John Lamb's Week: Dell disarmed, Blunkett on the attack, CODA celebrating

Dell kicks off the week by launching two new servers in its PowerEdge range and by announcing plans to corner the market in low-end systems. The Texas company, whose HQ building used to sport notices reminding employees to check their guns at reception, hopes to ambush rivals HP, IBM and Sun.

The company has promised to produce stripped down versions of its PowerEdge servers and Optiplex desktops aimed at smaller companies. The strategy "could be particularly lucrative given that some of the other big name vendors such as Sun are primarily focused on the high end," crowed a Dell spokesman. This is yet further good news for companies looking to buy servers this summer. At the high end, the big three are vying with one another to introduce mainframe features such as partitioning, while technical improvements are trickling down to the PC end of the business. Buyers of servers at all levels can expect lower prices and a leap forward in features and performance. Dell's new servers are the PE 2500 and 2550, which are complete redesigns of its 2400 and 2450 systems, sporting new chipsets, onboard RAID and embedded Gigabit Ethernet connections. Microsoft's love affair with the British publishing business (Microsoft once owned a slice of publisher Dorling Kindersley) continues with the announcement on Monday of a venture involving the software giant, WHSmith.co.uk and Hodder Headline. Although details of the deal were still under wraps at the time of writing, chances are it is an internet publishing venture that will see books being published electronically onto handhelds or desktop PCs. The system will be demonstrated on Monday afternoon at the London International Book Fair. Come Wednesday, the big guns in education - David Blunkett and his junior ministers Malcolm Wicks and Tessa Blackstone - will be out plugging the £6bn launch of the Learning and Skills Council which will be responsible for all education for over 16s outside universities. The aim of the initiative is to improve the country's skills base, particularly in IT. The programme will be run through 47 local organisations that will be responsible for identifying requirements in their areas. The UK is generally reckoned to lag behind many developed nations in both educational attainment and the level of skill reached by those in work. As far as IT is concerned, the skills lag is due to the pace of technological change, a reluctance by employers to fund training and the fact that not enough good people are willing to take up IT work. Curiously enough, skills shortages have neither stopped the UK being one of Europe's early adopters of IT nor prevented the country from remaining one of the biggest technology markets in the region. In its use of e-learning, for example, the UK is second only to the US. So, if the UK does have problems in finding people who know how to develop and maintain systems it is getting ready to train them as quickly as possible. On the City front, Thursday will see CODA, the financial software company, posting its first full year results since it escaped the clutches of Baan and was taken over by Science Systems. This year CODA has taken money off 75 new customers including Holmes Place, IKEA and Virgin V Shop so expect good news - why else are they holding a bash at the London Intercontinental Hotel? Chief executive Graham Steinsberg will also launch a collaborative commerce suite that enables organisations to provide financial information via mobile devices. After all the ups and downs at CODA, it is good to see the company back on its feet again.