SEATTLE--Already a software guru and one of the world's richest men, Bill Gates took on a new role today: doctor. Before a room of more than 100 executives at the company's CEO Summit, the Microsoft (MSFT) chairman and chief executive discussed the "digital nervous system" of corporations, diagnosing current and future technology concerns that company heads must address to keep their operations healthy. "When I say nervous system of a business, what I mean is the way that a business deals with events--planned events like yearly budgeting or sales results, or unplanned results like competitive activity," Gates said. 1.2MB Bill Gates on businesses' use of technology "It's this sum of all these different systems: The meetings, the paperwork, the way information workers are organized, the way information about customers is stored...All of those are the nervous system of the company." The "excellence" of that nervous system determines a company's competitiveness, Gates added. "It's my thesis that, with the incredible advances in technology, it's now possible to have a dramatically more responsive nervous system." While these are all themes that Gates has hit upon before at other industry events, it is relatively rare for him to have a captive audience of CEOs for the country's top companies. Gates and other PC industry leaders usually address their sales pitches to chief information officers, but this week's summit reflects a growing awareness of information technology as a part of a fundamental business strategy. The event also highlights Gates's own importance as a national business icon. The two-day summit explores the future direction of technology as seen through the eyes of Gates, Vice President Al Gore, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, and other top executives. 828K Gates on the Internet and business Earlier in the day, Gates addressed executives from Microsoft's biggest customers at a Seattle hotel. (See related story) There, he advised them on using the Internet to reduce operating costs, share pertinent customer data, and earn a competitive edge. And he predicted that, within ten years, society will be largely Web-savvy. "As we use computers for communications, we need to consider more than the speed of computation or the size of the memory or disk. We need to think of how these machines are connected together," Gates said. He pointed specifically to the need to expand high-speed computer connections. Gates appealed to the executives to set the tone for their companies' technological future. "To put this infrastructure together takes a very serious investment...from the top of the company," Gates said. The Microsoft chief executive said the two key questions that remain for the PC are scalability and manageability. He noted that enterprises should focus on lower costs without giving up the flexibility of machines, getting the latest software, or using portable computers. Westinghouse, for example, reviewed its various email and Unix systems but decided to impose just one productivity suite, one email standard, and update all hardware so that everything was interoperable, Gates said. The company reduced the number of its support centers to 1 from 35, while its investment was paid back within a year. As for scalability, Gates believes that, within the next year or two, clustering machines to yield power beyond a Unix or mainframe system will be the technological solution. Finally, citing his own company as an example, Gates said sharing Microsoft's budgeting plans with workers over the Internet allowed it to cut its budget preparation cycle to three weeks from three months.
Discuss: Gates diagnoses technology
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