Stories by Sumner Lemon

  • Cisco getting through to SMEs

    Cisco Systems, perhaps best known for its enterprise networking products, has shown that it can be a strong contender in the Asian small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) market, based on data from market research firm International Data Corp.

  • Customer interaction boosts gains from ERP

    Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software can't do it alone. While ERP applications may offer improved operating efficiencies, those gains are unlikely to bear fruit without a comparable improvement in the way organisations interact with their customers, said Brent Frei, president and CEO of Onyx Software. For many organisations, however, justifying the cost of customer relationship management (CRM) tools is more difficult than doing so with ERP applications because the financial benefits are more difficult to measur

  • Making a big merger look easy

    The rapidly rising amount of data traffic that is carried over the world's networks has necessitated a sharp change in strategy for telecommunications manufacturers who have prospered for years on the sale of large circuit switches. To keep up with the rate of change, networking and telecommunications equipment vendors have been forced to either acquire or merge with competitors. Former Bay Networks chief executive officer and current Nortel Networks president Dave House recently discussed the process of merging a data networking company with a large telephony equipment manufacturer, as well as recent developments in the networking industry. IDG's Sumner Lemon reports.

  • Heavyweights in I/O face-off with Intel

    A conflict between Intel and three of its largest customers, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, has been quietly brewing in recent weeks over development of the next-generation standard for server input/output (I/O).

  • Cisco CEO spreads the word in Asia

    Cisco Systems president and CEO John Chambers is going door-to-door in Asia, meeting with key business leaders and politicians to spread the word about networking.

  • Dell directs its attention to China

    Dell has announced plans to start direct sales and technical support operations in nine major Mainland Chinese cities. This is in contrast to Dell's previous model in China which saw the vendor rely solely on a network of distributors to sell its products to end-users.

  • Hong Kong, Australia sign agreement on IT

    While Taiwanese companies have reportedly been urged to reconsider their Australian investment plans by a Taiwanese-Australian business association following the recent strong showing by Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in Queensland elections, the Hong Kong government earlier this week took a step towards accelerating the pace of IT co-operation between Australia and the Special Administrative Region.

  • Compaq-Digital merger to lead to reshaped Unix, DEC exec says

    Despite concern within some industry circles that the merger of Compaq and Digital may mean a lower level of commitment to Unix in favour of Windows NT, a senior Digital executive has said that the combined company will emerge as a formidable contender as the market shifts towards 64-bit Unix.