Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 10, 1995 TAG: 9510100066
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Six leading high-technology executives on Monday charted a future of blissful growth for themselves but one that poses tougher choices for customers.
Speaking before some of their largest customers at an industry conference, the executives did little to suggest simpler times are ahead for putting computer systems together.
For businesses, they said the most powerful computers in the future will be those with flexible but complex connections to systems outside the company as well as inside.
Bill Gates, chief executive of Microsoft Corp., said one of the major technology challenges facing companies is ``taking what's done internally, allowing information to flow easily and extending that outside'' the company.
``Electronic mail, database systems, security systems that are running internally can be moved out so customers can order and get information across these networks,'' Gates said at the conference, organized by the technology advisory firm Gartner Group.
He was joined by Lawrence Babbio, vice chairman of Bell Atlantic Corp.; Robert Frankenberg, chief executive of Novell Corp.; Mark Hoffman, chief executive of Sybase Inc.; Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc.; and Eckhard Pfeiffer, chief executive of Compaq Computer Corp.
Their discussion touched many of the topics that are now making technology decisions tougher for businesses, including the prospect of much lower-cost computing devices that hold little if any software and whether telephone companies are moving fast enough in improving their lines.
Such issues are also important to consumers because they suggest important choices lie ahead but not as quickly as for business.
For instance, Compaq's Pfeiffer suggested television eventually will be replaced by video services that are controlled by a home computer.
Ideas described by the technology executives require higher-capacity phone lines and wireless systems to move data more quickly. They are becoming more concerned about whether telephone companies are providing enough so-called ``bandwidth'' for their customers.
Bell Atlantic's Babbio said his company was experimenting with higher capacity lines, known as ISDN, in Baltimore.
``It is a very complicated service to order,'' he said. ``Last time we looked, I think we asked 40 or 50 questions of the average customer who wanted ISDN. We're trying to make it simpler.''
by CNB