Software industry at risk from sloppiness

IT industry experts are calling for better software standardsand testing procedures to prevent serious damage to the software market.

Last week, as part of our Trust campaign, business leaders and consumers told Computing they will no longer accept poor software that is riddled with bugs and runs the risk of failure (Computing, 3 April).

And the industry is agreeing with us.

'The days when you rush to get software out the door and almost use the customer to help test it, are long gone,' said Phil Battison, European managing director of internet payment specialist WorldPay.

'Relationships get damaged and customers are not prepared to tolerate this anymore. It's important that companies test their products thoroughly before they release them. If they don't it will have a detrimental impact on business,' he said.

IT managers need to be able to trust the software they are buying, confident that it is as secure and robust as possible.

'The problems that continue to exist with many software packages give the whole IT industry an image of unreliability that can pervade trust in all aspects of ecommerce,' said Frits Janssen, chief executive of best practice network BuyIT.

'Software failures at home or in the office make people concerned. If they worry that their online order or other sensitive data is not being handled in a secure and reliable way, it can lead to them not using technology for trading,' he said.

'There are some software vendors that don't have a lot of security,' said Mike Lee, senior security specialist at BT. 'Some companies are more bothered about pushing products out the door, and users pay the price. We need to make the user more aware of this.'

Users must take some responsibility too, says Mike Jones, director of IT at soft drinks manufacturer Britvic.

'Quite often when you get software failures it's not so much in the inherent systems, it's the way it's been configured,' he said. 'The onus is on the company to make sure they're comfortable that what they're putting in will meet requirements. And suppliers have to meet business plan details.'

Paul Kitchen, head of online at the Consumers' Association says consumers have enough.

'Consumers are not particularly happy where a whole industry like the computer industry says here's the beta version, take it on trust. It's almost as if the user is doing the testing for them,' he told Computing.