To whom it may concern:
I have just returned from a trip to San Franciso to attend the 29th Annual Technology Conference at the St. Francis Hotel where I was the guest of my dear friend Shlomi Cohen. The conference was sponsored by Hambrecht & Quist. I had the privilege of personally meeting and discussing VocalTec with Elon Ganor who made the formal presentation. Dr. Ganor covered a wealth of material in an extremely well organized succinct manner. I will mention several items in which SI contributors may be interested.
He expressed concern for the dilemma of stockholders who are hungry for information. He said that 2 things influence their policy: First, information had to originate with the other party to any agreement over which they had not control. Second, they did not want to prematurely tip their hand to any of their competitors.
He commented favorably about the effect of the DT - Italia agreement. If I understood him correctly, I was surprised to learn that VocalTec already had a working relationship both Italy and France. In addition, in a private question and answer period, someone asked about Japan. His "no comment" answer was not a "no", but was construed as something which he was not at liberty to discuss at the present time.
The item of greatest interest to those present was his comment about China. One of the things that we need to keep in mind is that we are not talking about some large private enterprise among many others in China. What is happening with VocalTec in China is "the whole enchilada" the ultimate result of which it would be impossible to exaggerate.
Dr. Ganor said that VocalTec had been competing for the China agreement with all the big players. He said that VocalTec won for three main reasons: First, their superior technology, Second the all inclusiveness of their product, only certain parts of which competitors appear to have, and Third, their ability to provide extremely fast deployment. He indicated that this would take place in a matter of weeks. If I understood him correctly VocalTec is already in place in several major cities. What needs to be done in the way of testing has nothing to do with acceptance of the total agreement, but only with regard to the best way to implement it in certain situations.
I share this with my many friends on SI with the hope that they will forgive any unintentional misrepresentations.
Kindest regards,
Don Walster |
