Hong Kong: IT innovation hub? - enterpriseinnovation.net

viewpoint Charles Mok: In search of social media gurus page 8 

Hong Kong’s source of IT insight http://www.cw.com.hk September, 2010 • Vol XXVII No 7 Price HK$40 

Hong Kong: IT 

innovation hub 

Hong Kong wants to serve 

as “hub” for many things: 

why not IT innovation 

Page 14 

upfront 

North Korea 2.0 

www.cw.com.hk 

Page 4 

bizpeople 

Prescott Winter 

ArcSight CTO 

Page 10 

careerwatch 

Contractors offer answers 

to growth challenge 

Page 24 

backpage 

China: from tech laggard 

to green superpower 

Page 50 

September 2010 Computerworld Hong Kong 1

2 Computerworld Hong Kong September 2010 www.cw.com.hk

c o n t e n t s September 2010 

coverstory 

Hong Kong: IT 

innovation hub 

Hong Kong wants to serve as “hub” for 

many things: why not IT innovation 

Page 14 

4 upfront 


6 news 

8 viewpoint 

10 bizpeople 

Networks scrutiny is the only real security 

Prescott Winter spent 25 years in the 

USA’s National Security Agency before 

pursuing a tech-security career in the 

private sector. Computerworld Hong 

Kong’s Stefan Hammond gets the story 

12 chinawatch 

Chinese outsourcer seeks U.S. workers 

with IQ of 125 and up, Baidu sues 

Chinese security company 

40industryevent 

The time has come for 

real-time apps 

The new customer: the case 

for predicting and exceeding 

expectations 

36 industryevent 

CIOs back in the fray as Asian IT 

recovers 

Top Hong Kong CIOs and IT heads 

discuss “CIO Opportunities in the New 

Economy” 

24 careerwatch 

Contractors offer answers to growth 

challenge 

Companies and individuals ponder 

mindset shift as contracting offers flexible 

expansion options 

38 industryevent 

The kaleidoscope of post-financial crisis 

IT management 

The pluses and minuses of swimming at 

low tide 

44 techguide 

IBM rolls out new zEnterprise mainframe 

server and auxiliary products 

Big iron from Big Blue features 96 

microprocessors clocking in at 5.2GHz 

46 industryprofile 

Hong Kong firm k-matrix targets online 

marketing benchmarks 

Social media marketing is the way to 

go, says CEO Edmund Lee 

50 backpage 

China: from tech laggard to green 

superpower 

China’s scale will eventually lead the 

world in clean energy, writes Robert 

Clark 

Check: www.cw.com.hk for daily 

news and online features. 

www.cw.com.hk 


UPFRONT s t e fa n h a m m o n d 


Few associate the antisocial regime of North Korea with technology. Yet 

recently, Uriminzokkiri (a Web site that provides Korean-language news 

and propaganda from North Korea’s central news agency) has spawned 

a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and a Twitter account with over 10,000 

followers. 

According to Tokyo-based journalist Martyn Williams from IDG’s News Service, 

the Web site appears to be run from servers in China but is ultimately 

controlled from Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. The Facebook group appeared 

one day in late August and was quickly removed, only to be replaced by 

another—with content similar to the original and hundreds of “friends” since it 

became available. “The profile details it as belonging to a single male who wants 

to network and meet friends and has interests in Korean 

reunification and, perhaps bizarrely, lactose free milk,” 

wrote Williams. 

Why is North Korea suddenly opening these channels 

State-control is no joke north of the 38th parallel (expect 

revolutionary ballet rather than Pyongyang toddlers lipsyncing 

to South Korean pop tunes on the YouTube), but 

Stefan Hammond 

Editor 

shammond@ 

questexasia.com 

North Korea is inevitably changing as time passes. There 

are attempts by South Korean firms to leverage the potential 

of the North, including an industrial park just north 

of the border. Untouched raw mineral-potential means 

North Korea has material the rest of the world is willing 

to buy. While North Korea remains the most bizarre “walled garden” on earth, 

the southern half of the peninsula has massive broadband penetration and widespread 

manufacture of high-tech devices. 

The long isolation of North Korea means integration with the rest of the world 

will be difficult. But look at China’s example: it’s possible to emerge from isolation 

and participate in the world community (China has been urging North 

Korea to create and develop Special Economic Zones, and following the Chinese 

model seems a sensible idea for a nation that’s been largely insensible since the 

1950s). 

A US State Department spokesman welcomed the North’s fledgling tweets. “We 

welcome North Korea to Twitter and the networked world,” wrote Philip Crowley, 

on his Twitter account. “The Hermit Kingdom will not change overnight, but 

technology once introduced can’t be shut down.” 

“Just ask Iran,” tweeted Crowley. 

Stefan Hammond 

Editor 

shammond@questexasia.com 

http://www.cw.com.hk 

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NEWS 

newsbites 

IBM rolls out 256-core Unix 

server 

IBM has rolled out its 256-core Power 

795 server—its biggest Unix server to 

date—for large enterprises, which customers 

are expected to use for consolidation 

projects. IBM also launched several 

low-end Power7-based servers, each 

with one or two processors. All the new 

systems are offered with Linux or IBM’s 

AIX or i operating systems (i is the new 

name for IBM’s i5/OS). 

Dell sees Asia rollout of 

Android tablet in 2011 

Dell is likely to bring its Streak tablet 

to Asia-Pacific markets early next year, 

said Steve Felice, president of Dell’s 

small and medium business unit. Already 

on sale in the US and Europe, the Streak 

sports a 5-inch touchscreen display, 

runs Google’s Android OS, and has a 

1GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon processor. 

The tablet can connect to Wi-Fi and 3G 

networks, which allows the Streak to be 

used as a phone. 

40 Windows apps have critical 

bugs 

Some 40 different Windows applications 

contain a critical flaw that attackers 

can use to hijack PCs and infect them 

with malware, according to security 

researcher HD Moore. Moore is chief 

security officer of Rapid7 and creator 

of the open-source Metasploit penetration 

testing toolkit. He said the bug was 

patched by Apple in its iTunes software 

for Windows four months ago, but 

remains in more than three dozen other 

Windows programs. 

global 

Intel to buy McAfee for US$7.68 billion 

Intel said recently it plans to acquire 

security vendor McAfee 

in a cash deal valued at about 

US$7.68 billion and aimed at enhancing 

the chip maker’s mobile strategy. 

Both boards of directors have approved 

the deal, and McAfee is expected 

to become a subsidiary within 

Intel’s Software and Services Group. 

Intel said that the current approach to 

security doesn’t address the full range 

of Internet-connected devices, including 

TVs, cars, medical devices and ATM 

machines. “Hardware-enhanced security” 

will be needed to counter increasingly 

sophisticated threats, said Renée 

James, Intel senior vice president, and 

general manager of the group. 

McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt wrote 

in a blog post that the “current cybersecurity 

model isn’t extensible 

across the proliferating spectrum of 

devices.” 

“The industry needed a paradigm 

shift, incremental improvements can’t 

bridge the opportunity gap,” DeWalt 

wrote. “There is no better partner that 

we could have found than Intel.” 

The deal is expected to close after 

McAfee shareholder approval and 

regulatory clearances. Intel said the 

acquisition will have on a GAAP 

basis a slightly dilutive effect on its 

earnings in the first year of operations 

and a flat effect in the second 

year. 3 

global 

Microsoft: Mac-Windows compatible in Office 2011 

Microsoft has announced that 

the next version of Office 

for the Mac will include a 

pair of key features that debuted in the 

Windows edition of Office 2010 earlier 

this year. 

Office for Mac 2011, which is slated 

for an October launch, will offer “Sparklines,” 

cell-sized Excel charts, and inapp 

image editing tools, two features 

that first appeared in Office 2010, the 

more popular Windows edition that hit 

the retail market last May. 

Microsoft touted the new features as 

part of its attempt to boost compatibility 

between the Mac and Windows versions 

of the suite. 

“What we’ve been able to do in Office 

for Mac 2011 is to bring a lot of 

power to bear to produce a professionallooking 

document that’s still compatible 

with Office for Windows,” said Kurt 

Schmucker, an evangelist with Microsoft’s 

Mac team, in a video the group 

released last month. 

Sparklines, which Computerworld US 

reviewer Preston Gralla called the “most 

useful” among the changes to Excel 2010 

on Windows, lets users drop bite-sized 

charts or graphs into individual cells. 

Microsoft pitched Sparklines and improvements 

to Excel’s PivotTables as 

compatibility wins for Mac users who 

need to share spreadsheet documents 

with co-workers running the Windows 

version of Office. 3 


HP Virtualized Storage Technologies Fight IT Sprawl 

HP Converged Infrastructure enables integration of existing silos of IT resources 

with unified management to deliver a virtualized, highly-automated technology environment 

Titania Leung 

Sprawl of technology silos has 

brought IT infrastructures to the 

breaking point by increasing complexity, 

which drives up operational costs 

and stifles innovation. Today, IT organizations 

spend up to 70 percent of their 

budgets on operations and maintenance 

leaving only 30 percent for business innovation. 

But HP Converged Infrastructure delivers 

the blueprint for building the data center of 

the future that eliminates costly and rigid 

IT silos, simplifies the management of the 

environment, and drives integration and 

automation across every area of the data 

center. 

Traditionally, client virtualization requires 

the complex integration of storage, servers, 

networking and management software. To 

address this challenge, HP is offering the 

first client virtualization reference architecture 

built for a Converged Infrastructure. 

This comprehensive hardware and software 

architecture scales to support thousands 

of virtual desktops in a simple, 

modular design that is pre-sized and pretested. 

The reference architecture delivers 

three times the productivity for IT administrators. 

Virtualization and deduplication 

“HP StorageWorks technologies play a 

critical role in the Converged Infrastructure 

by enabling clients to virtualize and cre- 

www.cw.com.hk 

ate a Virtual Resource Pool that 

is instantly accessible for meeting 

changing business needs,” says 

Titania Leung, Product Manager, 

StorageWorks Division, HP Hong 

Kong. 

Data duplication is on a sharp 

upswing in today’s IT environment, 

with identical records often 

duplicated dozens of times. “HP 

StoreOnce deduplication software 

can be deployed at multiple 

points in a converged infrastructure,” 

says Leung. “It reduces the 

amount of times data must be deduplicated 

and enables clients to 

more efficiently control data growth. HP 

StoreOnce is new in all HP StorageWorks 

D2D backup systems. HP D2D solutions 

easily combine with HP Data Protector 

backup and recovery software, providing 

simplified data protection at a 70 percent 

lower total cost of ownership compared to 

other solutions.” 

HP StorageWorks P4800 

BladeSystem SAN solution 

Faster deployment with a pretested 

and performance-tuned configuration 

designed for multiple client virtualization 

software implementations, 

including Microsoft Hyper-V with Citrix 

XenDesktop and VMWare View. 

Optimized system performance by 

balancing the workload across blades 

and disk drives to avoid storage bottlenecks 

that occur when too many 

users log into the network at the same 

time. 

Increased productivity by distributing 

storage resources across multiple 

sites to ensure better business continuity. 

As a result, end-users have access 

to data during failure conditions 

such as power outages and human 

errors. 

Reduced networking costs and simplified 

management with HP’s Virtual 

Connect technology. Integrating the 

P4800 into the HP BladeSystem enclosure 

eliminates external storage 

switches and cables, reducing the 

need for IT expertise to manage traditional 

SAN-based offerings. 

Storage strategies 

“HP’s P4800 BladeSystem SAN is a core 

component of a new HP Converged Infrastructure 

reference architecture for client 

virtualization,” says Leung. “It supports 

1,600 users at 50 percent less cost and requires 

60 percent less space than traditional 

client virtualization implementations.” 

“The LAN-based system can be easily 

added on to existing systems,” says Fred 

Sheu, Director, Alliances and Solutions, HP 

Enterprise Business, Hong Kong. It provides 

scalable, shared storage for a converged 

server, storage and networking environment. 

Built from HP BladeSystem technology, 

the new P4800 delivers 63 terabytes 

(TB) of storage capacity with four storage 

blades connected to 140 disk drives. 

Clustering islands of storage 

Another new component of HP’s storage 

portfolio is the new HP StorageWorks Enterprise 

Virtual Array Cluster (EVA Cluster) that 

eliminates disparate “islands” of storage. As 

a result, clients can consolidate up to 600 

percent more storage than a single EVA array, 

which reduces complexity, improves capacity 

utilization and lowers management costs. The 

solution uses a modular approach and works 

with existing heterogeneous systems. 

“HP EVA Cluster consists of multiple EVAs 

to create a virtual pool of capacity containing 

up to 2 PB of data and nearly 2,000 drives,” 

says Leung. 

HP StorageWorks EVA Cluster 

Improved continuity with transparent 

failover software that maintains 

application and availability between 

arrays to ensure uninterrupted access 

to data. 

Simplified operations with HP Command 

View, which enables clients to 

unify and centralize management of 

heterogeneous storage products. 

Optimized capacity and availability 

with a common set of advanced storage 

features, including thin provisioning 

to maximize storage utilization, as 

well as network-based replication for 

failover to remote sites. 

September 2010 Computerworld Hong Kong 7 

Brought to you by HP

VIEWPOINT c h a r l e s m o k 

In search of social media gurus 

Every now and then, a hot new job title emerges. The 

latest is “social media director.” 

But the most curious thing about the nature of this 

job is that corporations usually don’t really know what social 

media are, or what they mean to them, let alone knowing how 

to hire the right person for the job. Or then again, this may not 

be such a rare thing in the corporate world. 

Yes, companies big and small are ‘embracing’ social media. 

But the way firms are adopting the new media doesn’t seem 

too different from ten years or so ago, when they felt compelled 

to set up corporate Web sites (which inevitably turned 

into brochureware) just because they “had to have them.” 

Your online corporate image should 

have little to do with what you want to 

sell them today or the next day, but what 

the online public sees in your brand 

Some companies or institutions even thought that social 

media mean Facebook. Even our HKSAR Chief Executive’s 

Office recently put out an ad for Facebook administrators— 

yet another classic case of hiring someone to execute something 

before, not after, the organization knows what that 

something is, or have set up a strategy of engagement. Lured 

by generous government salary-levels, hundreds of self-proclaimed 

Facebook gurus applied to our social media-naive 

bureaucrats. 

Social media shouldn’t be just marketing driven 

For those companies who are adopting social media now, 

most are using them for sales, marketing and promotion. Naturally, 

companies with consumer-oriented products and services 

are early adopters, because they have a genuine need to 

connect with their buyers and customers in a way that is much 

cheaper than placing advertisements in print, TV or outdoor 

display. They learn about search engine optimization, and marketing 

departments sometimes organize “bloggers parties” to 

try to locate and engage online opinion leaders. 

These are just the basics. What about deeper consideration 

and planning on issues like branding, corporate communica- 

tions, image building, even risk management Never forget 

that social media is a double-edged sword: you don’t have to 

do anything for it to come back and haunt you in ways you 

never thought of. For example, any disgruntled customer or 

nosy bystander can upload a YouTube video with a negative 

experience related to your company. By tomorrow morning it 

may have “gone viral” and hit headlines, giving you problems 

in both new and old media. 

So my advice is: think long term. Instead of focusing on 

short-term promotional campaigns, think about building your 

online corporate image in the social media space. 

Of course, that means a lot more than setting up a Facebook 

page and trying to get as many people to “like” it as you can. 

Your online corporate image should have little to do with what 

you want to sell them today or the next day, but what the online 

public sees in your brand. This is important not only because 

they may be buying your products and services tomorrow, but 

because they may turn out to be your best allies and defenders 

if things turn sour online for your company or brand—especially 

when those “things” are out of your control. 

Define your social media image 

Engage your current and future customers in improving your 

products and services, and even more importantly, making 

your brand and image a likeable one in the online space. In 

today’s online world, this may mean more than the quality of 

what you sell, but the values you represent, and the benefits 

you are seen to provide to society. This philosophy may make 

even those who may not become your customers regard your 

brand in a positive light. 

How to take the first step Instead of 

simply hiring someone for the mundane 

work of placing and answering messages 

on Facebook, think carefully about 

your objectives—why and how—and 

who your target audiences should be, 

before deciding on a course of action. 

This leads me to think, instead of hiring 

their own social media directors before 

knowing what social media actually is 

or can do, corporations are likely better 

off consulting a social media doctor 

first, for a body check. Now, if only 

these good doctors were easy to find!3 

Charles Mok 

has been in the 

IT industry for 

almost 20 years, 

and is active in a 

number of advisory 

committees and 

statutory bodies. 


www.cw.com.hk 


BIZPEOPLE 

Networks scrutiny is the only 

real security 

Dr Prescott Winter previously served as CIO and CTO of the USA’s National 

Security Agency and brings almost three decades of combined experience in 

the public sector to new role as CTO, Public Sector, ArcSight. Winter’s brief 

is to drive strategic product initiatives and industry relationships concerning 

public sector cybersecurity requirements in the US and internationally, as well 

as facilitate collaboration between the public and private sector on the ever 

changing global cyberthreat landscape 

By Stefan Hammond 

Prescott Winter from ArcSight 

CWHK: IT leaders in Hong Kong know 

they must maintain good security, but 

may not know how to best go about it. 

In general terms, what advice do you 

have 

Prescott Winter: There are two main 

areas I want to touch on for private 

companies, although when you get to 

government agencies there are some 

other ingredients in the mix. But for 

most SMBs and enterprises, there are 

two main principles. 

Firstly, the environment is much more 

threatening now than it has been in the 

past. There are many factors in information 

systems today that make it harder to 

protect what you’ve got. Wireless communications: 

iPhones and BlackBerrys 

attached to your computing environment. 

So if you still have the idea of a 

“perimeter defense line,” you’ve already 

got people pole-vaulting over the top of 

the “fence.” 

There are also reasons you want to 

share information: you have partners 

and other allies in whatever you’re 

working on. And you want them in and 

out of your network, as the information 

is there for them to use. Because of this, 

there are vulnerabilities that can never 

be 100% erased, so you’re always at risk 

of intrusion. You cannot wall yourself 

off—you must assume that the other 

guys are going to get in, and in fact are 

probably already in. 

CWHK: Which metrics affect this 

equation 

PW: The bigger the corporation, the 

more strategic the information, and 

the more likely someone else wants a 

unique piece of strategic information. 

You’re likelier to have more persistent, 

well schooled attackers. So for a small 

company, that’s less of an issue than it is 

for a larger company, and definitely less 

than for a government entity. 

But a small company that is developing 

intellectual property or being very 

creative in how it develops markets, anything 

with potential for growth or importance, 

is automatically a more interesting 

target for somebody using that same basic 

strategy—they’ve got the goods, and 

someone wants that IP. The better they 

are, the more power they have, the more 

unique they are, the better a target they 

are. 

If you’re a bank and you’re concerned 

about cybertheft and you do a really good 

job of buttoning up your bank, the odds 

are good that the criminals will look for 

a bank that’s not so well protected. But 

if you have strategic, unique informa- 

tion, then there’s only one place for the 

adversaries to come in and get it, and 

that’s inside your walls. So you should 

assume that you have well organized, 

well resourced adversaries who have the 

patience and the time to get inside your 

walls. Your strategic approach should 

be that they’re going to get in, and when 

they do, and then determine who’s in 

there, what they’re doing, how bad it is, 

and what you have to do to fix it before 

the damage exceeds levels that you’ve 

defined as excessive. 

I think the perimeter defense mindset 

is passé. If you think that you can erect 

firewalls and intrusion detection systems 

and somehow get by on that, you’re going 

to be disappointed in the end. Sooner 

rather than later, in all likelihood. 

CWHK: So what should businesses do to 

protect themselves 

PW: Change your mindset and look at 

different ways to approach the problem. 

This is the first thing I talk about at the 

government-level: understand what 

we’re dealing with here, because if they 

don’t get that right, then most of other 

things I would suggest are irrelevant. 

It isn’t going to get any better. For example, 

in 2006 the Pentagon had six million 

hits annually: the DOD (US Depart- 


ment of Defense) is probably the biggest 

enterprise network system out there. It’s 

also the most heavily attacked, as far as 

we know. In 2008, that six million had 

grown to about 350-360 million. And a 

recent article had a senior Pentagon official 

commenting that we’re now up to 

six million hits a day. So the amount of 

increase in hostile activity is extremely 

rapid. 

CWHK: Once you realize that you need 

to change your perimeter mindset, what 

do you do 

PW: The prescription is straightforward. 

Flashy terms like “cyberwar” and 

“cyberdefense” are dramatic, but what 

works is like the basic blocking-andtackling 

that wins games in American 

football, or the passing and ball control 

that wins soccer games. 

The fundamental issue is to know 

what’s going on in your networks, and 

that starts with careful instrumentation 

of your systems and a careful approach 

to managing identity and access. There 

are lots of good techniques to accomplish 

this, but the point is you need to 

know who’s in your networks, and what 

they’re doing—meaning which computer 

systems they’re using to get access to 

which pieces of information. Again, you 

acquire this with careful instrumentation 

that gives you a clear and manageable 

form. 

A good place to start is with a set of 

20 recommended controls by the SANS 

Institute (http://www.sans.org/criticalsecurity-controls/interactive.php), 

which 

is a Stateside nonprofit organization that 

works with many of the best experts. The 

idea is to begin to learn what’s going on 

in your network, and start to establish 

definable standards for network hygiene 

and management. You need basic instrumentation 

in place and get these devices 

to generate logs that record every 

time someone logs on, every time a file 

is opened or closed, every time a message 

is sent, every time a ping comes 

in and bangs into one of your perimeter 

systems—every event that occurs in 

your network space generates a record, 

a fingerprint. Some are big noisy fingerprints 

and some are tiny fingerprints but 

you want to gather them all, use a process 

that filters out the less useful ones 

and correlates the more useful ones, and 

correlates the more useful ones, and tells 

If you still have the idea of a “perimeter defense line,” 

you’ve already got people pole-vaulting over the top of 

the “fence” 

you what’s going on. 

CWHK: It sounds like identity management 

is a critical part of this ecosystem 

you’re describing. 

PW: That’s exactly the right word: ecosystem. 

And identity management is absolutely 

fundamental. 

Even enterprises that have significant 

resources to do this well, and use 

systems like Active Directory or an 

equivalent, with considerable skill, 

still in many cases don’t aggregate and 

correlate all the pieces of information 

that the system generates. Your IAM 

(Identity Access Management) system 

should tell you who all your users are, 

and the relevant authorities, privileges 

and responsibilities are for each user. 

So if I have someone at a bank who’s 

on the financial analysis side, and he 

suddenly turns up looking at the HR 

records, someone needs to be looking 

at this quickly. Conversely, if I’ve got 

someone on the HR side, and he’s looking 

at the financial data and moving 

money around, that’s a bad mismatch 

for the job description. 

To control people’s use of data, you 

must control the attributes of the people. 

The starting point is to use any one of 

several good commercial systems that 

instrument the identities of the users in 

your system, and to ensure that you have 

an adequate level of detail to define their 

attributes and their privileges. 

The same principles apply to the information. 

If you have a firm with different 

classes of information, some of 

them are more important for the long 

term future of your organization than 

others. And some of your users have 

higher levels of access, which makes 

them high-risk users, as they have access 

to lots of things. Your system administrators 

are people who you quite 

frankly have to monitor more carefully, 

not because you necessarily distrust 

those people, but because abuse of that 

special use of access privileges would 

be a disaster, as the system administrator 

has the “keys” to get into anything 

in your computer environment. 

CWHK: Yes, just look at the case of Terry 

Childs in San Francisco. 

PW: Absolutely. You must be mindful of 

those individuals with special privileges. 

So if you don’t have the assets to look 

at every individual in your organization, 

at least develop a careful taxonomy and 

priority scheme, to show you which individuals 

have the elevated privileges that 

require the most control, because those 

are the ones who can cause you the most 

damage if they break loose. 3 

www.cw.com.hk 


CHINAWATCH 

Chinese outsourcer seeks US workers with IQ of 125 and up 

Bleum sets IQ threshold 

By Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld (US) 

A 

Chinese IT outsourcing company 

that has started hiring new 

US computer science graduates 

to work in Shanghai requires prospective 

job candidates to demonstrate an IQ of 

125 or above on a test it administers to 

sort out job applicants. 

In doing so, Bleum Inc is following a 

hiring practice it applies to college recruits 

in China. But a new Chinese college 

graduate must score an IQ of 140 on 

the company’s test. 

An IQ test is the first screen for any US 

or Chinese applicant. 

The lower IQ threshold for new US 

graduates reflects the fact that the pool 

of US talent available to the company is 

smaller than the pool of Chinese talent, 

Bleum said. 

In China, Bleum receives thousands of 

applications weekly, 

said CEO Eric Rongley. 

Rongley is a US 

citizen who founded 

Bleum in 2001; his 

career prior to that 

included stints working 

in offshore development 

in India and 

later in China. 

The company employs 

about 1,000 and 

hires about 1% or less 

of the people who apply 

for jobs there. “It 

is much harder to get 

into Bleum than it is 

to Harvard,” Rongley 

said. 

Shanghai-based 

Bleum has been recruiting 

new computer 

engineering graduates in the Atlanta, 

Chicago and Denver areas. If a student 

meets the minimum requirement on an 

IQ test, he then take a skills test, similar 

to the hiring process Bleum follows in 

China. 

IQ tests not exact science 

Bleum has already hired its first US 

recruits—a group of five people who left 

for Shanghai this month, said Rongley. 

They will work in China for a year and 

then return to the US to work. 

Many employers do measure intelligence 

to cull candidates from pools of 

applicants, but they typically call the exams 

aptitude tests, said Dennis Garlick, 

a post-doctoral researcher at the University 

of California, Los Angeles. 

An IQ of 140 is extremely high, representing 

about the top 1% of the population, 

said Garlick. But he said that even 

though some studies have shown a correlation 

between IQ and job performance, 

IQ is a “crude assessment tool” when it 

comes to sorting out job applicants. 

IQ tests tend be inaccurate at the upper 

end of the scale as the questions become 

more complex and it becomes “debatable 

what is a correct answer,” he said. 

IQ is also an indirect measure of job 

performance; a high IQ doesn’t necessarily 

mean a worker will achieve a certain 

level in job performance, “because 

an IQ test measures abstract reasoning in 

a general context, and on-the-job performance 

requires abstract reasoning in a 

specific context,” said Garlick. 

But for a person who does score high 

on an IQ test, “you can reasonably say 

that the person is likely to be able to 

understand typical abstract concepts as 

they are applied in business, understand 

instructions, follow them, and then generalize 

them in a new situation,” said 

Garlick. 

Mark Finocchario, national director 

for recruiting at the Eliassen Group, said 

that his IT staffing and recruiting firm 

in Wakefield, USA, administers technical 

skill tests, but not IQ tests, for some 

clients. The importance of the skill tests 

varies depending on the client. Most clients 

view the skill tests as academic and 

rely mostly his firm’s assessment of a 

candidate’s experience. “Experience is 

huge,” he said. 

For its own employees, Eliassen uses 

what it calls an EQ test, which measures 

how an employee may operate in 

continued on page 22 4 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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COVERSTORY 

Why can’t Hong Kong 

lead the region in IT 

innovation 

Hong Kong is touted as a “hub” for everything from wine to 

logistics—what about IT innovation By Stefan Hammond 

Bottom Line 

• Public and private sectors, 

education and even 

parenting—all come into 

play 

• Hong Kong’s infrastructure 

is a major strength, but 

more needs to be added to 

the mix 

• The OGCIO provides 

facilities and incentives, 

but is it enough 

The light bulb goes on and an idea 

fires in the brain of a young, techsavvy 

Hong Konger. Suddenly, the 

catalyst is clear—and a new ICT-development 

begins to take shape. But where does 

the youngster find the resources to make 

his or her dream come true 

Hong Kong remains world-class. Our 

infrastructure offers Internet and mobile telephony 

that most countries outside Scandinavia 

can’t touch. Mobile phone penetration 

is well in excess of 100%, and many of 

those phones handle 3G and data as well. 

The rule of law means that contracts signed 

here guarantee ownership, including that of 

intellectual property. With a chip-enabled 

Hong Kong ID card you can pop through 

our excellent e-channels in less than a min- 

ute—a legal, recorded entry without the aid 

of an immigration officer. While most of 

Asia fumbles with high-tech, Hong Kong 

remains an island of evolution. 

But to find documentation of our successes, 

you need to read Teresa Leung’s 

excellent IndustryProfile articles in the pages 

of Computerworld Hong Kong. Most of 

our young stars in the IT sector are typical 

Hong Kong businessmen and businesswomen: 

working as SMBs, but often far 

surpassing their modest means. Together, 

they form a mosaic of IT success. But do 

they form a “hub” 

Forget “the new Silicon Valley” 

I spent many years in the San Francisco 

Bay/Silicon Valley area. Even pre-Internet, 

the place was tech-centric like no other. Every 

so often someone will declare that Bangalore 

or Beijing or Cyberjaya will become 


“the new Silicon Valley,” but in my view, it 

will never happen. The creation of Google, 

Yahoo and Napster came about because of 

the unique inquisitiveness and creativity 

of university students, usually at Stanford, 

and invariably to serve their own interests. 

Zuckerberg of Facebook fame is unusual 

only in that he came from the East Coast. 

That doesn’t mean other areas aren’t viable. 

Innovation will occur, unique business 

models will be built, and existing models 

leveraged. The key is to localize, focus on 

niche markets and operate within a nurturing 

environment. The concept of “incubation” 

is a good one, but it needs venture 

capital to keep it alive. 

But what else needs to be done I asked a 

number of Hong Kong’s movers-and-shakers 

in the IT world if Hong Kong could be 

an IT innovation hub, and what would be 

needed to make it so. 

Natural strength 

Joe Locandro, director of group IT for 

CLP, believes there are four main areas of 

built-in advantages. “In the digital world, 

we will have more future consumers,” said 

Locandro. “Hong Kong has high internet 

penetration, and a lot of Hong Kong services 

are done via the Net. Our high broadband 

penetration on a per capita basis gives 

us ability to innovate using the Internet.” 

Secondly, he said, “Hong Kong has one 

of the highest mobile penetration rates in 

the world. If future tech is going the mobile 

route, we have natural strength there.” 

Thirdly, “Hong Kong as part of China 

has a quality brand—what’s invented here 

can be deployed in China through CEPA, 

said Locandro. “That’s another natural advantage.” 

Finally, Locandro pointed to the international 

rule of law in Hong Kong, “CEPA 

allows us to deploy innovative technology 

on a favored-trading status,” he said. 


Science Park: Hong Kong’s incubator 

By Teresa Leung 

As real estate is expensive in Hong Kong, the government has set up 

a statutory body—the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks 

(HKSTPC)—to provide infrastructure and services to enable Hong Kong 

to become a world-class hub on its chosen technologies, says the HKSTPC 

Web site. 

The science park offers facilities and support services such as an IC (integrated 

circuit) design center, an IC development support center, a materials 

analysis laboratory, a wireless communications test laboratory, an intellectual 

property servicing center, a solar energy technology support center, and a 

biotech center. 

To help local tech startups with huge potentials but having limited resources, 

the science park has run a three-year incubation program since 1992. Now the 

program has two streams—technology and design. The cumulative number of 

tech graduate companies as of 2010 is estimated to reach 215, according to 

the park’s Web site. 

Inside technology, IT and telecoms is one of the areas, with the other four 

being 

biotechnology, electronics, green technology, and precision engineering. In 

the year 2009-2010, there are 86 incubatees in the technology stream of the 

program. 

All incubatees are provided with ready-to-use offices, which are available 

for up to 12 months rent-free and for a further two years or three years at a 

reduced rental. These startups can also use free services including professional 

reception services, meeting rooms, pantry, and a full range of office equipment 

and telecommunications facilities. The incubatees also have access to a 

range of assistance programs including those related to management, technical 

know-how, promotion and development, and business matching. 

“The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) was 

established in May 2001 to offer one-stop infrastructural support services to 

technology-based companies and activities, including the nurturing of technology-based 

start-up companies through its incubation program,” said the 

OGCIO in a statement. “The first two phases of Hong Kong Science Park were 

completed in 2004 and 2008 at the cost of HK$2.9 billion and HK$3.8 billion 

respectively. The five clusters developed in the Hong Kong Science Park are 

information technology and telecommunications, electronics, biotechnology, 

precision engineering and green technology (including renewable energy and 

environmental technologies).” 

Future progress was “decided earlier this year to proceed with the development 

of Hong Kong Science Park Phase 3 at an estimated development cost 

of HK$4.9 billion,” said the OGCIO, adding that construction will commence in 

mid 2011 and “the first batch of buildings in Phase 3 will be ready in late 2013 

while the whole phase will be completed in 2016.” 

www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 

4 continued from page 15 

Driving forces 

“I call these favorable factors some of 

the necessary ingredients,” said Locandro. 

“But to complete this recipe, you must add 

innovation culture and government support.” 

Locandro explained that the HKSAR 

government “has IT innovation as one of 

its six pillars, and funds earmarked for innovation 

through the HKPC, and an additional 

benefit would be to use tax incentives 

to encourage corporations to invest in commercially 

deployable innovative technology. 

“ 

Locandro added that another area the 

government could consider is “specific 

technology export-grants for Hong Kong 

companies to deploy in China or other parts 

of Asia for long-term economic gain.” 

“A linkage between the academic and 

private sectors is desirable [and] further 

strengthening those relationships would be 

an advantage,” Locandro said. “We want 

talent development which means we need 

to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of HKers 

with IT skills at a young age. It’s in the 

DNA, so combining that entrepreneurial 

spirit with a hunger for IT at a college or 

even high-school level is something I’d like 

to see.” 

Locandro urged organizations like the 

HK branches of the American, Australian 

and British Chambers of Commerce, as 

well as the Hong Kong Computer Society, 

to help facilitate this process. “There’s a lot 

of opportunity for innovation in the 

SMB segment,” he said. 

Web innovation 

platforms 

Locandro mentioned a US 

company whose Website, 

brightidea.com, is a “platform 

that allows innovation. 

We use it internally 

Public sector support 

One of the HKSAR’s perennial strengths 

is that public and private sectors dovetail. 

Some say that the Hong Kong government 

doesn’t impede the progress of the public 

sector, but most agree that a “laissez-faire” 

approach has proven essential to Hong 

Kong’s economic rise over the decades. 

We do have governmental tech assisto 

generate ideas, and have our own IT 

innovation center where we show internal 

business and companies within Hong Kong 

our new ideas, such as digital-pen technology.” 

But Locandro is determined that CLP 

evolve beyond Web platforms and new 

products. “Innovation is one of our five IT 

core values,” he said, “our IT employees 

are encouraged to demonstrate innovation. 

We also want to use tech to improve our 

work/life balance—it’s part of our IT human 

capital management strategy: career 

development.” 

“Together with China’s scale and Hong 

Kong’s entrepreneurial spirit, Hong Kong 

can compete on an innovation value proposition. 

It’s about combining the ingredients 

with the mindset and the talent. And although 

results won’t appear overnight but 

the medium to long term results should be 

sustainable.” 

Innovative IT usage 

“The strength of HK people in everyday 

usage of IT,” said Agnes Mak, former head 

of the Hong Kong Computer Society and 

executive director of IT consultancy 

i Principle. But she cautioned that using IT 

doesn’t mean you can develop tech products—”a 

lot of people think they are IT professionals, 

but just because you can drive a 

car, doesn’t mean you can design it.” 

“Hong Kong’s IT users are good at understanding 

and using applications in everyday 

systems, like paying bills or even 

income tax at ATMs—that’s innovative 

use of IT,” said Mak. This innovation 

has been part of Hong Kong culture 

for some time, but it doesn’t 

mean Hong Kong is strong in 

R&D.” 

Mak from i Principle: You 

need fundamental training 

to create innovation as an 

end-product 

Educational and parental help 

“In Hong Kong, students don’t learn only 

from teachers, but [also] have the Internet,” 

said Mak. “Still, they need their parents and 

other mentors to make sure they’re getting 

the correct information.” 

Mak pointed out that “the way of teaching 

is changing now—before the dotcom 

boom, a lot of students wanted to get into 

IT, but after the dotcom bust, parents discouraged 

IT study. Hong Kongers are too 

short-sighted: we must look at an individual’s 

skills and not only the latest view of the 

job market. You need fundamental training 

to create innovation as an end-product.” 

Building an innovation culture 

“Innovation is boosted by exposure to 

different cultures, and the Internet helps 

here,” said Mak. “But you can’t force innovation, 

you have to look at the education 

system: quality of teachers and curriculum. 

Rote learning does not lead to innovation— 

if you find potential within a student, you 

give them exposure in the areas that interest 

them.” 

But Mak insisted that parental guidance 

is an important part of encouraging creativity 

in the technology realm and elsewhere. 

“Innovation can be encouraged through the 

parents’ mindset,” said Mak. “Parents must 

take responsibility.” 

Mak echoed Locandro’s view that Hong 

Kong’s strong IT infrastructure is an essential 

element. “World-class IT used daily, 

this is our strength—we should continue to 

encourage this,” she said. 


CLP’s Locandro: For Hong Kong, innovation 

should bring shareholder value 

Rote learning does not lead to innovation—if you find 

potential within a student, you give them exposure in 

the areas that interest them 

— Agnes Mak, i Principle 

tance—the OGCIO, which oversees government 

assistance for IT projects. “Hong 

Kong is committed to developing itself into 

a hub for innovation, cooperation and trade 

in information & communications technology 

(ICT). ‘Promoting Advanced Technology 

and Innovation’ and ‘Developing Hong 

Kong as a hub for technological cooperation 

and trade’ are two of the key action 

areas in the Digital 21 Strategy,” said the 

OGCIO in a statement. And the tech sector 

also receives overall government support, 

continued the OGCIO: “In June 2009, the 

identification of the Innovation and Technology 

sector as one of the six economic 

pillars where Hong Kong has good potential 

for further development as the priority 

areas by the Task Force on Economic Challenges 

commissioned by the Chief Executive 

helped further increase the momentum 

of Hong Kong developing into an innovation 

and technology hub.” 

But Samson Tam, Legislative Councilor 

for IT, has doubts about the government’s 

commitment to our tech sector. “In 

2007, Digital 21 clearly stated that one of 

the Hong Kong’s missions is to be a hub 

for technological cooperation and trade,” 

said Tam, “and it was also mentioned in 

the CE’s Policy Address that Hong Kong 

must move towards becoming a knowledge 

economy. In the past two years, the 

HKSAR government has started the engine 

by establishing the Create Hong Kong and 

the HK$300 million CreateSmart Initiative, 

setting up an R&D Cash Rebate Scheme 

and also providing subsidy for Internet access 

charges for students in need.” 

“However,” cautioned Tam, “there’re no 

outstanding results in the ICT innovation in 

the past five years compared to neighborhood 

countries, and Hong Kong may even 

be falling behind.” 

Are we falling behind 

Agnes Mak, who in her role with the 

HKCS ensured Hong Kong firms were 

represented at APICTA (The Asia Pacific 

ICT Awards, http://www.apicta.com/) has 

seen changes during the ten years of API- 

CTA’s existence. “Hong Kong is still in 

the forefront, and years ago it was always 

Hong Kong/Singapore/Australia [winning 

awards at APICTA],” she said, “but now 

other ASEAN countries, with their creative 

students and overall confidence, are catching 

up. Even from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, 

we’re seeing strong entries nowadays. 

Their presentations are strong.” 

The OGCIO is also worried about Hong 

Kong’s ability to maintain its competitive 

edge. “Under the Digital 21 Strategy Advisory 

Committee, the Government in 2009 

set up a Task Force on Industry Facilitation 

which comprises mainly of industry members 

to advise on relevant strategies and initiatives” 

said the OGCIO. “The Task Force 

identified difficulties and barriers facing 

Hong Kong, and analyzed Hong Kong’s 

unique strengths and the opportunities that 

arise from them.” 

The investigative task force concluded 

that “the major difficulty encountered by 

the local ICT industry was the relatively 

small size of the local market.” But they 

also identified other barriers: 

• Difficulties in fund raising and inadequate 

awareness on Government 

funding schemes for some SMEs 

• Hard to attract multi-national companies 

to develop ICT products and 

services in Hong Kong 

• Home-grown companies are too 

small to compete with large ones 

and keen competition from other 

economies 

• Difficulties in export such as the 

lack of global sales channels in 

SMEs and the lack of success cases 

of exportable software package 

• Risks of joint-ventures with other 

economies 

• High labor cost and decline in enrollments 

of undergraduates in engineering 

and ICT 

Although the last point directly echoes 

one of Mak’s concerns about Hong Kong 

education, the governmental task force 

found some positive directions as well. 

Hong Kong’s strengths and 

opportunities 

“The Task Force’s analysis reveals that 

although the local ICT market is relatively 


www.cw.com.hk 


COVERSTORY 


small in size, there are significant opportunities 

in regional and global markets. In 

particular the fast development of China 

has led to rapid growth both in demand for 

ICT products and services, and in capabilities 

which could be used to serve global 

customers.” 

The OGCIO added that as “an international 

trading hub with good financial facilities 

and having an ICT industry with 

good understanding of international market 

and business practice, Hong Kong is well 

positioned to facilitate the internationalization 

of the mainland software sector. Hong 

Kong’s know-how, innovation and technology 

can add value to mainland ICT sectors 

and assist them to be marketed internationally. 

Equally, Hong Kong can add value to 

technology developed in third markets, so 

that it can be effectively deployed on the 

mainland and regionally.” 

In addition to Science Park (see sidebar, 

page 15), Hong Kong provides other 

facilities and incentives. Although Cyberport 

is primarily a private-sector facility, 

“the IncuTrain Centre of Cyberport helps 

commercialize creative ideas and incubate 

start-ups,” said the OGCIO. “The program 

provides incubatees with not only 

technological knowledge and techniques 

indispensable to the pursuit of a successful 

business in a knowledge-based highlycompetitive 

industry, but also all-round 

business support services, such as arrangement 

of business matching meetings to 

connect incubates with potential investors, 

participation opportunities in overseas and 

local trade shows and exhibitions to showcase 

incubatees’ products and services, 

media exposure opportunities to disseminate 

successful incubatees experience.” 

The OGCIO added that “as of July 2010, 

the total number of incubatees that have 

been admitted is 110, among them, 56 incubatees 

are going through the incubation 

program, and 40 have already successfully 

graduated.” In addition, said the OGCIO, 

“Cyberport initiated the Creative Micro 

Fund (CCMF) pilot scheme in 2009 to provide 

a seed fund to innovative projects or 

business concepts in digital entertainment, 

digital content and digital lifestyle.” So far, 

five grantees have been awarded funding 

sponsorship. 

Running to stay in place 

In the world of technology, you have to 

run fast just to stay in place, and Samson 

Tam argues that Hong Kong isn’t running 

fast enough. “There are three main reasons 

why Hong Kong is falling behind in 

this run,” said Tam. “Firstly, the Steering 

Committee on Innovation and Technology 

was not functioning well and hence 

no proper technology policy is established 

to take care of all aspects such as professional 

training, land and taxation incentive, 

investment and funding, etc. Hence, there 

are no synchronization among different 

departments.” 

“Secondly, the HK$500 million innovation 

funding is not [being] effectively used. 

The application of such funding is too conservative 

and [with] no obvious strategy in 

using the funding, the end results are not 

significant,” he said. 

“Last but not least,” said Tam, “there 

are many difficulties for the ICT industry 

to get into China even [with] CEPA since 

the [HKSAR] government didn’t put [appropriate] 

actions in helping the industry to 

further develop in China.” 

The way forward 

Clearly, the tech landscape in Hong 

Kong is convoluted and strategies are 

contentious. The OGCIO declares that 

“the government will continue its efforts 

in collaboration with the industry and 

academia to formulate and undertake initiatives 

to promote Hong Kong as a hub 

for innovation, cooperation and trade in 

Legco’s Tam: The government should take to 

increase public awareness of the important 

role technology plays in moving Hong Kong 

forward as an energetic knowledge economy 

ICT.” Their intentions are positive and 

proactive, and our current GCIO has 

proven his commitment to Hong Kong 

technology. 

But Tam is more granular when he declares 

it’s “time to catch up: I believe that 

Hong Kong [can] be the hub for technological 

cooperation and trade in two tactics: 

first of all, setting up a Science and Technology 

Bureau to execute their technology 

policies. Moreover, the government should 

take to increase public awareness of the 

important role technology plays in moving 

Hong Kong forward as an energetic knowledge 

economy.” 

“Promoting the open innovation concept 

in Hong Kong—especially by using 

the Internet,” said Tam, “would allow us 

to enhance regional cooperation and also 

achieve better cooperation in Shenzhen/ 

Hong Kong innovation circles. Also, cooperation 

between Shenzhen/Hong Kong 

and Guangdong/Hong Kong are important 

keys for Hong Kong to be the hub of technological 

cooperation and trade. It is worth 

[the effort] for the HKSAR government to 

work towards establishing Hong Kong as 

an innovation hub and hence moving Hong 

Kong forward to be a knowledge-based 

economy.” 3 


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Canon’s vision 

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Canon’s commitment: social harmony, user convenience, 

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and employees, are now emphasizing the 

need for a sense of social responsibility. 

Users demand that suppliers of major 

business tools such as multi-function 

printing machines share the same belief 

in social values. Canon is deeply committed 

to the concept of corporate social 

responsibility. 

Corporate Philosophy: Kyosei 

Canon’s corporate philosophy is “Kyosei” 

which refers to all people, regardless 

of race, religion or culture, harmoniously 

living and working together into the future. 

Based on the philosophy of Kyosei, Canon 

makes every effort to create technology to 

benefit future society for the prosperity of 

the world and the happiness of humankind. 

At the same time, towards the fulfillment of 

their social responsibilities, Canon promote 

both enriched lifestyles and the global environmental 

while also carrying out social 

contribution activities. 

First Step to Green Strategy 

Canon is now implementing a new product 

strategy, introducing MFDs that are pioneering 

higher levels of environmental friendliness 

and corporate social responsibility. 

a) Eco Friendly Materials 

eco-friendly materials in construction. They 

employ certain components fabricated with 

100% recycled plastic materials from retired 

products. 

Canon’s innovative green technologies 

include bio-based plastic materials, and a 

plant-derived compound that replaces certain 

petroleum-based plastic parts. 

Other components that will be recycled 

include the drum, and the toner cartridges 

through recycle program. 

This green technology is being progressively 

applied to all Canon machines, part 

of a new green production strategy that will 

in future enable 100% of the company’s 

multi-function machines to be recycled or 

otherwise safely disposed of with minimal 

environmental burden. 

b) CO 2 emissions down 30% 

Canon has lowered the lifecycle CO 2 

emissions of the imageRUNNER AD- 

VANCE series of machines by a total of 

30% compared with conventional models. 

It achieved this large reduction in the carbon 

footprint of its machines by focusing on 

each state of the product life cycle, including 

manufacturing, user operations, and logistics, 

and then analyzing the energy use 

at each stage and systematically improving 

the design to reduce it. 

c) Power consumption is only 1W 

or less 

Canon’s factories going green 

Canon’s R&D, design and 

manufacturing sites are 

implementing green policies 

throughout their operations. For 

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emissions by developing energysaving 

production technologies and 

installing energy-saving facilities. 

Another practical step is the 

reduction of packaging materials 

used to deliver MFDs, components 

and consumables, to reduce waste 

and make consignments lighter, 

thus saving CO 2 during shipment. 

Canon also exceeds the toughest 

global standards set by the 

European RoHS standard, which 

requires the restriction of six 

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Canon currently restricts the use of 

no less than 24 such substances in 

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The imageRUNNER ADVANCE Series is 

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Brought to you by Canon 

and this technology, combined with a new 

toner called pQ, significantly reduces overall 

energy consumption by minimizing heat and 

power requirements. A rapid warm-up time 

– only 38 seconds from power-on – encourages 

users to turn the machine off when not 

in use. When devices are in sleep mode, 

power consumption is only 1W or less. 

d) Reduce Noise Level 

Various noise-reduction measures and 

control features are also implemented in 

the configuration of the imageRUNNER 

ADVANCE C5051 & C5045 to ensure minimum 

noise levels during both operation and 

standby mode. 

Another Big Step for Efficiency 

a) Scan directly to Powerpoint format 

One of the ways that Canon helps the 

green office is by enabling better management 

of electronic documents, which reduces 

the need to constantly print out paper 

copies. 

Industries such as finance, education and 

construction that use a lot of PowerPoint 

slides expend hundreds of hours patiently 

keying text and placing graphics in the 

PowerPoint format. The imageRUNNER 

ADVANCE automates most of that work. 

For example, any color or black-and-white 

material can be scanned and automatically 

converted to the latest PowerPoint Format 

(pptx), saving users a huge amount of time. 

Canon is the official digital imaging partner 

of Microsoft Office 2010. So Canon MFDs 

can have native connection to Microsoft 

SharePoint 2010, which enables electronic 

documents to be easily shared, especially 

through the Web or by email. This also enables 

many users operations to be executed 

without printing out paper copies. 

b) Automatic form-to-database 

scanning 

A unique service provided by Canon enables 

imageRUNNER ADVANCE users to 

scan large numbers of forms such as invoices, 

and 

www.cw.com.hk 

have the machine perform OCR and 

Enriching user experience & cutting the environmental burden 

Passing on a healthy environment to the next generation. 

We can reduce burden on the environment by developing environmental 

technology and promoting recyceling. 

Canon plans to reduce the environmental burden of document processing, but 

skeptics may wonder if the company can do that without sacrificing the things 

that make users’ lives comfortable and convenient. Canon believes that doing 

both is the key to a sustainable society. 

Canon has a symbol (see above) that expresses this dual strategy. In the 

symbol, one arrow indicates that ‘Enrichment’ should increase, which means 

a more convenient and efficient lifestyle that enriches our lives with innovative 

technology. A second arrow indicates that the ‘Environmental burden’ should 

decrease, because Canon intends to pass on a healthy environmental to the next 

generation. Canon can reduce the burden on the environment by developing 

environmental technologies and promoting recycling. 

“At Canon, we are not just machine vendors but networked communication 

specialists,” said Daniel Chung, Senior Marketing Manager, Business Imaging 

Solution Marketing Division. “We seek a close partnership with our users to help 

them leverage machines such as the imageRUNNER ADVANCE to improve the 

processing, management and security of their electronic documents. We help 

them minimize the need to print out paper copies, increase scanning efficiency 

and systematically reducing the environmental footprint of the whole reprographic, 

document management, and communication processes.” 

transfer any selected data to the appropriate 

fields in a corporate database, with no 

re-keying of data. Large companies receive 

hundreds of thousands of similar forms and 

about 85% of forms are currently re-keyed. 

Canon consultants can create a template for 

a specific form that enables it to be scanned 

to a database without any manual work. This 

process greatly increases efficiency when 

thousands of forms are processed. 

c) Security and access control for 

documents. 

For more details, please visit: 

www.canon.com.hk/en/business/home 

A more 

convenient and 

efficient lifestyle. 

Enrichment 

our lives with 

innovative 

technology. 

Canon MFDs can provide comprehensive 

security and access control for electronic 

documents. Many companies limit access 

by printing out paper copies for authorized 

users, but Canon’s system of controlling 

access to the electronic storage on its networked 

MFDs eliminates the need for such 

paper printout. 


CHINAWATCH 


a stressful environment, as well as their 

sense of social responsibility to the team, 

said Finocchario. The EQ test “provides 

a measuring stick on how someone will 

adjust,” he said. 

Rongley believes that higher-IQ IT 

workers are more productive. “The point 

is not that they are typing faster, but they 

are finding a faster solution to the technical 

problem,” said Rongley. 

North American customers 

Moreover, unlike many of the larger 

IT offshore development companies, 

Bleum is focused on long-term engagements 

with its clients, not on one-time 

projects. Over time, it hopes to hire 100 

to 500 US workers to help support North 

American customers. 

China’s technology labor force is 

largely young; the massive government 

ramp-up in science and engineering education 

is a recent development, and the 

labor force doesn’t yet have a broad pool 

of people with deep experience in technical 

disciplines. By seeking high-IQ 

employees, “we’re compensating for the 

experience gap,” said Rongley. 

He also said that the number of students 

seeking computer science degrees, 

which has dipped in the US, is on the rise 

in China. 

“China has a much larger talent pool 

than India does, and it has much less demand 

for that talent,” said Rongley, who 

added that the number of new computer 

science graduates each year is about 

300,000. 

India dominates the offshore outsourcing 

industry, helped by the fact that it has 

a large English-speaking population. The 

largest Indian IT vendors have in excess 

of 100,000 employees. 

The impact of China’s larger talent 

pool may be evident in an international 

coding contest conducted annually by 

TopCoder Inc, a Glastonbury, USA.- 

based software development service. 

Baidu sues Chinese security company 

The search engine giant is suing Chinese company 360 for unfair competition 

By Michael Kan, IDG News Service (Beijing Bureau) 

Last year, about 4,200 people took 

part in this coding competition, which 

includes events such as algorithmwriting 

contests. Of the 70 finalists, 

20 were from China, 10 from Russia 

and two from the US. The top winner 

was Chinese. The contest is sponsored 

in part by the National Security 

Agency. 

Bleum has a policy of requiring its employees 

to speak English, and many of its 

hires have already been through Englishlanguage 

programs widely taught in the 

schools. The company uses a system of 

levels for marking capability with English, 

with the highest level reserved for 

those who achieve accent neutralization, 

said Rongley. 

“In China, for a long time now, anyone 

from eighth grade and above is being 

taught English,” said Rongley. However, 

what those students don’t have is an opportunity 

to practice, he noted, adding, 

“We create the environment for them to 

practice all the time.” 3 

Baidu, operator of China’s largest 

search engine, is suing domestic 

security vendor 360 for unfair 

competition alleging a version of 360’s 

security software flags both Baidu Toolbar 

and Baidu Address Bar as malware. 

The software tells users the plugins 

must be removed, Baidu said. The suit, 

which was filed late last month, demands 

that 360 cease with its unfair practices. 

Baidu is also suing the company for 10 

million renminbi (US$1.4 million) and is 

requesting that 360 issue public apologies 

on its websites as well as on several 

major news sites in China. 

Baidu declined to comment, but confirmed 

that the suit was accepted by Beijing 

Second Intermediate People’s Court. 

360, a major software security provider 

in China, responded to Baidu’s claims 

in a statement last month. The company 

highlighted how search engines are sites 

for “swindling” and that they provide avenues 

for online threats to reach users. 

“In providing search results, Baidu has 

made no obligation toward protecting its 

users. Baidu is not a security company,” 

360 said. 

Whether or not Baidu’s toolbars were 

flagged as malware is decided by user 

vote, the company added. “Baidu should 

check to see if these two software programs 

are operating correctly,” 360 said. 

This is not the first time that 360 has 

faced a lawsuit for unfair competition. 

In the past, it has also seen trouble with 

Yahoo China and other domestic companies. 

360 was founded by Zhou Hongyi, who 

was originally the general manager of Yahoo 

China. Following his departure, Yahoo 

China sued Zhou’s new company in 2006, 

alleging that 360’s security software was 

identifying Yahoo Toolbar as malware. 

Yahoo China later won the case. 

“This is a very old battleground,” 

said Mark Natkin, managing director of 

Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. 

“You will see a plethora of suits between 

different companies, not just in the antivirus 

malware field, but also in types of 

toolbars. If you install one company’s 

toolbar, it will disable the other company’s 

toolbar.” 3 


www.cw.com.hk 


CAREERWATCH n i h a r i k a c h at u r v e d i 

Contractors offer answers to growth challenge 

Companies and individuals ponder mindset shift as 

contracting offers flexible expansion options 

By Niharika Chaturvedi 

The recovering economy in Asia 

has signaled a greater flow 

of investment into the region 

with multinationals and regional firms 

growing their presence and the supporting 

infrastructure to support the 

expansion. 

More often than not, an organization’s 

strategy to set up its new team 

includes hiring permanent resources, 

as well as outsourcing specific operations 

to various IT services companies 

and independent contractors. 

A contractor is a specialist in a specific 

area who is hired for a fixed term 

to complete an allocated task. Because 

these people are professionals in their 

area of expertise, they are typically 

paid a premium salary. 

An individual specializing in a technical 

field has two career choices—to 

take on the managerial career route, or 

to become an expert individual contributor. 

Contracting is a very popular 

career path in western countries such as 

Europe, USA, UK, Australia and New 

Zealand. This is due to the flexibility it 

provides to an individual’s lifestyle— 

contracting professionals often make 

use of the breaks in-between contracts 

to pursue hobbies or travel plans. 

Open mind 

A majority of IT professionals generally 

have a high preference for specializing 

in a niche area while moving 

on from one organization to another. 

This allows them an opportunity to 

gain exposure to new 

environments, technologies 

and projects 

which contribute to 

their knowledge and 

expertise. Based on 

the types of projects 

they are exposed to, 

they are often able to 

increase their rates 

after garnering adequate 

experience in 

various areas of expertise. 

From an organizational 

perspective, 

there are many benefits 

of hiring talents 

on contract: 

• Completing a sixmonth 

task in three 

months by employing 

an expert provides 

a more costeffective 

solution 

to an organization. 

• Having a pool of contractors offers 

more flexibility in maintaining the 

work-force balance in times of 

downturn. 

• Contracting offers an initial insight 

into new markets which will help in 

making manpower decisions in countries 

with stricter labor laws. 

• Headcount issues can be easily managed 

by hiring talents on contract 

and passing on the responsibility of 

HR administration to professional 

Chaturvedi from Robert Walters: Consider Asian contractors 

organizations instead. 

• Organizations have the flexibility to 

transfer resources from one project to 

another based on appropriate skillssets 

required for different projects. 

Contracting in Asia 

Before the global IT revolution, the 

working culture in Asia was skewed 

towards job longevity and stability, 

thus resulting in the contracting option 



www.cw.com.hk 


CAREERWATCH 


being a less popular method of hiring 

or working in Asia. In comparison with 

current dynamics revolving from what 

was once the famous Japanese working 

style of “one company, one career, one 

life” in older times, to current software 

engineers in India following a “one 

year, one company” lifestyle, Asia has 

seen a complete turnaround. 

Contracting offers a middle-path 

solution for the budding software professional 

who is hungry for exposure 

to new projects, more attractive compensation 

packages and new environments, 

as well as the employer on the 

lookout for expert talents to take on 

high–profile projects without having to 

commit to progressive career growth 

or an investment in long-term permanent 

headcount. 

The challenge in Asia, however, 

seems to come from both sides. 

Employers in the banking world are 

attracted to Asia in terms of its lower 

labor costs and are thus not encouraged 

to pay a premium to hire a contractor. 

As a result, many organizations are not 

entirely open to adopting the contracting 

resource option as it brings about 

the uncertainty of income and employment 

beyond the contractual period. 

A person who is employed on a contract 

might constantly be on the lookout 

for his/her next assignment and/ 

or a permanent job. In fact, there is a 

high percentage of people preferring to 

switch jobs approximately every couple 

of years given the current buoyant 

job market facing a limited supply of 

skilled labor. 

Contracting in Asia has the potential 

to mature into two different models. 

1) Alternate long-term hiring: Many 

global hiring organizations find it a 

challenge to obtain headcount approvals 

for permanent positions in offshore 

locations, in comparison with positions 

of six-month to one-year contracts. 

Thus, candidates are sometimes hired 

as a solution to bypass the headcount 

approval process and then gradually 

given the option to convert to a permanent 

headcount in the event of good 

performance and/or strong business 

case to justify the existing role. 

1) Expertise-based hiring: A fixedterm 

contract hire comprises of hiring 

an expert to complete an integral part 

of the project, or sometimes to run a 

very strategic and high visibility project. 

The expertise developed in this 

case can often lead to a premium being 

charged. 

There are various other reasons for 

hiring on contract; however, from a job 

seeker’s perspective, this is an option 

with opportunities galore as the market 

gradually matures with time. 

Contracting is here to stay, regardless 

if it is a challenging or booming 

market. There are definitely more options 

out there in the job market when 

one keeps an open mind to consider 

contract work. Here are more reasons 

why the job seeker should say “yes” to 

contracting: 

• It opens the door to a new industry or 

a new profile. 

• It is a stopgap arrangement for those 

in-between jobs. 

• It helps to increase your cash-inhand 

by clubbing in the bonus as a 

guaranteed income. 

• It gives you the opportunity to try out 

a role before deciding to move longterm 

into a similar position, without 

having to commit to your employer. 

• You gain exposure to new technologies 

and projects across the industry 

in a much shorter time span. 

• You are provided with the opportunity 

to list additional knowledge and 

value to your CV with every new 

project undertaken. 

• You are provided with the opportunity 

to prove yourself in a large MNC 

environment and get recognized for 

better roles. 

• There is a lower risk of losing your 

job since the cost of hiring a contractor 

is relatively lower in comparison 

with a permanent headcount and 

Many Asian organizations are not entirely open to 

adopting the contracting resource option as it brings 

about the uncertainty of income and employment 

beyond the contractual period 

organizations are thus less likely to 

hire and fire. 

• You have the opportunity to experience 

salary increments from one 

contract to another instead of having 

to wait for annual increments. 

• From a lifestyle perspective, it provides 

you with more freedom to plan 

longer holidays in-between contracts 

or to invest your time in trainings 

and courses to upgrade yourself and 

gain more skills. 

In short, contracting definitely provides 

you with a more flexible lifestyle 

while broadening the limits and horizons 

for a professional, well-rounded 

and exponential career path. 3 

Niharika Chaturvedi is senior consultant 

(IT Banking Contract division) at 

Robert Walters Singapore. 


www.cw.com.hk 


“Video is our next voice !!” 

Business Video is far more than 

just video conferencing. 

Macroview had showcased a 

variety of latest ICT technologies 

with real-life application 

examples in both the Retail Asia Expo in 

June and Finance Tech Forum in July. 

Although the visitors to these two 

events were from very different 

business nature, we observed that 

many of them were interested in and 

actually had the need to integrate and 

apply high quality, real-time and 

interactive video elements into their 

business operations. 

Retailers can now use interactive HD 

video displays to attract consumers to 

their shops from anywhere in the mall 

or even simply from a nearby bus 

station, and to pass on product or 

marketing information in the most 

visual and vibrant way. Bankers can 

make use of similar video platforms to 

deliver the most direct and interactive 

services to their clients at bank 

branches – improving customer 

experience while saving on service 

costs. Video-based banking services 

may include financial-advisor-ondemand, 

interactive video and 

context-based financial data displays, 

centralized product update and 

training to branch staff after office 

hours, etc. The era of BUSINESS VIDEO 

has arrived. 

Business Video is far more than 

just video conferencing - Business 

Video encompasses TelePresence, 

Unified Communications, Enterprise 

Social Video, Digital Signage, 

Enterprise TV, Video Surveillance, etc. 

With the help of a carefullydesigned 

intelligent IP infrastructure, 

HD video contents can be securely and 

promptly delivered through an 

enterprise network. When the video 

elements merge with the business 

logics, they help create very visual and 

extraordinary business angles for 

decision makers. 

Success will be limited if you treat 

Business Video only as a technology. 

Macroview is the magician that can 

help integrate latest video technologies, 

secured wired and wireless 

Sales & 

Marketing 

- Telepresence with 

partners 

- HD signage at POS 

- Consumer behavioral 

video analytics 

- Remote expert 

consultation 

Logistics & 

Security 

- Warehouse surveillance 

- Goods/vehicle 

movement tracking 

- Item tallying 

Macroview showcased 

the latest Business 

Video solutions to 

financial institutions in 

the Finance Tech 

Forum. 

networking 

solutions with The “Connected Bus Shelter” in 

business 

Retail Asia Expo demonstrated the 

real-time, interactive video displays 

processes to 

for retailers and shopping malls to 

provide true 

address social networking needs. 

Business 

Video turnkey 

solutions for enterprise clients. We do 

believe the importance of Video is rising in 

the business world and expanding across 

all desktop and mobility platforms 

including the PC, telephony and mobile 

devices. 

HR & 

Training 

- Remote Interview 

- Staff counseling 

- Interactive video 

training for remote 

offices 

“Video is our next voice !!” 

Finance & 

Accouting 

- Analysis of revenue 

against no. of shop 

visitors 

- Executive 

telepresence 

- Briefing to press 

and financial analysts 

LUCAS (Integration Layer) 

R&D & 

Engineering 

- Design and prototype 

illustrations 

- Video and 

UC collaboration 

- Sharing ideas via 

HD video social 

networking 

The essence of Business Video is not 

just on the high video quality, but also 

on how well the video elements 

integrate with business functions to 

practically enhance business communications 

and provide users with 

meaningful business analyses and 

management. A critical success factor is 

the “interactive” capability for support 

of real-time multi-way dialogues. 

TelePresence 

Unified 

Communications 

R 

Social Video 

Video Surveillance 

and Analytics 

Video Messaging 

IP Infrastructure 

Enterprise TV 

Digital Signage 

28 Computerworld Hong Kong September The 2010 architecture of Business Video 

www.cw.com.hk

Advertorial 

Macroview deploys Cisco OTV 

to enable Workload Mobility 

across Data Centres 

Overlay 

Transport 

– A solution that is independent of the infrastructure 

technology and services, flexible over various interconnect 

facilities 

– Transporting services for layer 2 and layer 3 Ethernet 

and IP traffic 

With the introduction of Cisco OTV, we 

are now able to extend VMWare VMotion 

across long distances, providing customers 

with resource flexibility and workload 

portability that span across geographically 

dispersed data centres.” 

Virtualization 

C 

isco Overlay Transport Virtualization 

(OTV) is a built-in solution 

on the preeminent data center 

switches, the Cisco NEXUS 7000 Series 

Switches. OTV can be thought of as 

MAC-address routing, in which 

destinations are MAC addresses, and 

the next hops are IP addresses. The 

convenience brought by OTV will not 

sacrifice the scalability, resiliency, 

multipathing, and failure-isolation 

characteristics of a Layer 3 connection. 

– Provides virtual connections, 

connections that are in turn virtualized and 

partitioned into VPNS, VRFs, VLANs and Bridge 

Domain instances 

Macroview is a pioneer in using Cisco 

OTV to enable workload mobility across 

data centres for clients in Hong Kong. 

“Moving workloads between data 

centres has typically involved complex 

and time-consuming network design 

and configurations. In most of our 

previous implementations for clients, 

VMWare VMotion feature is normally 

deployed within a single data centre. 

“This represents a significant advancement 

for the implementation of virtualized data 

centre by simplifying and accelerating 

long-distance workload migrations.” said 

P.H Tang, CTO of Macroview Telecom. 

About Macroview 

Macroview Telecom is a professional 

system integrator providing 

Internetworking solutions for 

enterprise IP network infrastructures, 

DWDM optical networks, 

Data Centres, IP unified communications, 

carrier backbones, business 

videos, network security and 

network management. We have 

been operating since 1991 and now 

have offices and technical support 

centers in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, 

Shanghai, Beijing, Dongguan, 

Shenzhen and Macau. 

To get more information, please 

visit www.macroview.com 

Cisco OTV enabling VMotion across data centers 

www.cw.com.hk 


Advertorial 

Meeting the complex needs for a 

secure and adequately controlled 

ICT environment 

Keep your mission critical applications 

running and achieve IT agility 

According to the circular issued 

by Securities and Futures 

Commission (SFC) in March 

2010, all licensed corporations in the 

banking and securities industry shall 

establish policies and procedures to 

ensure the integrity, security, availability, 

reliability and thoroughness of all 

information, including documentation 

and electronically stored data, relevant 

to the firm’s business operations. 

Almost all enterprises require a secure 

and adequately controlled ICT environment 

for their ICT operations and 

information management systems 

Throughout the years when 

Macroview designs network solutions 

for different customer requirements 

and networking scenarios, we observe 

that, not only financial service institutions, 

but almost all other enterprises 

require their ICT operation and 

information 

management systems to meet the 

firm’s needs of a secure and adequately 

controlled ICT environment. 

To cope with this widespread 

security concern, Macroview helps 

customers deploy the F5 BIG-IP 

Application Security Manager (ASM) as 

one of the recommended practices. 

ASM provides auto-adaptive approach 

to application delivery security, where 

the security policy is automatically 

updated based on observed traffic 

patterns. ASM also comes with 

detailed security reporting capabilities. 

Macroview recommends clients to 

perform incident response, threat 

analysis, event correlation and compliance 

audits 

Apart from the delivery of security 

policy, Macroview recommends clients 

to perform incident response, threat 

analysis, event correlation and 

compliance audits. In this case, the 

Splunk software becomes an essential 

solution that meets such stringent need 

of advanced network security operation 

and management. 

“F5 and Splunk have partnered to 

deliver an advanced security reporting 

and analysis tool to assist ASM users” said 

Linda Hui, the Manager Director of F5 

Network Hong Kong and Taiwan. “This 

brings even more value to users of F5’s 

Application Security Management 

solution, and enables them to meet the 

complex needs of incident responses, 

threat analyses or compliance audits.” 

Splunk allow users to drill down on 

security incidents and to build ad-hoc 

reports for auditing and compliance 

easily 

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

K 

“Splunk have developed an App to 

manage F5 ASM, Firepass and APM devices 

by providing out-of-the-box reports and 

dashboards. On top of this, Splunk allow 

users to drill down on security incidents 

and to build ad-hoc reports for auditing 

and compliance easily. ” said Robert Lau, 

Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, 

Splunk. 

Pre-defined searches, reports and dashboards make it quick to get started and you can customize 

Splunk for F5 to meet the specific needs of your agile IT environment. 

Macroview designs and provides 

integrated solutions of Splunk and F5 ASM 

to clients with professional services to 

meet their unique business environment - 

making customers’ ICT operation and 

information management systems more 

secured and effective. 


Hong Kong’s Source of IT Insight 

www.cw.com.hk 

technews 

techguide 

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biznews 

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bizpeople 

analystwatch 

industryprofile 

www.cw.com.hk 


Locking down the data lifecycle 

Fuji Xerox bolsters security controls at all stages of data lifecycle to 

secure possible information leaks from multi-functional devices 

Today, virtually every business organization 

has its own copier or a 

multi-functional device (MFD) with 

all-in-one copy, print, scan and fax functions. 

Modern MFDs offer tremendous productivity 

advantages. It is fast, convenient 

and extremely versatile. Most office workers 

will not be able to survive if the printers 

/ copiers / MFDs broken down in their 

departments. 

All kinds of documents are processed and 

important information is duplicated, stored 

or transmitted through these devices every 

day. However, without the correct safeguards 

in place, that efficiency can come 

at a high price. 

“If confidential data is leaked, the business 

is at risk, reputations can be ruined 

and, in extreme cases, companies can 

even close,” said Henry Kwok, General 

Manager of Marketing at Fuji Xerox (Hong 

Kong) Limited, “That means enterprises 

cannot afford to take risks with information 

security when it comes to their hardware 

devices.” 

Hard disk risk 

Security risks start when data is written 

to the hard disks of MFDs. Without proper 

control, these can be accessed relatively 

easily by un-authorized users. The risks 

continue through the end-of-life, when the 

hard disks of defunct MFDs retain valuable, 

confidential information. 

Such a case happened in April 2010, 

when two copiers were acquired from a 

used machine broker. They were originally 

installed in the Sex Crimes Unit and Narcotics 

Unit of New York Police Department 

(NYPD). Confidential information from past 

investigations was extracted from the machines’ 

hard disk drives, using a forensic 

software program available free on the in- 

In Fuji Xerox’s case, all data temporarily stored 

in the system hard disk is deleted after the print 

jobs are completed. 

One of the copiers contained 249,000 

copies and 42,000 prints, and it was also 

used as a fax machine. Tens of thousands 

of documents were extracted from the device, 

including detailed domestic violence 

complaints and a list of wanted Buffalo sex 

offenders. The other copier has a list of targets 

from the Operation Impact Drug raid 

three years ago on it. 

Copy machine truths 

and prescription information on the hard 

disk. 

The news stunned the public about potential 

hazards of copying machines. The 

lesson is clear. Securing information on 

the hard disk, and removing it when the 

machine has reached the end of its useful 

life are the keys to keeping a tight grip on 

enterprise information. 

According to Kwok of Fuji Xerox, there 

are four types of information security threats 

encountered by the MFDs. They include: 

1. Leakage of document data and security 

audit log data from the system 

hard disk 

2. Document data, security audit logs 

and controller software setting data 

are accessed, read, used or altered 

from control panel or web browser 

without authorization 

3. Document data, print jobs from PC 

clients, security audit log data, and 

controller software setting data on 

the internal network are intercepted 

or altered 

4. Un-authorised access to the internal 

network via fax modems from public 

telephone lines 

To deal with the potential threat of leakage 

of document data from hard disk, companies 

can look for MFDs with capability to 

overwrite stored data or encrypt data in the 

hard disks. 

Security answers 

If companies are afraid of data in the 

MFDs being accessed without authorization, 

features such as security audit log, 

user authentication and system administrator 

security management should help. 

To prevent data being intercepted on internal 

network when MFDs process printed 

job from PC clients, companies can encrypt 

The news was covered by CBS in prime 

time. The CBS report also revealed a shocking 

truth: almost every digital copier made 

since 2002 contains a hard disk storing an 

image of every document copied, scanned, 

or emailed by the machine. Unless users 

deliberately scrub the hard disk clean, the 

records will always remain. 

The CBS reporters acquired two more 

copying machines from the same broker. 

One used by a construction company, 

which still had a list of employees’ names 

and social security numbers, the other had 

been used by a New York insurance com- 

ternet. 

pany which had people’s medical records network data using protocol such as SSL, 


Brought to you by Fuji Xerox 

IPSec and S/MIME. And they can also setup 

network security management system, 

using, for example, SNMPv3. 

Finally, to prevent unauthorized access 

of data through fax modem, companies can 

look for MFDs with fax flow security feature. 

4 types of information security threats encountered by MFDs 

Enterprises cannot afford to 

take risks with information 

security when it comes to 

their hardware devices 

All in all, to deal with the potential security 

hazards, companies should be carefully 

when choosing their MFDs. Apart from 

price and functionalities, they should also 

check the security features of the machines, 

before making purchases. For example, 

whether temporarily stored or stored data 

in the machine can be overwritten. Or, how 

to deal with used machines 

Policy enforcement 

In Fuji Xerox’s case, Kwok said, “all data 

temporarily stored in the system hard disk 

is deleted after the print jobs are completed. 

If customers need to store the relevant 

data in the hard disk, they are required to 

set the duration of data storage according 

to their existing data processing policy and 

hard disk volume.” 

Fuji Xerox also has stringent disposal 

Fuji Xerox Tsuen Wan Recycling Centre. All 

used copiers / printers / MFDs are re-packed, 

containerised and transferred to the FX ecomanufacturing 

plant for separation into up to 70 

types of raw materials for recycling. 

www.cw.com.hk 

and recycling processes of MFD hard disk 

Industry standard leadership 

in place to ensure customer data protection. 

Since 2004, Fuji Xerox has been certified 

When a MFD reaches the end of its to the ISO 15408 standard. “Fuji Xerox’s 

life, it will be shipped to the Fuji Xerox Eco- full range of MFD products are equipped 

Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Thailand where it with the advanced data storage function 

is taken to pieces for secure disposal. to ensure the information security,” said 

Material is recycled and returned to the Kwok. 

industrial manufacturing cycle. The plant Today, Fuji Xerox is the only MFD manufacturer 

has helped Fuji Xerox achieve its goal of 

to pass the EAL3 (Evaluation As- 

reaching zero-landfill with recycling rates of surance Level 3) which encompasses the 

99.8%. 

following seven security function targets on 

By the end of August, Fuji Xerox will the entire device: 

launch two other professional services, including: 

1. Document data and security audit log 

1) dismantling the hard disk from are encrypted before being stored in 

the MFD and returning it to the customer the system hard disk 

for self-handling, and 2) implementing international 

2. Temporarily stored or stored data 

standard “3D Procedures” – ‘De- 

can be overwritten 

gauss’, ‘Destroy’ and ‘Disposal’ of the hard 3. Security audit log alters device maldisk 

in front of the customer. 

function and configuration, and user 

This should prevent embarrassing events, operation data for incidence follow up 

such as the case of NYPD, from happening 4. System only allow the authorised 

after a MFD reach the end system administrator to log in to set 

of its useful life, and bring the security function 

peace of mind to companies 

5. System can set the individual user 

using MFDs. 

right 

In fact, security of MFD 6. System supports multiple encrypted 

is getting more and more communication protocol, such as 

attention nowadays. SSL/TLS, IPSec, SNMP and S/MIME 

There is an international 7. System can prevent hackers from 

standard to measure accessing the internal network via 

whether a MFD is secured MFD from public telephone line, 

enough. It is ISO 15408 and accessing data in the MFD hard 

standard (also known as disk 

Common Criteria Certificate) 

Moreover, the controller software, which 

for Information Technology Security controls the whole MFD, has also been 

Evaluation, offered by International Standards 

certified to the ISO 15408 standard. All of 

Organization. There are seven these are designed to bring the peace of 

Evaluation Assurance Levels (EAL). mind to the customers. 


SECURITYWATCH 

Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks 

Redmond offers automated tool to simplify attack blocking setup 

By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld (US) 

Microsoft on August 31 again 

abstained from naming 

which of its Windows programs, 

if any, contain bugs that could 

lead to widespread “DLL load hijacking” 

attacks. The company also published an 

automated tool to make it easier for users 

to block attacks exploiting vulnerabilities 

in a host of Windows applications. 

The DLL load hijacking vulnerabilities 

exist in many Windows applications 

because the programs don’t call code libraries—dubbed 

“dynamic-link library,” 

or “DLL”—using the full pathname, but 

instead use only the filename. Criminals 

can exploit that by tricking the application 

into loading a malicious file with the 

same name as the required DLL. The result: 

Hackers can hijack the PC and plant 

malware on the machine. 

“Microsoft plans to address those of 

our products affected by this issue in the 

most appropriate way for customers,” 

said Jerry Bryant, a group manager with 

the Microsoft Security Response Center, 

in a Tuesday entry on that team’s blog. 

“This will primarily be in the form of 

security updates or defense-in-depth updates.” 

Although Microsoft again declined to 

call out its vulnerable software, outside 

researchers have identified as potential 

targets a number of its high-profile apps, 

including Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007 

and 2010, Address Book and Windows 

Contact, and Windows Live Mail. 

Other vendors’ software may also 

be at risk, including Mozilla’s Firefox, 

Google’s Chrome, and Adobe’s Photoshop. 

Bloggers try to help 

In another blog, Jonathan Ness, an 

engineer with MSRC, and Maarten Van 

Horenbeeck, an MSRC program manager, 

described how customers can deploy 

and use a tool the company first offered 

Aug. 23. 

That tool blocks the loading of DLLs 

from remote directories, such as those on 

USB drives, Web sites and an organization’s 

network, and is aimed at enterprise 

IT personnel. 

Not surprisingly, Microsoft acknowledged 

that users have asked for more help 

with the tool. Shortly after its release, IT 

professionals complained that the tool 

was confusing and asked colleagues for 

advice on how to configure it. 

To simplify things, Microsoft has 

posted a “Fix It” tool on its support site 

that automatically blocks any DLLs from 

loading from WebDAV or SMB (Server 

Message Block) shares, two of the most 

likely attack vectors. Users must still 

download and install the original tool, 

however. 

Ness and Van Horenbeeck also downplayed 

the threat to some extent, saying 

that DLL load hijacking bugs cannot be 

exploited via “drive-by” attacks, where a 

user’s PC is infected as soon as he or she 

browses to a malicious site. 

“A victim would need to browse to a 

malicious WebDAV server or a malicious 

SMB server and double-click a 

file in the Windows Explorer window 

that the malicious server displays,” they 

said. 

Microsoft has known of the issue since 

at least August 2009, when researchers 

with the University of California Davis 

notified the company of their work. 

There’s evidence, however, of reports as 

far back as 2000, and attacks exploiting 

the flaw the following year, when the 

Nimda worm leveraged the bug in Office 

2000. 

HD Moore, chief security officer at 

Rapid7 and the creator of the Metasploit 

penetration testing toolkit, was the 

first to reveal the potential attacks when, 

on Aug 19, he said he’d found 40 vulnerable 

Windows applications. Moore 

was followed by other researchers who 

claimed different numbers of at-risk programs, 

ranging from more than 200 to 

fewer than 30. 

Others are working on a fix. “We’re 

testing our own Firefox-specific fixes 

and plan to get them out to users soon,” 

Mozilla’s security team said in an e-mail 

reply to questions last week. 

Even so, Microsoft said patches may 

be long in coming to some users. “We 

recognize that it may take quite a bit of 

time for all affected applications to be 

updated and for some, an update may not 

be possible,” Bryant admitted. 3 


Nov 11, 2010 

Sheraton Hong Kong 

Call for Sponsorship 

Cloud computing challenges faced by IT management 

If you have solutions that will help CIO/CEO/CFO change these challenges into 

opportunities, please join as sponsor and get in touch with your target audience. 

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact 

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www.cw.com.hk 


CIOs back in the fray as 

Asian IT recovers 

Top Hong Kong CIOs and IT heads discuss “CIO Opportunities 

in the New Economy” By Ross Milburn 

Another high-energy Computerworld 

Hong Kong TalkTech 

discussion started with globalization 

and the acknowledgement that 

Asia is leading the economic recovery. 

“Customers previously executed regional 

projects in Hong Kong or greater China 

[and] are now increasing their scope,” 

said Tony Fung, executive, Global Technology 

Services, IBM Global Technology 

Services, IBM China/Hong Kong. 

“They might combine Hong Kong, Japan 

and seven or eight Asian countries— 

or even global projects that align the US, 

European and Asian branches of an organization.” 

Others agreed with this global theme. 

“In the past, many FedEx IT initiatives 

were initiated at headquarters and implemented 

here in the regions with little input 

from the regional teams,” said Alison 

Dack, VP for IT and CIO, Asia Pacific, 

FedEx Express. 

“Now there is heightened awareness 

to engage early on and work more seam- 

lessly and collaboratively,” said Dack. 

“This process of understanding needs, 

challenges and solutions empowers our 

Asia-Pacific IT team to contribute to a 

better global solution and to actively participate 

in the delivery cycle. In addition, 

collaboration also ensures we continue 

to develop relevant IT-enabled valueadded 

solutions that customers demand 

for their business.” 

Globalization a must 

“A few years ago, our company selected 

a very US-centric CRM solution for 

global implementation and it was abandoned 

last year as a disaster,” said Byron 

Hou, IT director, Asia Pacific, Cushman 

& Wakefield. “Now every regional business 

head is on a committee, and the 

worldwide offices are able to contribute 

and be responsible for a global CRM solution 

together.” 

Apparently regional development is not 

the sole answer. “Five years ago, we used 

to create regional project teams to execute 

My users keep asking why IT can’t develop 

applications like iPhone or Facebook, which don’t 

require training 

—Andrew Ling, Bossini 

projects,” said Edison Sam, assistant VP 

& head of IT, New York Life Insurance 

Worldwide. “We would aim to achieve 

80% standardization with 20% variation to 

suit local users. It didn’t work.” 

“With five countries [involved], the 

projects took two to three times longer and 

cost more, said Sam. “Now we collaborate 

globally on more than half our projects to 

achieve as much consensus as possible, 


ut we have abandoned rigid standardization. 

One country will implement the project 

first and the others are encouraged to 

follow in their own time with appropriate 

customization of platform and other requirements.” 

Fickle users 

Keeping users happy is still top priority 

and it’s not getting any easier. “Users 

tend to change requirements due to 

changing conditions,” said Helen Wong, 

chief, Finance Systems Development, 

Hospital Authority. “You ‘spec’ it out 

clearly, but the market changes and they 

want something different. Small changes 

are OK, but big changes are difficult and 

the CEO wants to know why it cost so 

much.” 

Most CIOs agreed that business analysts 

must liaise between IT and users. “For any 

project, we need business analysts, otherwise 

it’s difficult to capture the necessary 

information,” said Arthur Wong, head of 

Internet Banking Department, Information 

Technology Development Department, 

Chong Hing Bank. “Especially when users 

don’t always know what they want. 

The lack of analyst skills could extend the 

delivery time.” 

IBM’s Fung: Customers previously executed 

regional projects in Hong Kong or greater 

China [and] are now increasing their scope 

But smooth-talking business analysts 

can’t always keep users happy. “We set 

up Project Management and Business 

Analysis departments last year, said Sam. 

“But company culture doesn’t change 

overnight. Users don’t understand the 

benefits and also must understand that 

while they can make late changes, proper 

change management procedures with impact 

analyst must be in place.” 

Skills shortage 

The ongoing IT skills shortage is another 

worry. “The market is bouncing back, but 

it’s difficult to find people with the right 

skills for each project,” said Kenneth Yiu, 

manager, Integrated Technology Services, 

IBM Global Technology Services, IBM 

China/Hong Kong. “Staff are moving 

around looking for security, especially in 

China, Hong Kong and Macau.” 

Andrew Ling, director of IT and supply 

chain, Bossini, said: “It comes down 

to standardization. If you shop for servers 

and SANs from different vendors, you 

may get incompatibility, so it may be easier 

with a single vendor—and you’ll get a better 

deal.” 

But the single-vendor-theory has its 

downside. “My company adopted a single 

vendor policy for hardware and software, 

but I have a hard time getting the vendor’s 

attention,” said Wong from Chong Hing. 

“When I requested proposals from multiple 

vendors, I got a lot more response 

and aggressive price-cuts, sometimes up 

to 50-60%. I also found that vendor competition 

resulted in better solutions.” 

The outsourcing conundrum 

Although most CIOs do some outsourcing, 

caution is essential. “Outsourcing technology 

can mean a lot of things,” said Yiu 

from IBM. “Full outsourcing was common, 

but now the trend is for flexible sourcing, 

with different selected vendors for specific 

needs.” 

Helen Wong agreed. “Flexible sourcing 

The Hospital Authority’s Wong: Small 

changes are OK, but big changes are 

difficult and the CEO wants to know why it 

cost so much 

provides more choice, flexibility and costeffectiveness, 

and you also have more bargaining 

power.” 

User-friendly interfaces 

CIOs agreed that most applications 

are not user-friendly enough. “I bought 

an iPhone for my wife,” said Ling, “and 

was surprised to see my daughters, aged 

two and four years, using it without any 

training. My users keep asking why IT 

can’t develop user-friendly applications 

like iPhone or Facebook, which don’t 

require training and minimize operation 

mistakes.” 

“We need a fundamental rethink in the 

design process, because the traditional way 

of developing applications results in boring 

interfaces which cause user errors in spite 

of operator training, and require multiple 

sign-ons,” said the Bossini director. “I’ve 

started an initiative on usability architecture, 

which includes collecting user feedback 

during the design process.” 

Do we need school reform “The current 

education system in Hong Kong is 

almost killing off usability,” said Arthur 

Wong. “It’s like getting blood from a stone 

and we need another training method for 

creativity.” 3 

www.cw.com.hk 


The kaleidoscope of post-financial 

crisis IT management 

The pluses and minuses of 

swimming at low tide 

By Carol Ko 

Hong Kong Housing Authority’s Chu: For 

some of the IT systems that we plan to 

implement, we’ll sometimes host discussions 

with our tenants 

The financial crisis has eased—or 

so it seems. With the chips back 

on the table, where have costconscious 

CIOs been placing their bets 

These and other matters were discussed 

by Asia-Pacific CIOs and senior 

IT executives in a recent roundtable 

co-organized by Computerworld Hong 

Kong and IBM Hong Kong. As CIOs 

felt each others’ pulses, they concluded 

an overall upswing of technology initiatives 

and investments, as well as surprises 

and shocks during infrastructure 

overhaul projects. 

Through the financial crisis, investment 

bank JP Morgan has publicly stated 

that it will continue to invest in new 

technology solutions. Through the financial 

crisis, the global Banking Firm JP 

Morgan has stated that it will continue to 

invest in new technology solutions. “We 

were presented with a great opportunity 

to work more closely with our vendors 

to invest smartly,” said Martin Laing, JP 

Morgan’s head of IT, risk and security 

management, Asia Pacific. “We scaled 

back some projects, but we continued to 

invest as a whole.” 

Retail bank China Construction Bank 

(Asia) recently replaced its 15-year-old 

core banking system. “We work very 

hard on negotiating prices with the vendors,” 

said Michael Leung, senior vice 

president & CIO, CCB (Asia), IT and 

corporate services. “During the market 

downturn in the past years we had huge 

bargaining power to get the best deals 

because we’re one of the few that were 

actually buying. At times we were able 

to tell our vendors: ‘Look, give us [the 

IT products] for free. You can make 

money just from the services’,” Leung 

said jokingly. 

“IT investment has been quite steady 

[in the government sector] for the last 5 

years despite the economic downturn recently” 

said Raymond Chu, head of IT, 

Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), 

the government body that manages public 

housing. However, Chu pointed out 

that there had been “a unanimous slowdown 

in terms of IT investment” in the 

private sector. 

This year, said Chu, the HA has been 

“seriously” looking to adopt cloud computing, 

such as desktop virtualization 

and private cloud deployment in the testing 

and development environment. 

The citizens’ roundtable 

These days, the IT staff working at the 

HA are finding themselves interfacing 

more with the business—both internal 

users and public housing tenants. Chu 

said, “For some of the IT systems that 

we plan to implement, we’ll sometimes 

host discussions with our tenants and 

other stakeholders: we go to the field and 

ask what they want in terms of Internet 

services, for instance.” 

“These discussions have been useful, 

added Chu. “If you’re considering what IT 

services to offer to the public [while] ‘in 

an ivory tower,’ you tend to believe everything 

is good for the tenants. But then our 

customers may say ‘I don’t want that’— 


it’s important to strike a balance between 

perceived and actual customer needs.” 

Legacy system replacement 

The Housing Authority has replaced all 

the legacy systems, and is in the middle 

of implementing SAP projects including 

the finance and procurement modules. 

“Looking forward, we’re also looking to 

expand our data warehouse—the existing 

data warehouse was built five years 

back,” Chu said. 

Swiss Reinsurance is an insurance 

company that enable insurance companies 

financially to subscribe to more 

greater risks, in turn achieving a more 

balanced portfolio. “Our challenge is to 

globalize our systems, some of which belong 

to the second or third generation,” 

said Patrick Raths, director of IT, Swiss 

Reinsurance Company. Raths said his 

team was centralizing all the company’s 

data centers back in Switzerland, as all 

the global and core business applications 

were supplied by its Swiss headquarters. 

CCB’s Leung: There are many frequenttravelers 

between Hong Kong and mainland 

China. If you have RMB funding sources, you 

can then settle these payments in RMB— 

that’s the way to go 

Supermarket coupons 

Leung explained that his bank “bravely 

survived” a massive core banking replacement 

project, largely through careful 

planning and execution, but also partly 

through the “deployment” of supermarket 

coupons. “We had to explain to those 

customers who were affected by some 

inevitable system outages during the conversion 

period and, where necessary, sent 

them a coupon to compensate for the inconvenience 

they experienced.” 

Leung said. “At the same time, we also 

used up some of these coupons for our 

staff, who had to work round-the-clock 

several days in a row; some actually 

camped in the office.” 

On several occasions during and after the cut-over 

period, I was left thinking “Look, what else could better 

give us a few hours of breathing space than perhaps a 

complete, total power failure in Hong Kong” 

—Michael Leung, CCB (Asia) 

Leung added: “On several occasions 

during and after the cut-over period, I 

was left thinking ‘Look, what else could 

better give us a few hours of breathing 

space than perhaps a complete, total 

power failure in Hong Kong’ That 

would be what we needed.” 

“This was no joke. Do it a [core 

banking replacement] once in your IT 

career and that’s more than enough,” 

he said. 

Eyeing/entering China 

In Hong Kong, both local and multinational 

companies have been actively expanding 

their market reach in China. Sauce 

maker Lee Kum Kee is marketing its 

sauces to Wenzhou, a coastal city in China 

famous for exporting chefs to restaurants 

in Europe and the US, according to David 

Lau, director of IT at Lee Kum Kee. 

Over two years ago, CCB (Asia) installed 

a dedicated manager to look after 

business collaboration with mainland 

entities, and has been preparing for the 

dawn of RMB businesses. “Already today, 

and more in the near future, we in 

Hong Kong will be doing much more 

RMB businesses, such as purchasing 

goods and services using dual-currency 

credit cards, paying utility bills across 

the border and settling trade transaction 

with mainland partners in RMB,” said 

Leung. “There are many frequent-travelers 

between Hong Kong and mainland 

China. If you have RMB funding sources, 

you can then settle these payments in 

RMB—that’s the way to go.” 

But entrance to the China market has 

not been barrier-free—the Chinese government 

has put in place certain “restrictive” 

policies in this rabbit-carrot chase. 

“China’s foreign exchange policies are 

still restrictive,” said Rory Yu, head of 

technology management division, technology 

management division, information 

technology department, Bank of 

China Hong Kong. “Even if you reach 

the market, there is no way to invest. So 

we’re treating Hong Kong as a springboard.” 

“As our parent company FHC (Fubon 

Financial Holding Co) is expanding its 

business into mainland China, current 

regulations only allow an indirect route 

through its Hong Kong subsidiary,” said 

Sunny Chang, senior VP, head of IT & 

operations, Fubon Bank (Hong Kong). 

Chang said FHC is already investing in 

Xiamen and other tier-two Chinese cities 

which he considered “promising and 

profitable.” 3 

www.cw.com.hk 


The time has come for 

real-time apps 

The new customer: the case for predicting and exceeding expectations 

By Ross Milburn 

In Hong Kong during August, a group 

of CIOs participated in a roundtable 

discussion on “The new customer: 

the case for predicting and exceeding 

expectations,” sponsored by TIBCO 

Software. Below is a summary of their 

main discussion, which was moderated 

by Chee Sing Chan, group editor, Computerworld 

Hong Kong. 

Today’s enterprises have lots of data, 

but extracting value from it is a continuing 

challenge. “Our data relating 

to clients and company fundamentals 

comprises an enormous amount of business 

intelligence that can predict the future 

behavior of markets under various 

economic and market conditions,” said 

T Rajah, CIO, CLSA. 

Use of real-time data is 

growing fast 

Nevertheless, versions of real-time 

technology are in widespread use. “Op- 

of the Australian market has up to 30% 

churn in power consumers. That means 

we may have to add 30% new customers 

a year just to keep the same customer 

base and it takes a lot of analytics to determine 

the best portfolio of customers 

to optimize the business results.” 

Airline passengers have a big need 

for real-time data. “One US airline carrier 

has a real-time system that enables 

it to automatically reroute, compensate 

and notify passengers when their connecting 

flights are delayed,” said Ram 

Menon, Chief Marketing Officer & Executive 

VP, Worldwide Product Strategy, 

TIBCO. “Thousands of events occur 

simultaneously—whether it is an airport 

curfew, weather delay, or baggage 

transaction—and all these events have 

the potential to impact other parts of an 

airline’s operation to drive up complexity. 

With real-time enterprise computing 

an organization can gain a dual benefit: 

opportunity seized and crisis averted.” 

“The average person is inundated with 

over 2,000 outbound marketing intererational 

reliability is a basic tenet of 

electricity supply,” said Joe Locandro, 

director, Group IT, CLP Holdings. “A 

small voltage dip in Hong Kong can 

mean many people trapped in lifts, waiting 

to be freed by the Fire Services Dept. 

To avoid this, we monitor our whole system 

for wear and tear in real-time, from 

power plants, to substations, down to the 

feeder substation, and then analyze the 

data so that we can do predictive rather 

than scheduled maintenance. We also 

monitor weather conditions in detail, to 

predict the hottest peaks when consumers 

crank up their air conditioners and 

we have to meet the real time demand- as 

lagging supply is not an option.” 

“In Australia, we supply a real-time 

energy market, bidding every five minutes 

to determine our energy dispatch,” 

continued Locandro. “That means analyzing 

our own load profile, as well as 

the demand curve. Another challenge 


CLSA’s Rajah: Our data relating to clients 

and company fundamentals comprises an 

enormous amount of business intelligence 

ruptions a day: in response a US retailer 

studied customer responses to an alternative 

approach—real-time marketing 

campaigns. And what they found is that 

“relevant” offers made to customers 

based on real-time information such as 

a life event, a recent purchase, or a location-based 

transaction resulted in a respectable 

customer response rate,” said 

Menon. “Seemingly insignificant events 

in isolation are meaningless, however, 

with the ability to perform sophisticated 

real-time correlations, a big picture can 

be inferred and turned into a relevant offer 

embedded in the stream of life.” 

Managing customer expectations is 

also vital. “In bad weather it’s better if 

we contact the customer by SMS three 

hours before the flight and tell them they 

can’t fly and we’ve rebooked them on 

another flight,” said Tomasz Smaczny, 

director & CIO, Cathay Pacific Airways. 

“The customer doesn’t have to turn up 

and waste their time.” 

IT can be used to monitor any work 

and sometimes make radical improvements. 

“By monitoring our trading, we 

are very aware that 70% of our trading 

volume can be executed is during the last 

10 minutes of the day, and we can organize 

to benefit from that awareness,” 

added Rajah. 

The government also wants to share 

useful information. “After a traffic accident, 

we need to pass information to 

the police to deal with it, and also to the 

public, so drivers can reroute to avoid 

it,” said Jeremy Godfrey, GCIO, Office 

of the Government CIO. “We have 

a project to create a real-time repository 

of transport information. It will initially 

be for internal purposes, but we hope to 

provide public access, so that third parties 

can make the information available 

on platforms such as mobile phones and 

GPS-based route planning systems.” 

Privacy means op-in versus 

opt-out 

Godfrey wondered whether privacy 

concerns would impact real-time marketing. 

“In the last few weeks, there has 

been significant public concern about 

whether people have given genuinely 

informed consent for use of personal 

data in marketing,” said Godfrey. “You 

got a 6% response to your SMS, but that 

means 94% did not respond: do you 

know how many of them would be upset 

if they knew that their real-time location 

was being monitored and used for marketing 

purposes” 

Customers are not sheep, however, 

and it is necessary to pay attention to 

individual preferences, as the moderator 

pointed out. “When my wife filed her tax 

online and the tax office knew all about 

her previous employers, she was taken 

aback that they had such a large file on 

her,” said Chee Sing Chan, group editor, 

Computerworld Hong Kong. “I suppose 

some people will find real-time messages 

brilliant and others will not.” 

Speaking the customer’s language 

would seem important—but apparently 

we can’t all do it. “Do you know what 

really irritates me” asked Patrick Slesinger, 

director & CIO, Wallem Group. 

“The fact that I’m a gweilo, yet I receive 

Chinese text on my phone and Chinese 

telephone calls at home. I would prefer 

PCCW to make it known that there is a 

gweilo on this number!” 

If customer satisfaction is the goal, 

opt-in versus opt-out could be a sensitive 

issue in future. “When I sign up to download 

various software, one of the things 

I am resigned to doing is to un-subscribe 

from the promotional emails I get, which 

is part of my modus operandi,” said 

Roland Tesmer, head of IT Strategy & 

Planning, HK Jockey Club. “In contrast, 

when using the Telebet service at the 

Jockey Club, you have to elect to receive 

SMSs on the opt-in system.” 

Of course, the reason why people 

opt-in or-out comes back to relevance 

and utility of the information. “Imagine 

you are driving towards a traffic 

jam and you receive an SMS: ‘Go by 

another route,’—that information is 

really useful,” said Steve Siu, CIO, 


Godfrey from OGCIO: Recently there has 

been public concern in Hong Kong about use 

of personal data in marketing 

www.cw.com.hk 


OOCL/Cargosmart. “It all depends on 

whether the information is useful to 

you.” 

4 continued from page 41 execution systems,” said David Brickler, 

managing director & CIO, IT Dept, 

Mizuho Securities Asia. “With high volume 

transactions in banking, with milliseconds 

between trading volume the 

latency issues mean your servers need to 

be on top of the exchange and you have 

to transact in memory.” 

“Algorithmic trading makes a distinct 

change in that the level in the application 

or programming stack where the decision 

making takes place is changed dramatically,” 

continued Brickler. “In algorithmic 

trading, a high-level person wants to 

roll out a trade with huge volume. Then 

ChinaTrust Commercial Bank’s Chang: 

The integration layer is the least disruptive 

architecture to move forward, but it’s a very 

difficult technology to manage 

The value of relevance and utility was 

quickly seconded by another professional. 

“I agree that, when you receive 

and SMS, it is the issue of relevance that 

makes you love or hate the information,” 

said Ruu-Tian Chang, CIM executive 

president, IT, ChinaTrust Commercial 

Bank. “When the bank uses real-time 

information to tell us that our ATM 

withdrawal is exceptionally high or at an 

unusual location, we all welcome the information. 

When it is used for sales, it’s 

probably the relevance that makes it acceptable.” 

How to program algorithms 

and objects 

Real-time technology doesn’t come 

free—more programmers will have to 

accept the challenge of working in the 

memory space. “We have built a federated 

structure across Hong Kong and Asia 

for consolidating information from lots 

of platforms, business intelligence and 

In 2004 we started to break our enterprise object 

model implemented in Smalltalk object database and 

we leveraged TIBCO to create a distributed object 

mode 

—Steve Siu, OOCL/Cargosmart 

the algorithm takes over and the decisionmaking 

process is totally transparent to 

the trader, who doesn’t care about it. The 

decision-making cranks away in the background 

and it is not just trades, but decisions 

such as the need to cope with the exchange 

opening and closing, because that’s 

when 80% of the business is done.” 

Real-time applications apparently 

call for a revamp of the object model 

underlying services. “In 2000 we expanded 

the scope of our transaction system 

into marketing and pricing,” said 

Siu. “In 2004 we started to break our 

enterprise object model implemented in 

Smalltalk object database and we leveraged 

TIBCO to create a distributed object 

model.” 

“We discovered the power of the 

enterprise message bus and started 

adding additional applications that depended 

on the complex event processing 

environment,” continued Siu. “The 

massive data needed provides a large 

challenge. We abstracted the attributes 

needed for different objects in a given 

domain in the memory space with 

more detail extract from database on 

demand basis because of the rule base 

advantage in complex event processing 

platform. The memory space is a new 

game, with no standard structure for 

handling today, but it provides power 

we can leverage.” 

An added bonus of real-time apps 

could be a big clean-up of the services 

repertoire. “The integration layer is very 

important. If you can develop architecture 

for one banking system and provide 

it to 17 countries, the synergy is pretty 

easy to understand,” said Chang. “But 

the integration layer is also important 

for cleaning up the past. Our bank was 

a latecomer to regionalization, but as we 

went through transaction renovation, introducing 

the trading system and banking 

system, the integration layer brought 

all the different legacy systems and standards 

to light.” 

“[The] integration layer is the least 

disruptive architecture to move forward, 

but it’s a very difficult technology to 

manage,” continued Chang. “When you 

buy TIBCO or Microsoft software, you 

are forced to obsolete old versions and 

there’s always an end-of-service policy. 

When we build SOA services in-house, 

we keep a bunch of old services, but now 

we have to clean up and move only valuable 

services to our mature future repertoire.” 

3 


BOCI partners with TIBCO 

to reach new heights. 

© 2010, TIBCO Software Inc. All rights reserved. 

www.cw.com.hk 


TECHGUIDE 

IBM rolls out new zEnterprise mainframe server 

and auxiliary products 

Big iron from Big Blue features 96 microprocessors clocking in at 5.2GHz 

By Stefan Hammond in Jiangzhajie, Hunan Province 

In the center of the world’s most important 

21st century country, one of 

the world’s premier tech-vendors 

last month outlined the benefits of their 

latest mainframe computer. 

As IBM’s Dr Guraraj Rao put it in a 

keynote speech, “Given the workloads 

we have to process and keep secure in 

our data wards, if we did not have mainframes, 

we would have to invent them.” 

In this spirit, IBM announced a series 

of new products based around the 96-microprocessor-powered 

zEnterprise 196 

mainframe server, their zEnterprise BladeCenter 

Extension unit and their Unified 

Resource Manager software which 

integrates multiple platform resources as 

a single virtualized system and provides 

unified management for zEnterprise, 

said IBM in a statement. 

Moore’s Law and heavy R&D 

Ray Jones (IBM’s VP Worldwide, 

zSeries Software) said that “Moore’s 

Law is obsolete due to heat-dissipation, 

so Intel has added more cores, [which 

drives] down clock-speeds as silicon 

must be devoted to management. The 

mainframe model is quite different— 

they have more cache to maximize hitrates.” 

Other mainframe benefits cited 

by Jones include the microprocessor being 

“built into the mainframe. We call it 

‘fit-for-purpose’: workloads work best if 

they’re designed [into the system].” 

Dan O’Connell, VP, Mainframe Platform, 

IBM Growth Marketing Unit, said 

that the new System z, is a “new generation/new 

class [of machine] that’s getting 

a lot of attention in the marketplace. It’s a 

machine created with a lot of client-input. 

According to O’Connell, the new device 

is “the most scalable server, [and] 

now has the world’s fastest processor at 

5.2 GHz.” He added that IBM had invested 

over US$1 billion with each generation 

in the System z line. 

O’Connell said that client-input from 

finance users was invaluable, as many 

financial services are either considering 

or implementing core banking transformation. 

He added that HSBC in HK was 

the first order placed for this new zEnterprise 

in the region, and that his firm’s 

regional efforts were headquartered in 

Shanghai, as “China is the largest growing 

market—we’re targeting areas that 

are growing. 

“System z has had an 18% CAGR 

since 2003,” he said, citing internal data 

based on MIPS. “No matter how fast you 

grow, we can scale.” 

O’Connell added that China’s banks 

are “some of our biggest and most important 

clients,” and that another “sector 

is tax: state and local.” 

Data center panic 

Dr Guraraj Rao, IBM Fellow, systems 

chief engineer, systems hardware development, 

IBM Systems &Technology 

Group, declared that today’s data centers 

have huge challenges. “When we 

do CIO surveys, they complain about 

dedicated resources,” he said, “and 70% 

of CIO budgets are used to fix existing 

problems, not moving forward.” 

Rao pointed to the new add-ons in the 

system: the BladeCenter extension, and 

especially the Unified Resource Manager, 

which he described as “the glue that 

holds it all together.” 

IBM’s Jones: As far as we know, a System z 

mainframe has never been hacked 

Critical software 

“We see that mainframes handle data 

very well,” said Ray Jones, VP, System z 

software sales, IBM Software Group. “If 

users move these processes off the mainframe, 

they find it works more slowly.” 

Jones explained that a new OS—z/OS 

1.12—was needed to run the new hardware, 

and the total creation involved the 

collaboration of over 12,000 IBM engineers, 

including 5,000 on the software 

side. 

“The new OS improves performance 

40% to allow customers to manage their 

batch-windows,” said Jones. “Next year, 

Tivoli and 1.13 will make more improvements 

to the batch paradigm across the 

data center.” 

Jones also highlighted a feature of 

mainframes which is rarely highlighted, 

security. “As far as we know, a System z 

mainframe has never been hacked, partly 

as we hire some of the world’s toughest 

hackers,” he said. “Once they get out of 

prison, literally, we invite them to hack 

our systems. Mainframe security extends 

from elliptical keys in the microprocessor 

for mobile devices out to the end of 

the network.” 3 


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INDUSTRYPROFILE 

Hong Kong firm k-matrix targets 

online marketing benchmarks 

Social media marketing is the way to go, says Edmund Lee, 

CEO of k-matrix By Teresa Leung 

Lee from k-matrix: We have already collected 

1.2 billion documents 

CWHK: Why digital marketing intelligence 

Edmund Lee: We’d seen a lot of aggregated 

online data from forums, blogs 

and CGM (consumer-generated media) 

since the 2004-2005 timeframe. At that 

time, US-based developers already had 

products for analyzing such data, so we 

considered creating a product (k-matrix 

CI) for analyzing data related to Hong 

Kong. The aim is to help businesses develop 

effective marketing and branding 

strategies and campaigns. 

We spent less than two years on R&D 

before releasing the first version of this 

product in 2006. Now we have released 

the third edition capable of natural language 

processing, and text-mining. 

Besides keywords, we look at how frequently 

keywords appear and the position 

in which they appear. Based on 

further context analysis, we label a post 

positive or negative. 

CWHK: How many founders are there 

EL: There are four of us. Now we have 

16 people in Hong Kong and around five 

in Shenzhen. 

CWHK: Do you have many competitors 

EL: We have only a few rivals. One of 

them is a Singapore-based company that 

doesn’t do much localization, while the 

others are mainland-based. However, 

many others that do online marketing intelligence 

collect their data manually. 

CWHK: How do you differentiate yourself 

EL: Our data-mining approach starts 

with text and data collection from influential 

local media. We cover 90 percent 

of Hong Kong media and popular forums 

such as Yahoo Hong Kong news, 

Uwant, discuss.com, and hkgolden.com. 

This way we can provide past data immediately 

and allow a more complete 

analysis for our customers. Our rivals 

lack historical data because their data 

collection is project-based. 

In the future, we plan to discover unknown 

terms. Now we are working with 

Hong Kong Poly U to develop a system 

that searches for the most-mentioned 

terms not yet known to us. In addition, 

we will look into tools that helps measure 

effectiveness of cross-channel campaigns 

[that use channels like] EDM 

(electronic direct marketing) and Facebook. 

CWHK: Is your service on an SaaS model 

EL: Yes. Since we have 1.2 billion documents 

we can’t offer it on-premise. Customers 

pay monthly charges and service 

fees for reports. 

CWHK: Who are your target customers 

EL: We target SMBs, but the early 

adopters are primarily enterprises. Most 

of the users are involved in sales of consumer 

goods, corporation communications 

departments of large firms, and 

companies or business units that do PR 

and marketing. 

We also have presence in the nonprofit/social 

service sectors. Some of our 

paying customers include Caritas, which 

looks for young drug takers online, and 

Samaritans, which searches online for 

people who might commit suicide. 

CWHK: Geographically where are most 

of your clients from 

EL: Hong Kong. We have a small number 

of clients from the mainland and Taiwan. 

The China market can accommodate 

several companies like ours because 

of its size. 

Businesses don’t want to use a service 

from the same company serving their 

competitors. The major challenges include 

localization, a colossal collection 

of data, and channel partnership. 

CWHK: Tell me more about your partnership 

with Hong Kong-based Admomo. 

EL: While Admomo’s forte is online ad 

spending data, we focus on sentiment. 

We combine our strength and provide 

measurement of the effectiveness of 

marketing and branding exercises. 

CWHK: What’s your next milestone, and 

how do you plan to achieve it 

EL: Many businesses want to spend 

on social media marketing but without 

benchmarks. We hope to provide 

benchmarks for them to measure campaign 

success. We are also in talks with 

a VC—aiming to expand overseas by 

helping foreign firms tap the mainland 

market. 3 


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BACKPAGE r o b e r t c l a r k 

China: from tech laggard to green superpower 

Despite a lack of innovation, China’s scale will 

eventually lead the world in, among other things, 

clean energy 

China’s economy has passed Japan’s to become the 

world’s second largest. Some economists think it may 

overtake the US as early as 2027, although (as usual) 

other economists disagree. 

It’s quite a milestone. Inevitably China will overtake the US 

on size alone. The interesting question is whether it will lead the 

world in innovation and not just in scale. 

Exports rule 

If I had to choose an IT firm that best represented China’s 

economy, it wouldn’t be a home-grown champion like Huawei. 

Rather, it would be like an export manufacturer like Foxconn, 

which has built immense scale out of leveraging China’s low 

wages and good infrastructure. 

Yes, Foxconn is Taiwan-owned, but that underlines the fact 

that China’s export economy is driven by non-mainland companies. 

Like China itself, Foxconn is suffering blowback from 

its mercenary approach to labor management. And most of all, 

Foxconn is an assembly manufacturer that makes money in the 

Chinese way, at the low-end of the value chain. 

The US, at the other end, is China’s benchmark. It’s tempting 

to compare the US to Microsoft—which has minted fortunes out 

of its hammerlock on strategic products—or the clever, highminded 

Googlers. 

But if I had to name one company, it would be IBM—thanks 

to its size, longevity and ability to reinvent itself. Big Blue got its 

first big break with the 1905 US census and went onto dominate 

timeshare, mainframes and PCs and now services. Its strength is 

its ability to execute profitably and build a system of innovation. 

That’s what China lacks. Old China may have given the world 

the compass, printing and gunpowder, but there isn’t a single 

idea from modern China that has been adopted elsewhere. 

Brand equity 

One obvious marker is brands. By the mid-1970s, 30 years after 

the end of World War II, the Japanese economic miracle had 

created global brands such as Sony, Yamaha and Toyota. 

Three decades after China began opening its economy, it can 

claim Lenovo (thanks to the purchase of IBM’s PC business) 

and Hai’er. Neither is exactly a household name, and in both 

cases their market share outside China is insignificant. 

China’s IT leaders are firms such as Huawei (which builds 

standards-based products at lower prices), Baidu (which has 

its own search technology but a business model cut-and-pasted 

from Google) look-alike aggregators like Netease and Sina, and 

quasi-monopolies like China Mobile. There are also gaps, like 

the absence of large enterprise software firms. 

Innovation gap 

The problem is China’s authoritarian, top-down political system, 

which weighs heavily on innovation. The government interferes 

directly in industry and splashes a good deal of cash trying to 

pick winners. Private firms are unable to borrow cash from stateowned 

banks unless they develop connections to key officials. 

China produces 350,000 engineers, but most of these are unemployable 

in world-class companies. The best go abroad if 

they can and most stay there. 

The education system promotes math but discourages critical 

thinking. The culture disdains those who have failed. The political 

system penalizes the kind of free expression and spontaneity 

that fueled the creation of Silicon Valley. In addition to all of 

the above, the low level of trust deters collaboration between 

complementary teams. 

The future: green tech 

Yet despite all this, China is set to become the world’s leading 

center for green technologies. China already runs the world’s 

biggest wind power deployments and, according to the Pew 

Charitable Trusts, last year invested US$34.6 billion in clean 

energy, nearly double the US total of $16.8 billion. The World 

Economic Forum expects the global clean energy market will 

reach $450 billion annually by 2012 and 

$600 billion by 2020. 

With that kind of scale, and in the face 

of fragmented efforts by the rest of the 

world, China has the ability to design, 

test and commercialize clean technologies 

that will be in demand within its 

own economy and across the developing 

world. 

Which goes back to my original analogy. 

The best economies, like the best 

businesses, need only execute better than 

their rivals. 3 

Robert Clark is 

a Hong Kongbased 

technology 

journalist. 

rclark@electricspeech.com 

C 

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CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

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Hong Kong: IT innovation hub? - enterpriseinnovation.net

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