Wild imagination
Charles Wang, CEO of Computer Associates, video-conferencing with delegates at Intelligent Enterprise 99, made a pointed observation. During 1998-99, of the top 25 e-business companies in India, 18 were raking in profits. "It says something about the potential of the country," he said. He reckoned that India will be positioned as a global hub for content and development. Exploiting IT, he said, is limited only by the imagination.The Gayatri mantra
Ashok Pandey, co-CEO of the Intelligroup, started his presentation on what exactly constitutes an intelligent enterprise by chanting the Gayatri mantra. "My belief comes from there because you are asking God to enrich your intellect by helping you comprehend what lies outside and what lies within," he said. The point he was trying to drive at was this: To look at an enterprise efficiently, you need to deal with both the internal and external environments.
Driving customers
Christian Fronteras, of JD Edwards, made a very interesting presentation. His prop, a remote controlled car which he let loose on stage. That he said, was one of the prizes that could be won for visiting the JD Edwards stall at the exhibition.
And customer-driven
Paul Woodward, director, Asian strategies, Miller Freeman is bracing the company for a different set of opportunities. For instance, the company's website in the UK, dot music, which was originally meant to publish weekly music charts evolved into a different business altogether when people started evincing an interest in buying music off the site. "It was unexpected and different from the original line of business. But we have to evolve into the large opportunity that is the internet," he says. The danger, however, he says, is that "you lose some direction because ownership is driven by the customer. What it means is that the good old days when the editor used to drive content is over. Instead, it is the person who visits your website that calls the shots," he says.
The last word
Rob Veitch, director of business development at Sybase, watched with a degree of amusement when this correspondent discovered that the batteries on his recorder had gone low and was fumbling with paper and pen. "So long as you mention Sybase at the end of your piece, it's okay by me," he guffawed. "You can fill in whatever you feel like. But just make sure that Sybase is mentioned." Sybase has 55 per cent of the world mobile computing market. In the internet application business, the company is witnessing a 30 per cent growth in Asia and still going strong.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.