Computer vendors not deterred by sluggish market

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): People in Glodok Plaza, downtown Jakarta, have said to me that business has generally been very slow in the last couple of months. As Glodok is the center of the computer business in Indonesia, I guess the situation is more or less the same in other places in the country. Although the real cause is anybody's guess, obviously people with school-going children have to hold on to their cash more tightly and spend it more wisely.

Parents have had school entrance fees to pay to school principals to make sure their children are accepted, new textbooks and school uniforms to buy for each child, and there was also the long-planned vacation. Computer stores may have to wait until the back-to-school period is over before they can see sales rising again.

However, big computer vendors do not seem to be deterred by the sluggish market. They still operate in a big way -- at least in Jakarta -- and this month has been one of the busiest seasons I've seen for a long time. Last week, Compaq had a full-fledged exhibition at the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, and both IBM and HP are going to stage theirs later this month.

During last week's event, Compaq introduced a new server that you can equip with up to four Pentium Pro Processors. Called ProLiant 5000, this machine is intended to fill the position of midrange server in the enterprise environment. It can accommodate both 166 and 200 MHz Pentium Pro processors. At the moment, it comes with a maximum 2 GB of ECC memory, but it can be loaded with up to 4 GB of RAM when the high-capacity Dual Inline Memory Modules becomes available.

Intended for use in enterprise critical mission applications, such as Intranet, Internet, database, data warehousing and order processing, the new server comes with 391 GB total storage capacity, Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. The price starts at US$20,000. As you would probably have guessed, rack-mounted versions are also available.

Along with ProLiant 5000, Compaq also introduced its ProSignia 300 5/150. With prices starting at $6,474, this workgroup server is based on Pentium 150 MHz. During the event I was also informed that Compaq would soon introduce a lot of new end-user products, including new notebooks.

Compaq still has no representative in this country, although they have a pretty strong network of distributors that provide good support. They have, however, started to consider setting up a local representative. Well, let's welcome them aboard!

Major Expos

Big Blue will have a big expo this month, too, which will last from July 16 to July 20. Joining hands with their business partners, IBM will be showcasing their solution-oriented hardware and software products to interested IT professionals. The venue for their exhibitions and seminars will be the Assembly Hall of Plaza Bapindo, Tower I, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman, Jakarta.

The IBM Expo `96 will feature hardware and software packages for Internet applications, manufacturing industries, transportation, distribution, retail businesses, financial, banking, securities and general trading applications. The event is geared towards providing us with the latest technology options, so don't miss it, folks.

HP will also have its HP World `96 Show at the end of this month, which will also take place at Grand Hyatt Jakarta. The focus will be on Intranet and Internet solutions, but of course there will be showcases of the latest HP offerings, too. During the two-day expo, which will take place on July 30 and July 31, you will be able to listen to speakers from various companies, including Microsoft, Lotus, and SCO. Unfortunately, there will be a fee for the seminars.

Anyway, folks, if you'd like to know what these two big vendors have been doing, don't leave town until next month. The company you're working for may not need the solutions they offer at this moment, but who knows, you may get valuable information during these big events and get to use it to get promoted when the need arises.

Lotus Components

In the meantime, the softwaremaker Lotus Development Corp. is not sleeping, either. They have come up with several products, and their latest introduction is the Lotus Components. In case you're wondering what they are, these are applets that Notes users can purchase and add to their desktop. The Starter Pack include applets that the software vendor calls Lotus Spreadsheet Component, Lotus Chart Component, Lotus Draw/Diagram Component, Lotus File Viewer Component, Lotus Comment Component, and Lotus Project Scheduler Component. All these names are self- explanatory. Lotus Spreadsheet Component, for instance, will enable a Netscape user to make calculations using a spreadsheet while in the middle of an Internet browsing session.

Remember the concept of "component software" that we talked about two years ago? It was a concept of "we want to buy just the applications that we need" as opposed to having to buy complete office suites that give us a plethora of features that we may never need or use. Now Lotus has brought the concept to reality. Julian Wong, Lotus' product marketing manager for Asia, informed me that eventually these applets will also become available for other "containers", to use his own metaphor.

In addition to being small in size and resource requirements, these applets -- or Components -- are more cost-efficient and flexible. Because the applets are reusable, Notes developers can even develop custom solutions that incorporate these applets. They are also advantageous because they are easier to learn, each is focused on specific tasks, and they load more quickly as opposed to any full-fledged software such as Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows.

By the way, those of you who -- like myself -- were very disappointed with the initial release of WordPro for Windows 3.x, take heart. Wong told me at our breakfast conversation last week that in the near future an optimized version would be available for the Windows 3.x environment, and it is expected to give WordPro the level of responsiveness that has glued us for many years to Ami Pro.

In answer to my questions concerning the reason for rewriting WordPro, Wong explained that the programmers at Lotus had no choice but to abandon Ami Pro entirely and build WordPro from scratch because that was the only way they could capitalize on the new 32-bit, multitasking environment of Windows 95. Besides, the new word processing was meant to share a common scripting language with other members of the SmartSuite family, while Ami Pro had its proprietary language. Finally, by using C++ to rewrite the software, the package could be more easily transported to other platforms, such as OS/2, Windows NT, and perhaps UNIX.

At the moment, WordPro is undoubtedly the best word processor to use for collaborative editing jobs. However, I'll wait for the optimized version before I say goodbye to Ami Pro. Until then, it will remain my word processor of choice.