ICT investment a crisis beater

Microsoft has released a report claiming that investments in ICT could make all the difference in helping companies beat the recession, reports EurActiv.

"ICT is the place where governments should be putting their stimulus packages to make cost savings going forward," said John Vassallo, Microsoft's vice-president for EU affairs, commenting on the study's findings.

At the end of every crisis there is growth in the most innovative industries, argues Vassallo, who cited the 1930s boom in the household appliances, media and car industries. "Now we think the growth that will emerge out of this crisis will be investment in enabling technologies as the way to make it cheaper and more efficient to do what we were doing before."

Communication technology company Opal has released a report exposing the logistical nightmare that small business owners face when managing multiple ICT providers, states Channel EMEA.

The report, commissioned by Opal this year, investigated the working habits of more than 300 small business owners across the UK and their approach to managing their ICT.

Over half of businesses questioned (51%) have more than four suppliers, and 91 637 SMEs in the UK juggle with more than seven separate suppliers annually. A fifth of respondents admitted dealing with ICT issues regularly takes them away from their core business responsibilities.

Microsoft is changing up the next version of its System Center Configuration Manager so instead of managing devices it will manage users and their activities across multiple devices, says Network World.

"It will focus on... providing them an appropriate profile for information access based on the job function of the user together with the device they are using," says Bob Muglia, the head of Microsoft's server and tools division.

While he did not name the version he was talking about; Microsoft is slated to ship the Windows server-based Configuration Manager 2007 R3 late in the first three months of 2010.