Vanessa Howard

Vanessa is a bystander. She’s not a software developer, a tester, an architect or a programmer. She is, however, fascinated by how IT is reshaping the business landscape. A journalist and author, Vanessa has written for regional and national press, worked at ITV and contributes features to a number of monthly magazines. Her deep dark secret is that she began life working for large advertising agencies where she cut her teeth writing for the business world.

Recent Posts

Why a computer isn’t a fridge

Posted on13. Jan, 2012 by Vanessa Howard.

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For public policy, it’s all happening at breakneck speed. Only last April, Intellect, the UK tech trade association, suggested that ICT taught in schools was inadequate. This week, the education secretary Michael Gove announced that the current programme will be scrapped in England from September. Parents of children in secondary schools will be aware that [...]

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Nine million reasons to develop a sound data testing strategy

Posted on12. Oct, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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Ordinarily, ‘warehouse management systems’ might not be a subject that sets the pulse racing but as one UK company found, should a hitch occur, the result can hit a business’s bottom line very hard. Fashion retailer Supergroup had introduced new systems to help manage efficiencies and increased capacity – so far, so good, and eerily [...]

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‘Technical issues’ can be life-changing, so where next for test data management?

Posted on01. Sep, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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Read any statement made by an organisation after a blunder has occurred and it is easy to marvel at the judicious use of bland phrasing. In ‘crisis management’, the first flurry of activity is almost invariably designed to buy time. Behind closed doors, there will be frantic scenes of accusation, investigation and counter-accusation. Perhaps there [...]

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US Deadlock – is the next crisis data management?

Posted on04. Aug, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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The hubbub surrounding the US Government’s impasse over raising its debt ceiling has made many of us aware of the mind-numbingly huge sums of money involved in government running costs but behind the headlines, there are issues pending that money alone may no longer be able to fix. At the start of the year, there [...]

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Mergers, Acquisitions and data shock

Posted on22. Jul, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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The news that Tom Alexander is stepping down as chief executive of Everything Everywhere (the name of the company that was formed after the merger of Orange and T-Mobile) throws into question accepted wisdoms about the virtues of Mergers & Acquisitions. The reality is that a merger is no guarantee of healthy returns. Bigger does [...]

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Why data testing is a Boardroom issue…but all too often isn’t.

Posted on15. Jul, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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Question: What can’t any business do without? (And I mean all businesses, from sole traders to global corporations.) Well, a decent product is the first thought, make a table with four uneven legs and you may not have a future as a carpenter. But even if you make a fine table, one good product is [...]

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Hacked off – why data testing needs to get creative

Posted on16. Jun, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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Ever wondered who is behind the various breaches that have plagued the likes of, oh I don’t know, small outfits that you might not have heard of – Sony, Citibank, Google, Lockheed Martin and the International Monetary Fund? Whilst no one is in the dock just yet, an interesting piece from the BBC provides an [...]

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Data and ‘the common man’

Posted on31. May, 2011 by Vanessa Howard.

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Google’s Eric Schmidt caused a hoo-ha recently when he suggested that issues surrounding user privacy are a greater obsession with ‘the elites’ than they are for ‘the common man’. Life doesn’t always go the way of the ‘elites’, of course, and in fact certain stratum have been having a tough old time of it if [...]

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