Tech Bitch

Technology supplier search engine, Conjungo, has launched a timesaving tool for companies looking for local or specialist suppliers of technologies.Conjungo, from the Latin meaning ‘to unite’, already has over 15,000 listings of technology suppliers. Many technology vendors have listed their entire channel to help ensure that buyers will be able to find their local reseller, including Symantec, Citrix, Adobe, and Wyse Technology.

Conjungo promises accurate and refined search results. Results can be filtered by any combination of: geography (local or national suppliers), expertise (suppliers that have specific industry experience), and market segment (suppliers that sell to certain sizes of organisations). The search fields in Conjungo were defined by buyers themselves to make supplier identification refined, quick and easy.

Traditional search engines are great for researching a topic area, but not so good at narrowing down the search for suppliers experienced in the right size/type of business, or ones based in the right location. For instance, you could use Conjungo to search for VoIP providers based in Warwickshire (UK) who have experience of selling solutions into the retail sector.

Vendors who have listed their entire channel include BT, Symantec, Citrix, Adobe, Progress Software, Wyse Technology, Netvoyager, Swyx Solutions, Gamma Telecom, Teleware, Rostrvm Solutions, Mamut Software, Steljes, St Bernard, Hostway, Brocade, SMC Networks, and PGP Corporation.

Customers of the UK’s three biggest ISPs will have their browsing habits sold to a targeted advertising company in exchange for a cut of the profits.BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse (owns AOL and TalkTalk) - which collectively have more than 10 million broadband customers - will sell your Internet habits to Phorm, the company behind the new advertising system.

The system tracks the sites that you visit most and then offers personalised advertisements based on the type of sites you spend the most time on. For example, if you spend a lot of time looking at prOn, you might be targeted with ads selling ‘women looking for fun’.

However, the company has its roots in spyware software, sparking security concerns. The bloke who runs the company was founder of PeopleOnPage, an online advertising company that was blacklisted as spyware by Internet security firms Symantec and F-Secure.

It has been reported that Phorm has rejected the concerns, saying that the new model has resolved past problems and new built-in security measures - such as anti-phishing technology sets a whole new gold standard in online privacy.

Concerns have also been raised about targeting users on shared networks, but any customers who don’t want their data being sent to Phorm should contact their ISP and find out how to opt out of the targeted advertising.

Three quarters of UK SMEs (74%) now claim to offer their employees some form of flexible working, according to a new report released today by BT Business. But the report says that the adoption of newly defined ‘third-generation’ flexible working is slow due to a lack of technical know-how across the workforce.

Researched by independent forecasting think tank, The Centre for Future Studies, and backed by new YouGov research, the IT Skills for Flexible Working report, for the first time introduces definitions for different types of flexible working. The first generation involves time flexibility - offering part time or short term working to employees, whilst the second generation involves both time and location flexibility; so in addition to offering flexi-hours to staff, technology is provided for employees to work while on the move.

Finally, the most sophisticated and revolutionary flexible working, third generation, involves the emergence of the ‘virtual office’, which has total location independence and employees are given greater autonomy in the way they manage and plan their work. While many SMEs have successfully adopted first and second generation practices, few SMEs are using the third generation practices where technology is fully integrated to create a virtual office. This limited application of technology is confirmed by the 62% that say that they lack the appropriate IT skills and training to properly exploit their existing technology and therefore third generation flexible working.

We are witnessing the emergence of flexible hours, flexible tasks and flexible locations. The technology to support this is available to businesses of all sizes and sectors and is delivering tangible business benefits. The bummer is if you work for a company that doesn’t recognise that by offering you the flexibility to work at home while watching Jeremy Kyle they can attract and retain the very laziest best people to bring business success.