In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Fujitsu wins courts contract

Fujitsu has won a €16 million contract to deliver a digital audio recording system to the Irish Courts Service. It will provide a fully-managed service which includes the provision of an underlying recording system, data storage and production and delivery of court transcripts. Ultimately the digital recordings will replace the stenography system. The digital recording will be piloted in a small number of courtrooms from March.

Data privacy 'not a priority'

A study on information security has found that data privacy is not a priority for Irish organisations. While it was ranked as one of the top three drivers of security by 57 per cent of global firms, only 25 per cent of Irish firms saw it as a priority. The Ernst & Young Global Information Security Survey also found that just 44 per cent of Irish organisations are proactive about security compared with 76 per cent of their international peers.

Headway group nominated

Irish firm Headway Software has been named a finalist in the Design and Modeling category at this year's Jolt Product Excellence Awards Structure101 for Java. The international awards which recognise the most innovative products are considered the Oscars of the software industry. Other nominees include IBM, Adobe, Google and Sun Microsystems.

Data Edge deal with Cognotec

Software reseller Data Edge has won a contract with foreign exchange trading specialists Cognotec which is expected to generate revenues of €500,000 in the first year alone. It includes the integration of CA Wily Introscope software into Cognotec's latest foreign exchange trading software - RealStream-Margin. Data Edge is CA Wily's largest partner in Ireland.

PC upkeep cost highlighted

Some PC owners will spend more on virus protection, online backup and insurance over the lifetime of the computer, than they did on the initial outlay for the PC, according to consultants Deloitte who published their 2008 predictions for the technology industry this week. Deloitte is predicting a backlash against the amount of information that websites capture about consumers online behaviour. They also suggest that online authentication of users before they carry out a transaction is likely to become more common in 2008.

'Phone-tag' eats up worktime

A survey has found that Irish office staff spend an average of 73 minutes per week leaving voicemails and playing "phone-tag".

The survey of 553 workers, commissioned by Damovo and Ericsson, also found that 24 per cent of respondents were using unified communications tools such as instant messaging, conferencing and video.

John McCabe, managing director of Damovo Ireland, called on the Government, telecoms companies and internet service providers to work together to deliver the improved broadband speeds and availability necessary to support the new services.

Free online video games

Leading computer game publisher Electronic Arts is to start providing video games free of charge for download from the web.

The first title to be released as part of EA's Play 4 Free strategy is Battlefield Heroes, a cartoon-style shooter developed by Swedish company Dice. It has a matchmaking system built in so that players of similar skill levels are pitched against each other online.