“Mobile is changing the entire way of doing business”

Sybase Inc. recently opened its first wireless solution center outside USA in Singapore. EDN Asia spoke to Sybase chairman, CEO and president, John Chen, at the inauguration of the center. Excerpts:

EDN Asia: What are the latest trends and challenges in enterprise infrastructure and mobile software?
Chen: The market has grown very fast during the last 12 to18 months. Lots of technologies and patents are entering the market. The biggest challenge is the lack of a “killer application.” Besides, there are too many standards, causing confusion. The market is also hindered by the fact that there are different regulatory issues.

EDN Asia: How is Sybase meeting these challenges?
Chen: We are aggressively going for more partnerships, and investing heavily in the market to popularize the concept of mobility and bring about uniformity of opinion on various issues. We support all platforms—Microsoft, Linux, Simean, PDA, to mention a few.

EDN Asia: How are mobile technologies transforming the enterprise?
Chen: The transformation is dramatic. Mobile technologies are not only saving money but generating lots of revenue. A recent example is provided by Hyundai Departmental Store, where by judicious use of handheld devices they changed the functioning of the Store and stood to gain tremendously. Some areas where enterprise is rapidly getting transformed by mobile technologies are RFID, which has enabled efficient fraud detection, airlines, for efficient dissemination of logistic information, customer interactions, and applications where real-time info is important.

EDN Asia: What are the new mobile technologies Sybase is currently working on?
Chen: Sybase is working on better Web serving devices, and on technology to speed up working with Web. We are also working on natural language processing. For instance, if the customer wants to know which is the nearest petrol pump, he should be able to get the answer when he poses the question in natural language.

EDN Asia: Please say something about your partners in your quest for the unwired enterprise?
Chen: We divide our partners into two categories, application partners and carriers. We have hundreds of application partners. We have about half a dozen carrier partners, including Sprint and Cingular. We have over 30 patents in wireless. Together with our partners we have charted our strategy to be at the number 1 position and remain there.

EDN Asia: What is the size of the market Sybase is addressing?
Chen: IT mobility market, including hardware, software and services, is currently worth $50 billion. Sybase is addressing software market worth $1 billion. The IT mobility market is projected to grow to $340 billion in 2008. Software will grow by 50 percent per annum.

EDN Asia: Why have you chosen to set up your Asia-Pacific wireless solution center in Singapore?
Chen: In 1998 we started a development center in Singapore. We have got a very good experience here. The government is friendly; legal system is sound; and IP is very well protected. We were also looking at China, India and Hong Kong to set up the solution center. IP protection is not strong in China and India. So the choice boiled down to Singapore and Hong Kong. Singapore is more network-ready than Hong Kong, which ultimately clinched our decision in favor of Singapore.

EDN Asia: What kind of mobility solutions will you develop in Asia?
Chen: This has still not been decided. But we shall certainly develop some of the best solutions here. We are approaching our local partners. Together with them, we shall chart our course for solutions development here.

You can reach Kirtimaya Varma at
kirti.varma@rbi-asia.com