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Nikkei Computer

May 30, 2005 Issue <<Contents>>

FEATURE The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the IP Telephony Boom - At the end of 2002, Tokyo Gas announced that it would replace its internal phone network with IP telephony; the company also announced how much money it anticipated would be saved from this move. The news caused a big sensation. In the two and a half years since that announcement, an increasing number of companies have introduced IP telephony, and various types of vendors have entered the market. However, there is a big difference in enthusiasm for the new technology between vendors and users. Vendors seem to be anxious about what exactly is going on, while users have remained unexpectedly calm. This article examines what lies behind the current IP telephony boom. Anxious Vendors As various vendors have entered the IP telephony market, each of them seems to have both expectations and an impending sense of emergency Verification: Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. The company abandoned its plan of the short-term introduction of IP telephony due to two misunderstandings Sober Users Users have employed four different ways to raise money for the initial costs

PEOPLE

Interview
- You should choose a consultant for each subject; too much dependency on the brand or name recognition can cause a failure
Noriaki Okui: President, Okui & Associates


Real Feelings Expressed by Top Executives
- If you listen carefully to the opinions of those employees working on the front lines, you should be able to carry out the successful re-engineering of your business process
Ken Matsuzawa: President & CEO, Nipponkoa Insurance Co., Ltd.

NEWS

Reports

- New certification examinations for project managers and IT security engineers make their debut

- Lotus Notes faces a critical test as its rivals release their new products into the market

- Why has the Kakaku.com website been shut down?

- Ricoh switches from commercial packaged software to self-developed packaged software for its CRM system

- SAP Japan and Oracle Japan try once again to enter the market of ERP packaged software for middle-ranking companies

- Major Japanese IT vendors are rapidly expanding their offshore development capabilities in China and India, despite the recent anti-Japanese protests in China

- JAL has the largest number of IP softphones in Japan

- The volume of available anti-spyware software is increasing

- It is now easier to use open-source software in the Windows environment

- Three regional banks in Kyushu adopt Windows-based software for their accounting systems

- System integrators in Europe have been thrown into rough seas due to restructuring

- Global companies such as a U.S. firm Yahoo! are promoting IT standardization

News Flash for Each Industry

- [Finance] The ATMs of Resona Bank and Saitama Resona Bank were shut down due to a date-setting error

- [Manufacturing/Distribution] YONEX plans to reduce its inventory by 30% through the introduction of SCM

- [Service] Sumitomo Mitsui Construction uses geographical information to support its sales operations

- [e-Japan] Eight local governments, including Kochi Prefecture, jointly develop packaged software for their core business activities

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Close-Up
Skype, the free phoning software
- There are several reasons why Skype is being chosen by a rapidly increasing number of corporate users

The A to Z of IT Pitfalls
ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)

New Products
New software that enables users to, among other things, share documents with others while at the same time preserving their confidentiality, etc.

CASE STUDIES

A Computer That Does Not Work / The Examination of Misjudgment
Kyodo News, East Japan Railway Company, Toyama City Office, and others
- As anti-virus software became a threat to computers and networks, many companies came close to suspending their business operations

The Project
Sanraku Hospital
- Sanraku is the first hospital in Japan to introduce a made-in-Australia system for managing medical information

Close-Up
Improving Development Capability
TEPCO Systems Corporation
- The company incorporated its accumulated expertise into an originally developed framework to improve the reliability of its open-source system and reduce costs at the same time

IT MANAGEMENT

Shiro Baba’s “Essays in Idleness” for SEs (Final Part)
- You should aim at becoming a “professional” in the real sense of the word

Conditions for Becoming a Successful SE (Final Part)
- Why is it necessary to improve human skills?