ИСЗ-101 / Subj / 324-Business and new computer technologies

shift, n - сдвиг, смещение

scrutiny, n - исследование, внимательный осмотр

stress, v - подчеркивать

threat, n - угроза

unaware, a - не знающий, не подозревающий

Vocabulary in context

Find the words in the text with the following definitions

1.a person who buys goods or services for his/her own use and not for resale:_____

2.to make changes, to introduce something new:____________________________

3.something that protects or is protected from loss or attack:__________________

4.to refuse to take notice of, to disregard:_________________________________

5.to select freely and after consideration:_________________________________

6.to be the price of something:_________________________________________

7.to take in or comprise as a part of a larger group:________________________

Reading comprehension questions

1.Is Microsoft Corporation going to introduce software based on the Linux open source operating system?

2.When will it happen?

3.Why will Microsoft Corporation re-price and separate its Windows server operating system?

4.What are the advantages of servers based on Microsoft’s Windows 2000?

5.What are the advantages of Linux servers?

For almost every technology company, business is a bit slow at the moment (2003). Apart, that is, for companies involved with Linux, the open source operating system. Many firms that sell software and services based around the free operating system are doing good business and many large firms and governments are eagerly adopting the

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software. Even Microsoft, traditionally the arch-enemy of open source advocates, has started espousing some of the philosophy that drives the movement.

Linux is the creation of Finn Linus Torvalds, who built the free software around work done by the Free Software Foundation and the venerable, and powerful, Unix operating system. The source code of Linux is open to anyone to scrutinise and tinker with. This has meant that Linux is more secure and reliable than operating systems from firms such as Microsoft. This week (January 20 – 26, 2003) New York is hosting the Linuxworld Conference and Expo, an event which gives an insight into the state of open source software and reveals that it is regarding the future with more confidence than most.

Hewlett-Packard recently announced that its Linux-related business now amounts to sales of more than $2bn per year. Stars from hit TV show the Sopranos will attend a party to celebrate HP's success with Linux. Open source software is also rapidly finding favour with many governments and public bodies as its lack of licence fees, reliability and freedom to tinker proves a powerful draw.

Market research firms also predict a bright future for open source software. The Meta Group predicts that 45% of servers will be running Linux by 2007 at the latest. Similarly, analysts Gartner expects to see shipments of Linux server software to double in 2003 and generate Ј4bn in sales. The companies trying to build businesses around the Linux operating system are also stepping up efforts, called United Linux, to create standard editions of the software and to ensure skills are transferable across its different varieties.

The news is not all good with some firms, such as Mandrake, experiencing financial problems as they struggle to find ways of making free software pay. Many firms are working to use Linux behind software, such as Lotus Notes, that has traditionally run on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Again the reliability, security and low cost of Linux is proving popular when technology budgets are being squeezed. Even Microsoft has adopted something of the approach of the open source movement by pledging to governments to give them sight of Windows' source code. Microsoft critics see this as simply as a tactic designed to dent the success of open source software as a whole and shows how successful the movement has become.

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Glossary

adopt, v - принимать, присваивать arch-enemy, n -заклятый враг approach, n -подход

dent, v.-оставлять след ensure, v -обеспечивать espouse, v -поддерживать insight, n -понимание

involve, v -вовлекать, затрагивать pledge, v -давать обещание predict, v -предсказывать reliable, a - надежный

reveal, v - открывать, показывать, обнаруживать scrutinize, v - тщательно исследовать, рассматривать shipment, n - погрузка, отправка, партия, груз squeeze, v - ограничивать, стеснять

tinker with, v - возиться с чем-либо venerable, a - почтенный

Vocabulary in context

Find the words in the text with the following definitions

1.to give something in exchange for money:______________________________

2.to intend for a particular use or purpose:________________________________

3.a feeling of one’s powers being sufficient:_____________________________

4.to make known publicly:__________________________________________

5.moving, acting, or occurring with speed:______________________________

6.to twice the extent or amount:______________________________________

7.one who defends or supports a cause or proposal:______________________

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Reading comprehension questions

1.What is Linux?

2.Are many large firms and governments adopting the software?

3.Who created Linux?

4.Is it reliable, secure and cheap?

5.What future is predicted for Linux?

Henning Kagermann could be anyone's favourite college professor. But he is likely to be known soon in a different role: as boss of SAP, Europe's largest software firm and the world's leading vendor of enterprise software. Since 1998 he has shared this job with Hasso Plattner, SAP’s founder. But Mr Plattner has become much less visible recently and might even retire before his current contract ends in 2004. The impending change raises one key question: can the unassuming Mr Kagermann successfully lead in a business whose winners are mostly known for their brashness?

The answer will determine SAP's future. In contrast to many other technology firms, the issue is not whether the firm can make it through the downturn - although it recently shocked markets by announcing a drop in revenues of 4% to € 1.78 billion ($1.63 billion) and a loss of €232m in the second quarter. SAP's greater challenge is to get the better of rivals such as Oracle and Siebel, and perhaps one day even Microsoft and IBM.

Quite an ambition for a man who once aspired to accomplish something entirely different: a big scientific breakthrough, perhaps even a Nobel prize. In a former life, Mr Kagermann was indeed a professor—of theoretical physics at the Un iversity of Braunschweig. It was only in 1982, at the age of 35, that he got into software, by replying to a help-wanted ad from SAP, then a little-known start-up.

Yet Mr Kagermann still appears much the professor he once was, and not just in his demeanour. He is keen to talk about intellectual honesty in business and the need to be able to look a customer in the eye two years after a deal. To him, all business issues demand well-

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thought-out solutions-just like the complex mathematical problems that he still likes to solve for relaxation in bed.

His professorial past shows most when he explains trends in it. A good illustration of the current shift in enterprise software, he says, is the difference between classical and quantum physics. The former deals with separate systems, just as enterprise software traditionally was about separate applications. In quantum physics, everything is deeply linked. Similarly, with the help of the Internet, applications are growing together, both within companies and across industries.

Not too long ago, however, such an ambition would have triggered laughter among industry analysts. ln the late 1990s the firm was considered a has-been that, having missed the Internet, was stuck in the old world of enterprise resource planning, or ERP.

Today SAP can consider itself lucky that it was late jumping on the Internet bandwagon.

If firms spend money on new software these days, they prefer established vendors that offer integrated packages—something that plays to SAP’s s trengths. What is more, SAP has made some shrewd moves. It opened up its applications, for instance, making it easier for customers to connect them with competing products.

Yet SAP is not about to take over the world. It still has to prove that it can offer the right kinds of products and services for all types of business-from easy-to-use programs for small firms to complex solutions for large companies. It is making some headway on both fronts: it recently released a new software package for smaller companies, called Business One, and it announced a deal with Ford, worth at least $40m, to streamline the car maker's distribution of parts.

The main battlefield will, of course, be America. In recent years SAP’s performance there has been weak, mainly because its salesforce has focused too much, on the largest multinational clients. To improve things, SAP recently sent over its global sales chief, but it is still looking for a new boss for its North American subsidiary. Worse, many American firms still view SAP’s products as the software equivalent of German stiffness.

Given this image problem, wouldn't it be better for SAP to have a more dynamic chief executive than Mr Kagermann? Not surprisingly, he doesn't think so. These days, he says, one can't simply sell a big idea without being sure itcan be properly implemented. Customers want

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to understand what works and what doesn't. "Tech talk is out," he adds, "and competence in." This sounds self-serving, but Mr Kagermann may be on to something.

Glossary

aspire, v - стремиться brashness, n - дерзость, наглость breakthrough, n - прорыв

challenge, n - сложная задача, проблема

downturn, n - экономический спад, спад деловой активности headway, n - продвижение, прогресс, успех

implement, v - выполнять, внедрять, осуществлять impending, a - надвигающийся, угрожающий release, v - выпускать

revenues, n - доходы, прибыль rival, n - конкурент, соперник shift, n - изменение, сдвиг streamline, v - рационализировать

stiffness, n - устойчивость, жесткость subsidiary, n - филиал, дочерняя компания trend, n - тенденция, общее направление trigger, v - пускать в ход, вызывать unassuming, a - скромный, непритязательный vendor, n - оптовая фирма, предлагающая товар

Vocabulary in context

Find the words in the text with the following definitions

1.to ask for something forcefully: ______________________________________

2.an answer to a problem:____________________________________________

3.to make something plain or understandable:___________________________

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4.to choose or esteem above another:___________________________________

5.to join or fasten together:___________________________________________

6.a business agreement to buy or sell goods or provide a service:____________

7.to make better:____________________________________________________

Reading comprehension questions

1.What is SAP?

2.What is Henning Kagermann?

3.What is SAP`s greater challenge?

4.How does Henning Kagermann explain the trends in IT?

5.What headway has the firm made recently?

6.Is Henning Kagermann the right man to lend SAP, Europe` s biggest software firm?

By Internet srandards, Tom Hadfield is an old-timer. He went online in 1994, put together a start-up in '95, sold it in '97 and launched another in '99In. real world years, he is-just 18.

The lanky British lad hasn't even finished highschool, but already he has two successful start-ups under his belt. The first, the football site Soccernet, is now part of Disney's online kingdom. His current project, the education site Schoolsnet, was valued at $60 million in a financing round last year. Who is this kid? A nerd? A spoiled brat? A calculating opportunist? And what can he possibly do for an encore?

Hadfield, a chatty and down-to-earth teen, knows he has enjoyed the serendipitous combination of an innate entrepreneurial streak, supportive parents and the blissful ignorance of youth. "What about thinking rationally through the chances of success?" he asks. "That didn't even occur to me." But it did occur to him at age 12 that the Internet was a wondrous thing. He discovered it at his friend Rupert's house and was so captivated that he stayed for three straight days. Only the promise of his own Net account lured him home.

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Soccernet was born when an online chatmate in Australia asked if anyone knew the Arsenal score. Hadfield wrote back, "Yeah, 2-0." Turns out many fans abroad waited days to get football scores from the papers, so he started sending results by e-mail. Next came requests for attendance and match reports. Then, he says, "it was 200 people instead of 10, and it was like, 'Let's just put it on the Web.'"

Several kitchen-table brainstorming sessions later, Hadfield and his father Greg had a business plan. Soccernet, one of the first commercial football sites, attracted thousands of Net-savvy fans. After Greg quit his job as chief reporter at the Sunday Express to work full-time on the site, father and son spent 14 hours a day together—"the best thing about Soccernet," says Tom. The two found a buyer, Britain's Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which let them retain creative control. But after World Cup '98, the pair agreed the work had become just that—work.

It was time to go back to the kitchen table. Many pages of crumpled paper later, they had a new idea: education. Hadfield had spent 13 years in classrooms; his father had been an education correspondent and his mother was a teacher who had tried - and failed – to find information online.

At Schoolsnet, parents can access statistics on British schools, such as average test scores, while students can find anything from review notes on poetry to results of school rugby matches.

New Media Age, a British trade magazine, named Schoolsnet its 2000 Start-up of the Year, and funding has been problem-free. So what's Hadfield doing with his off-line wealth? His answer: there's not much of it. "I don't drive a flash car or live in a flash house," he says. "Money’s a side issue."

A typical answer from Hadfield, a self-confessed business geek who claims to care more about entrepreneurial process than profits. Nor is he a techie, despite his new media credentials: “The computer and the Internet are just tools tha t allowed me to take part in a world I wanted to be in.” They were also his ticket to the 2001 World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow. Meeting people like billionaire George Soros and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus "was inspirational," he says. "I was hanging on every word”.

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Perhaps his biggest challenge has been to maintain a semblance of teenage normalcy. It's not easy to do a CNN interview live from Davos one week and be back in class studying for the upcoming A-level exams the next. It helps that Hadfield commutes to Schoolsnet's London headquarters only once or twice a week; the firm`s tech operations which he oversees, are based in his hometown of Brighton. He also guards his off hours fiercely, saving time to watch England soccer games with friends and to go nightclub hopping, “especially if I have to be in class at eight the next morning”.

While he's not certain about his future, Hadfield does plan to go to university. But first he wants to spend a year working abroad, perhaps on a computer literacy project in India or at the U.S.- based Internet authority ICANN. Oh, the options! Sometimes, Hadfield says, choices give him "brain overload." If finding a new path is too much, there's always the old. At this rate, he could squeeze in a dozen more start-ups before he hits retirement age, say 45.

Glossary

commute, v - совершать регулярные поездки (поездом, электричкой) credential, n - рекомендация

geek, sl - человек, отличающийся необычным поведением hang on, v - внимательно слушать, ловить каждое слово innate, a - врожденный, природный

lanky, a - худощавый nerd, n - скучный человек old-timer, n - сторожила

quit, v - бросать, прекращать retain, v - удерживать, сохранять

savvy, a - понимающий, имеющий представление о чем-либо start-up, n - создание новой компании

techie, sl - специалист в области компьютеров

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Vocabulary in context

Find in the text the words with the following definitions

1.a person who starts or runs a business activity:____________________________

2.to become the case, to happen:_________________________________________

3.of greatest importance or influence:_____________________________________

4.to give assent:______________________________________________________

5.something asked for:________________________________________________

6.to admit the possibility of:___________________________________________

7.to draw by appeal to interest, emotion, or aesthetic sense:__________________

Reading comprehension questions

1.What is Tom Hadfield by Internet standards?

2.What are his two successful start-ups? Characterize them.

3.Does T.Hadfield care more about entrepreneurial process or profits?

4.What were his impressions of the 2001 World Economic Forum in Davos?

5.What are his plans for the future?

Still glowing from his triumphant election to the board of directors, Andy MuellerMuguhn wears un orange shirt beneath a black vest, slurps a café latte and does what he has always done: attacks the board of directors. It and nearly everything else about the Internet Corporation for Assigned names and Numbers, he says, is undemocratic, dominated by capitalists and infected with “a kind of American cultural imperialism.” He says this may be because many of the organization's legal experts wear ties - which "causes a lack of oxygen to the brain.”

ICANN, as the agency is better known, was founded in 1998 by the U.S. government to register and regulate website names through the world. If you think that sounds like a dull task, think again: this is a high-stakes battleground. Domain names like “toothpaste.com” or “Bromoseltzer.com” c an be worth tremendous

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