News in brief

London-based consultancies could lose large numbers of their employees by moving office to less central locations, according to property advisor GVA Grimley. The survey shows 88% of consultants would contemplate a change of employer to avoid relocation to a business park, an interesting statistic in light of Accenture's decision to open offices around the M25. www.gvagrimley.co.uk.

Recent talk of a "data glut" has led some IT directors to use data warehousing to convert data into information, according to KPMG's Forensic Technology Unit. However, the unit reports that core business information such as finance, purchase ledger and inventory are often ignored, with only sales and marketing activity targeted. Companies are advised to check whether their fraud risk management information checks all their systems. www.kpmg.co.uk.

Companies should concentrate on customer needs, rather than put too much resource into web technology as part of an e-business model, University of Cambridge research has shown. The University sent senior managers to 15 blue chips across Europe, including Siemens and Tesco, investigating the adoption of "lean" and "e" approaches. It concluded that human skills and process technology have a more important role to play in the development of business than the Internet. www-mmg.eng.cam.ac.uk.