Other Life

Information technologies help developed countries stay ahead of their developing neighbors

Bright billboards lining the paths at CeBIT trade fair were trying to convince visitors that in future we would do everything in a different manner — buy, sell, work and live. Such was the exposition's keynote idea. This maximalism reminded the past euphoria for capabilities of Internet and the development trends of new economy. Nevertheless, organizers, as well as attendees, were quite optimistic. They think that the technological crisis of 2000 — 2002 failed to stop the progress. It just slowed down a bit. Moreover, we are going to see another «great leap».

By Anton Bursak and Sergey Filippov
Hi-tech & Telecom: #3 (43) (Supplement to «Company» magazine #309, April 5, 2004)

German chancellor Gerhard Schreder stressed in his opening address that new technologies could guarantee the economic growth of Germany and the whole Europe.

After the chancellor, President of Sony Corp. Kunitake Ando took the floor. He said that the world was entering an era of broadband convergence. Ando outlined three key trends of this world: personalization, transfer to digital methods of data processing and wireless communication. Sony President said that 2004 would open a new epoch in high-tech industry. But, these futuristic forecasts were somewhat poorly corroborated by the dancing robots the corporation is in the habit of demonstrating since long ago. At the beginning of this year, they even visited Moscow. Sony had no other «guests from the future» up its sleeve.
«Technological development is everything but linear and unidirectional. The hi-tech market overheated mainly due to the rash actions of the companies themselves, trying to convince the society that such services were absolutely necessary,» thinks Andrey Morozov, President of CBOSS Association, a developer of billing and customer care systems for telecom operators. «But the crisis does not keep technologies from deepening their influence on our way of life. Moreover, we feel this influence».

Restoration of high-tech market is proved by appearance of dozens of new customer-oriented communication devices. Their producers' exhibition stands gathered crowds attracted by colorful shows. Nokia President Pekka Ala-Pietila says that the number of mobile phone users will increase by 800 million people over the next five years, reaching 2 billion. Young people and entrepreneurs will use new-generation mobile phones, communicators and other smart personal devices not only to communicate, but also to transfer data. Billions of multimedia messages will populate now half empty channels and lead to creation of new powerful data nodes.

Gartner Research Company points out that after the stagnation of 2000-2003, large corporations are planning to upgrade their computer devices. It must also contribute to the information market growth.

Unwilling Outsourcing

Convergence was the keynote at CeBIT-2004. Devices are becoming universal, with growing compatibility level. The same device can «understand» WLAN and IP telephony, as well as connect to corporate networks and transmit data to TV display.

All these technological novelties are aimed to boost performance. The information age played a low-down trick with developed countries. Global competition urge companies to move their jobs overseas for cheaper labor. They can cut their expenses only by such outsourcing. Internet and modern telecommunication technologies have helped bridge the gap between developed and developing countries, at the same time making western workers compete with cheaper work force in developing countries. In order to outperform the «third world», Europeans and Americans have to work quicker and more efficiently than they used to. Otherwise, Asians will oust them from the labor market.

Globalization affected even German companies, traditionally renowned for their conservatism towards innovations. Now, even President of German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media BITKOM, Willi Berchtold said that he viewed outsourcing as a source of competitiveness of the national economy. Alexey Rybakov, director of business development at Auriga, an IT consultancy with software engineering operation in Russia, said that for the first time at CeBIT German companies were actively seeking opportunities to transfer part of their production functions to their Russian partners.

«Next Big Thing»

Devices combining the functions of mobile phones, personal computers, faxes and cameras are common now.
Manufacturers compete in the production of devices that facilitate communication and data processing. Nokia presented its new Nokia 9500 Communicator. It looks nothing like a phone; it's a mini-computer with the functions of a mobile phone. The model is equipped with a keyboard. It helps managers to work with e-mail and send data via VPN networks, featuring security data transfer in wireless networks. This handset costs about 800 euro.

Using different handsets won't confuse managers of the future. Now you can receive all calls through the same channel. GN Netcom presented its DuoLink headset that allows receiving calls with the help of Bluetooth and via different protocols: common office telephones, IP telephones and mobile phones.
Managers who want to communicate with enterprise-wide information systems are offered ERP navigator (installed on Cisco 7970 IP phone) produced by Telesnap AG. This product allows voice interaction with information systems. The manager's voice commands are recognized and transmitted to the system. The received data and pictures can be viewed on the phone color display.

Many experts tried to find answers to their complicated questions, such as whether convergence had boundaries and would there be times when one device could meet all demands.

«There is not going to be one Next Big Thing,» said Michael Zafirovsky, president and COO of Motorola. «It's going to be many things, working together combined to work seamlessly». Thomas Ganswindt, group president for Siemens Information&Communication Network says: «Your partnership — not your product — will be the differentiator».

Mobility Can Be Selected

Telecommunication companies don't currently offer communication via different protocols as separate services. German T-Mobile started promotion of a universal card TM3 that provides Internet connection via WLAN, UMTS and GPRS. Data transfer is implemented via one of these protocols, depending on data size and availability of the service. The new service is rather expensive: 35 euros for 10 hours a week and 70 euros for 30 hours. By the end of the year, T-Mobile services will be available at 1500 hotspots and 250 cities within the company's UMTS coverage in Germany, Austria and Britain. T-Mobile will allow Europeans to pay in supermarkets or order products by catalogs.

Mobile payments gain more popularity in Europe. These technologies are offered by several large telecom manufacturers. Nokia and Master Card are promoting the PayPass system that enables payments from mobile phones, using special SIM cards. The Head of mobile commerce for Nokia, Tom Zalewski is sure that «mobile wallets» will soon be widespread. A similar system, Digipass was presented at CeBIT by Vasco Data Security. This system also allows payments from mobile phones. The subscriber ID is checked by a special server and money is written off the buyer's account. The system is adapted for a recently issued smart phone Sony Ericsson P800.

ICQ for Office

So far, equipment manufacturers and industry players are trying to invent more sophisticated communication devices for office workers. Software companies are also preparing to get their share of profit from the pending boom. Microsoft presented its solution for mobile managers — Live Communication Server. It is a web pager with advanced capabilities. Web pagers, such as ICQ and MSN have been used by office workers for a long time, often despite of being forbidden by system administrators and managers.

Microsoft thinks that it managed to solve all problems that impede transformation of web pagers into an effective business tool. Particularly, to avoid interception of corporate information, messages are encoded. Also, Microsoft spokespeople say that it is impossible to be infected with a virus or a Trojan through Live Communication Server. The market enthusiastically responded to the company's initiative. Twenty five percent of companies polled by Forrester Research said that they were going to test Live Communication Server in real operation. The product's competitor is IBM's Lotus Instant Messaging.