Intel, Cisco CEOs Sound Off On Net's Power
(08/26/99, 5:26 p.m. ET)
By Dave Joachim, InternetWeek
There was no shortage of Internet evangelists at Dell Computer's user conference this week.
"We are moving toward a world of a billionconnected computers and a trillion connected dollars," Intel president and CEO Craig Barrett said in his keynote address on Thursday, referring to projections that the Internet will carry nearly $1 trillion worth of business by 2003, or the equivalent of 10 percent of the nation's GDP.
"By 2004, you won't be talking about Internet companies because all companies will have to be Internet companies," Barrett said.
The result of this transformation will be mass customization, greatly improved business agility that can react almost instantly to changing market conditions, and -- no surprise -- an increasing demand for computing power.
Mass customization will mean the balance of power in business trading relationships will reverse. Today, trading hubs typically revolve around powerful vendors, and customers have to manually survey sites for the best product and price, Barrett said. In the future, the customer will be at the center of the hub, and suppliers will push data to buyers in the background.
Like Michael Dell in his address on Wednesday, Barrett held up his own company's e-commerce successes as proof of the transformation concept. By the end of this year, nearly half of Intel's business -- or $15 billion -- will be conducted over the Internet, he said.
Voice and data convergence will also drive the next generation of e-commerce and decision-support activities, Barrett said, as the telecom industry rebuilds its proprietary networks around standards.
"The telecom industry today looks like the computer industry 15 years ago," he said.
PCs will need to be more powerful in this highly networked environment, as data visualization, dynamic content, and new interfaces such as voice activation become predominant, Barret said. As such, he described the forthcoming 64-bit Merced architecture processors as the "engine for e-business."
Cisco CEO John Chambers later sounded off on many of the same themes.
"It's not unthinkable that half of the GDP will be attributable to the Internet by 2010," Chambers said.
He also warned Dell customers that the span between the early adopter and laggard stages in their many industries is about three years. And he urged them to seek top-level buy-in on their e-commerce projects, "or it will seem like you're pushing a rock up a hill." |
