Monday, August 22, 2005

Monday’s Opening Keynote

TechWave was opened this year by the illusionist Rick Thomas. His grand finale illusion involved a number of volunteers from the audience.

Rick Thomas

John Chen indicated that this year's TechWave set recent records for attendance (1500) and sponsors.





John then explained the four aspects of IT Transformation see saw occurring: Exploding data volume, open source software, industry consolidation and adoption of mobility.

With regard to the adoption of mobility, he sited a conservative report that estimates that spending on mobility will double in the next 5 years, particularly outside of the United States. As a result, Gartner indicated that "[mobile and wireless] technologies must be at the strategic heart of every IT organization."

John then indicated new major project releases in 2005 include or will include:

  • ASE 15.0
  • SQL Anywhere 10.0 - Beta begins this week
  • Workspace
  • PowerBuilder 10.5


The ASE 15.0 launch will be done concurrently in London, New York and Beijing, China. New features include very large database support, native data security without applications changes, and efficient transaction processing with decision support. Improved features include lower total cost of ownership, faster transaction performance and connectivity and support for unwired.

John indicated that there are three stages of mobility: mobilize email, mobilize business applications, and change business processes. He also mentioned the four acquisitions they had made in the last year: Extended systems (not complete yet), Avaki, ISDD and Excellenet.

There was a video highlighting a number of customers:

  • GSA Western Distribution Center – 6th largest electronic commerce site - uses
    RFID.
  • BNSF Railway Company - Document track maintenance on site
  • Habib American Bank


John indicated a number of achievements over the last year:

  • 700 new ASE customers
  • mobile and wireless up 18%
  • iAnywhere up 35%
  • partner license revenue up 14%
  • leads up from marketting up 12%, press coverage up 35%
  • operating income up 19.8%
  • 913.4 M in cash


He indicated that the roadmap for the future entailed:

  • Data Services Platform
  • Mobile Business Suite
  • Unstructured Data Management
  • Continued Large Database Support
  • Enhanced Application Development Tools
  • AvantGo Media Services (pod-casting, videos, etc)


John was followed by a panel of industry representatives. The panel was chaired by Dennis Kneale ( Managing Editor -- Forbes)

Dennis Kneale

Dennis was joined by:

John Davies (VP of Sales -- IBM)

John Davies

Kim Ross ( CIO -- Nielsen Media Research)

Kim Ross

David Yach (VP of Software -- RIM)

David Yach

Tim Donahue (VP of Business Solutions -- Sprint).

Tim Donahue

As far as industry potential: IBM mentioned that there are 270 million field workers, 95% of which are still using paper. RIM mentioned one of their customers (NetJets) which uses mobile technology to transmit the days flight information to their pilots. Sprint mentioned the health care industry and mobile enablement of patient information.

When asked about obstacles: IBM indicated that there is a need to develop technologies to allow seamless movement between different communication channels (WiFi, LAN, GSM). Sprint indicated that management is an issue (wireless is the fastest growing IT cost) and that user acceptance is still an issue. Nielsen also indicated that management is an issue: plan what you're going to implement or you'll end up with dozens of incompatible solutions.

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