This past summer, the College began work on a project to phase in a new campus wide identification system (CWID) for students, faculty, and staff. The key objective of this initiative is to eliminate the use of the Social Security Number (SSN) as an individual identifier in the College's administrative systems. Once implemented, this new system will greatly increase protection against identify theft and enhance individual privacy.

Summer '07: The Department of Information Technology will install a software update on all Marist owned computers beginning on 20-Jun and continuing for the rest of the summer. This update will ensure each computer has the latest Microsoft software patches installed which were tested and approved by the Department of Information Technology. In order for all our computers to get this update, the Desktop Support team will need to install this update on your computer. The update will only take 5-10 minutes and will require a reboot of your computer to take effect. In addition, the Desktop Support team will also install a file conversion program that will allow users to open Microsoft Word documents created in the new MS Office 2007 format.

A century ago the world population numbered 1.6 billion. Today, the world population is 6.6 billion people. This rapid population growth has forced us to reassess our use of the earth's resources and to institute environmentally friendly services in campus operations.

People who use both IBM Lotus Notes and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise may want to hold off on upgrading to the latest version of the McAfee software. Installing McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i on a PC that also runs the Lotus Notes email client can lock people out of their mailboxes, the two companies have confirmed. Lotus Notes is a commonly used email application, particularly in larger organisations. McAfee, the world's second-largest antivirus company, released VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i in late November.

BSN Medical has outsourced its IT to Unisys in a contract worth an estimated $35m. The five-year deal will see Unisys supporting 3,500 of the German-based medical product manufacturer's staff in 35 global locations. Unisys will provide IT services including a user helpdesk, WAN and LAN management, messaging and desktop services.

A new NHS IT service desk is now up and running across the country to help NHS staff solve their tech problems. The local service desks in London and the South switched over to the NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) Service Desk on Monday, completing a nationwide rollout that started on 15 December last year.

South Africa is touting itself as a destination for offshoring and business process outsourcing (BPO), offering incentives to companies that want to set up operations there. It is one of many countries including Hungary, Egypt and Mexico that want to grab some of the offshore business of which India currently has the lion's share. It hopes that government incentives for companies that move their BPO business to the country could help attract more firms. And while it can't beat India on costs, it reckons it's more UK-friendly time zone and a better customer experience can swing some business its way.

Supermarket chain Somerfield has outsourced its IT function to Indian services company TCS in a £30m deal. The move, which will see a mix of onsite and offshore outsourcing, is intended to reduce costs for the UK grocery chain and improve service levels, according to Mike Bell, IT director at Somerfield. It will result in a number of job losses. Bell told silicon.com this is a major advancement in an eight-year-old relationship with TCS and will mark the culmination of an overhaul of Somerfield's IT department.

Helpdesk and support software company Axios Systems on Thursday published the results of a survey that suggests only five per cent of IT managers are aiming to deploy Vista during 2007. The survey - of 240 IT directors and helpdesk managers of large UK and international organisations - showed that while Vista has become a major focus for some companies, others are happy to play wait and see. Tasos Symeonides, chief executive of Axios, said the survey showed that while some companies may be attracted by the new features in Vista, they are realistic about its impact on their organisation. "The hype around Microsoft Windows Vista does not appear to have turned it into a priority for many IT directors/CIOs and helpdesk managers," he said.

MAG Industrial Automation Systems (MAG-IAS) has signed up Perot Systems to provide a range of IT services over 10 years in a $110m contract. The deal will see Perot aim to consolidate the machine tool provider's infrastructure and systems across more than 30 locations in Asia, Europe and North and South America.