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Sequel aim to equip our course participants with the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges of today’s complex information environment. Our courses are presented by professionally qualified instructors with extensive hands-on experience with the products they teach. We limit the number of " attendees on each course to ensure each attendee receives individual attention and maximum interaction with the instructor.

All courses are scheduled monthly and can be tailored to be run on your site. Please phone for further information on Sequel Courses or to obtain our current Course Schedule. Providers of training in: • UNIX PowerBuilder • C Programming Visual Basic • C++ Programming MS Office Development • RDBMS Courses MS Access Development • Windows 95 MS Desktop Packages PHONE: (03) 9811 9911, (02) 9957 4222 11707 Since July i 993, 584 members of the Australian Computer Society have enrolled in the Certification loin Our Program. 44 have completed four subjects to achieve the status of Certified Member of ACS.

IT Leaders “Practical, authoritative and well packaged. The study-at-home format is flexible and convenient. It’s the closest I’ve come to actually Masters Level Distance Education in: enjoying study.”

IT Trends Steve Wheeler, CMACS Steve Munro, CMACS Queensland Police Service Bureau of Meteorology Business, Legal and Ethical Issues “Certification is part of improving myself as an IT professional. It shows my employer and clients that I have gained a IT Strategy and Management “Certification will give you a comprehensive knowledge of my field. general perspective on IT which They can rely on the fact that my level of cannot be gained by pure practice Marketing and Selling IT knowledge has been formally examined alone and encourages you to think and accepted by the Australian Computer outside and around your own Society. Project Management environment”. The ACS Certification Program is cost- effective, world-standard trai. .g. /Tv Systems Integration already applied several tools and Liz Clarke, CMACS Data Communications techniques to improve situations at work. Winscom Clarke Consulting

“Practical and manageable study The ACS Certification Program has: David Griffiths, CMACS program, very relevant to the IT •allowed me to effectively balance family, Department of Defence industry in Australia today. The work and self improvement study with a “Distance education offered me a CMACS program has enabled me disciplined program, • given me a flexibility that formal education to keep myself up-to-date with competitive edge with a proven body of could not match. I could carry out developments in the industry, knowledge, • expanded both the scope and my study program whenever and enhanced my knowledge and given depth of my professional areas of wherever it suited me. Ashok Jacob me s^s which I could use in my Glenn Lee, expertise, • provided practical skills I compare the program to a journey, CMACS work as I was doing the program.” CMACS directly applicable to real world work getting there is the achievement, but Wang (Australia) Australian Water situations, • enabled me to undertake a what stays with you is what you Technologies new and rewarding career path. gather on the way.”

“I completed the Certification Program in 111 todc s IT environment, outsourcing, strategic alliance: 1995 undertaking the Project Management and ethics are typical of the situations IT Managers find specialisation. Rob Thomsett (the project ourselves in. We now need new skills and knowledge to management guru) designed this module and cope. This is why I undertook the CMACS programme. it was a worthwhile learning experience. The I found the CMACS programme to be the most focused and core modules were nothing short of excellent. relevant study I have ever undertaken. Overall the program is professional managed, J The Systems Integration module gave an excellent practical Jeffrey Irvine, the learning material is both of good quality and value for money. Presently, I am Terry Nugent insight into how to approach the integration of a number of CMACS undertaking a University Masters program CMACS different external parties within one project. TNT Express and the material of the Certification Program LJN Consulting An extremely pleasing side benefit of the study was I Worldwide rediscovered formal learning and found 1 enjoyed “being an is of the same standard but approximately half old dog and learning new tricks”. Iam now continuing my the price! ” study and using my CMACS subjects as credits towards an MBA.”

“I believe the Certification Program provided added academic substance to my ACS membership. The “The project management modules provide a very program provided the vehicle to update my general sound basis for extensive IT projects undertaken by knowledge in that, apart from the course notes, it industry today. With such broad yet realistic forced the reading of various articles which provided guidelines expressed throughout the course, many either a broader view or different perspective on the “a i prac ing computer projects can be evaluated early to determine the true particular subjects by people considered as expert in professional responsible for managing value to a corporation. Business today must John Meadows, those subject. Overall I enjoyed the course as the large scale systems integration realistically evaluate any major IT project and subject CMACS topics were very relevant and items such as the video projects, I have found the ACS NZI Insurance presentation “Thomsett on Ethics” both enlightening Michael Skepton, the project to rigorous yet consistent guidelines. As Certification Program an invaluable and entertaining to watch. I would recommend that CMACS such the course material covered many aspects with aid in upgrading both my technical Betta Safe realistic examples, guidelines and assignments thus ACS members seriously consider completing the knowledge and my management skills. Computing Pty Ltd establishing a sound basis for project management.” Certification Program.” Clinton Reilly, The course was well presented, well CMACS documented and tailored to the need Computer of a practitioner with the type of heavy commitments that made “The base requirement of four subjects takes Greg Young, CMACS Strategies P/L attendance at a regular lecture course professionals out of their comfort zone and forces ANZ Bank impossible. Well done ACS!” them to understand other relevant issues. The “The opportunity to do the CMACS rekindled my desire to learn. The compulsory topics of IT Trends and Legal, Business program exposed me to a host of new ideas and fired my enthusiasm for and Ethical Issues set the scene very well and the further and wider learning. I have since enrolled in a Masters course at following subjects are narrow enough for any the Melbourne Business School. formatio echnology cannot specialists to pursue. My framed certificate sits in the place of honour on my study wall, next to expect to be treated seriously as a Anand Pradhan, I believe that the process has equipped me to support my ACS membership and my music exam certificate. I hope that by the end profession until the bulk of its CMACS my clients with broadened skills in a professional of next year it will be joined by a Masters certificate, which the CMACS practitioners are prepared to study IBM Australia manner. I have recommended the process to my helped to bring about. for this sort of Certification organisation as a formal test of knowledge and Rob Thomsett advises “Have fun and do good work”. The CMACS is a experience, and, as a prerequisite to senior good way of furthering both of those.” appointments. I would strongly recommend the Knobby Clarke, CMACS process and urge other professionals in the industry Winscom Clarke Consulting to participate in the process.” Australian Computer Society Certification Program Visit us at http://www/act.acs.org.au or call us on (03) 9690 8000 or email us on [email protected] CERTIFICATION SUBJECTS

I.T. TRENDS - AIMS Project Management IT Strategy and Management The purpose of this subject is to ensure that all students reach a It is impossible to cover all I.T. topics in the 120 hours that The overall aim of Project Management is to present a A number of fundamental forces are at work reshaping the way in common level of understanding of those important trends in students will be expected to spend on this subject, and there may contemporary approach to the project management of information which IT is exploited in all organisations. information technology that all I.T. professionals should be areas that a particular student believes are not sufficiently system and technology projects. This project management • The global integration of economies and industries approach differs significantly from the traditional IT project understand. It also provides a base of common I.T. knowledge for covered. Part of the assessment for the subject will be a research • A growing acknowledgement amongst the management management approaches which were drawn from construction and report on an approved topic of the student’s choice. This will community that IT leadership is a business rather than an IT issue. the specialist subjects that will follow. Without such a subject, the engineering project management. provide an opportunity for each student to select what they specialist subjects would have to contain additional I.T. topics to • A realisation that certain basic IT accountabilities must be perceive is an important trend that has not been adequately Specific aims are to: ensure a common entry point for students undertaking the assigned to an organisation’s functional or business units rather addressed in the course. This research report will be 30% of the • clarify the differences between technical, administrative, specialist subjects. In itself, the subject will provide an update in than to the IT function itself. assessment, and it needs to be submitted with a declaration that it human resource and project management. • The continual flow of new IT products - both for computing those areas where the student is already familiar with the material, is the work of the student and with an assignment of copyright to • discuss the emerging business environment and its effect on and communications. but it is expected that all those undertaking the subject will find ACS. The remainder of the assessment will be by an examination. project management practices new material in the course. It is expected that students will IT Strategy and Management 1 This subject will be updated on an annual basis. It uses materia, successfully complete both “IT Trends” and “Business. Legal and • develop a detailed model for project management including Examines some of the most important issues and ideas: from a variety of sources as well as the ACS written study guide. project selection, planning, tracking and reporting • the applications portfolio concept • alignment of business and Ethical Issues” before they enrol in specialist subjects. The two All needed reference material, including text books, is included in applications strategies • information economics • development and • detail techniques such as risk analysis, estimation, cost- core subjects can be done at the same time, or one after the other, the course package that will be sent to those who enrol in the migration strategies • generic, building block and package-based analysis, etc. that are the building blocks of project management the sequence is not important. subject. approaches • explain a number of advanced project management concerns IT Strategy and Management 2 such as quality planning, software metrics, risk management, Looks at tools and techniques: that build on the basic project management approach BUSINESS, LEGAL & ETHICAL ISSUES - aims • applications planning methodologies • the role of automated tools • explore emerging system development techniques and • business modelling • data and function modelling • current Computers and information systems form dynamic, interactive professionals. It is worth noting that there are an increasing technologies and their impact on the project management process. position assessment • planning deliverables systems which operate within a variety of environments, including number of cases where clients are suing IT companies for such industry, government, and academia. In order to build successful things as “misleading and deceptive conduct” and "negligence”, as systems, IT professionals need to understand the environments in well as more straightforward breaches of contract. Courts may Marketing and Selling IT which and for which they design and develop those systems. decide that unethical practices are legally actionable. However, lawyers and judges are not generally particularly knowledgeable These specialist subjects have been designed in conjunction with an Identify, develop and sustain profitable customer relationships The purpose of this subject is to give you an understanding of this experienced group of marketing practitioners from the Australian about IT systems or the processes of developing them. Having our Define, develop and implement a marketing and sales strategy environment and to confront you with typical, non-technical Information Industry Association and in conjunction with marketing standards set by the judiciary is a long and expensive process in problems that you are likely to have to deal with as an IT academics and ACS. Explain how to define and manage the Customer Relationship professional. which the ‘answer’ may be reversed two or three times (as in the Process now famous Autodesk case). As an industry we will do much The educational outcomes from both subjects are to: Business is used loosely to cover the interactions between IT better if we regulate ourselves. • Explain the marketing principles of targeting, segmentation, Identify the key sales roles of strategic orchestration, business professionals and the organisations employing them, and the profiling and value propositions consultant and long-term ally interactions between the systems developed or maintained by IT In general, this course uses a case study approach to present you • Understand the “whole product” concept Design an effective proposal. professionals and the people and organisations using them. with the kinds of problems (and opportunities) that arise from the areas of your work that are not directly related to technology. In • Understand the different strategies needed for market success, Identify the components of an effective marketing and sales Legal issues encompasses the more general framework in which IT day to day life, these problems do not present themselves neatly depending on the maturity of the product or service infrastructure professionals work, and examines the legal obligations that they packaged and labelled as a business problem, a legal problem or an • Identify appropriate marketing strategies for the different Explain how to manage the marketing and sales infrastructure and the systems they build must meet. Ethical issues goes beyond ethical problem. Problems usually relate to all three aspects, and psychographic profiles of IT buyers and how these affect your Identify the components of and measuring techniques for quality the legal requirements to look at a code of practice for IT the latter two in particular are difficult to separate. marketing approach customer sendee • Identify the relevance of the value disciplines of product leadership, Identify the opportunities and risks in forming strategic alliances operational excellence and customer intimacy at different stages of Data Communications the high technology adoption cycle

Data Communications 1: DC1 provides an introduction to the concepts of data communications, telecommunications and networking. Covers fundamentals as well as the business applications and implications. The subject provides an understanding of Systems Integration how computers communicate, more complex network communication, the types of networks available and the principles of network The general aim of the two subjects in Systems Integration is to provide you with an understanding of Systems Integration, the disciplines and the hierarchies and protocols. This is an essentially technical subject, although material is presented from a corporate perspective process involved, through a combination of text and practical examples. wherever possible. Emphasis is placed on describing the business relationships between organisations who enter some form of contractual agreement for the Data Communications 2: DC2 takes a more organisational view of communications, providing an introduction to the emerging development of integrated information systems. The course does not prepare you for the technical design effort required in Systems Integration; the global telecommunications network and the changes to business and society which this network is enabling, together with an intent is to show how diverse technologies and resources can be integrated by using systematic planning and management techniques that can be understanding of the technological infrastructure needed to support the global network. This subject also discusses the major issues tailored to meet the specific needs of a specific client. faced by network controllers and managers (such as network management and security) and will assist students to gain awareness of The two subjects are designed to be taken together, although completion of Systems Integration 1 alone will provide a basic understanding of the the strategic business applications being created to take advantage of these technological alternatives. Systems Integration business.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON CERTIFIC ATION ACS CjekiI* TCATION eRugkAM KiiGIS i KAiIuN FORM Who is eligible to do the certification program? When are exams held? To become a Certified Member of ACS, you must have achieved full They are held in June and November on weekdays. Exams are SUBJECT FEES FOR 1997 member grade, MACS. This means that you will have at least four conducted at major centres throughout the world. ACS/NZCS Members Prices are in Non-Members Australian dollars years of relevant I.T. experience in addition to a computing Business, Legal & Ethical Issues $595 $795 What happens if I fail the exams, do I have to re-enrol and pay the and payment must be qualification or have more than four years experience if you have no I.T. Trends $595 $795 full amount again? in Australian dollars. qualification. You will be charged a re-examination fee of $120. However, several of All other subjects $695 $895 the subjects will be updated on a regular basis, so it is important to re­ Can non-members take part in the certification program? To enrol at member price, you must be a current financial member of ACS or NZCS. To become sit soon after the first time, or you may not have current subject OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW They can enrol in the subjects and sit the exams. But, only those who a CMACS - Certified Member of ACS, you must hold the grade of Member. For additional ZEALAND, PLEASE ADD S80.00 FOR are MACS can become CMACS. Non-members will pay a surcharge material. If more than 12 months elapses, you will have to re-enrol information on ACS membership, please contact the ACS branch in your state. Contact details ADDITIONAL POSTAGE, FAX AND for subject material which will be greater than the cost of ACS and pay again to receive the updated material. The best thing to do is are inside the front cover. In New Zealand, please contact the New Zealand Computer Society. PHONE COSTS. to pass the first time! membership. It makes good sense for those wanting certification to be On enrolment you are asked to nominate June or November for your examination. You must be enrolled for at least three able to enjoy all the other benefits of ACS membership. Do I have to sit the exam closest to when I receive the materials? months before you can sit an exam. You must sit the exam within 12 months of enrolling. You can defer your examination for 6 months. For example, those who Do I have to do the common subjects, “IT Trends” and “Business, receive subject material in February would be expected to sit the If you defer your exam date from the one you specify on enrolment, then you will need to pay a deferred fee as follows: Legal and Ethical Issues” before I do the specialist subjects? examination in June or November. All those enrolled in subjects must Enrol by Request Exam Defer Deferral Fee It is best to do them first because they contain material that will be confirm their exam intentions 6 weeks prior to the exam. It is vital that Feb 28th June assumed known in the specialist subjects. But, there is no rule that says Before April 20th $120 all students keep ACS informed of their current address during this you must do them first. You will not become a certified member until Feb 28th June After April 21st $240 period. July 30th November $120 you complete the two common subjects and two specialist subjects. Before Sept. 20th If you do not sit an exam in the 2 exam periods allowed, you will be July 30th November After Sept. 21st $240 What happens after I enrol? required to pay a re-enrolment fee of $120. plus the cost of new study Please send certification material (it arrives in a large box) to: Within a couple of weeks of our receiving your enrolment and material if the course has been updated. payment, you will receive the subject materials in a special study kit. Family Name Title The study kit will contain all the essential material you need for the How long does certification last? subject. If a textbook is required it will be included, along with a study To maintain your certification after you complete the exams, it will be First Names Date of Birth guide, readings, and video or audio material where applicable. necessary to do at least thirty hours of ongoing professional development each year with the Practising Computer Professional ACS Membership No. How long can I take to complete the Certification program? (PCP) scheme. If you do not maintain your PCP status, then you also You are required to complete the 4 Certification subjects within 4 years lose your certification status. Your certification status will be reviewed Preferred examination centre (Enter name of nearest city) of your initial enrolment. every five years. Do you agree to your name/telephone/email being circulated to others doing Certification? _Yes □ No Is your employer paying or reimbursing you for all or part of your Certification fees? All ._ Part L Unsure No Reusing Certification Subjects Do you intend to complete 4 Certification subjects or just selected units? All 4 Selected Address ...... Tel:...... From Deakin University Faculty of Management .Fax: The working party recommends the following policy for articulation between CMACS and the MBA: • Candidates eligible for selection into the Deakin MBA should normally have achieved a credit ranking (or equivalent) in all CMACS ...... Email:..... units. Selection will be based on CMACS grades, academic and professional background and referees’ reports. I wish to enrol in: • Candidates enter the Deakin MBA through two paths. Direct entry is via the GMAT. Entry in cases where advanced standing is granted SUBJECT NAME REQUEST EXAM IN FEE AMOUNT occurs into the Graduate Diploma of Management. Candidates satisfactorily completing the Graduate Diploma are eligible to proceed to Please circle Member the MBA. IT Trends June/November/No Exam $595 Advanced standing will be granted to current CMACS holders in MSC741 Information Systems Management plus one general elective _ Business, Legal & Ethical Issues June/November/No Exam $595 towards the Graduate Diploma. In addition, credit for two general electives will be granted towards the MBA. A Project Management 1 June/November/No Exam $695 • These arrangements are subject to ongoing development and changes in the MBA program structure. Project Management 2 June/November/No Exam $695 Professor A. Bodi Director. MBA Program HH Systems Integration 1 June/November/No Exam $695 24 August, 1994 Systems Integration 2 June/November/No Exam $695 _ IT Strategy & Management 1 June/November/No Exam $695 From the Association of Professional, Engineers and Scientists, Australia __ IT Strategy & Management 2 June/November/No Exam $695 People who complete the ACS certificate are eligible for four exemptions in the Association’s MBA (Technology Management)/Post _ Data Communications 1 June/November/No Exam $695 Graduate Diploma in Management. H Marketing & Selling IT 1 June/November/No Exam $695 All people get exemptions in 202 (Legal Studies) and 403 (Management Information Systems). If you complete Applications Planning or IT Management, you will be given two general option exemptions. If you complete Systems Integration or Project Management you will get I wish to pay by cheque and my cheque is enclosed OR Credit Card, see details below exemptions in 303 (Project Management) and 307 (Design Management & Administration). Cardholder’s Name Yours sincerely Jenny Blake 1__ Bankcard I Mastercard Visacard ! American Express Expiry Date Education Administrative Officer April 18, 1994 Card No. DDDD EH EH EH EH DDDD EH EHH EH EH ...... By signing and submitting this Certification Registration Form, I accept the terms and conditions of the Certification Program. CMACS Moves on to Masters Please send completed form to: One of our first CMACS has gained entry to the Master of Technology Management at the prestigious Melbourne Business School. He ACS Certification Centre completed his Certification studies in 1994, achieving very good results in each of the 4 subjects. He has no prior formal qualifications. This Locked Bag 36, course rarely admits people without undergraduate qualification. Tel: (03) 9690 8000 South Melbourne Vic 3205 Fax: (03) 9690 0201 Contents Heward's way OzEmail’s float on the Nasdaq exchange has brought fame paper fortune for co-founder Sean Howard, but it has also enforced more circumspect behaviour. 'H

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uring my first couple of weeks as editor of InformationAge, I went around in a kind of hit- by-a-truck haze under the weight of the information industry publicity machine. COVER PHOTO: J Barry Anderson EveryoneD and everything, it seemed, was holding a conference, launching a product or inventing some Editor Nicole Parish revolutionary technology. Features Editor Victoria Campbell Then, out of the swirling melee of, particularly Art & Production Editor Murray Finlayson Internet, widget and gadget mania, emerged a few voices of ♦ f Sub Editor Damian Haarsma sanity. "Content," said Jennifer Zanich, managing director of Web consultancy New Sub Editor Rachel Sullivan Media Concepts, from the pages of Business Review Weekly, who believes Australia has Graphic Designer Hilbert Ho yet to meet this challenge. "Content," said editorial advisory board member Dale Layout Artist Sussanne Caccamo Spender, over a drink. And, l read in the inaugural edition of WEBWEEKAustralia that Editorial Coordinator Cass Warneminde Ted Leonsis, content guru of America Online, sees Jerry Seinfeld as a bigger threat than Advertising Melanie Gray, Peter Curcuruto either Microsoft or CompuServe. US Sales Global Media Representatives, Inc Zanich rhetorically asks what is the purpose of the Internet: "Is it to give us more of Circulation Services Mark Mason the same, or is it to give people a choice?" I would agree that the answer has to be Publisher Alistair Gordon choice, and with Dale Spender (page 50) and Harvey Molloy (page 17) that sectors such as education must devise new ways of packaging what they preach. Published by Strategic Publishing Group, Level 6,131 York One of the most important roles of InformationAge is to report on and investigate Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Postal address: P0 Box Q400, the successful, or otherwise, delivery of content by technology and the organisations Queen Victoria Building, Sydney NSW 2000, Ph: (02) 9286 5900 Fax: (02)9267 2094. InformationAge is the official that use it. And not just within the parameters of the Internet, non-online technology monthly publication of the Australian Computer Society has equally important applications — the Melbourne supercomputer finding the best (ACS), and is published monthly February-November by ways of treating sufferers of diseases such as schizophrenia (page 42), for example. Strategic Publishing Group, on licence from the ACS, The We also like to cast an analytical eye over the industry as a whole, telling stories of Australian Computer Society, PO Box 319 Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Ph: (02) 9211 5855 Fax: (02) 9281 1208, fortune, comebacks and failure. The world's top 50 systems vendors are this month Resident Tom Worthington sorted and ranked by profit, growth and productivity in the first of four special reports. ^-presidents John Manders, Prius Ralston Past President Then, of course, there are the people. As with any field you care to mention, people Garry Trinder National Treasurer Glen Heinrich Publications are the most important element - they make things happen and they make the best Board Director John Hughes Contributing Editor for ACS Caroline New CEO Arthur Dyster. Editorial Advisory Board: stories. Graeme Philipson (a rather flamboyant figure in the IT industry himself) Craig Baty, Charles Brass, Phil McCrea, JoAnn Pretty, rediscovered this truism when he made his long awaited visit to Xerox's Palo Alto Dale Spender, Brendan Welsh. Subscriptions: $36.00 Research Centre and was both charmed and impressed by its staff. The OzEmail tale of (10 issues). Copies are distributed free to members of the explosive growth is inextricably linked to the story of our cover boy, Sean Howard, who ACS, All material in InformationAge is protected under the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968. seems to simultaneously engender reproach and respect among his peers. Global Media Representatives, Inc is located at 611 Veterans I believe InformationAge exists to bring you a picture of the effect of information Boulevard, Suite 205, Redwood City, California, USA 94063 technology and telecommunications on society now and in the future, and to provide Ph:(415) 306 0880 Fax: (415) 306 0890, insight into how the "knowledge worker” fits into that picture. InformationAge aims to do Film output and colour proofs by ACP Colour Graphics. Printed by Offset Alpine Printing. this in the most informative, entertaining and increasingly provocative manner possible. ACN 054 973 652 ISSN 1039-5008

Average distribution rCAB' AUDIT. (period ended 31/3/96) 16,437

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(( Friday's Beach, Australia’s first soap If opera created exclusively for the B. Internet, will break new ground in the ft | Australian media as it interactively tackles ' \ugh issues such as love, lust, suicide, B ffe 1 i homosexuality and drug abuse,” said Microsoft Network Director Justine Milne. Parents, what a relief that Microsoft-the company we've been entrusting our kids and their future to - has come through with something to amuse them £h E* if"" fio Dt*om Dwdoiy tffvfc*. H* during their adolescent years. a| |s.Ul|£|a|a| Yes indeed, a relief on two fronts: & Locebort |ntpV/v(ww.ev«rtnel eua.com/ — A: They won't be hassling for the car on Tuesday nights; and B: By following - and interacting with - the trials and tribulations of those five HSiS find Microsoft-sponsored teenage hormone bags who are the stars of Friday's Beach - Eliza, Mike, Mia, Julian and Jeremy -, our kids will eventually sort out EventNet WhatSTjn^Wbere+.VVbetl for themselves the above “tough" issues facing youth today. Australia's On-Line Guide to Events and Entertainment Friday's Beach can't afford to be a just another stupefying experience in IllilG front of a box - partly because of the limitations of running video on the Net. Venues Catering Tickets Tourism Arts OrvrMn The idea is that the weekly 15-minute video grab deals with the real moments (dick Here For EventNet Navigation of drama in the plot and the rest is filled in by surfing the site - tapping into J?sHl Document Clone the phone conversations of the stars, peaking at their diaries, pictures, eavesdropping on cafe conversations, even chatting live with the characters. Anyone who’s anyone So really, the pimply devotees of Friday's Beach have to make the effort- ie, running up the Internet account - to truly get to know these five typical ll dressed up and nowhere to go? Australian teenagers living fictitiously down in Cockatoo Bay. Australia's latest Internet guide for Microsoft Network has already secured one commercial sponsor for the eventsA and entertainment, EventNet, program - Kelloggs - so no doubt there'll be a few dramas staged over may open up a world of opportunity. breakfast. Fluxus suggests Clearasil might be a good one too: Imagine the scene: Owners Empirical Solutions claim the Eliza: What's wrong, Mike? site holds the details of more than Mike: (in tears): It's my face. I feel like killing myself with a drug overdose.. 1000 events around Australia at any one Eliza: Have you tried this? (produces Clearasil) It really works! time. Visitors can even make bookings 1996 Mike: But do you think it'll work on a face like a relief map of Burma? from the site. Social climbers never Eliza: Sure, and despite the injustices currently happening in Burma, I'm told need suffer an anxiety attack from fear it’s a very beautiful place. they are missing out on “something OCTOBER

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Mike: You mean, you like me despite my face? big” or even get inky fingers from Eliza: Oh Mike, don't you see! I’ve been lusting after you for months!, thumbing the broadsheets again AGE Mike: I ... I’m speechless ... touched, er flattered! But didn't anyone tell you (http://www.eventnet.aust.com). I’m gay. There we go, five tough issues and a plug in one. Go for it MSN! http://www.msn.com.au/fridaysbeach/

- Lachlan Brown INFORMATION

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@basking ridge, US - AT&T is getting out of the online business - at least it @beijing - China will soon start is paring down the enthusiasm it had for buying into the Internet during the construction of the first fibre optic past four years. Now it has sold ImagiNation Network Inc to the lustiest cable to link with Tibet, which it surviving bastion of proprietary online services, America Online. AT&T claims is part of China rather than a acquired ImagiNation (which lets gamesters play each other online) in 1994 separate country. The 30,000km for US$40 million, but admits it has been losing money on the business and cable would run across the America Online is thought to have paid less than $40 million. The sale Qinghai-Tibet plateau from leaves AT&T with a much reduced Internet capability and it appears the Lanzhou, capital of western Gansu company is whittling itself down to a bare Internet provision in the same province to Lhasa, capital of Tibet, way it supplies bare telephone services. via Xining in western Qinghai province. The cable would be designed and built by the China International Telecommunications uTTinputer tax crackdown Construction Corporation under Online’s darkest hours the Ministry of Post and @canberra - Organised and serious Telecommunications. tax evasion is taking place in the @vienna, US - It made headlines Speaking of the afore­ IT industry, The Australian reports. around the world and is being mentioned ministry, it recently Australian Tax Office (ATO) styled the "biggest blackout ever stated that the number of spokesman Mike Cebalo said field of an online service". America telephone users in China has work by the office and the Online's almost 19-hour blackout surged to 52.7 million with the Australian Federal Police had cut off its 6.2 million subscribers addition of some eight million revealed that tax evasion was rife. and caused nasty ripples around users this year. His comments came as the federal the world as mail servers backed Between 1991 and the end of government announced a up. Subscribers are getting one 1995, the number of telephone users crackdown on computer sales tax day's money back. The problems increased by 37.4 million to hit avoidance in the next four years in occurred when a routine 44.3 million including 3.63 mobile the hope it will find lost revenues maintenance break, expected to phone users; about 17 per cent of amounting to $295 million. As last two hours, went wrong after the urban families now have phones. art of the Budget, the ATO will company tried to install high speed et $10.4 million to eradicate switches from an unnamed vendor. «computer tax frauds.

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n essay must have an introduction, an argument and a conclusion. Novels must be read from Aprologue to epilogue. Rememberthe rules we all learned during English classes at school? Some we weren't even aware of learning, they were instilled from the cradle as they have been ever since books became cheap says Molloy, and gives the example of success creating Web sites for enough for everyone to own. Time magazine's Web site. Instead of a organisations such as the National Butthose were the days when the reader flicking through one magazine Library of New Zealand, but his beef Internet was just a twinkle in from cover to cover, they are able to isn'ttouting business for his agency - Marc Andreesen's eye and the World peruse several editions at the click of a he genuinely believes there are wider Wide Web was still a dream. And out of mouse, taking in coverage of one issues at stake than making money from the tech test that ^sthe 2nd Internet World Australia Pacific conference Words of wisdom held in Sydney Can the Web move our thinking to a higher level? recently, came a voice that said it is time to release our particular issue, which, he says, matches the Internet. A peek at the academic hold on these paradigms that tie us to the associative way people think. papers contained within Helios's Web the world of print, and begin to learn Representing a tiny (five staff) site will convince users of the thought new ways of putting together and Wellington consultancy, Helios that has gone into its practice. presenting information. Communications, Molloy is well “The implications of electronic Describing himself as an qualified to talk about literacy raise questions that information architect, New the need to make a communicators and educators needs to Zealander Harvey transition from ask themselves. Atthe moment kids are Molloy believes writing for print to taughtto write in print form only, and it is time for writing for those kids who have access to everyone to develop an hypertext. He holds a computers are at a distinct advantage,” electronic literacy. “It PhD in English he says. Molloy does not hold a fes a way of thinking literature, which monopoly on the electronic literacy cibout information,” he he gained at the moral high ground, of course, and he says. “With print, reading is University of Florida. His says awareness of these issues is slowly almost invisible doctorate was on the filtering through to the holders of power. because we are Spectacle of War in For example, the New Zealand steeped in its form - we have to the Modern Telecommunications Users achieve the same with hypertext (a American War Association has already held a joint text document containing electronic Novel and looked at how the seminar series with the New Zealand links between pages, used on the war novel affected social Academy forthe Humanities to canvas World Wide Web). Hypertext doesn’t memory of war from the Civil War to such vexing questions. have a beginning, a middle, or an end. It Vietnam. He quickly realised that mass By all accounts there is no time to doesn't exist in any one place and you media, including films and television, waste, however, particularly if you put can read it many different ways, also had a significant role to play and any store by the likes of Forrester depending on the path you take." his research took him outside the novel. Research president George Colony, As more and more people fulfil their The university encouraged who has already pronounced the information needs through the Web, interdisciplinary study and, in the late Web as dead. At fault, he says, are content providers must think about how 1980s or the early days of the Web, the those responsible for static and boring they put that information together. “It is self-confessed sci-fi geek was wrapped sites that fail to provide a truly no longer enough to just take a up in the world of hypertext. interactive experience. document and convert it to hypertext," Molloy and Helios have already had - Nicole Parish Advanced Project Project Management Management Workshop by Rob Thomsett ACS $790 Workshop Non ACS $990

by Rob Thomsett Fees ACS $1195 l Non ACS $1395/ November? & 8,1996 (9ain - 5pm) Conrad International Treasury Casino Hotel

November 4, 5 & 6 1996 (9am - 5pm) This advanced course is specially designed for people with experience iii Conrad International Treasury Casino Hotel project management or seeking to extend Rob Thomsett's 3-day Project Management Workshop. You will learn: • advanced techniques of risk analysis, estimation, project value analysis and quality planning A three day workshop by Rob Thomsett where the real issues of • how new technologies and development techniques based on object Project Management are discussed. Participants will be exposed to some orientation and more powerful development environments impact highly innovative practices which have been demonstrated to ensure that project management approaches projects run to both time and budget while delivering exactly what the • how Fourth Wave management techniques can be used to increase the user requested. success of projects • how to incorporate quality function deployment, multi-point This workshop is designed for project managers, project team leaders, estimation,benefits realisation and project analysis into your project j senior project technical people, business analysts and internal project planning development support groups.

Places are strictly limited to 25 - Places are strictly limited to 25 - please register early to avoid disappointment. please register early to avoid disappointment. Contact the ACS office on (07) 3367 3373 for a registration form. Contact the ACS office on (07) 3367 3373 for a registration form.

CALL FOR PARERS Research in Progress, Panels, Workshops (§► PACIS The Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems 1997 (PACIS’97) The Confluence of Information Systems Theory & Practice

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2-5 April 1997

To find up-to-date information on PACIS’97, please visit http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/PACIS97/ Important Dates ■Program Co-Chair ■Conference Chair Submission: 15 October 1996 Guy Gable Alan Underwood Notification of School of Information Systems Distributed Systems Technology Centre Acceptance: 15 December 1996 Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology Camera-Ready Copy: 1 February 1997 Phone: 617 3864 1125 Phone: 617 3864 2515 Doctoral Consortium: 2 April 1997 Fax: 617 3864 1969 Fax: 617 3864 1969 Conference: 3-5 April 1997 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Queries PACIS'97 Conference Secretariat ■Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair Questions relating to the conference Ryutaro Manabe Angela Laffey program should be referred to the program Bunkyo University, JAPAN PO Box 135 co-chair, Dr Guy Gable. Queries relating to Phone: 81 467 53 2111 Aspley Qld 4034 the doctoral consortium should be related Fax: 81 467 54 3721 Tel: +61 7 3263 9777 to Ryutaro Manabe. For information on other Email: [email protected] Fax: +61 7 3263 7020 than Program, panel, tutorial or paper Email: [email protected] submissions, contact the Conference Chair, Dr Alan Underwood. Being an insensitive, ignorant, failed-snag sort of a bloke, I turned to my wife Dorothy to get a feel for how modern day computer advertising goes down with the sheilas. Dorothy is no slouch in the tech comprehension stakes. She writes hard news for a daily computer publication, uses a PC every day and spends a lot of time listening to IT industry marketing drivel at press conferences. She used to hate computers but is now just a disinterested observer. Imagine a microcomputer supported by PCs in 1976 slept with a soldering iron So, Dorothy, how do you feel about J dozens of interface, memory and under the pillow and endless lines of computer advertising? flf processor option boards. One that can machine code invading their dreams. “Most of it’s really crappy and be interfaced to an indefinite number of Computer buying demographics adolescent and the content is peripheral devices including dual floppy have changed radically since then, but meaningless. It's nonsense.” discs, CRTs, line printers, cassette the IT industry stubbornly sticks to its And the IBM ads? “They are the best recorders, video displays, paper tape baffle-'em-with-bullshit roots. And boy of a bad bunch. The IBM ads are recorders, teleprinters, plotters and is it missing the mark, especially when it humorous and imaginative-two custom devices. Built around the 8800A microprocessor, the Altair 8800b is an fv b \l\leri 1tt CD jaL bl CD uJl ts open-ended machine rsl that is compatible J with all Altair 8800 hardware and software. MITS's plug-in comes to selling PCs to women. qualities that are conspicuously absent compatible boards for the Altair 8800b now Conde Nast and market researchers from most computer ads. What the IBM include: 4kbytes dynamic memory, Intelliquest recently had a look at ads have going forthem is they don’t 16kbytes static memory, multi-port serial women's attitudes to PCs and found two have computers in them. Women are interface, multi-port parallel interface, thirds of the women surveyed had a just as stupid as men when it comes to Iaudio cassette recorder interface, vectored significant say in deciding to purchase a advertising. They're just as vulnerable to interrupt, real time clock, PROM board, home computer. They said computer a good ad. But no advertiser seems to multiplexer, AID converter, extender card, advertising was “too masculine” and have bothered to go in and find the disc controller and line printer interface. "too boring" and didn't meet their needs. psychological buttons that will sell That load of techno babble is from When it came to brand awareness, technology to women. Computer an ad from the November 1976 edition IBM won hands down with 43 per cent of advertising hasn't even got to the stage of Interface Age magazine for the MITS respondents saying IBM made products of offending women yet.” Altair, the world's first working (sort they would most like to own. Apple, When the tirade finished I thought of), cheap (sort of) personal computer. which regards itself as touchy-feely, was about exploiting what appears to be a 1996 Shunt the specs along two decades a distant second with 24 per cent while niche the size of Western Australia. and you could plug the copy into most Compaq and Gateway 2000 were equal The technology side would be easy. modern day computer advertising. It's third with a miserable 8 per cent. Any halfwit can assemble a reasonably OCTOBER

funny that an industry which prides It appears that IBM, the world’s most responsive PC these days using off-the- itself on light speed technological humiliated computer company, has shelf components. The tricky bit would AGE advance, still has the marketing and learned some hard lessons. Nuns be the styling, marketing and advertising. psychological savvy of a smelly, pizza- discussing Warp and cute baby I'd make sure I owned half the profits munching, Silicon Valley tech nerd. elephants following mama have paid off from the venture and then sit back and The MITS approach to selling was in tapping the hearts and minds of at let Dorothy do all the work.

entirely forgivable. People who bought least half the population. - Stuart Kennedy INFORMATION

0 top the tape," says Sean Howard, indicating the interview is nearly over, before bouncing up from the table and over to a line of PCs (two of them crashed), which sit at one end of the meeting roo; J "I need to swear you to secrecy on this one,” he says. I shake on it (reluctantly), he gives a quick demo and 1 realise that while ’ the stress is extreme, Howard's style of Internet game offers plenty of opportunity to plant a large boot in the backside of the established order of things. Howard, just 37, is chief executive of OzEmaii, the country's largest Internet service provider. What he is allowed to say is limited by the rules and regulations of the US Security Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC’s muzzle on disclosure of share price sensitive information was tightened on Howard the day he issued a prospectus offering OzEmaii shares to punters on the frenetic Nasdaq stock exchange in San Francisco. From that day, the once voluble Howard became Mr Cautious, quite a step for someone who earlier in his career took on the might of Telstra and Microsoft in the course of a Four Corners probe into the On Australia network. It's been tough getting Howard in front of a tape recorder at ^ all. His lawyers warned him off my first two attempts and 1 have* succeeded in getting him this time by the simple expedient of getting drunk the night before and forgetting to listen to my answering machine, which contained a number of urgent ... A.! messages from Howard's secretary attempting to postpone the interview yet again. But being muzzled by the rules of a foreign stock exchange MB;' does have its advantages. On a summer's afternoon in San Francisco last May, Howard's personal net worth bounced up by almost US$60 million. That mega dollar moment came on 29 May as the stock in Howard's freshly listed OzEmaii Internet services company whipsawed among the greedy crew of mutual fund managers, short sellers, two bit arbitrageurs and tech nerd fortune hunters who lurk about the hi-tech money machine that is San Francisco’s Nasdaq stock exchange. On its debut day, OzEmaii — the first Australian hi-tech company to list on Nasdaq market before listing in Australia - came on at US$14, two bucks above the expected offer price listed in the company prospectus. After lunch, the stock fluttered up to US$17, taking Howard's paper worth With a reputation tor buckins the establishment, CzCmail chief executive Sean Howard took the ultimate risk when he listed his company on the Nasdaq exchange earlier this %ear. The OzCmail story is now legendary, but as discovered, the rules of this frontier mean the industry maverick has had to pull in his horns.

(he owns 3.5 million shares) into the stratosphere. By stock price yet to bust $2. Asked whether he’d the close of play that first day, OzEmaii had settled considered listing on Nasdaq after watching OzEmaii back to around US$14. surge, Netcomm chief Chris Howells replied: "Only It was a pretty piece of timing and completely every day". sidestepped the established methods for pumping But Howells might have second thoughts if he took capital into small, Australian hi-tech ventures. Howard a look at the dark crescents under Howard's eyes. and OzEmaii chief operating officer David Spence had A Nasdaq listing means OzEmaii is now answerable flicked OzEmaii into the final belches of the great to its US investors, operates under the rigours of the US Internet stock volcano which erupted when Netscape quarterly reporting regime and must keep up a steady listed on a pocketful of cyberspace dreams, maxing out flow of announcement noise if it wants to keep its at an unbelievable US$170 a share. share price heading north. That means incessant effort from Howard, Spence and the bright, young things .Bucking the system (average age is well under 30) who inhabit cubicles in "'We would be a shag on a rock in Australia on the ASX OzEmail's ramshackle spread of offices in an industrial because there would be nothing to compare us with - park in Sydney's St Leonards. there would no other listed ISPs. In the US there's half "Managing the growth is tough," says Howard. "It's a dozen," says Howard. long hours and those hours are stressful. It sounds glib While it's nice to have company on Nasdaq, you also but every aspect of the business is trying to manage get to crash together when your sector goes on the nose. growth - from finding good tech support people, Within weeks of OzEmail's debut, the Net stock volcano building up the internal PABX to handle the number of sputtered out, tumbling market Internet company calls to building up the host system and managing the capitalisations across the board. OzEmaii hit a low of network growth." 1996

US$6.25 and these days lingers around the US$7 mark. I have heard a thousand US IT marketing droids But even at US$7 a share, OzEmail's market chatter about managing growth, but Howard really capitalisation had Australian hi-tech company means it. It was his (and his partner's) money on the lOCTOBER proprietors booking flights to San Francisco. Back in line when OzEmaii began building up the Australia, the small, unappreciated and often infrastructure to handle the burgeoning Net connect AGE undercapitalised band of hi-techs which inhabit the market in late 1994. Australian Stock Exchange shook their heads in When he speaks of network growth, Howard wonder and envy at OzEmail's coup. Companies like becomes passionate and the dark-ringed eyes light up. Netcomm, an Internet service provider and modem The hands move, almost as if they are physically

maker with revenues far above OzEmaii and an ASX planting the routers, servers and other widgets INFORMATION

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wasn't going to take over the world over night. We interstate points of presence were just multiplexers, so suspected that all along. "It needed a different culture to the host system they just looked like a long serial - that was part of the learning process - we started it port out to a modem that happened to be in Melbourne inside a print magazine publishing house. The culture or Brisbane. It was very simple technology that we set of an online services business is not compatible with a up in a building in Bondi Junction." print magazine business. There wasn’t cooperation, By September 1994 Howard had around 4000 there was confrontation." OzEmaii users and a pressing need for growth capital. Internet hype was building exponentially and Howard E-mail takes over could see that the global Net's e-mail carrying capacity So Howard passed the management of Microtex 666 to meant the end of OzEmaii as a proprietary e-mail IT businessman Scott Sanderson and then sold the traffic business. whole business to Sanderson in the late 80s. "Microtex It was time to transform OzEmaii into an Internet never achieved a critical mass,” says Howard. "The service provider and Howard rang around the traps for technology wasn't terribly good - low resolution, low investors. He hit on Trevor speed. There wasn't the critical mass of users out Kennedy, a former managing It was time to transform OzEmaii ^;re, the cost of modems was very high, there was no director of Australian internationalisation of the service.” Consolidated Press who had into an Internet service After selling out of Microtex, Howard settled back been Howard’s boss. in to computer magazine publishing. Like many "Trevor was always pretty provider and Howard rang around companies in the early 1990s, Howard’s Computer adventurous. After he got out of Publications purchased an office e-mail system and he the whole Consolidated the traps for investors. watched amazed as it quickly became the de facto form Press/Tourang business he went of company communication. and put some of his own money into Sunshine "What struck me was that as e-mail became Television and a number of other adventures. overwhelmingly popular in our company, something "1 rang up Trevor and said 1 think I’d like some was going to happen out in the field. You've got these partners to contribute some equity because this is islands of e-mail out there and obviously they were going to be really big and also because you're fairly going to be a whole lot more useful if they were well connected in the corporate world.” interconnected." Kennedy mulled it over for a couple of weeks and It also struck Howard that here was the possibility rang back. Kennedy was hooked and proposed another of a high transaction business. A digital post office equity connection in the form of Sydney lawyer and which, for a fee, could sort all the disparate e-mail Australian republic advocate Malcolm Turnbull. ^formats (such as Lotus cc-.mail, Microsoft Mail and MHS) "and rout them person to person, business to business. The big bang So Howard cranked up a small RSD effort inside Turnbull and Kennedy plugged A$450,000 apiece into Computer Publications. Its job was to nut out the OzEmail's coffers and added two influential business hardware and software needed for what was to brains to the OzEmaii board. Turnbull signed on as become an electronic post office known as OzEmaii. chairman while Kennedy became a director. The day Meanwhile, ACP chief Kerry Packer was fixing to OzEmaii listed on Nasdaq, Kennedy and Turnbull's parcel up his magazine holdings and float them off. ACP paper net worth jumped by US$24.5 million each. owned the majority stake in Computer Publications So what's next? "India,” says Howard in a and didn't want minority shareholders — such as convincing sub continental accent. OzEmaii has set up 1996

Howard - complicating the prospectus. It also didn't a joint venture agreement with India-based SP1C want to know about RSD costs for seemingly screwball Electronic and System Ltd with a view to scoring an ISP projects like the embryonic OzEmaii. Howard financed operating licence from the Indian government. lOCTOBER

OzEmaii with the proceeds of the sale. And the future of the Net? "People like to say it’s "They didn't want negative assets and we were a just beginning and will go on forever. 1 don't think it's AGE black hole - a tiny black hole. I sold out to Kerry and going to go on forever in a revolutionary fashion. But kept OzEmaii and pushed that ahead in 1992.1 ran it it has got tremendous potential for video and audio on myself right through to 1994 when it became apparent demand, it has got tremendous potential for reducing that this was going to be big with the emergence of the fax and telephone costs. To that extent its going to be

Internet. We set up a very simple network. Our bring more benefit to society than the PC." ED INFORMATION

m the** Four good reasons to oXjtSOt*_*a—“~*L**r <«&*** ,«*** v"**0*!**'*'*~.**"*~ read this month's issue

SUOjS OU*®^**^*** U"'*'" » w"s*,.^»wa

«'■“»? ,1 (a*** of Computer Finance W w *!t««‘t0^‘°a““fI \9.v03. INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER

A Partnerships: the new c The big data warehouse, outsourcing revolution OLAP ROI scam? “Partnership” deals are making it Forget those magazine articles safe to return to an outsourcing claiming 1600 per cent ROIs from playing field ravaged by the land­ “data warehousing” and “online mines of poor cost control, dud analytical processing”. It’s not what technology innovation and inade­ it’s cracked up to be, according to quate transition strategies. a new study.

I How to rein in 4 Mainframe software the runaway LAN buying innovations LAN management is getting more slash costs complex and costly by the month. New ways of integrating large sys­ The causes - budget, the pace of tems software purchasing can yield change and staff shortages - lay first-year savings of up to 25 per beyond the network manager’s cent of the total software budget, control. New cost saving solutions according to latest research results. promise relief.

For the lull text of these stories and a FREE three-month appraisal of the world's only computer finance newsletter dedicated to analysing the real cost of computing, call Adrian Shaw on (02) 9286 5956 email: adrians @ spg.mhs.compuserve.com

STRATEGIC NEWSLETTERS Analysing world IT business MM / w| A MIMt

#

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20,567.7 29,940.0 ($USm) 30,213.0 31,519.0 37,700.0 71,940.0 1 13,813.1 14,755.0

1,062.0 1000.0 1096.5 2064.2 2285.0 1098.0 1159.3 1422.7 -8% 2467.8 3676.3 4690.0 5296.0 5696.5 5901.9 6202.3 305-11% 4100.0 5360.5 6291.2 9105.1 01027% 1071.0 104.0 200.0 434.6 115.6 120.0 140.1 321.9 466.0 480.0 587.9 174.9 192.4 631.2 540.3 144.8 000.0 676.2 800.0 995.9 76.6 PROFILE grnwth Annual -18% -48% -22% 142% -27% 140% 9 30 39% 48% 13% 64% 53% 20% 20% -7% 4 30 17% 14% 39% 19% 62% 17% 13% 45% 36% 78% 26% 16% 52% 20% 36% 26% 10% 12% 10% %30 5% 1% 2% 5% 3% %30 4% 8% 4% 8% 3% 0% 9% 7% 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 30 30 31 31 30 31 31 30 30 31 31 30 31 31 31 31 31 30 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 30 30 31 30 28 30 31 29 31 31 1

Year

Dec Mar Aug Dec Jun Dec Dec Sep Mar July Jun Jun Dec Dec Apr Jun Dec Dec Dec Dec Sep Sep Dec Dec Sep Dec Dec Mar Dec Dec Sep Mar Mar Mar Jun Dec Dec Dec Dec Sep Jun Dec Jun Dec Sep Dec Jul Jan Dec Oct

end

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# |.

! SPECIAL REPORT

Methodology: The companies included are ranked by worldwide annual revenues for their last financial year. The survey focuses on systems vendors and includes only vendors that derive more than 50 per cent of their revenues from computer systems (mainframes, servers, PCs, etc) and directly related services such as maintenance. In some instances, the computer systems divisions of large conglomerates have been treated as separate entities. Figures in italics are estimates. Cunency conversion:* converted at $0.01 to the Japanese yen;** converted at $0.711339 to the German mark;*** converted at $0.00064 to the Italian lira;**** converted at $0.0377 to the Taiwanese dollar;***** converted at $0.02011 to the French franc; # converted at $1.6 to the UK pound; ## converted at $0,605 to the Dutch gilder; ### converted at $0.1292 to the Hong Kong dollar; #### converted at $0,712 to the Singapore dollar.

Net income Previous net Net Revenue per ($USm) income (US$m) margin Headcount employee Top executive Notes

6334.0 2965.0 9% 219,839 $327,239 Louis Gerstner 650.0 505.8 2% n/a n/a Tadashi Sekizawa 1996 figures are company estimates ...... 2433.0 1599.0 8% 102,300 $308,104 Lewis Platt -1428.0 -884.8 n/a 92,060 $325,333 Tsutomu Kanai Division of Hitachi Ltd (28%) I...... n/a n/a n/a 90,000 $303,036 Fumio Sato Division of Toshiba Corp (52%) (est headcount) n/a n/a n/a 71002 $209,670 Hisashi Kaneko Division of NEC Ltd (47%) (est headcount) 789.0 867.0 5% 14,372 $1,026,649 Eckhard Pfeiffer 121.8 -2156.1 1% 61,700 $223,875 Bob Palmer ...... II1 424.0 310.2 4% 17,615 $627,988 Gilbert Amelio 16.4 -249.0 0% 37,200 $244,761 Gerhard Schulmeyer Subsidiary of Siemens AG -992.0 -434.5 n/a 29,500 $213,261 Carlo De Benedetti 1995 figures are preliminary company data -624.6 100.5 n/a 46,300 $133,959 James Unruh 355.8 195.8 6% 14,290 $413,009 Scott McNealy Headcount averaged over year 208.9 118.8 4% 13,000 $438,190 Stan Shih 61.5 -394.2 1% 24,085 $222,567 Jean-Marie Descarpentries 272.0 149.0 5% 6436 $822,871 Michael Dell -$580.0 —$2.0 n/a 37,900 $123,747 Lars Nyberg Div of AT&T Corp;—=operating profits n/a n/a n/a 4000 $1,025,000 Beny Alagem All figures are CBR estimates 173.0 96.0 5% 8000 $459,541 Ted Waitt -99.3 31.3 n/a 6595 $374,193 Ian Diery 107.5 170.2 5% 8380 $272,673 Roel Pieper 224.9 141.8 10% 6300 $353,698 Ed McCracken 33.8* 33.7* n/a 2500 $825,680 Theo Lieven *=pre-tax profits -00.9 8.1 n/a 2300 $726,003 Helmut Jost All figures are company estimates 28.5 74.8 2% 5600 $270,786 Joe Zemke 44% owned hy Fujitsu Ltd n/a n/a n/a 1500 $940,452 Norbert Wrede Headcount is CBR estimate -46.7 -87.7 n/a 5000 $231,860 Ron Skates -45.3 -70.2 n/a 9200 $119,348 Jim Meadlock ... «... 37.5 51.5 5% 3000 $365,493 Patrick Ngiam Mia Je 65.1 36.9 7% 1955 $511,508 Joseph Daltoso 80% owned hy Micron Technology Inc n/a n/a n/a 575 $1,731,956 Harmut Hellweg 0.8* -18.4* n/a n/a n/a Chin Chee Wing Div of WBL corp -226.4 55.7 n/a 4225 $160,058 Phillip Samper 17.2 9.2 3% 15,000 $42,080 Allan Wong Chi Yun n/a n/a n/a 2500 $240,000 Edward Staiano Div of Motorola Inc; all fiqs CBR estimates 14.1 13.4 2% 2878 $204,281 Gary Haroian 35.1 33.1 6% 1810 $298,508 Casey Powell 11.1 14.7 2% n/a n/a n/a *=pre-tax profits 1996 5.8 0.1 1% 3200 $145,616 Matthew Miau Net income is company estimate 4.2 -29.8 1% 1100 $395,055 Alan Sugar 5.6 4.4 2% 650 $495,169 Franz Hertzenauer

n/a n/a n/a 600 $333,333 Israel Wetrin OCTOBER

4.9 -0.3 3% 475 $405,053 Gene Lu -28.3 -93.4 n/a 1444 $121,122 Asher Edelman AGE 12.0 11.0 8% 850 $170,353 David Potter 0.3 2.3 0% 1250 $112,080 John Stihl n/a n/a n/a 250 $480,000 Rick Krause 1995 results unavailable at time of survey 12.4 8.3 11% 415 $278,614 Larry Boucher 5.3 10.5 5% 183 $568,519 Cornelius McMullan -54.6 -69.6 n/a 847 $90,437 Kenneth Fisher 1995 results unavailable at time of survey INFORMATION m » ■

M fff

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www. lip. co m / go/co m puling M 9 INFORMATION AGE OCTOBER 1996

SPECIAL A The On Note: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 1

10 the Figures

31 22 45 38 26 39 30 6Dell 16 14 18 fastest

NEW fast in

itelics

REPORT

Actebis Acer A Peacock Silicon Psion Legends Mitac Packard Micron growing

track

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Group

estimates Pic International

Graphics Electronics

AG

Bell AG ’

Holdings

year, impression Most Taken prelude n IBM's s offered PC

now

continued arms. the worked than companies Pyramid

at

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Cray

Corp

for significantly, the Siemens computer many

mainframe

come

server as for Inc robust

20

the Graphical Ltd

to itself

all, uncomfortable Inc

a strong Corp

Research, survival. hard

per

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failed that

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push

in to up?

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cruising

business 45% to 39% 48% 52% 53% 62% 64% 78% 142%

140% hide workstation the the WORLD to hid the

industry

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roost.

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to s

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Silicon

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systems lows another

muscle

be

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company looked mainframe Computer, 1995

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rate strong

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Germany US US China Taiwan Taiwan UK Germany US US

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in sales

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the Dell's

a fast,

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50 as

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the 26

tree. to of in

in

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—

SPECIAL REPORT

below the profitability line since reporting their financial 1995 numbers. The profit makers Given the problems that some companies were The Top 50 systems vendors with the highest net profit margins exhibiting, there is surprisingly little consolidation in the systems market. In the past 12 months, only three of the top 50 vendors have come together. Hewlett- Packard has taken over mini supercomputer vendor 1 48 Auspex Systems Inc 11% $115.6 $12.4 Convex, Siemens-Nixdorf has bought Unix server 2 22 Silicon Graphics Inc 10% $2228.3 $224.9 company Pyramid and, in early 1996, Cray became part 3 1 IBM Corp 9% $71,940.0 $6334.0 of Silicon Graphics. 4 45 Psion PIc 8% $144.8 $12.0 5 3 Hewlett-Packard Co 8% $31,519.0 $2433.0 Fast growers 6 30 Micron Electronics Inc 7% $1000.0 $65.1 Of the top 50 companies, 32 sell PCs and 23 of those are 7 37 Sequent Computer Systems Inc 6% $540.3 $35.1 exclusively PC vendors. Nine out of the top 10 fastest 8 13 Sun Microsystems Inc 6% $5901.9 $355.8 growing companies were in PCs, and two companies 9 7 Compaq Computer Corp 5% $14,755.0 $789.0 ^re than doubled in size during the year. 10 16 Dell Computer Corp 5% $5296.0 $272.0 Micron Electronics, which added $200 million to its Note: Several privately-held firms and the computer systems divisions of larger companies are not included as their net income figures are not available. revenue stream in late 1994 with the acquisition of PC maker Zeos, grew by 142 per cent, although an a higher revenue per employee than companies that undetermined proportion of that came from Micron's make all of their own components. semiconductor activities. Arguably the more Faced with the thinnest of margins, PC vendors have spectacular rise was at consumer PC specialist, Packard had to maintain a furious ramp up in production and a Bell. It grew by an estimated 140 per cent to $4 billion tight control over headcount. Of the top 50 systems in 1995. The company is privately held and jealously vendors, PC suppliers show by far the highest revenue guards its financial numbers, but it is no secret that per employee. In fact, nine out of the 10 best revenue per Packard Bell has been losing money in recent times. Its employee generators are PC companies. Just over a year business model calls for the company to hold a ago, Compaq's chairman Ben Rosen said he was relatively small amount of cash and, as competition in determined his company would cross the $1 million per the home computing market has become tougher, employee threshold in 1995. Compaq, with $1,026,700 per Packard Bell has found itself struggling to pay bills. person, made it across the line, as did Packard Bell with Earlier this year, Intel converted a $470 million unpaid around the same ratio. German PC assembler and retailer semiconductor bill into a loan. And the PC vendor also Peacock had an even higher revenue per employee at

share. But the real success story in the PC market, PC vendors, only Compaq, Dell and Micron beat that especially in the US, was Taiwanese vendor Acer. profit margin, but only by a couple of points. From nowhere, its market share grew to 4.5 per cent in The most profitable entry in the top 50 comes well

1995, helping to drive its revenues up 78 per cent to down the table. For the second year, Unix network server OCTOBER

T$151.1 billion (US$5.67 billion). vendor Auspex Systems was the only company with strong

enough profits to push its net margin above 10 per cent. AGE

Power workers Other profit records looked good in some companies' The revenue generated by each employee at these 1995 filings, but have since declined. Silicon Graphics, fastest growing vendors depends on the level of the visual computing workstation vendor, reported a vertical integration of each company. Those that buy net profits margin of 10 per cent for its year to 30 June,

ready-to-assemble parts and devices are likely to have but that has since dipped to 8 per cent. INFORMATION EE INFORMATION AGE OCTOBER 1996 The Highest Note: SPECIAL 9 7 8 6 5 4 3 2 10 1

Figures

power 41 49 0Micron 30 Vobis 9 23 26 7 31 6Dell 16 18

average

in

italics Tulip Sequoia Apple Actebis Packard Compaq Peacock

workers

revenue

REPORT

Computer are

Computers Microcomputer Computer

Electronics

AG Computer estimates. Systems Bell AG military undermined reported acquisition this One Fastest also Unisys market. is spun Global company, Its to $1 cent and printer company's on does cent, of Unix which profit profitable Fightbacks in Surely

more

billion

Electronics restructuring billions Hewlett-Packard,

per sales its

Corp

The

Confirming year's

struggling Sun off of

in Inc make market,

NV is margin

PCs,

Inc established

the lost employee among Information

Corp

the

accessories Corp more likely their

Also

least

spending, from plummeted

of Microsystems

fallers

the sharpest

which AG

of vendor.

greatest

these

table $625

real money companies losses, by

wrestling

by dollars

profitable most straight to Co ATST is however,

with

Silicon

source

million costs. nothing that be a has are is

continued

5158$1000.0 $495,169 $511,508 $568,519 $627,988 $2064.2 $1422.7$822,871 $825,680 $948,452 $14,755.0 $1,026,649 $1025,000 $1,731,956

itself

although on Given

recent acquired greater Cray turnaround this Solutions huge business.

changed the of relatively there

by

forward.

its With

with

Graphics of

revenue losses appearing

in vendor year,

reported

in short

both high 27

Research. Unix losses

that healthy

1995.

financial 1995

Top

is per major similar competition the

than

but

and level its fall money of Sequent until the systems

as of modest Although

was cent

story bulk 50

name

fall

in miraculous.

some $321.9 $104.0 $1 $5296.0 $4100.0 $995.9

in

floated back company a income

business $580 the

for

of systems problems,

1994, early

1,062.0 In net Olivetti,

US years. in of

to

profitability, to in

third

the

the from

again, and analysts amounts. Computer

the those

research million. $676.2 margin the

be a

the from

on 1996,

is last build 9

restructuring, was

class even made

most

top NCR

its with per

the company

vendors were In is NCR

650 6436 2500 575 million, time 1955 183 17,615 4000 14,372

printer 1500

believe Cray due stock The

50 of the to swimming

cent

up

possibly The of

and almost

in

Systems

was at

6 related is

ATST

case to 1995. to be in

the per

8 IBM,

its and per it

just entering systems networking The turbulence. to computer extinction. consolidation server middle from such is most Tricord in Computing Goldstar) operations Group. as incorporates or company numbers missing companies, two others as Annual workstation because NetFrame NCR a revenues systems. reaction, that compiled.

half

flat

take 1994, well too they Review

- Lower 1996 Another stronger, Several Superserver Some staying

years

had each as the

of

or to

This

vendors

difficult

actually tier

advantage as Similarly,

IBM were the sales losses but

market

from

two-thirds declining their

the As is by combination not

is

appear

are Fujitsu. of threatens All the

saw

PC ago revenues

report trying trying Supplement, likely

At of

Group, of top companies a up industry, does Unlike

and both four fast faller

upper the vendors,

been broader indications the South slipping result, dropped growth the also the

UK

the financial and

at among their there to

in is 50.

disappeared

Fujitsu. old vendors

to systems ’ Japanese months

as not

Cray figures saw s 1996 high, to estimate. an first same

of slightly,

unobtainable. push

adjusted

had the $150 echelons

of Mainframe

be

part

sales

it shift to Korea's guard

fell

change will increasingly

widely

the rates

based

1994 their

of down

the had was

and totalled

an appeared table software 26 shown redraw

revenues did

results

time, million some

an Unix

14 NT are on of

by be entry its

Tricord even

per fall

market. top

delayed favouring Encore levels.

per also a

will conglomerate not

APT

the revenues

Mitsubishi

are the core companies the and

to

challenging and the that distribute LG company

of systems from

the cent by vendors by

cent three

sales

were the

the more make $226 cost also results the Apricot

fell. Group time

computer

Data

industry top

Intel, figures

rise

around business in the Encore's of China arrival

strong and

Computer,

the

PC publication

post to

industry.

a

around to for force

Amdahl, million. are fastest

simply 50 the the

few challenging

above it

Computer

tumble Group

$60

industry are NetFrame,

putting

table. cost to (formerly Electric $76

’ its of into are

s the hierarchy, Computers

Cold up, for new position CBR enough. of larger

Great ’ 10

or

the s

its greater revenues under numbers. to

systems million.

million

better

PC the computer structure not any $200 growing but the per ICL.

even

publication. storage

parent which, survey For War edge in Bull

companies

the

activities of

vendors PC rankings.

network Wall

revenue available top cent. industry Business 1995.

Its attack

year Lucky others, placed its

in million

only the

PC and world.

now

and Also of

were

50 the

in 1995 was

But

for

^

™

A

SPECIAL REPORT

1< ^ MARKET

Better days ahead for bigger systems Mainframe demand is rising faster than prices are falling; it is primarily driven by a realisation among Huge increase in demand per mainframe large system users that distributed client/server power, as IBM sets the pace with new designs. systems are not as reliable or cheap as centralised 1995 was a good year for the large systems vendors: systems. New low cost, scalable systems using CMOS They reported significant rises in the amount of (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) shipped computer power - measured in millions of processors are also becoming popular. instructions per second (MIPS). But once again, the lift According to the Gartner Group, IBM increased its in MIPS shipped by the three main suppliers - IBM, market share by several percentage points; it now Amdahl and Hitachi - failed to bring an aggregated stands at between 71 per cent and 75 per cent, dollar revenue increase because of heavy price erosion. according to various analysts. In 1996, the news for MIPS shipments grew by about 55 per cent during the large systems vendors is getting better. Mainframe MIPS 1994, while mainframe and mainframe-related sales fell IBM is set to hit a record target of 370,000 shipments 1995 by about 1 per cent. According to IDC, 1995 mainframe mainframe MIPS shipped. While Amdahl and Hitachi are sales worldwide were $21.6 billion. The combination of likely to see smaller increases, their CMOS systems will Hitachi 21% rising shipments and falling revenues is not new. be delivered, enabling them to compete more effectively. Amdahl 8% But in the years between 1992 and 1994, demand The research, development and manufacturing for mainframes slumped and prices fell sharply. IBM, costs of CMOS mainframes are all lower than the older IBM 71°/a Amdahl and Hitachi all suffered revenue drops during bi-polar technology, which will help the suppliers to this period, with an inevitable impact on profitability. recover some, but not all, of their lost profit margins.

database and operating system, but whose RS/6000 Boom continues in midrange market systems also lead the market in Unix business servers (according to IDC). IBM’s claimed lead in Unix servers Business servers remain a sweet spot per is contested by Hewlett-Packard, the overall leader in suppliers — will NT and Intel spoil it? Unix system sales. Other contenders are Digital, Computer industry analysts often concentrate on the Siemens Nixdorf, Sun, NCR and Fujitsu/ICL. vagaries of the PC market, or on the IBM mainframe In recent years, most of the Unix server suppliers business. But the real sweet spot from a supplier's point have managed to thrive without suffering too much from of view is the midrange market. the price war that has made life so difficult for suppliers During the past several years, the midrange market in the PC industry. But in 1995, a threat to the Unix has flourished and there is no sign of a slowdown. midrange server suppliers emerged in the form of the Midrange servers have become essential to most Microsoft NT operating system and Intel SHV (server Leading Unix server 1996

vendors-1995 businesses: some are used to run shared applications, high volume) board, a four processor board built by some to store data that would overwhelm a PC, and Intel. The NT operating system, launched in May 1993, is others offer reliability and availability. The rise of increasingly viewed by corporate users as a stable, low

client/server computing, off-the-shelf relational cost software platform that gives complete compatibility OCTOBER

databases and the Internet have all helped boost with desktop PCs running Microsoft Windows.

midrange sales. In 1995, total midrange server business At the same time, many PC vendors, and many of AGE

probably totalled US$20 billion in hardware sales alone, the smaller systems vendors, are now standardising on with much more coming from software and services. Intel processor boards as a component they can use to A handful of companies are taking the lion's share build large business servers. In 1995, NT shipped some of the business. The biggest is IBM, which not only 360,000 units. NT is clearly becoming established as a HP Sun IBM makes the AS/400 system that runs a proprietary major operating system alongside Unix. INFORMATION M

- INFORMATION AGE OCTOBER 1996 SPECIAL Unix A Workstation

change Worldwide market 1994

1995 workstations

1996 market

PC

REPORT

of Digital dominated double half US$5.6 staggering workstations", supercharged 24 combination. million billion, looked and on end vendors The position Compaq After US shipments market shipments share second vendor slacken saturation Nevertheless, per half bracing themselves industry per

Intel market,

The

That That Much Microsoft's 1995 Such pace According The Compaq cent

a midrange PCs a growth

million dropped

decade, cent and

billion,

the in the units according share traditional place as

to

worldwide Pentium and was personal had with and in

pole is

of

1995.

pales

shipments worldwide between

of Silicon by rose up growth

1995 slowing rise where

boom

that

continued

traditional

were a a

Packard

the

away machines. down

shares Sun 21 growth of 1995 positions Unix

to

while year profound but the

for by The Windows

feel 18 in to per

momentum, Dataquest, US traditional

PCs,

in

Graphics Microsystems, to workstation 0.2 was per revenues 40 workstation 59.7 made, now term of

from

workstations. workstation PC to half 15 when of

cent.

market,

shipments research

comparison of

grew

the per

per in Bell per revenue

cent easily a

industry the

a million its

1995,

11.7 analysts jogging

are a workstations IDC sales

In

Apple,

effect blockbuster

overall for a NT cent Apple cent cent percentage the battled reign

by the fact, - to 43 per

set

during PC industry uses

took operating

grew

25 7.8 though, per cent distinction of

leaner group

cent of to and units.

PC

growth market

market

on PC shipments Unix largely even rose has

as pace. the lost

per market "personal are Hewlett-Packard, market. global per 8

for

on

it

how venders the only

20

per

the NT

sprinted

effect out to cent. ground, and

convinced

But IDC.

though year the momentum and cent.

149 point

workstation

per became came

world's

- industry

of showed jump

times. cent, by year system, Windows the

12

sales

for experienced

with 88 11.6

per cent to NT/Intel

136

between It beat per cent IBM for grew

success of

effect

the

market as says

per

from

to

with on per on its

per cent ahead

NT the PC are

cent are

took

largest blurred. this low

by

a

US$17 the top market running cent

1994.

was 1.4 sales. cent,

will

made.

24.3 in IBM, in

high

year. end NT. for

hit the to

a PC

to

ments cent the NT/Pentium technical markets, market workstations Unix (Unix) points cent per revenues year fast. per share of experienced After US$2.52 units revenue continue have suppliers of on at ahead fuelled cent maturity. shipments Microsoft US made number however, according respectively, a

the

15

the

market, shipments The In Coming The cent cent, According Taiwan's

In sluggish

this year,

to of

to to IBM in struggled.

growth shipped.

during

the

market 1995, of will recent systems

of horizon,

20

by workstation US$3.78 will US$1.29 the billion.

US$8.8 overlap

three

to growing

in

IBM and -

Windows Analysts added

market workstation as from

largest

per continued

innovations

to grow to

1995 Escom, its technical

boosting

a continue from

its 10

machines. of years, an

the

Acer and

slightly IDC.

will both third is

showed cent

in 12 down to

Sun,

were

the The billion per

26 are Both

revenues the billion. billion.

small. 11 to year.

between two per to

the

IDC,

inroad share,

a Apple.

per at

make per

expect Consumer

also

US$11.4 sector Asia/Pacific ICL, in shipping cent still PC smaller with 930,000, of

95.

the

revenues.

cent companies more from Pentium

US.

points

to 1996. its more

markets," the its cent

cent

European workstations a SGI,

market such market." "The

Bull

But Hewlett-Packard,

And had

fast By a

a lose modest only to 33 share But into In rapid

US requirement 1994 year US from to

22 billion

NT/Intel

per

than

rise Compaq last

early on

give with contrast, and growth than

base,

as

a personal of

some US$1.63 Digital per around market

shipments money.

the modest PC-oriented says significant based,

is the

multimedia market during year, to growth market cent workstations in

In

Olivetti,

40

PC it market lost growth no says set

cent a

this

and US,

4.5 revenue IBM 1996 per of other 10 million

IDC, market

obvious and

led in

put for of

billion. analysts shipped

is a

2.7 the

doubling Hewlett-Packard per per Apple

making year just

IDC. in

the workstation

inroads the

point

share, and

rapidly the

share cent. in

Europe

for lean NT/Pentium also

to overtaking on of among 1995, million Unix hand,

indigenous

cent. cent. impact with

commercial next

4 market

machines.

"RISC machines rise market, almost 9 during Packard

is slid most Digital

6 per

market of is times.

per

expect pushing expected were percentage to and up rose

jittery. reaching

against 22 just its added

four market last

others

cent

to

give units,

cent based 20 of

on per annual was

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Analysing world IT business m INFORMATION AGE IOCTOBER 1996 Xerox some recently ambition computer of the PILGR

of

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to

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ideas Alto people visit technologies interface technical never by visiting Yorktown industry. legendary Research at and remember where the computer that its Mill, milestones. its developing existence, there the

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Xerox does allow visitors, but not just anyone and details must be worked out well in advance. Knowing that 1 was soon going to northern California, I approached Xerox with a request to visit PARC. After a few faxes, e-mails and phone calls, I was in. I was granted three hours to take in the past, present and future of PARC. When the day arrived, I drove down from San Francisco on a warm August day, lingering in downtown Palo Alto for lunch. Palo Alto is the home of Stanford University and is by far the most attractive of many small cities which sprawl along the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, straddling the San Andreas fault. For 20 years the area has been known as Silicon Valley, because of the mushrooming computer companies in the area. Flewlett-Packard had its origins in the valley before World War II and Stanford

Digital Boll lo i Trusted Si slims supplied fresh graduates to what was then the electronics industry. Like breeds like, and by the time PARC was established in rented rooms near Stanford in 1970s, the myth of Silicon Valley was on the way to being established. PARC alumni are now found all over the valley and the research centre has contributed in no small way to making the area synonymous with information technology.

A home among the gum trees PARC is located just out of town, in country which looks for all the world like the Australian bush, with parched yellow fields and gum trees. It is a low brick building, as unprepossessing on the outside as most computer facilities, but on walking through the door you get a sense of its history. The corridors are covered with memorabilia that found its way to the 1996

surface during PARC’s 25th anniversary celebrations last year. There is a strong feeling of tradition — that today's (OCTOBER

researchers have inherited a responsibility to "invent the future’’, to quote an early AGE PARC slogan. The place still has a 1970s feel about it. Remember that wonderful decade? It was a time of optimism and innovation, when

anything seemed possible. It still seems INFORMATION

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Time and again Xerox has tried to get into the at PARC and more consciously incorporating PARC mainstream of the IT industry and time and again it has technologies into existing and new Xerox product failed. It came close with the innovative Xerox Star lines. Examples are ParcPlace, a leading object workstation, but the machine, released at the start of oriented software company, and Microlytics, which the microcomputer revolution of the 1980s, was too specialises in data compression. Leading networking slow and expensive. company SynOptics, now part of Bay Networks, The Apple Macintosh, the most innovative machine was also a PARC spin-off. of that innovative generation, was the machine the It takes a long time to live down unfortunate Xerox Star should have been. Steve Jobs conceived the reputations. But Xerox has come back in recent idea for the Macintosh in December 1979, when he and years and it is impossible to spend much time half a dozen Apple employees visited PARC and saw a with the senior Xerox people and not be prototype of the Xerox Star running the world's first impressed by the company's comprehensive and graphical user interface. Apple knew how to make the well articulated view of the future. That idea sell. Xerox did not. resurgence is due in no small measure to PARC. Another famous example is Ethernet, the f^hnology that networked the computer industry. Atoms to culture Ethernet was the brainchild of Bob Metcalfe, who At PARC, they are still inventing the future. But developed it at PARC in 1973. He left PARC, founded the key phrase at PARC now is "atoms to 3Com and the rest is history. Xerox cooperated with culture". This means they are involved in Digital and Intel to bring the specification into the everything from nanotechnology to public domain, but made precious little out of the idea. anthropology — from how The laser printer also was invented at PARC. Now, electrons move at the They are still inventing this is one technology you would think that Xerox atomic level to how could make money out of, and indeed it has. But only information technology the future ... they are at the high-end. Xerox is a bit player in the mass laser affects the human mind and printer market, now owned by Hewlett-Packard, with human society. As the involved in everything engines by Canon. phrase suggests, the range There are many other examples. PARC's reputation of work underway at PARC from nanotechnology to as a research lab is unmatched, but so is its record for straddles an enormous letting the ideas go. Many of the details were area. In a short visit I could anthropology. documented in the well-known book Fumbling the get only a glimpse of some Future, by Douglas Smith and Robert Alexander. The of the research projects, including dataglyphs (Meople at PARC are acutely aware of its reputation, (see page 38). In an attempt to convey a feel for hey explain it in many ways and stress that things some of the technology, Eric Bier of the have changed now. Chief scientist John Seely Brown Information Sciences and Technologies says that in the early days some researchers developed Laboratory (ISTL) sat me down and took me on a important ideas that were so far apart from the rollercoaster ride through a number of the mainstream, they could not use any existing standards projects underway in his corner of PARC. or technologies. They were thus not easily translatable Bier's team of four people work on projects to into products, but were useful to others as "models and do with human-machine interaction, a field which seeds for development". involves linguistics, image processing and Brown says another reason was many promising interfacing technology. Each of those is a broad 1996

scientists were attracted away from PARC by greater field and it was immediately obvious to me, in a opportunities elsewhere. Speaking of the 1980s, he way that hadn't been before, that there must be says: "Some of the most productive scientists had much cross-fertilisation between the different OCTOBER

begun to be lured by the then flourishing venture research groups at PARC. capital world in Silicon Valley. Thus Adobe, Metaphor, "That's right," says Bier. "We spend a lot of time AGE 3Com and a few others were born. PARC was changing, talking about the future and how different technologies but this painful period, in the end, was to open the way intersect. We meet off-site, we meet onsite, we meet to the future." on the Net. There's an enormous amount1 of freedom, Xerox has developed a system of spinning off but there’s also a lot of support. We have all sorts of

companies and investing in the technologies developed formal and informal committees to help projects get INFORMATION

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& Australian Computer Society (NSW) Annual Conference

WJJJO

Conference: 3 & 4 December, 1996 ■ Workshops: 2 & 5 December, 1996 Sebel Town House, Sydney

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Celebrate by attending the 30th Anniversary Dinner of the Australian Computer Society sponsored by IBM Australia

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EH Please reserve my dinner place llllnternational Quality & Productivity Centre Name:

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"Diagnosis is more than fitting a patient to a label"

Darwin Brain Project will use real information to build Why 'Darwin? "The brain is a highly dynamic a model to match the dynamics of "normal" brain adaptive mechanism. To survive, the brain will do function, and then build models of brain activity whatever is necessary to keep us going at this point in affected by various disorders. time,” he says. "Our brain has to adapt second by This will lead to greater understanding of major second, all the time, and this underlies everything we mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's are trying to do in this project. disease, attention deficit disorder and depression. And, Dr Gordon says our brains are continually engaged in turn, researchers intend to discover how particular in a simple three-step process — receiving sensory drugs affect the brain as a system. They also hope that input, interpreting it and then producing motor output. ^^bility to measure brain stability will help alleviate And because the brain is so highly adaptive, it is unnecessary patient suffering by giving clinicians the necessary to know how the networks in the brain information to predict relapses in neuropsychiatric interact as a self controlling system in real time. "We illnesses and make early intervention possible. are not trying to create a brain in the computer, in fact, quite the opposite. We have to start off with the &3?8SS .. Non-invasive research simplest possible function, which is electrical activity. :V:r y . Measuring the brain's electrical activity is non- Most of the time the brain is doing very simple things." . mi invasive, it’s simply done by placing recording disks on While the nature of the research may suggest the the scalp. During the three years the project is possibility of computer assisted diagnosis of scheduled to run, the research team will use neuropsychiatric disorders in the future, Grove says measurements from more than 200 "normals", and that is not the focus of the Brain Project. "Clinicians are clinical groups of people with neuropsychiatric the best people to make the diagnosis,” he says. disorders to build up a comprehensive database. "Diagnosis is more than fitting a patient to a label, "We presume different diseases create an instability there are other dimensions to diagnosis. For example, of the system and we think this manifests reasonably a patient with depression can have a combined constantly for each disorder," Dr Gordon says. diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. All such information ”We need to put the details together of whatever is best integrated by a clinician. The brain function ias gone wrong with the function of the brain as a data may contribute an element of this information, "stem, so we can treat the brain [malfunction as part but not the diagnosis. of a system. Most treatments are derived by luck, and "What we are looking at is how best we can choose we want to work out which of the treatments pushes and use treatments, to see whether they are working the system back to a normal kind of pattern." well or poorly. The most we know about drug Initial simulations at MHR1 look promising, and treatments is at the level of the single nerve cell — we have provided a variety of electrical phenomena that want to add some objective information to that. look encouragingly similar to measured data from real "It might help refine which treatment works better brains. While the simulation is done at MHR1, most of and make it possible for the individualisation of the the data acquisition (measuring the electrical activity length and strength of treatment. Theoretically, we 1996 of real brains) is carried out at Westmead. could also use this information to trial new treatments What makes the Darwin Brain Project different by trying them out on the model." from other studies is that it looks at the lesser-known If the project is successful in showing the effects of OCTOBER

|

non specialist areas that occupy most of our grey drug therapy, what of other therapies? Theoretically, matter. Until now, most brain research has centred says Gordon, somewhere down the line, showing effects AGE on specialised areas of the brain and their function, of of psychotherapy and ECT on brain function may be which a considerable amount is known (see box on possible too. "The more we can know about the brain facing page). "We are bringing all of this together to and its treatment the happier we are," he says. m discover how the brain organises itself to survive as a — Victoria Campbell is features editor at

system," Dr Gordon says. InformationAge INFORMATION

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i Sarah on Tel: +61 2 9262 1990 or e-mail: a polished manner.” Contest director services so that we can compete iqpcsozemail.com.au George Fernandez said: "We were successfully in a worldwide marketplace, ” delighted with the very high standard of Dr Robertson-Dunn said. Programming win for Queensland this year's competitors. "By making innovative and creative use A trio of programmers from the University "It's the first time a team has managed of IT we can enhance our performance in a of Queensland has taken out the annual to solve all of the problems. In fact this wide range of service and product areas. ACS National University Programming year there were three groups which We need to ensure the benefits that can Competition, beating a field of 25 teams achieved that status, including one from come from IT are realised to the advantage from four states. RM1T comprising only two programmers.” of as wide a community as possible." The winning team, called Potestas, Second prize was awarded to The (Latin for Power), completed all seven Melbourne Trio comprising John Fitzgerald, New CMACS graduates programming problems with an hour to Andrew Rogers and Lawrence Ip from the Congratulations to the following members spare, just a few minutes ahead of a team University of Melbourne, while honourable who recently completed the CMACS program: from the University of Melbourne. mention was made of NFI, the two-person VIC Puthanveetil Remesan CMACS team from RM1T. Richard Smart, CMACS Competitors had the choice of working ACT Rhonda Bradford, CMACS in either C or Pascal with Borland's Turbo C David Griffiths, CMACS and Turbo Pascal used as compilers. Teams NSW Anand Pradhan, CMACS were ranked on the number of problems Edward Singleton, CMACS solved with ties determined by the total Glenn Lee, CMACS times taken to solve the problems. QLD Steven Wheeler, CMACS Also congratulations to Kenneth Dowling, Expert named CMNZCS, who is now a certified member of The Australian Computer Society has the New Zealand Computer Society after Ten teams competed at Sydney’s UTS campus. nominated Dr Bernard Robertson-Dunn to completing the program. The competition was staged on represent it on a working party formulating Saturday 27 July at three locations in a Research Strategy for Information Victoria, New South Wales and Technology in Australia. Queensland. Thirteen teams, including one Dr Robertson-Dunn has joined the from Tasmania, participated at RM1T in Working Party of the Discipline Research Melbourne, 10 teams competed at UTS in Strategy for Australian IT, chaired by Sydney and two Queensland teams took Professor Peter Poole FTSE, Dean of jaart at QUT. Information Technology at Bond University. P Queensland coordinator and director The research was commissioned by the of the ACS Professional Development Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Board, Alan Underwood, said Potestas, Department of Employment, Education, which was made up of Ben Burton, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA). It is Please be aware that in future you will Jason Wu and Darius Davis, brought due for completion in June 1997. receive only a single reminder that your considerable intelligence and experience The aim is to develop a picture of where ACS membership is due for renewal, to the competition. the IT discipline should be in a decade and a instead of the multiple reminders you "Two of the students represented comprehensive plan for getting there. received in previous years. Australia as schoolboys in the ACS team A consultant with Azimuth Consultants A renewal notice will be sent to you 1996 that travelled to the SEARCC International Australia Pty Ltd, Dr Robertson-Dunn 4-6 weeks before your membership fee Programming Competition,” he said. ”ln works with information management is due. If you fail to pay the fee by the fact, Ben Burton competed three years strategies and IT architectures. For the past due date, you will receive two OCTOBER

I

running. In addition, all three team four years he has chaired the Australian notifications to advise that you are no members represented Australia in the Information Industry Association Open longer a financial member of the Society. AGE renowned ACM Competition last year, Systems committee and represented the IT This change to our renewal placing sixth in the world. industry on a number of federal procedures will deliver considerable "Potestas worked very well as a team. government IT committees. savings in terms of postage and They were highly organised, had a sound "Australia needs to position itself as an administration. We appreciate your

strategy, and approached the problems in innovative adopter of IT products and continued cooperation and support. INFORMATION

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evenUQSEiSfEjgfyorld 9 October and Middleware and Making a Data end of November to witness this year's Melbourne, Victoria Warehouse Work For You, the Managing Global Networking Education Summit, The monthly meeting of the ACS Victorian Data Across the Enterprise conference will Networld +Interop. Sydney joins a growing Branch will feature a presentation on Java capitalise on this age of information list of world capitals such as Atlanta, Las from Adrian Vanzyl, director of overload. To be held in Sydney at the end Vegas and London to host the annual event. development at Sausage Software. It will be of October, the seminar aims to give you an Keynote speakers include International held at The Sofitel and is free to members. information advantage - the ability to Asia Pacific marketing manager for For more information, contact the enhance your organisation's competitive Netscape Communications Corporation, Victorian office on tel: +61 3 9690 8000 or edge through the efficient use of Tom Bennett and John Gerdelman, e-mail: acsvicsacslink.net.au. information technology. president of network MCI Services within For more information on the the MCI Corporation. 16 October conference, call 1BC Conferences on tel: For further details, contact Synergy Canberra, ACT +61 2 9319 3755, Fax: +61 2 9699 3901 or Conventions on +61 2 9369 1242. Canberra members of the ACS can take e-mail: [email protected]. advantage of a talk on financial advice for 3 December IT professionals at the October branch 30 October-3 November Sydney, NSW ^^ting. To be held at Manning Clark Bangalore, India Past and present ACS members will gather Centre (Theatre 1) at ANU campus, the CSI-96 will be staged in Bangalore with at the National Maritime Museum in meeting will feature Russell Dew of the theme "India, the Emerging Sydney to celebrate the 30th Anniversary National Australia Bank as guest speaker. Information Giant". The 31st annual of the society. For more information, contact Meryl conference of the CSI will showcase For more information, call Jo Thorpe on Morgan on +61 3 247 4830 or e-mail: India's technical excellence in tel: +61 2 9262 1938. [email protected]. information technology and highlight 3-4 December 22-23 October international efforts in areas as diverse as software engineering, parallel and Sydney, NSW Sydney, NSW The annual NSW Branch conference will be distributed computing, virtual reality and Develop strategies for, and gain a full held at the Sebel Town House in Sydney. human resource development. understanding of, the changing Australian With the theme of "Information Systems For more information contact Mr S Sasi telecommunications market at Australia's Driving Radical Change", the conference Kumar, program co-chair, CSI 96, Centre for Telecommunications Revolution, a seminar will feature case studies from 22 high- Development of Advanced Computing, to be staged in Sydney during this month. profile users as well as practical Ramanashree Plaza, 2/1 Brunton Road, Learn how to contribute to the changing presentations from both local and Bangalore 560025. telecommunications market and optimise international IT authorities. the benefits of open competition post-1997. 8 November For more information call Olivia Sarah P Call ICM Marketing on +61 2 9223 2137 for Perth, Western Australia on tel: +61 2 9262 1990 or e-mail: more information. The fifth annual conference of the ACS.’s [email protected]. 27-30 October Western Australian Branch will be held 14-18 July 1997 Adelaide, South Australia at Radisson’s Observation City, Sydney, NSW Designed for executives with a respon Scarborough Beach. INTERACT97, the international conference of sibility for information technology is the The theme this year is "Challenge", with IFIP TCB on Human-Computer Interaction, Amdahl Pacific Basin User Group, to be topics such as The Millennium Bug — Facts, will be held at the Darling Harbour held in the South Australian capital this Fears and Fortune Flunters; Firewalls — Convention and Exhibition Centre in Sydney. month. Pro-active participation is Remember Asbestos?; Culture Change — For details contact the INTERACT97 1996 encouraged during the conference, inviting Part 2; and The Hong Kong Handover - Secretariat Judy Hammond, Australian you to share your ideas and perspectives Opportunities for IT. representative for IFIP TCB on tel: +61 6 257 with other delegates. For details contact Barry Houghton on

3299, fax: +616 257 3256, e-mail: OCTOBER

For more information, contact Amdahl tel: +61 9 470 4878 or e-mail: I [email protected], or check out: on tel: +61 2 9561 9828. [email protected]. http: //www. acs.org. au/interact97 AGE

30-31 October 25-29 November Sydney, NSW Sydney, NSW For details of other IT-related events, check Comprising two separately bookable The world's IT elite will gather in Sydney's out the Open Solutions Centre's full listing events, Enterprise Distributed Computing Convention and Exhibition Centre at the at: http://web.spirit.com.au/Wats On INFORMATION

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There are two ways to remember Strategic Events Tie a knot

YOUR GUIDE TO HIGH QUALITY EVENTS FOR SENIOR MANAGEMENT 1996/97diary

MIS NZ 23-25 Nov ’96 Taupo first New Zealand IT management conference

MIS 97 22-24 Mar ’97 Leura fifth Australian Blue Mountains IT management conference

MIS Asia May ’97 Kuala Lumpur first Asian IT management conference

Call Judy on +61 2 9286 5900 for further information on sponsorships or registration.

STRATEGIC EVENTS CONFERENCES* EDUCATION- MEETINGS

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