• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By silicon.com, 27 February 2009 15:41

As the world plunges deeper and deeper into recession there are big changes afoot in the technology industry.

Top of the list - a huge reversal of roles in one of the most fundamental divides in the corporate landscape - the client-supplier relationship.

The dark years where the client would shell out vast sums of money for products and services that bore no resemblance to what the sales guy promised are over.

The subsequent darker years when the client then threw even vaster sums at the same supplier to fix the problems - otherwise known as 'consultancy' - are also over.

Instead, according to vendors, CIOs are demanding they accept "suicidal deals" that actually lose them money, as customers finally learn how to use the credit crunch to their advantage.

All the Round-Up can say is - hallelujah! Who's the daddy now? (This guy is probably thinking the same)

Sticking with money - this week's grand overarching theme - can anyone spare some cash for a hard up politician?

Please don't all shout at once…

Earlier this week, a number of people received an email from the Blackburn MP and UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw begging for $3,000 to get him back home after he admitted losing his wallet while on charity work in Africa. It happens to the best of us, Jack.

Messages headed the 'Right Hon Jack Straw MP' were sent to council bosses, senior civil servants and other nice people completely undeserving of an unsolicited request for $3,000.

But no, the minister hadn't been careless with his cash - instead it appears scammers had got access to his email account and were responsible for the begging messages.

It's somewhat ironic that the man who established the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, which was launched to fight e-crime, was targeted by fraudsters.

According to a report on the BBC, he told the Lancashire Telegraph: "I started getting phone calls from various constituents asking if I was really in Nigeria needing 3,000 dollars." (On a separate note the Round-Up's current favourite headline from that paper is "Road's tarmac is laid AROUND car!").

The scam email claimed Straw was travelling to Africa for a project called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism and was at an address in Lagos.

The faked email had Straw saying: "I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept.

"I would like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently to settle my hotel bills and get myself back home".

In fact, Jack needs no such assistance being both an able chap and assisted, the Round-Up would expect by a vast coterie of secretaries, PAs, policy advisors and security personnel.

"But I think it was so obviously ridiculous that I could go off trekking in Africa and I would lose my wallet," he really added. Then again, with all the bailouts around at the moment, what's one more?

While the fake Jack Straw was down $3,000 this week, some former Microsoft employees ended up scoring a little more redundancy than expected, due to a last minute change of heart from the Seattle giant.

This heart-warming tale didn't start so well, though. Last week it emerged that having made cuts the company admitted it made an accounting error in redundancy packages - and asked the workers to pay it back.

Microsoft sent letters to some of those former workers letting them know that their severance payouts were a bit too "generous" and requested the former employees pay back that money.

The letter to former employees stated: "An inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment in severance pay by Microsoft. We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience to you."

So they were sorry but not that sorry.

Maybe, as one silicon.com reader opined, they should have implemented SAP.

But - slightly better news arrived for the ex-Microsoft staffers earlier this week as Microsoft backtracked on its decision at a fair rate of knots.

Microsoft HR chief Lisa Brummel told CNET News: "I thought it didn't make sense for us to continue on the path we were on."

The path towards PR disaster, the Round-Up would suggest.

Brummel said the company has actually overpaid her at one point (this has never happened to the Round-Up who would also have absolutely no intention of admitting it if it had).

"It actually happened to me and I wrote the company a check," she said. "It may have happened to others." Twenty-five workers were overpaid and about 20 underpaid, Microsoft said.

Brummel said those overpaid received, on average, about $4,000 or $5,000 in extra pay. Roughly enough to bail out the fake Jack Straw, although the Round-Up would not suggest that is a good idea.

To Microsoft's credit, it added in a statement: "We should have handled this situation in a more thoughtful manner. We are reaching out to those impacted to relay that we will not seek any payment from those individuals."

Microsoft also said it is immediately reimbursing the underpaid employees. Nice one.

In the battle between PR and HR there can only ever be one victor...

Another unexpected impact of credit crunch layoffs was revealed in a separate story on silicon.com this week. It seems redundancy pay may be small fry compared to what some departing employees may be carrying home in their briefcases.

No, it's not a massive supply of sticky notes, pens and a couple of those little savage-looking gadgets for removing staples in an effective and deeply satisfying manner.

Instead, it's USB memory sticks. Or indeed any kind of portable storage device. And considering the plunging cost of those mini storage devices, it's not the hardware that's the worry either, but what's on it.

According to a survey, of 950 or so people who had lost or left their jobs during the last 12 months, nearly 60 per cent admitted to taking confidential company information with them.

This included customer contact lists and other data that could potentially end up in the hands of a competitor.

More than 60 per cent of those who stole confidential data also reported having an unfavourable view of the company. Well, duh.

Nearly 80 per cent said they took it without the employer's permission. Double duh with bells on.

So what are companies doing to protect themselves?

Naff all, apparently. The survey also found that many companies seem to be lax in protecting against data theft during layoffs. Completely bloody apathetic, actually.

Eighty-two per cent of the respondents said their employers did not perform an audit or review of documents before the employee headed out the door and 24 per cent said they still had access to the corporate network after leaving the building.

So good to see we're all learning the lessons on data security...

Finally this week, have you ever been stuck in a hotel room with a TV interface so convoluted you just want to crawl whimpering and broken into the corner of the room and call your mum to come and fetch you? silicon.com columnist Peter Cochrane knows exactly how you feel:

In other news:

Steve Ballmer goes off on one about Google and Apple. Plus ca change.

Whither Gmail?

Feel like writing in the air?

Do you feel witty? Well do ya punk? If so then the caption competition awaits.