楊長華專訪 - The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce

this has something to do with cloud computing; all the storageis in the cloud, and with the right applications, users maymove content, stream movies, and watch IP TV through theinternet at home. All these developments are exciting areas andopportunities for our members.B: A lot of businesses are struggling, and banks are reluctant tolend money to support them. Is now a good time to invest innew technology, or should companies wait until the marketsstabilize?WY: A lot of times, when the market is not stable, people willsay they don’t want to upgrade and spend the money on newmachines or new solutions. But they are missing the point here.IT is a key enabler of business agility, and in tough times, IT iseven more important in helping business to re-engineer. We haveseen customers who would use such time to think through whatthey need, where their businesses are going, and build capacityto find the right solution. This helps them defend market sharewith better productivity, and when the market picks up they willhave an even better competitive edge.Face to Face with Winnie Yeung楊 長 華 專 訪We are going through a computing revolution ascloud computing, mobile technologies and naturaluser interfaces unshackle us from the desktop andoffice. This month, The Bulletin talks with theChairman of the Chamber’s Digital, Information andTelecommunications Committee, Winnie Yeung, tofind out what this means for businesses.隨 著 雲 端 運 算 、 流 動 技 術 和 自 然 用 戶 界 面 的 出 現 , 我 們 不 再 局 限 於桌 面 和 辦 公 室 工 作 , 一 場 運 算 革 命 已 經 展 開 。 今 期 《 工 商 月 刊 》 訪問 了 總 商 會 數 碼 、 資 訊 及 電 訊 委 員 會 主 席 楊 長 華 女 士 , 探 討 這 場 革命 對 企 業 的 意 義 。B: Many people have been advocating that companies shoulduse social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to interact withtheir customers. It is hard to think of any company that hastruly successfully accomplished this. What went wrong?WY: The beauty of using social media for businesses is that thecost is really low, but you could generate word-of-mouth andget attention from followers if you do it right. It is a new way ofcommunicating with your audience so people are still trying tofigure out what works and what doesn’t, and how they can usesocial media for their company. My son basically only communicateswith his friends using Facebook and IM technology,so this young generation has a very different view on how tocommunicate and interact with people. Businesses will have tolearn their way of communicating too.For example, I also serve as vice-chair of the Business SoftwareAlliance (BSA), and one of BSA’s core messages is respectfor intellectual property rights. This is not an exciting topic thatwill easily get people’s attention. Last year we tried a viral videocampaign, and in a relatively short time we generated over32,000 views on the campaign site and an additional 80,000views in related discussion forums. So the amount of marketingyou can get for minimum expenditure is phenomenal. Ifyou tried to do this through traditional media like newspapersor TV it would cost a fortune.The Bulletin 工 商 月 刊 September 2012 25