Start-Up Chronicle

Getting a restaurant off the ground.

I apologize. This blog post is anything but timely. I admit to being laid low by recent events: a Memorial Day fire led to a nightmare June of inspector hunting and permit gathering, culminating in two days of actual repair — all of which brought us to our third opening in less than a calendar year. Just in time for the Fourth of July. And fireworks. N

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HM Revenue and Customs will save £235 million over the next four years through changes in the provisioning of IT services, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report released today.

The HMRC had a good understanding of IT costs, the NAO found, as well as good unit cost information.

“The IT directorate has used unit cost data to benchmark costs between business areas; identify waste (for example, by turning off unused licences); and raise awareness of the importance of sound financial management,” the report said.

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Dashboard

A weekly roundup of small-business developments.

What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

The Nation: A Brave Man

A hero receives the Medal of Honor (and this Marine wins a prize, too).

The Debt Ceiling: Are They Insane?

Wait a second. The budget deficit is shrinking? Stuart Shapiro wonders if our politicians are great negotiators or just insane. Gallup finds Americans prefer spending cuts and are open to tax hikes. Anthony Orlando confronts five myths about the debt-ceiling crisis. (

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The UK division of banking giant Santander has announced plans to move call centre operations from India to the UK, following complaints from customers.

Formerly known as Abbey, the retail banking provider outsourced its call centre operations to India in 2003, in partnership with a US-based company called MsourcE.

That decisions lead to the closure of three call centres in Bradford, Derby and Warrington, affecting around 400 jobs. At the time, Abbey CEO Luqman Arnold said the decision would provide “customers better service at a competitive price”.

Now, the company says it will move call centre operations back to facilities in Glasgow, Leicester and Liverpool, creating 500 new jobs.

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Start

The adventure of new ventures.

One summer Saturday afternoon, I was kneeling on a barren patch of dirt in Brooklyn, digging flat-bottomed trenches with a trowel. It was 2008. My sister was trying to open a bar, and I was helping her prepare to lay bricks in what would be the backyard.

A few weeks earlier, the lot had been a graveyard of broken bicycles, hip-deep in rusty spokes, fenders and other detritus from a shop that had occupied the space for many years. Friends had helped my sister haul the junk away and level the lumpy ground; the project took on the quality of a barn raising. It was hot. We were grimy.

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The UK’s Home Office has warned of the increasing use of information technology to support and conduct terrorist activity.

A new counter-terrorism stratagy document published today reports that terrorists are using technology both to spread propaganda and to plan attacks, and that this is likely to increase in future.

“There will be more cyber terrorism,” the strategy document says. “Groups will continue to benefit from off-the-shelf technology in planning and conducting attacks, making operations more secure and potentially more lethal.The Internet and virtual space will be strategically vital.”

In a speech announcing the report, Home Secretary Theresa May outlined the government’s updated counter-terrorism strategy, with a particular focus on cyber terrorism.

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Club Med holidays used to be so sexy that Serge Gainsbourg wrote a song about them. The package holiday with a French twist (and possibly kissing) was immortalised in the ditty Sea, Sex and Sun, and with its regime of tanning, water sports and canoodling, satirised in the 1978 film Les Bronzés.

But, like the jarring synthesizers in Gainsbourg’s song, the appeal of “the Club” was waning by the time the sun set on the 1980s. By the middle of the 1990s it was suffering heavy losses, with a fragile recovery snuffed out by the 9/11 attacks, which had a devastating effect on the travel industry.

But fast forward to 2011 and Club Méditerranée, as it is formally known, is having another moment in the sun. It

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Most CIOs cannot authorise IT investments on their own, and instead require the approval of a chief financial officers (CFOs) according to a report released today by Gartner.

The report, which was carried out by Gartner with the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) and the Committee of Finance and IT (CFIT), shows that the influence of CFO over IT spending is growing. Only 5% of CIOs can authorise IT investment alone. The report included 344 respondents, 95% of whom were senior financial executives.

John Van Decker, research vice president at Gartner, said it is now critical for CFOs to have a good understanding of the IT side of their business.

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