Skill Zone News issue 34
Politicians talk of spending cuts and the need to shave billions of pounds worth of national debt. At the same time there are companies which have been in existence for less than twenty years, companies which owe their existence to the world wide web, which routinely measure revenue by the billion. Can any of us really grasp figures of such magnitude?
25th October 2010
The spending review spreadsheet
As part of its austerity planning, the government tasked Sir Philip Green to review government procurement procedures. Naturally, IT features heavily in this review, and the key finding of the report is "The Government is failing to leverage both its credit rating and its scale".
Have you heard about....?
Research by the telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has found that the telephone companies do not do enough to tell users with disabilities about the facilities that are available to them.
Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich
Google, one of the world's biggest businesses, has saved itself over three billion dollars in tax since 2007 using techniques known to accountants as the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich".
Embracing Twitter
Whilst Google is adept at turning clicks into revenue, other popular services have struggled to monetise their popularity. Twitter is a global success story, but its investors need to see that success turned into dollars.
Penguin Panorama
Google has announced that with the inclusion of scenes from Antarctica, the ingenious Street View now features scenes from all seven continents of planet Earth. And yes, that means you can now zoom in on a penguin.