BELTUG Update 16 June 2011: INTUG in Hong Kong, BELTUG on TV, bring your own device,…

Lobbying
1. BELTUG survey - Coming soon: “The priorities of ICT decision makers"
2. Comments for Belgacom on SIP Certification - Coming from the PBX vendors
3. BELTUG opinion on the impact for businesses of Microsoft - Skype
4. Danielle Jacobs elected as Chair of INTUG - Report Hong Kong meeting
5. Increased press attention for BELTUG

Networking
1. Biketoclosethegap
2. A warm welcome to our newest members
3. Security - BELTUG and ISACA join forces

Information and vision
1. Feedback X-changes on Bring your own device
2. Penalty of 10.000 euro because of a LinkedIn-relation
3. New BELTUG Replays and cases online
4. New presentations available

Agenda

End 2010 BELTUG was contacted by a number of PBX vendors about the SIP certification process, as applied by Belgacom. As a result, BELTUG organised a meeting with the vendors to bundle their questions for Belgacom.  Subsequently a meeting with Belgacom was set up, allowing Belgacom’s  responsible teams to propose specifications and an appropriate planning.
In the mean time BELTUG gathered all remarks and questions form the vendors for Belgacom. Concertation between Belgacom and the PBX vendors is the nest step, BELTUG being facilitator.

BELTUG has published an opinion on the takeover of Skype by Microsoft. It highlights the concerns of ICT managers about potential vendor lock and the need for Skype to stay available for platforms like Apple, Linux and Android. It also comments on Microsoft having access to a worldwide communication platform without entering the regulated telecoms market. Many questions and concerns remain. Read the full BELTUG opinion in Dutch or French.
At the BELTUG Member Forum on 23 June a panel discussion with Belgacom, Cisco, Colt, FOD/SFP Finance and Escaux is organised.

We are very pleased to announce that Danielle Jacobs has been elected Chair of INTUG. She has taken on this responsibility to address the importance of the international dimension to our members, and because so much regulation comes from Europe. Danielle commented, “Our business users will benefit from the close connection with INTUG ensuring that the user voice is heard in policymaking.”

The election was held during the INTUG meeting in Hong Kong. A wide variety of important topics were discussed with the regulator, HSBC bank, Huawei,….Read the summary and take a look at the pictures.

The election raised the attention for BELTUG in national press. During an appearance at Z-Talk Goossens on Kanaal Z, Danielle Jacobs criticised the lack of competition in the Belgian telecoms market, even after more than a decade after its liberalisation. She expects that the predominance of the former monopolist will increase even more because of the growing complexity of telecoms technology. Since regulator BIPT became more independent, Jacobs gives the new management the benefit of the doubt to carry out the necessary drastic changes. She considers the mapping of all bottlenecks hampering fair competition a positive approach. To the interview (30 min)

The BELTUG position on Microsoft and Skype inspired INTUG to a pithy opinion piece which offers hope that “the Microsoft acquisition of Skype will spark the development of real-time Cloud-based services." It was even published in Australia.

Networking

BELTUG is one of the ‘founding fathers’ of DNS.be, together with Agoria and ISPA. DNS.be has taken the initiative to organize a fundraising event for Close the Gap on September 8th. Participants have to climb the legendary hill that features in the Ronde van Vlaanderen as many times as they can. It is the ideal opportunity to network and what is a race without spectators? At the end of the day we hand over the different cheques to Close The Gap in the presence of a selection of cycling celebrities. Book 8 September 2011 from 12h00 and convince your cycling staff to participate.
DNS.be has already recruited the support of a number of cycling-friendly companies.
You can find more details, contact.

Following a recommendation by the BELTUG Security SIG, BELTUG and ISACA will join forces to maximise our efforts in IT security. In particular, our two organisations will share information on our IT security activities. In addition, ISACA members can use BELTUG sessions to obtain CPE credits (Continuing Professional Education), required for ISACA certification.
ISACA is an organisation set up by individuals who see a need for a centralised source of information and guidance in the growing field of auditing controls for computer systems at the international level

We do not expect the pressure on IT managers for BYOD to diminish. As one of our members said: “I found the session very interesting. BYOD is coming our way, especially from the US and the Netherlands. While it’s still calm for now, there will suddenly be a ‘boom’ and if we are not ready by then… “
There is a report available for members with some insights of the X-change of April 28.

Good agreements with your employees or even your former employees remain a hot topic and social media  play an important role. BELTUG continues to follow up on this topic. Do not hesitate to contact us with your questions. We notice positive experiences “the more LinkedIn contacts, the higher your wage”(NL) as well as risks: a Dutch sales director got a 10.000 euro penalty by violating a non-competition clause via LinkedIn (NL).

Social media remain an interesting discussion topic in our BELTUG LinkedIn groups (ICT decision makers and BELTUG Open group. On top: “ does your company allow access to picture sharing such as flickr.com” followed by “one of our members is looking for a role description for ICT Security Officer. ”

Now you can listen to a replay of selected presentations, synchronised with the slides.
There are 2 new Replays available for members: Concentra on “The search for a ‘standard’ smartphone policy, combined with a BYOD ‘VIP Service’” and KBC on “Ready to deep dive into your cost structures? Opportunities and challenges for the business user”.

The case stories Greijdanus College on BYOD (Bring your own Device) and Belgian Customs (FPS Finance) on 'Mobility tools in the field' are now online as well.

We also have lots of new presentations for our members to check out this month, on a variety of topics:

28-04-2011  X-change Policy - taking control of “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) - Presentations by Concentra Media, BT, Grejdanus College, DLA Piper UK LLP.

09-06-2011 X-changes on "The future of company networks" and "The roles of storage, cloud and mobile technologies in successful virtualisation" - Presenatations by VDAB, Easynet, Mobistar, T-Systems, Microsoft, Dimension Data.

14-06-2011 Report on the INTUG meeting Hong‐Kong May 2011