CA’s premier technology, e-commerce gab comes to Asia

SHANGHAI, China — Information technology professionals, e-Businesses executives, computer experts and IT journalists from all over Asia gathered at the Shanghai International Convention Center here recently to attend CA-World Asia 2000, the first-ever technology and e-commerce conference hosted in Asia by Computer Associates International Inc. (CA), the world’s leading provider of end-to-end e-Business software solutions.

CA hosts a global IT user conference annually to share its innovative technologies and services for e-Businesses and to help foster a strong e-Business environment worldwide.

At CA-World 2000 held last April in New Orleans, USA, more than 25,000 e-Business and IT professionals from around the globe gathered to participate in one of the world’s most popular technology conferences.

Recognizing the growing importance of the Asian market in the global IT industry, CA brought the renowned event to Asia for the first time, demonstrating the company’s strong interest and commitment in the Asian e-Business revolution.

The international event may have come at a time when dot-com stocks are falling everywhere and the Asian region has barely recovered from an economic crisis. But for CA, the Internet revolution is only just beginning in this side of the world.

"For us, the future has never been brighter," said Charles Wang, CA’s chairman and founder, in his keynote speech. "It’s not the beginning of the end, it is the end of the beginning."

Wang founded the company with three associates in 1976. From a single product enterprise, CA has grown to become a $6-billion global software powerhouse. It has been called by Fortune as one of "America’s Most Admired Companies" as well as a "Best Company to Work for in America."

The fact that the first CA-World Asia was held in Shanghai was not incidental. Wang was born in Shanghai in 1944 but emigrated to the United States with his family in 1952. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from Queens College and began his computer career at Columbia University’s Riverside Research Institute.

Wang firmly believes in the tremendous potential of Asia and has invested heavily in this market, most specifically the China market, not only in providing e-Business solutions but in helping the local IT industry grow.

"(Asian) countries are at different stages of development," he said. "We truly see that the day will come when China and the rest of Asia will export software all over the world."

The world of e-Business

Adopting the theme "The World of e-Business," CA-World Asia 2000 geared the conference to the needs of Asian e-Businesses.

More than 50 sessions featuring a wide range of topics from Internet Security to e-Business Infrastructure to End-to-End Computing to e-Business Portals and Application Service Providers, were held.

The conference venue was also packed with over a hundred exhibits featuring CA’s revolutionary technology that can help companies build a comprehensive e-Business infrastructure as well as technology showcases from CA’s partners and clients worldwide.

Showcased and made available for "test drives" were CA’s end-to-end e-Business software solutions in five categories: e-Business applications, e-Business management, e-Business platform, e-Business intelligence and e-Business services.

Also showcased were CA’s intelligent business products such as Unicenter TNG, Jasmine ii, and Neugents, which integrate business systems seamlessly.

Capitalizing on the huge potential of the Application Service Providers (ASP) market in Asia, CA, in partnership with Fudan Grand Horizon Information Technology, Shanghai’s largest information technology enterprise, has taken the opportunity to announce the initial availability in China of a fully-localized accounting, payroll and human resources management under the ASP model.

ASPs offer service processes that employ, host, implement, manage and support applications to the central data center across a wide area network such as the Internet. Customers access these applications remotely and rent it on a per user, per month basis.

Wang disclosed that this model will be appealing to managers who want to use the latest software products to improve business efficiency and productivity but who don’t necessarily want to make large investments in technical infrastructure and personnel.

He admitted though that the ASP market in China and the rest of Asia is still very small today. However, market research estimates that this virtually untapped market will exceed $5 billion by 2003.

Hopping into this potential gold mine, CA recently spun off an independent company called iCanASP to serve the infrastructure needs of ASPs, and is now partnering and forming joint ventures with Asia’s leading telcos, ISPs and broadband providers. These include: Cable and Wireless of Hong Kong Telecom, India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Korea Telecom’s Hitel, Shanghai Telecom, the Broadband Division of Taiwan’s Acer Group, Singapore’s Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation and Japan’s NTT Communications Corp.

"We are rapidly opening up in terms of access to technology," Wang said. "This will happen through the ASP model as well because certainly Internet access will be pervasive."

For CA and the Asian IT industry, the future indeed looks bright. "We’re in this together. Our journey ahead will only be limited by imagination," ended Wang.