Message-Id: <55206A473154D011924D0020AFF7ACB55E6A9F@mail1.oulan.ou.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:26:40 -0600
From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@ou.edu'" <it-fyi@ou.edu>
Subject: InformationWeek Daily 2/17/98
Good Morning! Today is February 17. And this is...
------------INFORMATIONWEEK DAILY--------------
The E-Mail News Service For IT Decision Makers
* Now reaching more than 100,000 subscribers and growing *
from I N F O R M A T I O N W E E K magazine
........ http://www.informationweek.com ........
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=============================================
This issue sponsored by InformationWeek Online
Ready to go Global? As businesses expand their reach
overseas, IT managers have found that going global poses
some unique challenges. For the details go to:
http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/668/68iuglb.htm
=============================================
1) Top Stories
- FedEx Backs Away From NCs And Toward Windows
- Ernst & Young And KPMG Dump Plans To Merge
- IBM Readies "Business Intelligence" Push
- Hitachi Maps Mips Milestone
- Novell Taps NDS For Desktop Management
2) Tech Stocks: Sterling Software climbed 16% to 48-5/8 on Friday, after
announcing first-quarter results that beat analysts' estimates by 8
cents a share. Intel slid 1-3/16 to 83-13/16 and Netscape lost 9/16 to
close at 21-5/8; the Dow added a mere half a point, finishing the week
at 8370.10, while the Nasdaq dropped 3.92 to 1710.42. The markets were
closed Monday, Feb. 16, in honor of Presidents' Day.
3) Calendar: "Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you
can. Strike at him as hard as you can, and keep moving on." Grant knew
how to get things done. Don't be a McClellan. Learn how to take charge
and seize opportunity at one of these events on IT project management.
TOP STORIES
___FedEx Picks HP, Wyse For Windows Desktops___
Federal Express Corp., after months of testing different thin-client
machines for a planned deployment of up to 75,000 desktops, is now
focusing on a Microsoft Windows-oriented approach that includes both PCs
and Windows-based terminals. FedEx's decision is a potentially major
blow to proponents of Java-based network computers such as Sun
Microsystems.
"We haven't found any NC product that would meet our needs," says Dennis
Jones, executive VP and CIO of FDX Corp., a newly formed holding company
for FedEx. "With PC prices coming down to where NC prices were a year
ago, we may very well choose PCs to serve in a thin-client role."
FedEx last week was set to sign an initial deal with Hewlett-Packard,
its main PC supplier, for up to 1,000 HP PCs and Wyse Technologies-built
Windows terminals. FedEx says it's not ready to award a contract for the
full deployment, which sources say could be worth as much as $75
million. But several factors have caused FedEx to move away from
Java-based NCs toward the Microsoft camp.
Microsoft is delivering tools such as the Zero Administration Kit for
Windows 95 and Windows NT that FedEx expects will cut PC-management
costs. Low-end PC prices are falling well below $1,000 -- less than some
Java-capable NCs. Several NC vendors, including Wyse, have started
making Windows-based terminals designed to work with Microsoft's
forthcoming Windows Terminal Server NT server software, which also lets
PCs act as terminals. Also, some NC efforts, including Sun's, have been
delayed. (For more on FedEx's decision, see page 22 of the Feb. 16 issue
of "InformationWeek.") -- Mary Hayes with Stuart J. Johnston
__Ernst & Young And KPMG Drop Plans To Merge___
Ernst & Young and KPMG Peat Marwick have abandoned plans to merge into
an $18 billion professional services giant.
"The regulatory process, with investigations in the U.S., Europe,
Australia, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan, would have taken many months,
incurring considerable costs and potentially considerable disruption to
client service, and the possibility of different decisions in different
countries," the firms said in a jointly issued statement.
Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, however, are still working
toward their merger, which would create a $13 billion
professional-services firm, the largest in the world. All four firms had
indicated that their mergers would boost their abilities to deliver
accounting, consulting, and IT services on a global basis.
The same red tape will face Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, says
Tim Bourgeois, director of research for industry newsletter "Consultants
News." "I would not be surprised if there is a similar announcement from
them soon, unless they are just more determined to get it done."
Meantime, Bourgeois expects Ernst & Young and KPMG to continue acquiring
small consulting and IT firms.
-- Bruce Caldwell
___IBM Gears Up "Business Intelligence" Strategy___
IBM is gearing up for a companywide push into the business intelligence
market, with new products, services, and packaged
solutions.
Among the products to be introduced next week is Intelligent Miner 2.0,
an upgrade to IBM's data-mining algorithms. "The difference between
versions 1 and 2 is huge when it comes to the graphical user interface,"
says Gary Saarenvirta, a principal of Loyalty Consulting, an IBM
reseller in Toronto that has been testing an early release of the
upgrade. "For our users, the interface is friendlier, and the added
statistical functionality is also a plus."
IBM will also offer a commercial version of text-mining software,
currently available on a custom basis, that uses linguistics to search
and organize text. And IBM will roll out an online analytical processing
server that works with the vendor's DB2 Universal Database. IBM will
also disclose that IBM Global Services has formed a team of 500
consultants and systems-integration specialists to focus on business
intelligence.
IBM already generates more than $1 billion a year selling computers,
software, and services for business intelligence -- a market that, by
some estimates, is growing between 35% and 50% annually. -- John Foley
___Hitachi To Top A Billion Instructions Per Second__
Hitachi Data Systems plans to offer by next year a single mainframe
system, running parallel 220-Mips processors, that exceeds the
billion-instructions-per-second performance level.
HDS plans to bump the performance of each processor to 300 Mips in 2001.
HDS's current top performer, the Skyline 827 mainframe system, is based
on eight 150-Mips chips and reaches 975 Mips. News of HDS's plans
confirms the vendor's commitment to the Skyline and its bipolar
processor technology. The company has been something of a lone wolf as
less-costly CMOS mainframe technology has taken hold in corporate
enterprises. But HDS is using a hybrid of bipolar and CMOS technologies
to satisfy customer requirements for very high-volume transactions at a
more cost-effective rate.
"In the past six months, whole industries are going to Skyline," says
Meta Group analyst Rob Schafer. The systems are particularly strong in
the telecom and financial services industries. One customer, Deutsche
Telekom in Germany, installed 7,000 Mips of Skyline systems last year.
-- Martin J. Garvey
___Novell To Leverage NDS For Desktop Management_____
Novell this week will unveil software that leverages its directory to
simplify the management of Windows-based desktops.
Zero Efforts Networks, or Z.E.N.works, combines the functions of two
existing products -- Novell Application Launcher and Workstation Manager
-- as well as several enhancements. The product uses Novell Directory
Services as a repository of information about applications and desktops
to centralize and streamline processes. Those processes include software
distribution, application management and maintenance, allocation of
printer and file-system rights, policy-based desktop management, and
desktop configuration and re-creation of customized desktops for users
who travel.
Z.E.N.works has a "tremendous breadth of functionality," says beta
tester Scott Webster, a senior network analyst at Canadian Occidental
Petroleum Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta. "It allows us to consolidate so much
of the systems-management process in the directory. You've got a single
point of management and a single repository for all the information
about our network users -- about 2,000 people in about 15 different
countries."
Z.E.N.works supports Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT
desktops. It will be sold separately, starting in the second quarter,
and will also become a component of Novell's ManageWise
network-management software. Pricing hasn't been determined. --
Monua Janah
(For more IT news, see InformationWeek Online at
http://www.informationweek.com.)
************************************************
TECH STOCKWATCH (brought to you by the InformationWeek 100)
Symbol.....Company.................Close Price....% Change
Friday's Winners:
SSW......Sterling Software............48 5/8........+16.3%
MICA.....MicroAge.....................13 15/16.......+7.7%
CHKPF....Check Point Software.........40 9/16........+6.4%
VST......Vanstar......................14 1/2.........+5.9%
APCC.....APC..........................28 9/16........+5.8%
Friday's Losers:
PLAT.....Platinum Technology..........27 7/8.........-7.1%
CYCH.....CyberCash....................13 3/16........-3.2%
BMCS.....BMC Software.................72 5/8.........-3.2%
CBTSY....CBT Group....................87.............-2.9%
SGI......Silicon Graphics.............15.............-2.8%
(These results are based on the InformationWeek 100, a select sample of
influential technology companies. For a weekly tally of the
InformationWeek 100, visit
http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/current/finchart.htm )
************************************************
CALENDAR
o Feb. 26-27, Project Management, Montreal: Aims to provide a thorough
review of project-management issues, best practices, and technologies
associated with implementing critical IS projects; phone 800-397-9744,
or go to http://www.cam.org/~ivista
o Feb. 28, Project Management: Rapid Application Development, The Noll
Center, Malvern, Pa.: Learn how to get your high-pressure development
schedules under control; phone 215-988-2150, or go to
http://www.corporateu.com
o March 4, Introducing New Software Technology, Pittsburgh: Learn how to
use project-management skills for a successful software implementation;
phone 412-268-5800, or E-mail registration@sei.cmu.edu
(For more IT shows and events, visit InformationWeek Online Date Book at
http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/current/tick.htm )
************************************************
=======================================
=============================================
This issue sponsored by InformationWeek Online
Ready to go Global? As businesses expand their reach
overseas, IT managers have found that going global poses
some unique challenges. For the details go to:
http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/668/68iuglb.htm
=============================================
__________________________________________________
Copyright 1998 CMP Media. A service of
InformationWeek.
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