Principle Consultant with Project Management skills required for a leading independent management and technology consulting company, active in the UK and Europe in both the public and private sectors. Public sector clients include most central government departments and agencies, as well as the police, Ministry of Defence, local authorities and the NHS. Private sector business includes numerous blue-chip corporations in finance, banking, insurance, retailing, media and telecom’s. Requirements A good degree, excellent customer facing and writing skills, and sound professional experience are essential. Relevant post-graduate qualifications and professional memberships will be looked upon favourably Abraxas plc acts as an employment agency/business. No terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of age, and we confirm that we will gladly accept applications from persons of any age for this role.

(InfoWorld) - As of late Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Eastern Time, Research in Motion had offered no explanation for the cause of the BlackBerry e-mail service outage that affected users in North America. Throughout the outage, which started Tuesday evening at about 8:15 p.m. ET and lasted through at least midmorning Wednesday ET, the RIM and BlackBerry Web sites lacked any information regarding the outage. Multiple inquiries to press representatives made via telephone and e-mail were not answered through Wednesday afternoon, although RIM did issue a statement to European reporters earlier in the day, confirming the outage and saying service had been restored to most users and that it was looking into the cause of the problems. One crisis management consultant said customers expect more details in crisis situations. "The general rule is, if it's really bad, get [information] out fast," said James Lukaszewski, CEO of The Lukaszewski Group, in White Plains, New York. "It'd be a far less large situation if they communicated more." However, another offered the opposite viewpoint. While more communication might help to contain a news story, RIM's focus might instead be on reassuring stock markets, said Mark Towhey, president of the Towhey Consulting Group in Toronto. His company provides crisis management advance, and he thought RIM's response seemed appropriate for the circumstances. If the company didn't know the cause of the problem, whether "something broke" or its network was attacked, it may be better to say little. "In either case, they don't want to sound like they don't know what they're doing," he said. For customers who don't use their BlackBerries when they aren't working, the outage might not have been a major issue, he said. A BlackBerry customer himself, Towhey learned about the outage when he read news reports Wednesday morning, and about an hour later, the service was back. "For me as a customer, it seems like a minor hiccup," he said. According to some who posted at BlackBerry message boards -- ironically, one of the larger such boards was on the fritz at least part of Wednesday -- the hiccup wasn't quite so minor. While some posters urged perspective on the situation, others found their ability to work was adversely affected. While non-BlackBerry users might not quite get the fondness for the handheld devices that leads to them being dubbed "CrackBerries," a Web poll taken Wednesday by telecom expense management firm ProfitLine found that 81 percent of respondents representing enterprise IT and telecom professionals reported operations were disrupted by the outage with 44.5 percent saying that the effect was "moderate or substantial." Those findings indicate that "wireless communication has gone from a travel convenience to a mission-critical communications tool," Randall De Lorenzo, ProfitLine's vice president, Mobility Strategies said in a statement about the "webinar" poll, which had, coincidentally, been scheduled before the outage. Between 70 and 100 enterprise IT or telecom managers responded to the poll, according to a ProfitLine spokesman. When a company in a crisis -- which the outage was for at least some users who rely on BlackBerries for e-mail and Internet connectivity -- doesn't give out information, the media might turn to others who speculate about what's going on, Lukaszewski said. Indeed, many press accounts of the outage include speculation from analysts or others in the telecommunications or handheld industries about what might have caused the outage and how the situation could have been better handled. "Customers want information -- they want to know what's going on," he said. "They expect reputable companies to communicate." A challenge is presented when a company doesn't have many answers, but even details about the steps being taken to correct problems and estimates about when those might be resolved is better than no information, Lukaszewski said. At this point, RIM is in the aftermath stage, he suggested. "The issue now is how do they get forgiveness? How do they get their customers to like them again?" The love so many BlackBerry users have for their devices will be a saving grace, said telecom analyst Jeffrey Kagan. "BlackBerry will take a hit, but it will probably come back because the users are almost rabid. Palm and other competitors should be up on the news. However, the bottom line is, after the next few weeks, we will all go back to trusting again. Until the next disaster." The very success of BlackBerry devices could well be a factor, he and others suggested. There are some 8 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide, with more than 1 million added in the quarter that ended March 3, said RIM when it announced its most recent quarterly financial results. Revenue for the quarter was up 66 percent to $930.4 million with net income before adjustments of $187.9 million. Wall Street at least was proving forgiving. With about 20 minutes to go in the trading day on the Nasdaq exchange, shares in RIM (RIMM) were trading up 2.68 percent at $134.79. (Robert McMillan in San Francisco contributed to this report.)

Feds had claimed documents related to giving telecom companies retroactive immunity from spying-related lawsuits couldn't be ready until December 31, but a judge disagreed.

Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Belgium have the worst telecommunications regulators in Europe, according to a study carried out for the European Competitive Telecom Association (ECTA), an industry group that promotes the interests of new entrants into the market.The annual study, available on ECTA's Web site, compares the telecom regulatory environment and the application of the current legislative framework in 19 European countries. Top of the class were the U.K., the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and France."This year’s results show that countries where regulators have taken action to enable competition to flourish, including the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, have seen strong performance in their telecom markets. However, others including Poland, the Czech Republic and Greece have fallen behind," ECTA said in a statement.It added that "institutional weaknesses" may be preventing Germany, Belgium, and Finland from reaching their full potential.The study, dubbed the 2007 Scorecard, shows the impact of weak competition on consumers."If you are paying high prices for broadband, it may be because your regulator has not been able to open the market to competition," said Innocenzo Genna, chairman of ECTA, in prepared remarks at a conference in Brussels on Wednesday.ECTA supports the European Commission's plans to change telecom rules. In particular, it backs moves to allow regulators the power to break up an incumbent operator if it isn't giving rival service providers fair access to the infrastructure, such as the "local loop" of telephone lines that lead directly into people's homes and offices.Meanwhile, the Commission took Bulgaria to court on Wednesday for failing to police its telecom market "independently and effectively." Bulgaria joined the European Union at the beginning of this year, but it was supposed to have applied all the E.U.-wide rules concerning market access and fair competition in the telecom sector before its arrival.Viviane Reding, commissioner for telecom at the European Commission, attended the ECTA's conference in Brussels. In her keynote speech, she thanked ECTA for supporting the reforms she is trying to push through, but she warned that it will be a "hard fight" ensuring that the changes she has proposed get adopted.As well as proposing that functional separation should be introduced as a remedy to instill fair competition, she also called for the creation of an E.U.-wide telecom market authority to ensure that all national regulators apply the same rules in all markets. Functional separation calls for operators to set up separate units to manage and sell network services."We shall have to fight hard in the coming months to ensure that this vision of a competitive single market for the telecom sector becomes a reality. I count on your continuing support," Reding said.

AP - An electronic privacy group challenging President Bush's domestic spying program scored a minor victory after a judge ordered the federal government to release information about lobbying efforts by telecommunications companies to protect them from prosecution.

Most game developers are better off finding someone local to work in-house rather than looking abroad, says design consultant Noah Falstein

My client in the Internet/ISP sector is looking to recruit a [2nd/3rd Line Support Consultant for their site located north of Manchester. You will be working in a new division providing dedicated support to Business Customers of the company, of the managed hardware [inc. high end business grade routers & firewalls]. The role will also expand into other hardware categories inc. VoIP PBX & managed switches. You will also be required to: Process the queue of managed support tasks. Diagnose circuit/hardware faults. Assist with the diagnosis of circuit faults and technical consultancy regarding changes to existing products. You will also be responsible for assisting customers to accurately complete configuration forms, build & test new managed hardware devices & assist with installation of hardware devices. It is ideal that you have a high level qualification in Computing [NVQ Level 4 or higher] or that you are degree educated in an IT related subject. You will be willing to achieve CCNA within the 1st 6 months & it is necessary that you have good experience within a technical role as well as excellent customer service skills. You will need to be able to produce work to high standards and be able to work to tight deadlines. My clients offers an excellent basic salary along with a fantastic benefits package including 6 monthly salary reviews, free home broadband and discounted products/services, annual bonus [dependant on personal/company performance], pension & paid holidays.

Hi here is my old Dell C640. It is a 1.8 with 1g Ram. The screen and case is in excellent condition. Battery totally dead and power connector is not working consistently. It will be sold without hard drive but with dell drive connector etc. The machine will be demonstrated working. No offers at this point unless they are close to my ask. Used by a well travelled management consultant but in really good condition. Rod

Do you suffer from adrenal fatigue? This questionnaire lists symptoms and other factors most commonly found in people suffering from adrenal fatigue. Read each question carefully and check the box if it applies to you if you have answered Yes to most questions it is very likely that your adrenals are fatigued. Do you have anxiety attacks? Do you have fatigue? Do you have recurrent infections? Are you under severe emotional stress? Do you suffer from chronic pain or physical stress? Do you have low blood pressure? Do you have a low pulse rate (less than 70 bpm w no exercise When you rise quickly do you feel as though you might pass out? Do you have depressed moods? Do you have joint pain? Do you have low libido? Do you have asthma? If you have adrenal fatigue you may function reasonably well when your life is stable but fall apart if stress is added. You are likely to be more vulnerable to infections and to heal more slowly than those with healthy adrenal glands. You may suffer from headaches heart palpitations or joint and muscle pain. You may develop allergies or chemical sensitivities or experience a worsening of existing allergies or asthma or even start to experience feelings of depression At Pristine Health and Beauty we can help with this and many other health issues that affect women and men as they age especially during midlife which include fatigue weight gain headaches depression insomnia hot flashes joint and muscle pain brain fog loss of interest in sex allergies and recurrent infections to name a few. If you would like a consultation with a health and wellness consultant please call 0208-5441556 for a appointment. Our Qualified consultants will be pleased to help you on your Quest for Wellness. Note Our Professional Fees are based on individual help and treatment and not dependant on the time spent with our clients.

The European Commission has signed off on two big technology mergers, approving SAP's acquisition of Business Objects and Vodafone's purchase of the Spanish and Italian subsidiaries of the Swedish telecom group Tele2.The Commission said it approved SAP's takeover of the BI software vendor Business Objects after concluding that the combined entity would not unfairly dominate the market."The combined SAP/Business Object entity would continue to face several strong competitors, and customers would find sufficient alternative suppliers of such software products," the Commission said.SAP sells primarily middleware and ERP applications and has just started getting into the BI market, while Business Objects is known for its business analytics software.The Commission said its investigation found no significant risk that the merged entity would be able to close off competitors from the market because SAP's middleware product, Netweaver, is an "open" platform that can work with BI products from multiple vendors.The Commission also gave the green light to Vodafone's expansion plans for the Spanish and Italian broadband Internet access markets, by approving its planned €775 million ($1.1 billion) acquisition of the Spanish and Italian subsidiaries of Tele2."The combined entity's share would be below 10 percent in those markets, and the incremental increase in the share of Vodafone would be small," the Commission said.In Italy and Spain, Vodafone is mainly active as a provider of mobile communications services and is the second largest mobile operator in both countries. Tele2 Italy and Tele2 Spain offer fixed-line telephony services and Internet access, including broadband."The parties' activities only overlap in the retail market for fixed broadband internet access and in the retail market for telephony services at a fixed location, both in Italy and in Spain," the Commission concluded.

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