pull in information from throughout the Web. Soon it came in the form of XMLHttpRequest.

Thirteen years later, and about eight years since the whole game was rebranded “AJAX,” the once baby language for kiddies is fast becoming the dominant language for just about everything. The combination of HTML,

CSS and JavaScript powers servers, desktops and laptops. It is, in essence, the standard platform, the new operating system.

Browser beats all?10 reasons the browser is becoming the universal OS.

By Peter Wayner


Technically, the browser doesn’t offer what we’ve come to expect from the traditional OS. Purists will complain: does the browser team spend any time worrying about the gnarly tangle of device drivers? Does the browser keep the file system clean and uncorrupted? Does the browser juggle multiple threads of differing priorities and help them share the same processor cores in a way that might be considered fair? The OS guys take one look at Chrome and laugh because that browser just punts, splitting itself into a different process for every Web page, letting the OS layer do the work.

Despite these very legitimate plaints from OS geniuses, the browser is the dominant layer, the one nexus for software, the one switchboard where all power lies. It needs from the operating system a rectangle to draw the Web page, a bit of storage space, and a TCP/IP feed. It does everything else in a cross-platform way that is, when all is considered, relatively free of bugs and other issues.

In return, the browser relieves the OS of doing much except supplying those few information feeds. A PC user expects to be able to insert any old device and have it work with any old collection of devices – a very rare occurrence. A browser user wants a box to type a URL and a way to send clicks to the JavaScript layer. Building a browser-only device is getting ever easier. Mozilla, a very small group of people, turned out Firefox OS with a tiny fraction of the engineers working at Apple, Google or BlackBerry.

And the programmers are following users to the browser to deliver functionality in the main place users expect to find it these days. Here are 10 reasons why the browser is now king.

1 The rise of vast, rich Web applicationsSomewhere along the line, the Web page turned into a full application. The best way to feel this is to try to start up something like Gmail with a clean cache and a painfully slow Internet connection. The program is large enough that it takes too long to download all of the bits and pieces of

JavaScript. There may be close to 100 files in the average download. Google thought-fully recognises that Gmail may be a bit too big for these occasions, so it offers a basic HTML version that is much smaller.

Software development : operating system

Gmail is one example of the thousands of large programs that regularly run in our browsers. Many let us do the lion’s share of tasks once left to native applications. There are integrated development environments (Codio, Cloud 9 and more), image editing packages (AIE, among others), and plenty of HTML5 games (see below). The browser is not limited to static documents and filling out forms.

A long time ago, people would point to the standard apps for reading mail or editing photos and say, “Can your browser do that?” Now the answer is yes.

2 Easy extensibility via plug-insAll the major browsers have their own plug-in architecture. If you want to do something clever with the browser, the plug-in layer is ready to take your code. You write some code in JavaScript and the browser adds it as a feature. You can add new routines for cleaning up the layout or snarf

certain valuable information like citations for your paper. The plug-in layer for the browsers opens up the insides to fiddling, and it does so in a cleaner, safer way than can be accomplished with traditional operating systems.

3 Its open source foundationThere are many different meanings loaded into the phrase “open source”, and the browser illustrates one of the most influential. The Web’s languages have always been easy to understand – at least compared to native binary codes – and when the early developers included the “view source” option,

they made it easy for programmers to learn from each other.Openness encourages innovation, and this is one of the biggest reasons we’ve

seen the browser layer swell with so many clever additions. Building software for the browser layer is easier, encouraging more work to be done there. The pace of innova-tion is blinding because good ideas are emulated and improved quickly. Everyone can learn from everyone else’s work, then teach everyone in return. This feature alone has created so many programmers that it should be considered a national treasure by anyone campaigning to create more STEM students.


4 Meta-programmingOpenness doesn’t just mean the source code is available for others to copy, revise and extend – it also applies to the data in the browser right now. Some software packages like Greasemonkey make it possible to write software that runs on top of the software running on a Web page. Greasemonkey

can reach right into the Web page code and resize an element, change a variable, or rewrite the text itself. It’s like open source coding in real time.

There have been attempts to offer this kind of feature to classical operating systems, but the scripting systems have never had access akin to Greasemonkey’s in the browser. Even the most sophisticated scripting tools, like AppleScript, access the code only through an API. Purists may not like someone messing around with their variables, but they don’t have as much fun. This is why some of the cleverest tools are available in the browsers.

5 Multi-platform simplicity and mutabilityMobile devices come with browsers. Refrigerators come with browsers. Can mobile refrigerators with browsers be far behind? Why not? Everyone wants to put HTML, JavaScript and CSS in charge of a rectangle on their machines because it’s easy to adapt. Is your screen short and wide or is it

tall and thin? It doesn’t matter because HTML flows into the space it’s given. The CSS-driven layout engine figures it out.

There will be some who point out, quite correctly, that not every Web page looks good on odd-shaped screens. Some websites look like a car hit them when they’re viewed on a tall, thin mobile screen. The elements are scattered everywhere, and nothing lines up. Something went wrong with the float styles.

Those problems are fading as Web designers learn how to plan ahead for the wider range of browser-based opportunities that are appearing. They’re learning to be flexible and elegant so that the content can flow easily regardless of the device on which it will appear.


6 A clean abstraction layerThe Web’s open source foundation encourages rapid evolution of best practices for design. There are still some corners of the tech world – Apple, for instance – where a few designers insist everything be done their way using their native framework. But for all of Apple’s success in wielding

Vader-grade control, it can’t beat the Web. Every innovation created for iOS is quickly imitated and rolled into the major frameworks that dominate the HTML5 world.

The browser’s democratic populism lets the best ideas bubble up as everyone constantly experiments. This is in large part due to HTML and CSS, which have evolved into a clear abstraction layer that separates concerns, making collaboration easier for everyone. Designers and programmers can target their specific layer and, where possible, bring in pre-designed libraries and frameworks to adapt the work of other designers and programmers in their own code.

7 Better sharing models for librariesLibraries have always been one of the biggest sources of headaches for pro-grammers. One application on the computer wants to use Version 3.4.666 of a library, and the other wants Version 3.4.667, but the operating system can only find the wrong one. When things don’t align, some call it “bitrot”

and others call it “versioning errors”. Either way, everyone loses.The browser world offers a better way of distributing libraries. Many Web pages

link to a few centralised copies of popular libraries like jQuery or Dojo. Instead of using their own version hosted with the website, they link to a central version offered by one of the Web infrastructure companies like Yahoo. These are more likely to be caught by the cache, thus saving the next Web page the time of downloading this version of the library.

These centralised versions are neatly numbered. If two Web pages use Version 1.9.1 of jQuery, then the cache will do its job. If one switches to a newer version, both will function. The cache might not save much time until they start using the same version again, but the switch works without a hitch.

The approach is not perfect. If the central copies are corrupted or infected with malware, every website using them could be jeopardised. But when was the last time this happened? Switching to a local version of the libraries, the simplest fix, wouldn’t be hard.


8 Fertile, competitive marketplaceOnce upon a time, there was only Netscape. Then Internet Explorer dominated. Now it seems like everyone has a browser that’s competing. Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera are just the beginning. There are dozens of other minor browsers with their own devotees. The mobile

platform has even more.All of them are competing for eye share. The best one wins, but only until the next

upgrade cycle. Then the competition begins again.This battle breeds quality. The best browsers with the most useful features flourish

while the casual hacks disappear. This doesn’t always happen in the world, but when it does it’s great for consumers. When it’s good for consumers, it demonstrates the power of the browser layer.

9 SVG, canvas, vector graphics, great user interfacesThe early Web pages may have been slightly dull, but that was before clever programmers figured out how to animate the CSS properties of a DIV or a SPAN. Now rectangles and the words within can flip, spin, turn, fade, blink and even – perish the thought – just sit there.

If that’s not enough, the best new browsers are tightly integrated with video cards and offer almost every feature to the JavaScript programmer. While game designers still need native code to pull off some extreme tricks that push video cards to melt down, almost every one of their software features is available in some form or other to the JavaScript programmer. Animated SVG, the canvas object and some video can do almost anything. There’s even a 3D layer called WebGL that handles three-dimensional rendering. The browser will never be able to compete with the consoles or native games, but it’ll do a good job when the graphics aren’t too complicated. That’s more than enough for great games.

All of this means that building a user interface for a Web page is now much simpler than creating one for a basic app. Designers can work with HTML, JavaScript and CSS, three easy languages that are much simpler than the Java, C++ or Objective-C used for native apps. Once again, easier coding attracts more programmers who create more code and make the platform dominate.


10 Node.jsPerhaps the ultimate proof of the success of the browser as a platform can be found in Node.js, the server-side framework that enables browser programmers steeped in JavaScript and closures to write instructions for the server without learning PHP or Java.

The package offers spectacular performance for some jobs simply by tossing aside the threaded model common in past generations. Instead it adopts the callback func-tion, one of the idioms of browser programming, to juggle the workload. In the right hands, programmers can sidestep the dangers and produce a clean mechanism that dishes up the information from the server quickly and efficiently.

This is a bit of a victory for the JavaScript world because many sneered at the com-plicated closures and callbacks of browser programming, viewing them as convoluted and overly nested. Yet now that the results are fast, people are being more accepting. Speed and thrift have a way of winning over converts.

Is there anything left for JavaScript, HTML and CSS to conquer? If PhoneGap colonises the mobile world, the browser controls the desktop, then Node.js represents one last, big piece. Heck, IBM mainframes often run instances of Linux, which means they also run Node.js.

Next up for the ultimate OS: the computer in your car. ¢

Peter Wayner is a contributing editor with the InfoWorld Test Centre. Follow him on Twitter at @peterwayner.

Information Age February/March 2014 | 65Recently graded members of the ACS

CANBERRAAssociateArunagirirajan, YaminiBatilo, FrancisBeltracchi, VittorioBright, CorbinCaluzzi, JacobCooke, JaydenCooper, TashEdwards, LindonEl‑Sabagh, AbramHenderson, TahliaJacques, ChristopherJones, JaesenKwong, JasonLe, HaLe Breton, SandraLuc, SamLydiard, HaydenMettes, JonathanOchmanski, MarkPascuzzo, PeterPhimphra, JasmineRahman, NimiRead, KevinRobertson, JamesRutherford, JackSeal, DanielShirodkar, SachinSingh, Bhalindra PalTheodorelos, GeorgeVadrevu, Venkata Siva Maruti RamWallis, RobertWang, Chen

MemberHarris, JeremyHogg, BrodieQuilliam, GregoryViravan, Perumal

NEW SOUTH WALESAssociateAbboodi, BasharAdams, RobertAkula, Venkata Nagendra KumarAmbrose, BlakeAomarere, MichaelAttanayake, LakmalBadhan, Rajesh KumarBarker, StephenBaskaran, KogulanBassi, KarishmaBaswan, ArvindBenjabutr, JasonBoumelhem, ElieBousfield, SarahBowen‑James, AlanBrookes, MichaelBrown, JakeCai, MichelleCao, CongChan, JoshuaChan, OliviaCharlton, StephanieChew, ElliottChiu, JeannieChoudhury, ArpanChoueifati, RomyChoulai, BrunoClarke, JeremyCokinas, MelanieCorfield, TravisDavey, GregDavidson, HannahD’costa, DarrelDeetcher, NicholasDemery, BenjaminDennis, JoshDharmakirthi, HimaliDrummond, James

Eastwood, TimFalconieri, StevenFalia, MatthewFallon, GregGoalla, SreeramGooding, DavidGuo, HaoGurung, PrakashHamakalu, HenryHaque, NahidulHarding, NathanielHarris, LukeHayes, TonyHerron, DanielHollis, JenniferHooker, LiamJack, JoshuaJagyasi, DeepakJandausch, RobertJayasekara, SandeepaJohnston, AndrewJovevski, ValKaushik, KartikKhare, AshishKholodov, MarkKim, John (Sung Ju)Kingham, TessaKoey, RonicaKommalapati, VijayKorashy, AhmedKosasih, JasonKshetrapal, HimanshuKulkarni, SachinKumar, PreetiKumar, RajeevKumar, A. SatishLaing, ChristopherLamichhane, JyotiLan, TonyLarcos, Timothy

Lee, IanLee, Sang HyupLee, TrentLinsdell, GraceMaharjan, SeasonMaharjan, BikeshMann, JacobMarchiori, KristianMarriott, SarahMartin, RickMcCormick, StuartMcGeachie, ScottMcIver, JoeMills, JohnMock, DerekMotet, Jean‑Luc JoelNapitupulu, Johanes EukharistoNaughton, TamaraNguyen, HiepNikolaev, MikhailNoiosi, StephanieNunn, LucyO’Donnell, AaronOliveri, FrancescoOlumide, AtewologunPant, Ambarish BilasPapadopoulos, ThalesParreno, Dean DanielRae‑Scott, LucyRaj, PruthvisinhRamirez, ErwinRana, SohelReddy, NithejeswarRobinson, PaulSaeidi, ShahabSantoso, StellaSemsarian, RubenShabbir, ZurnoobShen, JeffreyShi, Sherry

Simonetta, AnthonySingh, AjaySingh, Suraj ManSIngh, ShalendarSmorodinov, VladimirStapleton, BrettTan, CarolineTeluchina‑Appadu, ArvindTewes, ErinThapa, BijayThomas, MahadevanVenkatasubramanian, KarthikVenkatesh, BoppanaVolvach, AlexeyWade, KylieWang, HuiWatts, TimWilson, IanWilson, AnneWisan, ClarissaWong, Yoke KhengWu, WenlinWu, TongYang, VeronicaYeo, ChristineYusuf, FeridunZarzour, RaymondZhang, YufanZhang, ZuoxiaoZhou, YingZhu, CiciZhu, Jiazhou

MemberAherne, MargaretAlety, Ramalingeshwar ReddyAri, ChaitanyaArora, SunnyB K, PradeepBahuguna, AmitBaral, Anup

Baral, ShankarBark, DarrenBasnet, SaradaBollapu, Hari Prasad ReddyBradley, StuartCao, YunxiangChen, XiChen, QiChilkamarri, VivekDing, WeilongFang, PengFang, ZimingFerguson, IainGautam, BharatGavinola, Naveen KumarGuevarra, JoseGurung, GopalHonggowarsito, AngelineHossain, Md MuradHuang, QiushiIm, Joo YeolIqbal, Md ShahJin, XiaoyanKhoury, AndreKubi, James SandhiKumar, AshishKumar, NavdeepLin, XiaoyiLiu, WeiLowry, JamesLuo, RuinanMacdonald, BryanMaclaine, IvanMaharjan, KishorManandhar, LakashMansoor, Muhammad Ejaj AlMao, ShuxianMuhammad, GhulamNuruzzaman, MdPandiri, Sunil

The ACS congratulates recently graded membersAll ICT practitioners and students are welcome to join their professional society. We encourage all ACS members to achieve professional status through continuing professional development.


Pant, EkrajParajuli, PradeepPatel, MitulkumarPatel, Kirankumar ManubhaiPeng, WeiRai, ShovaRai, LachhimiRajwani, Preeti Mukesh KumarRiaz, ZainRijal, SudeepSah, Sujeet KumarSanjel Khatiwada, BinuShabbir, Muhammad ZahidShabbir, AhmerShah, Roshan KumarShams, HinaShrestha, ShreeSingh, Mohinder PalSujakhu, RajeshSyed, Nayeem AtherThapa, SangitaTorio, Vic AdrianVarghese, RobyVarghese, SheenaWalia, RohitWang, LilingWang, LiqingWiriyapong, BenjaminYang, YuchengYeung, JamesYuan, YizunZheng, JiaZheng, Peng

Senior MemberCao, LongbingTaylor, Kristian

SubscriberAbercrombie, AndrewAi, Andy

Ambardar, RajeshBiancotti, DeborahChow, JacksonLy, HengMalone, TomMansour, MatthewMuthukannan, NachiappanRussell, AnthonyVerma, KaranWong, Wendy

NORTHERN TERRITORYAssociateLowjen, PaulineMcLeod, KarinaUnni, Deepa

MemberVallabhaneni, Siva Kamalnadh

Overseas Group

AssociateAntipas, SpirangelosBalan, BibinBalbale, Tabrez Abdul HamidBalducci, JohnBandara, PamithaBashir, NaveedBryden, ChristopherChandra, AbhishekEl Madi, AhmadEseigbe, SylvesterFedoryshyn, MaksymGuo, Kai‑MinHenrique Da Costa, LarryKabir, KarderKaripat, VinodKhan, Sarfraz AhmedKorchma, AlexanderKrige, JarrodKundu, Amitava

Laguipo, Alain FerdinandLiao, KaiLoughlin, MichaelMacMillan, MichaelMangalanathan, SenthilnathMohamed Usman, Mohamed RikasNadarajah, DharmendraParacha, SajjadPrakash Raghupathruni, ShivaPrasad, SatishRobson, ColinSahib, Mohammed RayhaanSalama, JohnSiddiqui, Rizwan AlamSiddiqui, AneetaSultanpur, SunilTennakoon Mudiyanselage,

Hemamali LeelawardanaThangarajah, LagunarajanVosloo, Jacobus

MemberAcibar, Lex AndreChammas, ElieChun, Tat Yan AlvinEl‑Mohandes, AdhamGoyal, Sandeep KumarHlaing, Myo AungImran, MohammedKarnam Lakshmikanth,

GuruprasadLi, XuelianLiyanage, Rajith IndralalNayal, HimanshuNewell, JanPalihawadana, JagathPartovi, AndishehPrasad, NavneelRamalingam, NithyanandanRamamoorthy, SujaRanasinghe, E. R. H. Chandima

KumariSarwath, Ashraf JahanShakhanova, NurmereyShoblaq, HishamSingh, Rajeshni DeviSmith, ChristopherSturm, JoergTapp, StefanVysniauskas, Ignas

SubscriberGohari, Peyman

QUEENSLANDAssociateAfari‑Dekyi, KofiArmstrong, RachelAusten, AndrewBlaik, JamesBokharaie, MortezaBrazier, BenjaminBrown, CameronCourts, MareeDellit, JohnDwivedi, OmEnnew, JaredFerguson, BruceFinn, CurtisFoster, RejeleGentle, StephenGriciute, AruneHeffernan, AlanHunt, BradleyJakstas, MatthewJohns, RinvisJoubert, TraceyJurgens, AudrieKunal Krishnavadan, AcharyaLapthorne, BethMarty, BrendonMcCarthy, Jack

Meredith, SerenaMohamed Jaffer Salih,

Mohammed ZackariyaO’Gorman, ChristopherOrnig, ElenaPagram, ThomasPlatz, BrianSarcia, MaribelShields, LewisSmits, CarlieSmulders, DavidTancred, BrettTitze, DanielTyagi, NidhiVictory, SimonWhitmee, NealWild, DanielYang, Yang

MemberGieco, Maria LauraKnezevic, VedranKochar, ShilpaMalhi, Harpreet KaurMarin Castro, MagnoliaWen, XinWozniak, ThomasZhao, Wenjing

Senior MemberThatcher, Malcolm Phillip

SOUTH AUSTRALIAAssociateAbadia, RhodoraAbfalter, JosephArvan, DanielBird, MichaelChampion, DrewCroucher, JohnDing, Sheng

Dowley, AdamEwers, LachlanForeman, ChristopherHarris, MatthewKhadeer Abdul, Shameel

MohamedLe Blanc, WilliamLi, YoumingMakkar, DhruvMcAskill, AlexanderParker, JakeReid, AnnetteRenna, JennyRich, EmilySalamon, JohnShemshadi, AliWagner, Des

MemberBandi, Praveen KumarKulkarni, SanketNguyen, Linh Duy

Senior MemberBruss, JasonThomas, Bruce

TASMANIAAssociateHowson, LawrenceNoor, IrfanStuart, JeremyWilde, Adrian

VICTORIA

AssociateAbdulla, KhalidAlapati, VamseeAlfonso Pita, Pedro EnriqueAmore, JustinAnderson, James William


Arepalli, Radha KrishnaArthur, AlanAttard, DanielAttiq, JavariaAtwell, WayneAydin, Umit NuriAziz, FarahBarnes, AdamBarton, AnthonyBerthelot, Jean‑PaulBeurle, DarcyBooker, SamanthaBoorman, JamesCampbell, JoshCirciu, ElzaCordon, ScottCox, IzobelCrompton, Alexander PhilipD Silva, Zenon Ross AnthonyDavis, GaryDogiparthi, Harish KumarDunn, Ryan MatthewFarmer, AndrewForouzan, HoomanFrancis, Christopher WilliamFrederica, AdelineGaray, Anna MarieGoodman, MichaelGravestocks, KristyGriggs, MarkGupta, SaptarshiGvero, StefanHariri, ImanHe, LiuHossny, MohammedHowells, GaryJayasinghe, KushiniJohnson, MichaelKam, Clement Kar MingKandasamy, Sunjeeve Christopher

Kaur, NavneetKc, SubashKumar, RohitLa, RaymondLa, RaymondLamb, StephenLee Pit Sen, DanielLeneghan, SeanLevy, RodneyLi, SongLiang, XiaoJunLiberale, DanielLin, JeffLiu, YangLiubinas, DavidLodders, AdrianLuo, AngelaMaharjan, SanjeevMajeed, SuzanMangiola, StefanoMazur, ThomasMecanovic, DenisMillman, ThomasMohamed Ghouse, Shaik

Mohamed Zaffar SadiqMotta‑Marques, LeanneMotta‑Marques, LeanneNelson, TaoNikkhou, MohammadPan, JiangyiPannuzzo, MatthewPatil, VivekPearce, JackPerera, NishanPitman, NikolaPolamarasetty, Tirumala VasuPorter, SeonaidPrathap, SamuelQiu, MingRadha Krishnan, Mukesh Kumar

Rauniyar, Chandan KumarRozario, SheldonRushby‑Silverman, TimSeewooruttun, GavinSilva, Thuiyahandi Sameera HeshanSingh, RandeepSingh, GurwinderSingh, ParminderStarr, KellyStevens‑Brown, KristinSultan, Ahmed ImtiazSuman, SumanThiagarajah, VicknarajahTian, DiTibbits, DonaldTrieu, LaurenceTrigos, AnnaTumanov, SergeiValluri, ManjeeraWan, BoWang, LiWaywood, NicholasWebber, WilliamWeber, DanielWells, LachlanWilde, NitsaWilson, KimikoWilson, KevinZhang, YuxiangZhou, ZeyuZhu, SichangZhu, RongduanZyla, Michael

MemberAshley, WilliamDandu, Praveen KumarEdirisinghe, Chandana SusanthaFaizan, MuhammadGohil, NamansinhGuo, Zheng

Hewa Kuruppuge, Theshan Nirmitha

Jamaluddin, KhalilJiang, YeKamalakanthan, KamaleswaranLee, Jun XingLi, HanqingLiu, KeyiLiu, YifanMa, ChangfeiMa, AnhuaMoscardo, Juan CarlosNaik, AmitNguyen Tran Minh, TrietOgar, KonstantinPatel, Jalpeshkumar AshokbhaiPathirana, Don Mahindra SenarathPerera, Gayan ChamaraPerez, EduardoRadham, ZhshankRanawaka Arachchige, Amal

Darshana AmarasinghaSaini, Gurpreet KaurShah, HemalSun, GuliTamber, Gurjit SinghTat, Khoan VIThong, StevenVashisht, RahulVictorino Ramos, Diego AlejandroWagner, David AndrewWang, YuxinWang, MingWang, YingboWhiting, AdrianWu, ChenXu, YiwenXu, WeixiongZhou, BiyuZhu, Tianyu

Senior MemberJones, AsheleyPanther, James

WESTERN AUSTRALIAAssociateAbdipanah, MaldiniArsana, I Wayan WidyaAteg, AyadBaptista, SimonBasak, AmitavaBhatt, BhoumikBushe‑Jones, KyferChia, DarcyClark, IvyConnor, JohnCorrigan, RaymondD’Monte, BartholamewDuffield, AaronFaheem, FawadForrest, TimothyFroend, Michael ChristopherGunner, GeoffHermon, RebeccaHuang, Yan XiangJackson, KarstenLacson, PriscillaLi, JiaoMackie, JamesMilligan, DanielMinnaar, DanierrMonteath, IsaacOConnor, RoanO’Shea, StephenPietersen, CalvinPion, OlivierPontague, MitchellRichardson, JulianRocca, PaoloSeah, Benjamin

Seamark, AndySutton, RaymondWills, CarolynWong, Siew PhangYuan, Yuan

MemberBlascetta, RobertoChidlow, AdamMaksymov, AndriiMohammed, Abdul NayeemOakeley, TimothyRathore, HarshwardhanShrestha, BidurTrevisan, MarcioWen, Longchang

Senior MemberKecman, BorisSchwarz, Steffi

Information Age February/March 2014 | 68Australian Answers

CSIRO researchers are sticking RFID sensors to honey bees in an effort to improve bee pollination and productivity on farms.

The “swarm sensing” project in Hobart is expected to shed light on the drivers of Colony Collapse Disorder, a condition decimating honey bee populations worldwide, the CSIRO said. And it will look at the effects of agricultural pesticides on honey bees by monitoring insects that feed at sites with trace amounts of commonly used chemicals.

“Honey bees play a vital role in the landscape through a free pollination service for agriculture, which various crops rely on to increase yields,” CSIRO science leader, Paulo de Souza, said.

“Around one third of the food we eat relies on pollination, but honey bee populations around the world are crashing because of the dreaded Varroa mite and Colony Collapse Disorder.”

To better understand how bees are affected by the environment, the researchers plan to attach up to 5000 square sensors measuring 2.5mm on each side to the backs of bees in Hobart. CSIRO said it’s the first time so many insects have been used for environmental monitoring.

To attach the sensors, researchers refrigerate the bees for a short period – long enough to put them into a rest state – and then apply the sensors using an adhesive. After a few minutes the bees awaken and return to their hive.

“This is a non-destructive process and the sensors appear to have no impact on the bee’s ability to fly and carry out its normal duties,” de Souza said.

The sensors themselves use RFID technology and work in a similar way to a vehicle’s e-tag, recording when the insect passes a given checkpoint. The information is then sent remotely to a central location where researchers can build a 3D model visualising how the bees move through the landscape.

“Any change in their behaviour indicates a change in their environment,” de Souza said. “If we can model their movements, we’ll be able to recognise very quickly when their activity shows variation and identify the cause.”

Besides CSIRO, the bee project involves the University of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association, local beekeepers in Hobart and fruit growers around Tasmania.

Bees will not have an insect exclusive on the sensors for long. The CSIRO said it hopes to eventually reduce the size of the sensors to only 1mm square so that they can be attached to smaller insects including fruit flies and mosquitoes.Adam Bender

Honey bees with sensors swarm over Hobart

Women in ICT> Welcome to ACSW

> ACS Policy statement on Women in ICT

> ICT Women Industry insiders

> ACSW Survey results

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014

ACS Women supplement

As the vice president of ACS Community Boards (Women, Young IT, Community Engagement) I am honoured and delighted to offer my support

for this important supplement.An ICT career offers so many positives – it is a career

that is transportable globally, that opens opportunities across any industry and that provides diversity in path-ways that are unmatched by any other industry. It is itself a young and vibrant industry that is transforming the world we live in. So why are we still struggling to attract girls to the ICT industry?

I believe that organisations need to implement fun-damental changes to work practice in order to embed gender intelligence, and additionally create policies to boost gender equality and workplace diversity.

Government policies and initiatives are necessary to fuel targeted changes in gender diversity. Self-employed women and women who run ICT in small and medium enterprises are not currently included in government policies relating to female workplace rights. This means that they currently do not receive maternity leave or any other benefits that females employed in large organisa-tions do. In order to attract and retain more females in the

industry, it is important to gain government support so that these policies can be changed to include all women, as opposed to simply those in large organisations.

It is important to create a community awareness of the diverse nature of ICT careers and its educational path-ways. When speaking with others at social gatherings, the common assumption is that you have to be good at programming to take up ICT. To make matters worse, the old perception of programming in the 80s is still prevalent, and there is no suggestion that programming is as fun and exciting as it really is.

A basic understanding of the plethora of choices, from coding to engineering, multimedia to robotics, at the time when school students are making their subject and career choices will help them choose to pursue ICT. Schools should promote the diverse options that are available to students from a young age, so that the students are more aware of what subjects they need to take.

Our objective is to encourage more women to join the ICT industry, and once they are in it, to ensure that they stay. In order to do this, I strongly believe that we must attempt to change young female perceptions from a young age. This can be done through primary and secondary

school science, maths and technology classes. These are critical stepping stones for girls to develop a passion for becoming creators and developers of technology.

The British Government has revealed plans to teach children as young as 11 about careers in cybersecurity, amid concerns that the UK is suffering from a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. These digital cur-riculum reforms will see the inclusion of digital literacy from primary school onwards.

The more females that step up into boards and Senior ICT roles where they can be responsible for formulating policies and work cultures, the more female role models we will obtain. With a diverse and equal representation of males and females in senior roles, the more likely women are to pursue similar roles and to stay in the industry.

Thank you for reading, and I welcome you to this special edition of Information Age.

Rathika Suresh ACS VP Community

Women in ICT The Vice President’s view

ACSW : vice presidents column ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 70

ACSW : introduction ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 71

Welcome to the inaugural ACS Women’s supple-ment for Information Age ahead of International Women’s Day.

In this supplement you will find interviews with female industry insiders sharing their perspectives. In our online edition (ia.acs.org.au) we will also feature further inter-views where Women in ICT share their insights.

I hope you enjoy this supplement, share it with your friends and colleagues and drop by to the ACS Women section of the ACS website (http://acs.org.au/communities/acs-women).

Welcome to ACS Women

VisionTo empower women and ACS members by influencing government policies, providing educational and networking opportunities and by setting a strategic direction for state and territory branches and chapters to support women engaged in the ICT sector.

GoalsThe current goals of the ACS W Board are:• To increase participation of women in the ICT profession• To increase female membership in the ACS• To provide a forum for the ICT industry to access women in ICT

and to forge alliances to support the development of women in their ICT careers.

• To provide ACSW groups in some states who can be contacted by women to provide access to support in their ICT careers

• Encourage diversity in the workplace whenever possible• Continue the discussion about differing wage levels for female

versus male employees.

BackgroundACSW was formed in 2004 to promote the interests of women working in ICT. The Board also had a mandate to encourage young women and girls to consider ICT as a viable, interesting and challenging career path; undertake research in the area of women in ICT; and to engage in issues affecting women in the ICT sector.

All Board members also work in conjunction with their respective state and territory branches on initiatives designed to support women in ICT

Nationally, the board provides strategic direction to the ACS gov-ernance groups and state run ACSW groups and undertakes various projects to help to promote advancement of women and girls in IT. The board members work with other organisations such as universities and relevant women’s organisations to promote careers and support women.

Since 2008, ACSW has conducted three surveys of women in ICT in Australia (the only survey of its kind in Australia).The survey data has been published in journal articles, formed the basis of two national ACS road shows and contributed to the ACS position on a number of public policy submissions. The 2010 ACSW survey was recognised by the European Union as an example of International practice in gender equality programs.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (AWGEA) have also done research, all with similar results to the ACSW survey, AWGEA on diversity only.

Board members have also chaired a panel of judges (for the Women’s prize) at the national iAwards in the recent past.

Current and future events In this special edition of Information Age we feature video interviews with women in ICT and we will extend this video program and provide the interviews on YouTube.

Other events include:• Our ACSW State run events are aimed at providing education

to women in ICT, but also to encourage people outside the profession to attend.

• Various ACSW representatives often visit schools to promote ICT as a viable career for girls.

• The Go Girl, Go for IT event is run in Victoria every two years in collaboration with VIC ICT for women and is scheduled for June this year.

• ACS assisted in the Digital Divas project run in Victoria, which is aimed at changing school girls’ perspectives on ICT. The curriculum is available free of charge for any school wanting to run the programme.

• WA was involved in the inaugural event for Rail Girls in Perth. The next event will be held March 2014. ¢

Alison Orr, director, ACS Women’s Board

and member, Western Australian Branch

Executive.

ACSW : introduction ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 72

Gender equality is a national issue for Australia. Gender inequality occurs when people are not able to access and enjoy the same opportunities

and rewards regardless of gender.Although more women are in the workforce than ever

before, they lag behind males in participation, progression and remuneration. This is particularly evident in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

ICT in Australia is already struggling with serious and multiple skills issues that negatively affect our digital economy. These issues place Australia at a national and international competitive disadvantage.

The scope of the issueThe ABS currently estimates female participation in ICT in Australia at 28% whereas the Australian norm is 45%.1

ACSW also notes that the Australian Workforce Pro-ductivity Agency in 2013 calculated female participa-tion in ICT at less than 20 per cent of the total ICT workforce.3

ACSW believe that the need for gender and diversity reform in ICT education and employment is essential to addressing Australia’s pressing ICT skills issues which are hampering the emergent digital economy.4

According to the he Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency gender diversity provides benefits to business and community by way of talent attraction and retention, reduced cost, improved organisational

Women in ICTUnderstanding the issues

ACSW : policy statement ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 73

and in employment) which is a barrier to training and retraining

• Industry complains that graduates are not work ready• The rapidly shifting and evolving nature of ICT

requires rapid and accessible training opportunities

ACSW Survey The ACS women’s survey is the only national survey of its kind, and has been recognised both within Australia, and internationally.5

Three ACS women’s surveys have been delivered since 2008. The last survey was run over December 2012/January 2103 and we feature some of these results in our supplement.

1 The Australian Workforce Productivity Agency ICT Workforce Study 2013, page 14.

2 From the 2013 ACS Statistical Compendium:

Some of these declines were in already identified areas where reductions have taken place, such

as retail sales, and education. Some may also be related to coding variations in which people have

been re-allocated to slightly different ANZSCO classifications than before, such as “catch-alls” like”

ICT professionals –nfd”, but the clearly significant occupation group to show large volumetric and

percentage was in graphics and web design, with over 14,000 fewer women identified as working than

in the prior year, over half of the previous number.

As we stated last year, CIIER considered that this was unlikely to explain such a significant

reduction, and that it was far more possible that a number of such women had simply been

reallocated to non-ICT occupation classes by ABS.

Our skepticism appears vindicated, with the number of female ICT workers for February 2013

back up to 169,400, over 28% of the total ICT workforce

3 The Australian Workforce Productivity Agency ICT Workforce Study 2013, page 14.

4 Australia’s digital economy was first accurately calculated by the Australian Computer Society in

2011, and, depending on ABS classifications, up to 16.8% of GDP. Australia’s Digital Economy, logically, is

all of the ICT industry, and a significant proportion of almost every other economic sector that uses ICT.

Mining, healthcare, education, government, wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, transport, and

other sectors all rely on ICT goods and services, and are therefore participants in the digital economy.

5 P.R.A.G.E.S 2011

ACSW : policy statement ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 74

FEMALE % OF ICT WORKFORCE

ICT Management and operations 32.64%

ICT Technical and Professionals 24.50%

ICT sales 28.21%

ICT Trades 16.94%

ICT Industry admin and logistics support 40.81%

ICT Workers 28.34%

Source: ABS2

FEMALE % OF ICT WORKFORCE

2010 23.5

2011 24.1

2012 19.7

2013 28

Source: ABS

performance, improved productivity and competitiveness, However, the ACSW also notes that gender diversity - as with workplace diversity more generally - greatly enhances organisational innovation.

Australia’s ICT skills issues can be summarised as:• Insufficient numbers of domestic students studying

ICT to meet industry demand, noting that over 100,000 jobs were created in ICT over the last decade but that domestic ICT undergraduate completions approximated 4000 per year with only 37 per cent of these choosing to work in ICT.

• Older workers consistently encounter ageism and barriers to retraining in ICT

• Women encounter gender bias (both in education

The ACS has made a terrific effort to address gender imbalances in ICT by “walking the talk.” We have a higher representation of women in senior governance roles within the ACS than the national norm. We also have the first female president of the ACS in Brenda Aynsley. Pictured here are the ACS Women of Congress, from left to right – top row: Chris Cornish (Board Director Computer Systems), Jo Stewart Lattray (Congressional Representative SA), Jo Dalvean (Congressional Representative VIC), middle row: Fiona Teakle (Board Director Young IT Professionals), Michelle Beveridge, Susan Bandias (Congressional Representative NT), Alison Orr (ACS Women Board Director), Brenda Aynsley (President) and Rathika Suresh (Vice President (Community Boards)

ACSW : industry insiders ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 75

Keeping agileHelen McHugh has overseen some major ICT projects and never hesitates to tackle problems head on. We discussed career, family and the juggling act it requires.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your career to date.A: I have worked in many roles and have loved all of them; as developer, help desk manager, test manager, project manager, PMO.Coach and mentor. It’s all been great fun, and full of big challenges.

My advisor told me to ‘get yourself onto the big projects and move around’. So I did. The really big projects were part of the Australian Tax Office tax reform program and at the Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ Welfare to Work program. Big bodies of work, fast releases, high profile and stressful but it was never boring.

At the moment I am working on a couple of ACS’s boards. I am semi-retired and am giving this time to helping ACS and ACS Women to achieve an improve-ment in women in ICT.

Q: How did you get into IT? A: When I went to uni I was very young, only 17. I

wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so my dad suggested becoming a librarian. It’s a job you can go back to after you have kids. As part of the degree we had to do one unit of IT. As I started the unit, I thought this is what I want to do - writing programs and creating systems for people.

I was a digital native as I grew up around computers. My dad was one of the two first programmers in Australia working on the CSIRAC: Australia’s first computer.

Q: How did you get to where you are now?A: Hard work, big projects, an excellent ICT degree behind me and some wonderful CIOs who let me be a part of change programs.

Q: Tell us a bit about where you work.A: I have performed the same role in the last three organi-sations, as a PMO system development ‘methodologist’. That just means I have a good grounding in systems

development life-cycles and project management lift cycles. So I run project offices, recruit project managers, induct them and then do continuous improvement of the processes. When needed I will jump in and deliver a project that has fallen behind for some reason.

Q: What do you love most about your job?A: I love building systems but I mostly enjoy working across teams and helping the program and project man-agers, and their teams, deliver. I love it when all the work is visible, the issues are being shared and fixed, and the body of work is being delivered.

I love working with the CIOs and senior managers to implement big systems and do process improvement along the way. It’s great when the improved processes are happily accepted and used by all the teams. But not processes for processes sake, my mantra is that good processes are good business. Basically it is easier if eve-ryone knows where and how things are.

ACSW : industry insiders ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 76

Q: What do you think are the best things about working in IT?A: Delivering good solutions to the business and ulti-mately to their customers.

It is never boring and the people are a bit quirky, but we have the best laughs.

IT is pretty tricky sometimes. But if you stick with KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and never assume any-thing, you are usually safe. A number of times I have gotten developers to think of the end customer who has to use it, then they have a different focus. Its good to get creative and have a customer to work with.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?A: Respect from my peers, my managers, my teams.

Q: What top tips or advice would you tell young people about choosing a career in IT?A: Do it! Make sure your course gives you a good grounding. It needs to be practical and give you a good understanding of coding, design and architecture. At the end of the day there is code and people.

There is always more than one way to do things. So be flexible but work as a team. Make sure you have a good group of peers and mentors.

Q: What do you think about people’s perception of IT and why do you think that’s the case?

A: It is still considered a black art, that IT is for geeks. And sadly in business it is a necessary evil, but the source of great frustration for many managers. ICT professionals who listen to the customer do well. This cost effective ‘good will’ should never be underestimated.

Businesses know IT costs a lot and that it makes their lives easier when it works, but there is a lot of negative feelings and failed projects to back-up their apprehension.

So when you focus your IT project on getting the business what they want and need, look after their needs and then deliver, it is magic. I have had managers say things like ‘Helen is like a dog with a bone, she never gives-up’ and ‘the project would never have happened if it wasn’t for you’.

Q: Do you see IT as a profession that can change people’s lives and make a difference in the community? A: IT is absolutely a profession, like doctors and lawyers you bring all your technical training and experience to service the needs of the customer. Good IT is about good simple solutions that make customers lives easier.

IT allows the customer to do more with less. It unbur-dens them from time consuming tasks to do the things that use their talents and skill to do good business.

As connectivity gets better and better, the frustrating things of life, such as getting messages to people and bills paid, is all heading to the device in your hand. Awesome.

Q: What would you say to a school aged girl who is con-sidering a career in IT?A: Do it. It’s not just for male, geeky young guys. It’s exciting, it is always changing, and there is no limit to what you can do. It pays well and you get to work really hard and do some amazing things.

Every girl and boy I have told to do IT have done it and loved it. No project is exactly the same so you have to think and be ready and that is some of the fun!

Q: How do you think working in IT makes it easier to be a working mother and achieve a work life balance? A: I am a single mother who has successfully raised a Lawyer and a registered nurse. It has been pretty hard, but it has been great. As a mother in ICT you get paid well, you get to work flexibly, because when projects are running into their deadlines you work the hours that have to be worked. I have worked some huge hours, but have been able to come home, be a mum, and when the kids have gone to bed I can login remotely and keep working.

I am also using my project manager skills. The washing is on, a big pot of spaghetti may be on the stove and I am clearing the issues log of a major project, emailing and getting responses at 11.30 at night. Crazy but fun!

My kids are proud of having an IT mum, they may not understand what you do, but they still think it is cool. ¢

IT After scouring every issue of Information Age from

the nineties to today, one thing has become explic-itly clear: there is a lack of female representation

in ICT. The suggestions made to resolve the problem year after year ended up just repeating themselves.

So even though we seem to hold lots of great ideas to attain and keep females in ICT now, come there is still a lack of female representation?

Most people have a general idea of what they want to be from a young age, and I cannot deny that I’ve always known that I wanted to be in a career where I could be constantly talking to people. When I was 10 I wanted to be a singer or an actress, by 16 I wanted to be a psycholo-gist, and by 18 I had made up my mind that I wanted to be either a journalist or a public relations officer. The common denominator in all of these professions is that they involve a strong need for communication skills.

I speak for myself and other young females when I say that a profession that holds the need for communication is generally one that will prove popular amongst us.

How come

aren’t doing

for themselves?

ACSW : industry insight ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 77

sisters

Females are social beings, and we are the most active participants across all social media platforms (except for LinkedIn).

The ICT industry unfortunately holds a false stereo-type – that it is nerdy and uncool. It also holds the notion that it is a male-dominated industry. Unfortunately none of my friends pursued an ICT degree after we graduated, and neither did I. The majority of my friends went for business, law, media and nursing degrees – degrees that involve high levels of communication and people-based skills.

The fact of the matter is, ICT degrees don’t integrate communication and business problem solving skills - despite the fact that it involves more communication than most professions. The myriad of potential ICT careers are not promoted. The perception is that the only possible career is one that involves programming and writing code, and this remains the only image of the industry in people’s minds. The general idea of ICT is that it is boring and repetitive, which could not be further from the truth, ICT is an industry that is fast-paced and continuously changing in order to evolve with technology.

We should work to ensure that the women that already have ICT qualifications and are working in the field do not leave. Mentoring has proved to be extremely successful in terms of keeping females in the industry. Creating a peer network is extremely important as it

creates a support network that allows women to ask each other for advice. It also helps women to create strong ties with each other, and can lead to further employment opportunities. In a male dominated industry, peer networks and mentors ensure that females have each other to rely on. My advice to women is to seize every opportunity available to them, and to embrace change. Women should not be afraid to ask for support if they need it.

Women offer such a diverse and important array of skills to the workforce, and are such a fundamental part of any organisation. Without females in the profession, the industry lacks diversity. Without diversity, there are no alternate perspectives outside of the status quo to draw from. A report by the European Commission found that the lack of female representation in European technology firms meant that they lost up to nine billion euros annually.

The report states that if employment of women in ICT rose by 115,000, then an average of 78,000 euros per female worker would be generated in increased pro-ductivity. These findings stem from the fact that ICT firms with women in high positions achieve a 35 per cent higher return on equity, and 34 per cent better total

return to shareholders, when compared with other firms. The lack of women in the ICT industry also means

that we need to ensure strong measures are implemented to ensure women that are already there do not leave. As previously discussed, mentoring and peer networks are fundamental aspects of work life that help women who may feel lost.

I don’t believe that there is a lack of interest in the ICT industry by any stretch, but incentives and a proper knowledge of what a career in ICT entails needs to be promoted more to more young females. More knowledge and a broader view of what this career is will ensure a higher percentage of enrolments in ICT degrees, and subsequently a higher female employee rate. ¢

Grace Linsdell is a Marketing and Communications Executive at ACS and is currently completing her

Communications degree but is looking at adding ICT qualifications.

ACSW : industry insight ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 78

Since 2008 the ACS Women’s Board has conducted a significant national survey of Women in ICT. We invite you to review the summary results

The 2012 Women in ICT survey results show that, across the Asia-Pacific region, male biased work cultures, a lack of promotional opportunities and workplace bullying remain constant challenges for at least half of all women who choose ICT as a career. These issues have contributed to an annual decline in female participa-tion in the Australian ICT workforce by nearly five per cent.

Every economy in Asia, from Australia to Vietnam, has a national policy impera-tive to move into higher- value ICT service delivery, away from the ‘$2 shops’ of raw commodity export and manufacture into value-add high tech services. Yet we are actually going backwards due to pre-digital workplace and public policy decisions and cultures which limit workforce participation and productivity.

Consistent with previous ACSW survey responses, the 2012 ACS Women’s survey again showed women in the ICT sector are highly educated, primarily work full-time

and were relatively well paid, but had little in the way of superannuation reserves.For six years the ACS Women’s survey has shown that it is not women’s skills

and expertise that has throttled the digital economy but rather gender attitudes. It’s a complex policy discussion. Post-GFC, our

region is facing enormous pressures from a hyper-agile workforce, a hyper-mobile consumer base and a hyper-

cautious investment climate where productivity is made more urgent by unprecedented advances in

storage, security, mobile and convergence. In short, this means that HR departments, CEOs, CIOs and

policy makers need to get up to speed urgently concerning their human resources. Women are highly qualified and

have proven that they perform and advance in their profes-sion extremely well. ¢

The ACS Women SurveyAustralian women in ICT put their hands up to ensure their opinions are counted.

ACSW : survey results ACS Women’s supplement Information Age February/March 2014 | 79

ACSW SURVEY Metric Results WORKING REPORT_11-Feb-2013.XLSpage 1 of 2 PRODUCED BY DOLPHIN

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Working Report - Australian Computer Society Women's Board Survey 2012 Report Date:

Results Participants: 538

1. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ALL PARTICIPANTS 1. What is your age group?

18 - 20 5 1%21 - 24 29 5%25 - 29 66 12% 19%

30 - 34 71 13%35 - 39 55 10% 23%

40 - 44 73 14%45 - 49 78 14% 28%

50 - 54 66 12%55 - 60 51 9%Over 60 44 8% 30%

538 100%

2. Are you an Australian citizen?

Yes 447 83%No 91 17%

538 100%

3. Where do you live?

Queensland 81 15%New South Wales 138 26%Victoria 101 19%Tasmania 12 2%South Australia 32 6%Western Australia 87 16%Northern Territory 23 4%Australian Capital Territory 48 9%

* Other 16 3%538 100%

4. How would your residential area be classified?

Urban 507 94%Rural 30 6%Remote 1 0%

538 100%

5. What is the Australian equivalent highest level of education you have completed?

Secondary School Education 24 4%Certificate 28 5%Diploma 49 9% 19%

Undergraduate Degree 166 31% 31%

Post-Graduate Degree or Diploma 98 18%Masters 126 23%Doctorate 47 9% 50%

538 100%

11/02/2013

* See confidential supplementary comments report for list of educational fields

* See confidential supplementary comments report

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%

18 - 20

21 - 24

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 44

45 - 49

50 - 54

55 - 60

Over 60

Age Group

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Yes

No

Australian Citizenship Status

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Queensland

New South Wales

Victoria

Tasmania

South Australia

Western Australia

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Other

Place of Residence

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Urban

Rural

Remote

Residential Area

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Certificate

Diploma

Undergraduate Degree

Post-Graduate Degree orDiploma

Masters

Doctorate

Level of Education




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6. Do you have any industry/vendor qualifications?

* Yes 274 51%No 264 49%

538 100%

7. How many years have you been in the ICT industry?

0 years - 2 years 58 11%3 years - 5 years 64 12%6 years - 10 years 81 15% 27%

11 years - 14 years 72 13%15 years - 20 years 89 17%21 years - 30 years 98 18%More than 31 years 54 10% 58%

I do not work in the ICT industry 22 4%538 100%

8. What is your current employment status?

Full time 375 70% 70%

Part-time 46 9%Self employed or proprietor/director 31 6%Short term contract 17 3%Casual 8 1% 19%

Studying full time 21 4%Studying part time 9 2%Other duties (not in paid work) 15 3%Retired 16 3% 11%

538 100%

Primarily employed 477 89% upon selection branched to questions about current employment

Studying 30 6% upon selection branched to Influences and Challenges

Not in paid work 15 3% upon selection branched to Influences and Challenges

Retired 16 3% upon selection branched to Taking Career Breaks

* See confidential supplementary comments report 538 100%

* See confidential supplementary comments report - List of industry or vendor qualifications.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Yes

No

Industry/Vendor Qualifications

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

0 years - 2 years

3 years - 5 years

6 years - 10 years

11 years - 14 years

15 years - 20 years

21 years - 30 years

More than 31 years

I do not work in the…

Years in the ICT Industry

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Full time

Part-time

Self employed or proprietor/director

Short term contract

Casual

Studying full time

Studying part time

Other duties (not in paid work)

Retired

Employment Status



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2. CURRENT EMPLOYMENT PROFILE - PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE PRIMARILY EMPLOYED: 477

1. In which industry sector are you mainly engaged?

Accommodation and Food Service 1 0%Administrative and Support Services 11 2%Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing 3 1%Arts and Recreation Services 5 1%Construction 2 0%Education and Training 98 21%Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services 11 2%Financial and Insurance Services 59 12%Healthcare and Social Assistance 27 6%Information Media and Telecommunication 57 12%Manufacturing 10 2%Mining 14 3%Professional, Scientific & Technical Services 66 14%Public Administration and Safety 26 5%Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services 0 0%Retail Trade 3 1%Transport, Postal and Warehousing 3 1%Wholesale Trade 2 0%

* Other 79 17%477 100%


2. Is this your first or is it a subsequent career?

First career 197 41%Second or subsequent career 280 59%

477 100%

3. How long have you been with your current employer?

Less than 1 year 84 18%1 year - 2 years 95 20%3 years - 5 years 126 26%6 years - 10 years 70 15%11 years - 14 years 44 9%15 years - 20 years 31 6%21 years - 30 years 21 4%More than 31 years 6 1%

477 100%

4. How many years have you been in your current position?

Less than 1 year 140 29%1 year - 2 years 126 26%3 years - 5 years 129 27%6 years - 10 years 40 8%11 years - 14 years 30 6%15 years - 20 years 11 2%21 years - 30 years 1 0%More than 31 years 0 0%

477 100%

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0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Accommodation and Food Service

Administrative and Support Services

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing

Arts and Recreation Services

Construction

Education and Training

Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste…

Financial and Insurance Services

Healthcare and Social Assistance

Information Media and…

Manufacturing

Mining

Professional, Scientific & Technical…

Public Administration and Safety

Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services

Retail Trade

Transport, Postal and Warehousing

Wholesale Trade

Other

Main Industry Engagement

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

First career

Second or subsequent career

First or Subsequent Career

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Less than 1 year

1 year - 2 years

3 years - 5 years

6 years - 10 years

11 years - 14 years

15 years - 20 years

21 years - 30 years

More than 31 years

Years in current position

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Less than 1 year

1 year - 2 years

3 years - 5 years

6 years - 10 years

11 years - 14 years

15 years - 20 years

21 years - 30 years

More than 31 years

Years with current employer



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11/02/2013

5. Which of the following best describes your role?

Consulting 61 13%Project Management 42 9%IT Management 52 11%Documentation / Report Writer 4 1%Systems Management 15 3%Project Leader 4 1%Computer Graphics / Designer 1 0%Programmer / Analyst 30 6%Executive / Manager 37 8%Research & Development 15 3%Research & Teaching 21 4%Teaching & Training Only 15 3%Database Administrator 3 1%Sales & Marketing 5 1%Analysis & Testing 17 4%Computer Support 13 3%LAN Manager / Administrator 2 0%Webmaster / Internet Developer 12 3%Software Engineer 17 4%Help Desk Support 7 1%Business Analyst 38 8%ICT Security 9 2%

* Other 57 12%477 100%


6. Please indicate your BASE salary range ($Aust)

Less than 50,000 53 11%50,000 - 75,000 82 17%75,000 - 90,000 91 19%90,000 - 110,000 93 19%110,000 - 150,000 103 22%150,000 - 200,000 40 8%More than 200,000 15 3%

477 100%

7. Please indicate your current superannuation balance ($Aust)

Less than 50,000 153 32%50,000 - 75,000 69 14%75,000 - 90,000 36 8%90,000 - 110,000 34 7%110,000 - 150,000 51 11%150,000 - 200,000 36 8%More than 200,000 98 21%

477 100%

8. What is the total number of employees in the organisation you currently work in?

Work for myself 29 6%Less than 5 employees 11 2%Between 5 and 20 employees 27 6%Between 20 and 100 employees 41 9%Between 100 and 1000 employees 110 23%More than 1000 employees 259 54%

477 100%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Work for myself

Less than 5 employees

Between 5 and 20 employees



More than 1000 employees

Employees in Organisation Currently Worked In

0% 5% 10% 15%

Consulting

Project Management

IT Management

Documentation / Report Writer

Systems Management

Project Leader

Computer Graphics / Designer

Programmer / Analyst

Executive / Manager

Research & Development

Research & Teaching

Teaching & Training Only

Database Administrator

Sales & Marketing

Analysis & Testing

Computer Support

LAN Manager / Administrator

Webmaster / Internet Developer

Software Engineer

Help Desk Support

Business Analyst

ICT Security

Other

Role

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Less than 50,000

50,000 - 75,000

75,000 - 90,000

90,000 - 110,000

110,000 - 150,000

150,000 - 200,000

More than 200,000

Base Salary Range ($Aust)

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Less than 50,000

50,000 - 75,000

75,000 - 90,000

90,000 - 110,000

110,000 - 150,000

150,000 - 200,000

More than 200,000

Total Salary Range ($Aust)



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9. How often do you work from home?

Not at all 188 39%A few hours a week 180 38%One day a week 46 10%1-2 days a week 32 7%3-4 days a week 11 2%5 or more days a week 20 4%

477 100%

10. In addition to your work, do you have any of the following responsibilities?

YesChild rearing 144 30%Study / Retraining 135 28%Carer Duties 87 18%

* Other - specify 81 17%


11. Do you believe women in your current workplace receive equal compensation for the same work as performed by males?

* Yes 315 66%* No 162 34%

477 100%

12. When did you obtain your last promotion?

Less than 12 months ago 85 18%Within the last three years 101 21%Within the last five years 35 7%More than five years ago 38 8%Never promoted 90 19%Not applicable 128 27%

477 100%

13. How frequently have you changed your employer in the last five years?

No change 202 42%Once 156 33%2 to 5 times 90 19%More than five times 2 0%Not applicable 27 6%

477 100%

* See confidential supplementary comments report: Explain why you think women in your current workplace DO or DO NOT receive equal compensation.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Not at all

A few hours a week

One day a week

1-2 days a week

3-4 days a week

5 or more days a week

Frequency of Working From Home

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Child rearing

Study / Retraining

Carer Duties

Other - specify

Additional Responsibilities

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Yes

No

Women Receive Equal Compensation For the Same Work as Performed by Males

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Less than 12 months ago

Within the last three years

Within the last five years

More than five years ago

Never promoted

Not applicable

When Obtained Last Promotion

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

No change

Once

2 to 5 times

More than five times

Not applicable

Frequency of Changing Employer in Last Five Years



T + 61 8 8981 0880



11/02/2013

14. How many hours per week do you normally work (excluding paid overtime)?

Less than 15 11 2%15 to 20 hours 14 3%20 to 35 hours 49 10% 16%

38 hours 80 17% 17%

38 to 45 hours 227 48%45 to 60 hours 84 18%More than 60 12 3% 68%

477 100%

15. On average, how many hours of overtime (PAID) do you work each week?

No paid overtime 449 94%Less than 2 hours 12 3%3 - 5 hours 10 2%5 - 10 hours 6 1%

* More than 10 0 0%477 100%


16. On average, how many hours of overtime (UNPAID) do you work each week?

No unpaid overtime 148 31%Less than 2 hours 75 16%3 - 5 hours 121 25%5 - 10 hours 89 19%

* More than 10 44 9%477 100%


17. How can ACS-W support your needs in the workplace? See confidential supplementary comments report

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Less than 15

15 to 20 hours

20 to 35 hours

38 hours

38 to 45 hours

45 to 60 hours

More than 60

Hours Normally Worked Per Week

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

No paid overtime

Less than 2 hours

3 - 5 hours

5 - 10 hours

More than 10

Average Hours of Paid Overtime Worked Each Week

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

No unpaid overtime

Less than 2 hours

3 - 5 hours

5 - 10 hours

More than 10

Average Hours of Unpaid Overtime Worked Each Week



T + 61 8 8981 0880



i.e Women primarily in paid work 477AND Women studying 30

507

1. What will MOST influence your next career move?Select ONE onlyMore money 102 20%More accessible child minding facilities 1 0%More challenging work 97 19%More opportunity for promotion 71 14%Availability of part-time work 46 9%Access to more flexible hours 33 6%Better conditions of employment 33 6%Better workplace culture 52 10%

* Other 87 17%522 100%


2 . What challenges you are facing in your career? See confidential supplementary comments report

3. CAREER INFLUENCES - PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE PRIMARILY EMPLOYED, OR STUDYING IE EXCLUDING WOMEN NOT IN PAID WORK AND RETIRED

11/02/2013

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

More money

More accessible child minding facilities

More challenging work

More opportunity for promotion

Availability of part-time work

Access to more flexible hours

Better conditions of employment

Better workplace culture

Other

Most Important Influence on Next Career Move



T + 61 8 8981 0880



4. TAKING CAREER BREAKS - ALL PARTICIPANTS

1. Have you ever had to take a substantial break from your career (child rearing, carer’s duties etc)?

* Yes 202 38%No 336 62%

538 100%* See confidential supplementary comments report If yes, what effect did that have on your career?

2. Have you had any UNPAID breaks in your employment?

Yes 264 49%No 274 51%

538 100%

For what reason(s) did you have an UNPAID break in your employment? TOTALSelect YES or NO for each 264Child rearing 142 54%Study / Retraining 79 30%Carer duties 28 11%Change of career 52 20%Unemployment 81 31%Relocation 69 26%

* Other reason- specify


Please give an indication of the total time off work.TOTAL

2640 months - 6 months 88 33%6 months - 1 year 55 21%1 year - 3 years 73 28%4 years - 6 years 28 11%6 years - 10 years 15 6%Greater than 10 years 5 2%

264 100%

4. Have you had any PAID breaks in your employment?

Yes 146 27%No 392 73%

538 100%

For what reason(s) did you have a paid break in your employment? TOTALSelect YES or NO for each 146Child rearing 64 44%Study / Retraining 32 22%Carer duties 14 10%Change of career 5 3%Personal leave (e.g. extended sick leave) 60 41%Relocation 4 3%

* Other reason- specify


11/02/2013

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Yes

No

Substantial Break Taken From Career

0% 20% 40% 60%

Yes

No

Unpaid Breaks in Employment

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Child rearing

Study / Retraining

Carer duties

Change of career

Unemployment

Relocation

Other reason- specify

Reasons Why Participants had Unpaid Break (s) in Employment

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

0 months - 6 months

6 months - 1 year

1 year - 3 years

4 years - 6 years

6 years - 10 years

Greater than 10 years

Total Time Off Work

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Yes

No

Paid Breaks in Employment

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Child rearing

Study / Retraining

Carer duties

Change of career

Personal leave (e.g. extended sick leave)

Relocation

Other reason- specify

Reasons Why Participants had Paid Break (s) in Employment

Information Age February/March 2014 | 89Policy : ICT standards

There is a strong business case for being involved with Standards Australia as Australian and international ICT standards save businesses time and money.

They cut software development costs, drive efficiency and increase productivity.

The use of common ICT standards and specifications reduces time to market, facilitates global market access, fosters technology and supports innovation.

Standards also give ICT product and service exporters the confidence to reach global markets, safe in the knowl-edge that their product and services will perform globally.

Participation on Standards Australia’s ICT technical committees provides ACS members with the oppor-tunity to:• Contribute to national and international standards

development • Network with thought leaders and experts • Exchange knowledge and ideas and bring your

expertise to standards development globally • The chance to gain insights into emerging areas

such as big data, smart cities, sensor networks and the Internet of Things Standards Australia’s ICT technical committees com-

prise representatives from an impressive range of technical and professional backgrounds, who participate to shape the future of standards development for the ICT sector.

Standards Australia through its JTC 1 Strategic Advisory Committee has identified key priority areas of standards engagement including:• Accessibility• Internet of things• Big Data • Sensor networks• Smart infrastructure • Cyber/information security • Cloud computing • ICT sustainability • Governance of IT

JTC 1 is the Joint Technical Committee of the Inter-national Organization for Standardization (ISO) and

the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) – both of which Standards Australia is a member – and is charged with developing standards to promote integra-tion and innovation in ICT.

Importantly, committee participation means that you can have a say over the direction and help shape the future of your industry. Australian and international standards have the power to set new benchmarks for business and due to their high-level of recognition and compliance, they can potentially shape the marketplace and business operating environment.

Having the right Australian technical expertise at the table provides the best opportunity to represent the views of ACS and Australian ICT industry more broadly. It also provides opportunities to take leadership positions and be an international standards maker where it counts.

For more information about the participation options available for ACS members and how you can be involved,

visit Standards Australia’s website at www.standards.org.au and contact Adam Redman, Head of Policy and

External Affairs at [email protected]

Engaging in national and international ICT Standards Development

ICANN, the international body responsible for over-sight of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), has issued advice to IT professionals worldwide on

how to proactively identify and manage an issue known as “domain name collision”.

In a report titled Name Collision Identification and Miti-gation for IT Professionals, ICANN explains the nature and causes of name collision and proposes a range of possible solutions.

A name collision occurs when an attempt to resolve a name that is used in a private name space (e.g., under a non-delegated Top Level Domain, or a short, unquali-fied name) results in a query to the public DNS. To explain the issue using an analogy, consider calling for “Mary” in your office where you’ve assumed there’s only one “Mary”, and then calling out “Mary” in a shopping mall and expecting that “office Mary” will respond.

Domain name collisions are not new. However, with up to 1300 new generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) being introduced over the next year, there is an increased level of concern and ICANN is ensuring that IT pro-fessionals are aware of the issue. The ICANN report addresses some concerns that a number of applied-for new TLDs may be identical to names used in private name spaces.

The report explains how DNS queries leak into the global DNS from private name spaces and how these leaks can have unintended consequences. It shows that private networks will consistently, stably, and reliably perform name resolution when they use Fully Quali-fied Domain Names (FQDNs) and resolve them from the global DNS, and proposes methods to migrate to FQDNs.

The report recommends that every organisation that is not already using FQDNs from the public DNS should

consider the following strategy:• Monitor name services, compile a list of private

TLDs or short unqualified names you use internally, and compare the list you create against the list of new TLD strings.

• Formulate a plan to mitigate causes of leakage.• Prepare users for the impending change in name

usage by notifying them in advance or providing training

• Implement your plan to mitigate the potential collisionThe release of this advice to IT professionals is the

result of several months of diligent work by ICANN’s staff, subject matter experts, the ICANN Executive Team and the Board of Directors.

The report, along with additional useful information and resources, can be found at: www.icann.org/en/help/

name-collision.

Name collision – does it impact you?

Information Age February/March 2014 | 90ICT industry : resources

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