Industry News

• 10/01/2000

Unisys is a recipient of a multiple-award contract from the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, to provide support services under the Treasury Information Processing Support Services-2 (TIPSS-2). The contract has an estimated value of $100 million over five years.

Under the contract, Unisys will support a variety of information technology and business management projects for all organizations within the Department of Treasury, Treasury Bureaus and the IRS worldwide in four principal task areas: information systems services, telecommunications support services, organizational/management services and operational support services. As a prime contractor, Unisys will lead a team composed of PRC, Bell Atlantic, KPMG and 13 small businesses. Together, the Unisys team will have an opportunity to develop, design and implement vital Treasury and IRS systems, and provide key support in the areas of information resource and business management.

Because indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts do not obligate the government to purchase more than a minimum quantity, the estimated value of the IRS TIPSS-2 contract to Unisys is not guaranteed.

Attachmate writers received two merit awards for technical communications from the Society for Technical Communication (STC) International Publications.

Theresa Marchwinski, Documentation Manager, Attachmate Unisys Group, says, "We greatly appreciate the recognition from the STC."

Sabrina Darnowsky, technical writer, shares the first award with Alison Eliason, contributor and Leann Smith, contributor, for Attachmate e-Vantage Host Access Management Administrator’s Guide. The guide received a merit award in the "Software Guides" category.

A second merit award in the "Software Guides" category went to Darnowsky, Ray Prusia, contributor and Bill Haynes, contributor. The project was titled Attachmate e-Vantage Host Access Server Management Administrator’s Guide.

STC’s annual technical communication competitions program recognizes the best examples of the art and science of technical communication.

UPSPRING Software Inc., software infrastructure analysis solution company, has made availabile CodeRover, a family of desktop software infrastructure analysis applications designed to enhance the productivity of individual software developers. CodeRover applications come in three categories – Productivity, Quality and Change with many individually purchasable applications.

CodeRover applications are downloadable over the Web, are self-installed and are fully supported through Internet and telephone hotlines. CodeRover applications are available with optional annual maintenance, which automatically provides upgrades to new versions as they are released. CodeRover applications are compatible with the complete enterprise-wide DISCOVER software Development Information System solution.

In other news, CodeRover Integrity has also been made available by UPSPRING. CodeRover Integrity is an automated source code quality assurance tool to analyze newly written or modified software against predefined, industry accepted programming rules prior to submission. It uses this analysis to provide a list of non-compliant instances for inspection and remediation, thus improving initial code quality on a proactive basis, before testing.

The employment outlook for executive, professional and sales people in the IT industry continues to soar, according to the latest hiring survey conducted by Management Recruiters International (MRI) Inc.

Of the executives with responsibility for hiring in the IT industry surveyed, 72.5 percent indicated plans to increase their staffs in the second half of 2000, down from the 74.3 percent for the first half. Another 21.3 percent plan to maintain current staff sizes, and 6.2 percent plan decreases. By comparison, across all industries, 53.2 percent projected new hires for the second half of 2000.

Explaining the difference in new hiring expectations, Allen Salikof, President and CEO of MRI says, "Traditional brick-and-mortar companies are keeping demand for talented IT professionals strong as they move to expand their businesses onto the Internet." No explanation was given for the hiring decrease from the first half of 2000.

For a summary of the findings, contact Karen Bloomfield via e-mail at karen.bloomfield@brilliantpeople.com.

Unisys Launches Community Internet Portal Hosting Program

Unisys launched its community Internet portal hosting program in West Chester, Pa., where it will develop and host community Internet sites that link residents, businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and non-profit organizations in a cohesive, locally based e-commerce resource.

The portal program is a key milestone for the Unisys e-@ction Community Helper Solution, which uses e-business tools and services to link citizens, business and local government agencies. In West Chester, a unique localizing feature planned for the project is a community-based sales and training office and cyber café, with access to the Internet portal available to community businesses and residents. Businesses setting up stores will be trained and other users will be able to personally sample the portal at the facility.

Unisys and Williams Communications Solutions, a single-source provider of business communications equipment and multimedia integration services, have partnered to deliver a multi-year strategic alliance to jointly serve the communications marketplace with installation and maintenance services based on the Unisys e-@ction Managed Network Services portfolio.

In addition to providing these services to Williams Communications’ network customers, the companies plan to make their joint-services offering available to businesses of all sizes.

Since launching the Unisys Strategic Service Partnership (SSP) program, Unisys has forged a number of alliances with different manufacturers of computer and networking equipment. The SSP program enables partners to extend service and support capability to include multivendor equipment.

A new survey shows technology executives are placing a high priority on network security. Responding to the question: "Has your company increased its investment, including hardware, software and personnel, in corporate network security in the past six months?" – 58 percent of chief information officers responded "Yes," while 41 percent responded "No." The remaining one percent said that they "Didn’t know."

Katherine Spencer Lee, Executive Director of RHI Consulting, the firm conducting the survey, says, "Companies are becoming more proactive in securing internal and external networks – particularly those that are Web-based – as a means of forestalling potential risks before they disrupt business operations."

Spencer Lee points out that firms are placing a premium on technical expertise in such areas as encryption and authentication, safeguarding of firewalls, intrusion monitoring and administration of virtual private networks.

iMergence Corporation has allied with Unisys to co-market iMergence software in North America for use on Unisys servers both as a stand-alone product and in conjunction with insci-statements.com software.

One of the software products Unisys will be co-marketing is iMergence XMP, which merges and reconciles data from disparate sources. XMP converts document information from reports, databases, spreadsheets and other applications into XML documents. XMP operates on Windows servers, including Unisys ES7000 and ES5000 servers.

iMergence XMP software will provide insci-statement.com’s ESP+archive users the capability to create ad hoc reports at the server level. Unisys will focus its iMergence marketing on users with complex disparate systems, particularly large financial services and public sector organizations.

SurfControl Inc. announces the formation of the Catalyst Consortium by the company’s MultiView Group. Using the Web browser as the common denominator, the focus of the consortium is to provide an open standard for software vendors and system integrators who are wanting to connect legacy, character-based business systems to the Web. A key technology for members with traditional emulation applications is the availability of an open application programming interface (API), which was developed by the MultiView Group.

This API eliminates much of the programming previously required to connect legacy applications to the Web, enabling developers to expand their market reach and extend the usage of their current solutions.

The MultiView API is available for free to all members of the Catalyst Consortium and provides a standardized, easy-to-use and zero-administration interface that makes it easy to offer Web-based access for UNIX applications.

According to a new Report from Forrester Research Inc., federal, state and local governments will collect 15 percent of fees and taxes online by 2006, totaling $602 billion.

Most government services and regulatory requirements involve the filing of an application or report by businesses and constituents. Governments at all levels will receive 333 million online submissions by 2006. State governments will receive the most – 137 million in 2006 – fueled by online business reporting. By 2006, authorities will roll out almost 14,000 total online service applications nationwide. The majority of these services will come from the nation’s 35,000 cities and towns.

E-government adoption will evolve through three phases: experimentation, integration and reinvention. Governments’ initial forays onto the Net over the next 24 months will continue to be marked by a smattering of low-risk, clearly bounded, constituent-focused services online. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

Lucas Group Survey Examines High-Tech Hiring Trends

A recent employment trend study by Lucas Group, a national recruitment firm specializing in the telecommunications and high-tech industries, reveals that companies desperate to find experienced high-tech candidates are picking up the pace. The need to make a fast hiring decision was the number one (at 32 percent) recommendation made by Lucas’ senior recruiters when polled by the company. Other high-ranking recommendations included: top salaries, stock options and signing bonuses.

According to the survey, today, 72 percent of the time, a candidate is hired within six weeks of a position’s availability, according to the survey. Five years ago, the process took up to three months, with about 50 percent of candidates hired within the first six weeks. Survey respondents attribute advances in technology – such as the Internet, faxes and cell phones – as contributing factors, enabling the entire recruitment process to move faster.

The survey notes the Internet’s value in the hiring process. 96 percent of survey respondents say that candidates are more prepared for job interviews because the ability to research a company online. The Internet also broadens the field of applicants and allows for the easy transmittal of information.

The leading quality sought by employers, according to the survey, is a good attitude. This is closely followed by technical expertise and leadership. The current low unemployment rate is also impacting hiring practices. Due to the smaller pool of candidates, employers are more likely to retain poor performers.

In a recent poll conducted by RHI Consulting, 39 percent of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) said trade magazines are their proferred source for technology news. One-third (33 percent) of respondents ranked the Internet as their favorite destination for industry updates. The survey included responses from 1,400 CIOs from U.S. companies with over 100 employees.

Communication with colleagues, newspapers, TV and radio were also listed among the responses. CIOs who prefer the Internet to other media outlets selected Microsoft.com as the Web page they frequent most for news. Additional sites listed include: Yahoo.com, ZDNet.com, MSN.com, CNET.com and Computerworld.com.