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A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE PERSONAL COMPUTER LOCAL AREA NETWORKS (PC LANS) AMONG COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS IN HONG KONG BY CHEUNG WING KIN CHONG KWOK KWONG,DANIEL 1 珠使 t t RESEARCH REPORT Presented to The Graduate School In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THREE YEAR MBA PROGRAMME THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG May 1990 [Dr Y T F U K ii C Advisor
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Page 1: A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE PERSONAL … · computers (minicomputers or mainframes) with different operating systems. Of course, benefits come with cost. Danger of computer

A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE

PERSONAL COMPUTER LOCAL AREA NETWORKS (PC LANS)

AMONG COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS IN HONG KONG

BY

CHEUNG WING KIN CHONG KWOK KWONG,DANIEL ?1 珠 使 t 國 t

RESEARCH REPORT Presented to

The Graduate School

In Partial Fulfilment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

THREE YEAR MBA PROGRAMME

THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

May 1990

[ D r Y T F U K ii … C Advisor

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• • 11

ABSTRACT

This study identified the extent of utilization of PC

LAN in Hong Kong. From the survey findings, the writers drew

conclusions and made recommendations to existing PC LAN

users, potential PC LAN users and marketeers in the light of

promoting the effectiveness of utilizing PC LAN in Hong Kong.

The computer profession was selected as the target

population while primary data and information were collected

by mail survey.

The conclusions are :

1. There are 59 percent of the respondents which have

installed at least one PC LAN in their firms.

2• Insurance, engineering, governement/education and

finance are the major PC LAN users in Hong Kong.

3. There are 66 percent of firms with over 99 staff

which have installed PC LANs.

4. The current PC LAN market are dominated by Ethernet

and Novell in hardware and software respectively.

5. Performance, reliability and price, in their order

of importance, are the three major selection

criteria for Hong Kong users to choose their PC

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LANs. Ill

6. PC LAN uses are generally satisfied with what are

offered in the PC LANs that they are using.

7. Word processing, database and spreadsheet, in their

order of importance, are the three major

application areas running on PC LANs.

The writers recommend that :

1. Existing PC LAN users should conduct detailed

sizing exercise before they upgrade their PC LANs.

2. Other alternatives, such as mini-computers, should

be considered when an upgrade of PC LAN is considered.

3. Careful selection of the appropriate LAN hardware

and software is essential.

4. Marketeers should strive to improve the

performance, reliability and price of their

products.

5. Marketeers should form stragetic alliances with

the popular software vendors in the application

areas of word processing, database and

spreadsheet.

6. PC LAN vendors should develop better interface of

their products to PC LANs of other brands and to

mini-computers and/or mainframes.

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iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF EXHIBITS viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

PREFACE xi

Chapter

I• INTRODUCTION 1

The World Market of LAN 3 Local Market of LAN in Hong Kong • • • 7 The Research 8 The Significance of Study Findings 9

II. METHODOLOGY 10

Target Population 10 Unit of Analysis n Population Size 12 Sample Size 1 4

Data Collection 1 5 Objective 15 Selection of Data Collection Method 15

Questionnaires 16 Design 16 Contents 18 Despatch Methods • 1 8

Research Aids 20 Summary 20

III. SURVEY FINDINGS 21

Despatch and Collection of Questionnaries 21 Company Data 26

Classification ‘ [ 26 Size in Terms of Number of Staff 27 Degree of Computerization 27 Number of PC in Use 30

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PC LAN Installed 32 Hardware Particulars 35

Type of Computers in Use 35 PC LAN Hardware in Use 3 5 Length of Use of PC LAN 37 Assessment of Hardware in Use 38

Software Particulars 3 9 PC LAN Software in Use •••••• 3 9 Applications in Use 3 9 Assessment of Software in Use 40

Criteria in Choosing PC LANs 4 1 Job Function 4 3 Role in Purchasing 4 3 Report [ 44

IV. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS 4 5

Response Rates 45 Company Data 46

Classification 46 Degree of Coiaputerization 48 Size in Terms of Number of Staff 50 Number of PC in Use 52 PC LANs Installed 5 4

Hardware Particulars 5 5 Type of Computers in Use ••! 55

PC LAN Hardware in Use 5 5 Length of Use of PC LAN 5 7 Assessment of Hardware in Use 5 7

Software Particulars 5 7 PC LAN Software in Use •• 5 7 Applications in Use 5 9 Assessment of Software in Use 5 9

Observation Relating to the Objectives of the Survey 60 Objective 1 : PC LAN Market Segment in Hong Kong 60 Objective 2 : Identify Market Characteristics • • 63 Objective 3 : Selection Criteria of LANs • • • • 66 Objective 4 : Gap between what are offered and

what are needed 66 Objective 5 : Major Applications of PC LANs

in Hong Kong 71 Job Function 73 Role in Purchasing 7 3 Report ! ! : 74

V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 7 5

Conclusion 75 Extent of Usage of PC LANs in Hong Kong •• •• •• •• 76 PC LAN Market Segment in Hong Kong 76 PC LAN Market Characteristics in Hong Kong • • • 77 Selection Criteria of PC LANs in Hong Kong • • • 78 Gap Between what are offered and what are needed

for PC LAN in Hong Kong 78

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vi Major Applications of PC LANs in Hong Kong • • • 79

Recommendation 7 9 Firms Already Installed PC LANs 79 Firms Not Yet Installed PC LANs 81 Marketeers 82

APPENDIX 85

BIBLIOGRAPHY I33

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vii

LIST OF FIGURES

1. LANs : Installed Base 4

2. LAN Hardware : Installed Base 4

3. LAN Software : Installed Base 6

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viii

LIST OF EXHIBITS

1. Despatch and Collection of Questionaires 24

2. Criteria in Choosing PC LANs 42

3. Distribution of Industries 47

4. Degree of Computerization 49

5. Distribution of Firm Size 51

6. LAN Hardware in Use 56

7. LAN Software in Use 58

8. Applications in Use 72

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ix

LIST OF TABLES

1. Distribution of Industries 26

2. Distribution of Firm Size 27

3. Degree of Computerization for Firms of Different Size 29

4. Number of PC in Use 30

5. PC Usage for Different Industries 32

6. PC LAN Installed Vs Size of Firms 33

7. PC LAN Installed Vs Industry Types 34

8. Number of Firms Using Different Brand of PC LAN • • • 36

9. LAN Hardware Vs Industry Types 37

10. Length of Use of PC LAN 38

11. Assessment of Hardware in Use 38

12. LAN Software in Use 39

13. Applications in Use 40

14. Assessment of Software in Use 41

15. Job Functions of Respondents 43

16. Role in Purchasing PC LANs 44

17• Number of Firms Requesting Summary Report 44

18• Number of PCs Installed in Firms of Different Sizes • 53

19. Rate of Usage of PC LANs in Various Industry 54

20. PC LAN Market in Hong Kong 60

21. PC LAN Hardware Against Industry Type 61

22. PC LAN Software Against Industry Type 62

23. Reasons for Using PC LAN 64

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24. Reasons for Not Using PC LAN 65

25. Mean Scores of LAN Hardware Assessment 67

26. Mean Scores of LAN Software Assessment 68

27. Mean Scores of LAN Hardware Assessment - b y Hardware Type 69

28. Mean Scores of LAN Software Assessment - b y Software Type 69

29. Plan of Changing Existing PC LANs 70

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PREFACE

We wish to express our heartful thanks to all those

who have contributed to the completion of this research

project.

The Hong Kong Computer Society had helped to insert

our questionnaires into her newsletters for all her 2,000

members without charges.

The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) had

helped us to send our questionnaires to 67 members (out of

300 members in total) of her Electronics Division at a

nominal charge.

A local computer software dealer had provided us

free-of-charge a list of general computer professionals for

the mail survey.

Special acknowledgement is due to our supervisor, Dr.

Y.T. Fung for his advice and guidance throughout the nine

months when we were working on this project.

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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

"Sooner or later the number of personal computers in

the office reaches a critical level and the problem of a

local area network (LAN) crops up." [1]

In the past, personal computers (PCs) were largely

used to serve individual users separately at their home or

office workstations. Individuals used to work at their own

personal computers in isolation and the few users who had to

share data could do so by exchanging floppy disks.

However, as the number of personal computer users

grows and computer technology improves in both hardware and

software, certain economies of scale become important. For

example, large hard disks, laser printers can be shared;

electronic mail can reduce communication errors and enhance

security; database needs to be shared among corporate users

with the most updated version. These factors brought about

the need to share common resources and communicate among

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personal computer users and thus local area networks appeared.

At the heart of networking is the concept of a

server, which is a computer resource providing services to

the other PCs (nodes) called clients on the LAN. Examples

of servers are file server, printer server and gateways

which allows the connection between PCs on the LAN and other

computers (minicomputers or mainframes) with different

operating systems.

Of course, benefits come with cost. Danger of

computer viruses, cost of LAN hardwares and softwares,

administrative overhead, security and recovery are just a

few of the examples.

We believe that it will be interesting and useful to

ascertain the extent of utilization and application of

personal computer local area networks (PC LANs) in local business sector.

In our study, we will only concentrate our interest

on those IBM-compatible personal computers local area networks, excluding other LANs for non-IBM-compatible PCs because :

(1) The numbers of IBM-compatible PCs are significantly

greater than any other PCs in the market

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3 (2) IBM-compatible PCs are the "standard" workstation PCs

within the business world

(3) IBM-compatible PC LANs are in general more popular and powerful than any other PC LAN in the market

The study scope will include both hardware and

software utilization as well as their typical application,

selection criteria and degree of acceptance by the users.

The World Market of T.AN

"LAN are getting bigger; users are getting more

educated; and applications are getting better." [2] "1988

was another year of the LAN and that 1989 is shaping up to be yet another,“ [2]

The world market of LAN are expanding at tremendous

rate. There are very few industries, even among those

"hightech" industries, that can grow this fast. At the

beginning of 1989, there were about 0.8 million LANs

installed worldwide. By the end of 1989, there would be

more than 1.2 million LANs installed. Figure 1 shows the

estimation made by the LAN magazine on the size of installed

base of LANs. Though the growth rate of LANs is slowing

down slightly but the installed base keeps on expanding.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), a

market research firm in Framingham, USA, the average number

of nodes on each LAN will grow from the current eight to

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4

nearly 15, while the total number of LANs installed grows to

2.2 million by 1992.

Year 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

LANs (million) 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 2.2

Fig. 1 LANs : Installed Base

(Source: International Data Corporation)

Figure 2 shows that both Ethernet and Token Ring

grow. Token Ring grows faster but from a smaller base. IDC

estimated that LAN hardware revenue will be more than $6

million in 1992.

Local Token Type Ethernet Talk Arcnet Ring Starlan Others

Percentage 39.5 21.4 12.0 10.7 5.7 10.7

Fig. 2 LAN Hardware : Installed Base

(Source: International Data Corporation)

"Not only is the LAN industry growing rapidly, but

the potential for growth is tremendous••’ [2] "There will be

50% of the 60 million PCs in the world attached to LANs by

1992. BY early 1989, only 19% PC were attached to LANs."

[2 ]

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5 "The rate of attachment of new PCs is higher than

that of installed PCs." [2] Hence, most companies are

willing to buy PCs specially as a part of a LAN.

Dataquest, another market research firm in San Jose,

USA, predicted an even higher figure 一 almost 60% of PCs

will be connected to LANs by 1992.

Basically, we can segment the LAN market into two portions:

(1) PC LANs: PCs as nodes

(2) System LANs : PCs, minicomputer, minaframes and

terminal server as nodes

PC LANs accounted for 93% of all LANs installed but

less than 50% of all revenue made from LANs, according to

IDC, because of the lower average price per node of PC LANs.

Besides price, other driving forces behind PC LAN

installations are : structured wiring schemes based on

twisted pair cabling; more powerful PCs; better network

operating systems and support from large vendors; better

user education; increased user demand for data sharing;

establishment of networking standards and better LAN

application software.

Excluding Apple and TOPS (networking mostly for

Macintoshes), Novell has an even bigger share of the PC LAN

operating system market. (Figure 3)

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Vendor Novell Apple Tops IBM 3 Com others

Percentage 35.5 29.6 11.8 10.1 6.1 7.0

Fig. 3 LAN Software : Installed Base

(Source: International Data Corporation)

The boundaries of the LAN industry are expanding

too. New products are being introduced rapidly. Software

products (applications, network management and LAN

utilities) and hardware products (bridges, gateways and routers) are booming. According to Market Intelligence

Research Company, a market research firm in Mountain View,

U.K., the LAN application software market alone will be worth of $2 billion by 1992.

By the summer of 1989, the LAN hardware market was

crystal clear - Ethernet is the leading network hardware

option but Token Ring have not disappeared and Local Talk is

hooking up more and more Macintoshes. (Figure 2)

The operating system segment of the LAN industry is

not very clear yet. Novell is the dominant PC LAN operating

system vendor. (Figure 3) Appleshare and TOPS follow.

After Novell, IBM PC LAN Program is the best selling IBM-

compatible PC LAN operating system, followed by 3Com, 3+ and

lONET. Novell will continue and even expand its dominance.

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7 In summary, the LAN industry will continue to grow.

By 1991, the pace of growth will slow down. However, the

slack will be taken up by the new markets the LAN industry

has created and will continue to create. Also, networking

technology is advancing rapidly while more and more PC users

will be attracted into the PC LAN market.

Local Market Of T.AN In Hong Knng

"In Asia, where the assimilation of technology

usually lags behind that in the USA, PC LANs are becoming an

up and coming attraction, if not an outright necessity, to

business which own a large number of scattered standalone machines.“ [3]

Because no academic body has done a thorough market

survey of the local market of PC LANs in Hong Kong, our team

would try to carry out an exploratory market research on the local market.

Among the business firms in Hong Kong, only those

with certain degree of computerization will adopt PC-LANs.

It is usual to found that in these kinds of "computerized"

firms, some computer professionals hold certain higher level

management positions. Hence, our target population will be

these computer professionals whose views would be regarded

as the most representative among other managers.

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8 The Research

There are five main objectives in the study.

Firstly, we want to know what types and sizes of firms are

using PC LANs more intensively in Hong Kong. In the other

words, we want to define our market segment.

Secondly, we would identify the characteristics of

the current and the potential market. For examples, size of

the PC LANs, particulars of the softwares and hardwares of the LANs in use.

Also, we would be keen in identifying the selection

criteria of PC LANs for the market. This is a very

importmant parameter for the PC LANs vendors in meeting

customer requirements and needs.

Fourthly, we want to know whether the existing PC

LANs offered in the market can satisfy customer requirments

in general. Is there any existing gap in between what are

offered and what are needed?

Lastly, we want to identify the major application areas of PC LANs in Hong Kong.

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The Sianificance Of Study Findings

The result of the research is to give recommendation

to computer marketeers together with an insight of the

requirement of local firms and assist them to devise a

composite package that can meet the various current and

potential application areas of IBM^^compatible PC-LANs.

On the other hand, the study will give advice to

local computer professionals on what the general market

trends, typical application areas, strengths and weaknesses

of the current products and the usual characteristics of

major users of PC LANs are. Hence, these professionals will

be able to exert fuller benefits from the adoption of PC LANs.

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CHAPTER II

METHDOLOGY

Target Popi�l at i rm

Population refers to all members in the group that

happen to be the focus of the study. As working on small

samples from all professions in Hong Kong may lead to

doubtful inferences and excessive generalization, the

research will thus focus on some selected professions to

obtain larger samples for more representative results, since

the computer profession has gained high prestige among most

local businesses, their views on the local market of IBM-

compatible personal computer local area networks (PC LANs)

should be the roost representative among all professions in

Hong Kong. Hence, the computer profession was selected as the target population.

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11 Unit of Analysis

Nowadays, most local businesses have their own

computer specialists who may be in form of a single

professional, a small computer expert team, an EDP

department or even a computer subsidary. The unit of

analysis should be individual company because adoption of PC

LANs is a collective requirement surpassing the different

requirements. However, our questionnaires will be addressed

to individual computer professionals. Hence, in the process

of sampling, we would avoid sending the same questionnaire

to more than one key computer professionals in a particular

firm or a particular branch of a large company.

As the adoption of PC LANs may be governed by firm

size, it is necessary to note significant differences in

survey findings due to this factor. Thus, firm size will be

included as an evaluation element of the study.

In addition, opinions of higher levels of management

may be significatly different from those of lower level

computer specialist. Hence, job function and level of

management will be included as an evaulation parameter of

the research.

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12 Population Size

In order to obtain accurate information about the

population size as well as the mailing list for later data

collection purpose, letters requesting for customer lists

were sent to 3Com Hong Kong Ltd and IBM China/Hong Kong

Corporation on 12th November, 1989. However, both requests

were rejected. Then letters requesting for permission to

insert our questionnaires into those advertisements or

newsletters for their customers were sent to these two

companies in early Decemeber 1989. The responses to these

letters were still unfavourable. Copies of these letters

are attached as Appendix 1-8.

The reason for selecting the customers of 3Com Hong

Kong Ltd and IBM China/Hong kong Corporation was that there

are only three major vendors of IBM-compatible PC LANs in

Hong Kong, ie. Novell, 3Com and IBM in order of popularity.

Failing to get the first hand PC LAN customer list,

we proceeded to adopt the approach of conducting research on

the local computer profession. Similarly, letter requesting

for membership list was sent to the Hong Kong Computer

society (HKCS). Copy of this letter is attached as Appendix

9. By early December 1990, the secretary of the Hong Kong

Computer society verbally rejected our request, but promised

to insert our mailing materials into the newsletters

for all her 2,000 members without charge.

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13 Not satisfying with only one response group, we

managed to get another valuable mailing list, the list of

200 members of the Electronic Data Processing (EDP)

Management Group, under the Hong Kong Management Association

(HKMA) . All these members hold the more senior EDP

management positions in various businesses of Hong Kong.

Aiming at a better respondent profile, letter

requesting for membership list was sent to the Electronics

Division, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers on 24th

January, 1990. Copy of the letter is attached as Appendix

10. The Electronics Division was selected because there is

no computer-related division in the Institution. However,

the secretary of the Institution verbally rejected our

request on 30th January, 1990 but promised to provide

mailing labels at the cost of HK$1.00 each. There are about

300 members belonging to the Electronics Division of the

Institution, as informed by the divisional chairman verbally.

With our greatest effort to enhance the respondent

profile, we managed to get another usefull mailing list, a

list of 600 general computer professionals in Hong Kong.

The list was maintained by a famous local computer software

dealer and contains key EDP management staff of a great

variety of businesses in Hong Kong.

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Sample Size

The Hong Kong Computer society promised us to insert

one to two papers of six inches wide into the newsletters

for all her 2,000 members. As we cannot do any sampling, we

had to conduct a full survey on all the 2,000 members of the

society. However, the huge sample size had to be

compromised with a less efficient research material due to

our limited financial resources. Please refer to the next

section on the selection of data collection methods.

Not all the 200 members of the EDP management club

of the HKMA were consulted because some of them are working

in the same company or in highly-related sister companies.

Hence, only 133 members were chosen after careful screening.

Our principle of sampling is to avoid consulting to more

than one key computer professionals in a particular firm or

a particular branch of a huge company.

Not all the 300 members of the Electronics Division

of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers were consulted

because our financial resource is limited and most of them

are working for the Government or education utilities such

as Hong Kong Polytechnic. At our request, the Institution

sorted out a list of 121 elder members of the Electronics

Division and sold to us. Copy of the invoice is attached as

Appendix 11. After screening out those civil servants,

there were only 67 members who formed our next sample.

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15 From the list of 600 general computer professionals,

only 100 were selected using the same principle as mentioned

above, ie. avoid consulting to more than one person of one

firm and avoid excessive responses from civil servants.

Data Collection

It is extremely essential to select and plan

effective data collection methods which would produce valid

original data base for further analysis, presentation and

interpretation.

Objective

Computer professionals are heavily occupied in their

daily businesses and cannot spare much working hours for

other non-productive activities. To resolve this problem,

our objective of the data collection method of this research

is to encourage their participation with disturbance kept

down to a minimal time period.

Selection Of Data Collection Method

Telephone interview was not selected because of its

bothering nature and possible adverse response. The

respondent could unilaterally terminate the interview

without warning or explanation by hanging up the phone.

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Mail survey by questionnaires will be used as the

principal data collection method. It is cheap, convenient,

useful, of wide geographical coverage and without

interviewer bias. A questionnaire is an efficient data-

collection mechanism when the researchers know exactly what

is required and how to measure the variables of interest.

The data can be collected fairly easily and the responses

are easily coded. However, it has the disadvantages of low

return rates and possible misinterpretation due to poorly

designed questions. Also, any doubts the respondents might

have cannot be clarified. Providing the respondents with

self-addressed stamped return envelopes and keeping the

questionnaire as short as possible will help to increase the

return rates of mail questionnaires.

Questionnaires

Design

Good questionnaire design principles should focus on

three areas: the wording, general appearance and the issues

of how the variables will be categorized, scaled and coded [4].

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17 As the respondents have high qualification, the

questionnaire was set in English with some computer jargons.

The questions are set in an explicit and specific manner

with minimum open-end questions. Also, simple and short

questions are adopted. The sequence of question would be

such that the respondents is led from questions of a general

nature to those specific ones; and from question that are

relatively easy to answer to those that are progressively

more difficult. Finally, we avoid sensitive questions

concerning company data and personal information of

confidential nature.

There will be two types of questionnaires of

identical contents but different appearance. Type A is

attached as Appendix 12 and was sent to all the 2,000

members of the Hong Kong Computer Society. An introduction

is used to disclose the identity of the researches, the

purpose of the survey and express the respect to the

significance of the response to be provided. Hence, no

covering letter is used. Perpaid reply postage is not

furnished due to our limited resource and the huge sample

size. The Hong Kong Computer Society allowed us to send

only papers of six inches wide. Hence, the questionnaires

seem to be too small in size. However, to enhance the

response rate, the questionnaire is offset printed on one

single paper with the return address imprinted on the back

for convenient and correct return mailing.

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18 Type B is attached as Appendix 13 and was sent to

the other three samples ie. EDP Management Club, Hong Kong

Institution of Engineers and the general computer

professionals. A covering letter is enclosed (as Appendix

14) to clearly disclose our identity, the purpose of the

survey and express the respect to the significance of the

expected reply. Assuring confidentiality and anonymity of

the replies would ensure less biased answers. Prepaid reply

postage is provided to boost the reply rate. Also, the

questionnaire is offset printed on double-fold A4 papers

with the return address imprinted on the back for correct

and convenient return mailing.

Contents

The questions are divided into four parts dealing

with company data, hardware particulars, software

particulars of the system adopted and some personal

particulars. At the end of the questionnaire, the respondents are asked if they wish to receive a summary report.

Despatch Methods

2,000 questionnaires of type A (Appendix 12) were

handed over to the Hong Kong Computer Society. These

questionnaires are anonymous.

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19 133 questionaires of type B (Appendix 13 & 14) were

mailed to the 133 companies (see Appendix 15) of the members

of the EDP Management Club, HKMA. The questionnaires were

directly addressed to these members. All these

questionnaires were secretly numbered for later verbal

reminders of early response over telephone.

67 questionnaires of the type B (Appendix 13 & 14)

were mailed with the 67 mailing labels supplied by the Hong

Kong Institution of Engineers. 58 of these labels contain

residential addresses and we have no way to do screening

using our principles (ie. to avoid consulting to more than

one professionals of one company and to avoid excessive

response from civil servants). The remaining 9 labels

contain company addresses.

Finally, 100 questionnaires of type B (Appendix 13 &

14) were mailed to the 100 companies (see Appendix 16) of

the general computer professionals list. All these

questionnaires were directly addressed to these

professionals. Also, these questionnaires were secretly

numbered for later verbal reminders of early response over telephone.

- 香 港 中 文 大 學 圓 書 館 藏 書

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20 Research Aids

The raw data from the questionnaires are processed

by SPSS/PC+ to give collated information which was used to

plot graphs.

Summary

The research methodology adopted is considered to be

manageable and reliable. Mail survey was chosen because it

was evaluated as the most cost effective, objective and

efficent method among various alternatives• The

questionnaire was well designed with good layout and short

length so as to encourage higher response rate.

Due to our limited resources, the research is only

conducted for the local computer professionals. The

coverage was considered wide enough to highlight the current

characteristics of the local IBM-compatible PC LAN market,

because in every kinds of businesses, EDP experts already

play dominate roles on the adoption of PC LANs. Moreover,

some of these respondents actually holds very senior

management positions and their views may be regarded as the

most representative among other professionals.

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21

CHAPTER III

SURVEY FINDINGS

Despatch and Collection of Questionnaires

A total of 2,000 questionnaires of type A (Appendix

12) were handed over to the Hong Kong Computer Society on

15th January, 1990. The questionnaires have no stamp

sticked on it and no covering letter because of our limited

financial resource. Then the Hong Kong Computer Society

inserted our questionnaires into her newsletters for all her

2,000 members without charge. Starting from 30th January

1990, returned questionnaires were received. Within 3

weeks, a total of 81 returned questionnaires were collected,

representing a response rate of 4%.

A total of 133 questionnaires of type B (Appendix 13

& 14) were sent on 26th January, 1990 directly to 133

members (out of the 211 members in total) of the Electronic

Data Processing (EDP) Management Club, the Hong Kong

Mangement Association (HKMA). The questionnaires have

stamps sticked and covering letter. Starting from 31st

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22

January 1990, questionnaires were returned. Within 3 weeks,

a total of 57 valid returned questionnaires were received,

representing a vaild response rate of 44%.

A total of 67 questionnaires of type B were sent on

3rd February, 1990 directly to 67 members (out of 300

members in total) of the Electronics Division, The Hong Kong

Institution of Engineers (HKIE)• Starting from 7th

february, 1990 the questionnaires were returned. Within 3

weeks, a total of 32 valid returned questionnaires were

received, representing a response rate of 48%.

Another 100 questionnaires of type B were sent on 27th

January, 1990 directly to 100 selected persons (out of the

600 persons in total) in the list of general computer

professionals provided by a local computer software dealer.

Starting from 1st February, 1990, questionnaires were

returned. Within 3 weeks, a total of 21 questionnaires were

collected, representing a reply rate of 23%.

Three of the returned questionnaires were not

completely filled and hence rejected from the analysis.

Another 10 questionnaires were returned by the post office

because the receipts could not be located. This was

excluded from the orginal number of despatched

questionnaires during calculation of the actual valid

response rate. A summary of the questionnaires despatch and

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23 collection information is shown in Exhibit 1.

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24

EXHIBIT 1

DESPATCH AND COLLECTION OF QUESTIONNAIRES

^ , ^ � (2) (3) (4) (5) Trgel Groups HKCS HKMA HKIE GENERAL SUB- TOTAL

TOTAL

Total population 2000 200 300 600 1100 3100 size

Sample size 2000 133 67 100 300 2300

Sampling 100% 67% 22% 17% 27% 74% Percentage Invalid address - 2 - 8 10 10

(A) Valid sample 2000 131 67 92 290 2290 Size

Valid sampling 100% 66% 22% 15% 26% 74% percentage

Questionnaires 81 59 33 21 113 194 returned

Invalid response - 2 1 - 3 3

(B) Valid response 81 57 32 21 110 191

Response rate 4% 44% 48% 23% 38% 8% (B)/(A)

Notes : (1) - (5) P.T.O.

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Notes (1) All classes of members of Hong Kong Computer

Society (HKCS). The low response rate was due

to absence of prepaid reply postage.

(2) All members of the Electronic Data Processing

(EDP) Management Club, the Hong Kong Management

Association (HKMA).

(3) Full corporate memmbers of the Electronics

Division, the Hong Kong Institution of

Engineers (HKIE)•

(4) A List of general computer professionals

provided by a local computer software dealer.

(5) Sub-total of the results of (2) HKMA, (3) HKIE

and (4) general. They had higher response rate

because the returned questionnaires have stamps

sticked and covering letters.

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Company Data

Classification

The returned questionnaires were classified

according to their industry type. There are totally 191

replies and the distribution is as follows:

TABLE 1

DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIES

Industry Frequency Percentage

Services 40 20.9

Finance 34 17.8

Trading 24 12.6

Insurance 11 5 3

Engineering 22 1 1 . 5

Manufacturing 12 6.3

Government/Education 16 8.4

Consultant 10 5.2

Others 19 9 9

Unclassified (1) 3 1 6

Total 191 100

Notes (1) The respondents failed to provide any information.

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Size in Terms of Number of Staff

The size distribution of the companies is depicted below:

TABLE 2

DISTRIBUTION OF FIRM SIZE

No. of Staff Frequency Percentage

Less than 20 17 8.9

20-99 34 17.8

Over 99 140 73.3 *

Total 191 100.0

Clearly, firms with over 99 staff are the majority

within the responses, representing 73 percent of the total

population.

Degree of Computerization

In classifying the degree of computerization within

a firm, the writers chose to use the highest level of

computers being used within the organization. For example,

if a firm has installed both mainframe and mini-computers,

it will be classified as mainframe user within the scope of

this study.

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As expected, the dominate degree of computerization

in small firms (less than 20 staff) is PC-level while

mainframes are dominant in large firms with over 99 staff.

The mini-computers are dominant within medimum-sized firms (with 20-99 staff).

The firm size is cross-tabulated with the degree of computerization as in Table 3.

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TABLE 3

DEGREE OF COMPUTERIZATION FOR FIRMS OF DIFFERENT SIZE

Degree of No. of Staff Computerization Frequency Percentage

Less than 20 PC 12 70.6 *

Mini 4 23.5

Mainframe i 5.9

Sub-total 17 100.0

20-99 PC 11 32.4

Mini 19 55.9 *

Mainframe 4 11.8

Sub-total 34 looTo

Over 99 PC 18 12.9

Mini 44 31.7

Mainframe 78 55.4 * 一 一 一 一 一 一 • 一

Sub-total 140 100.0

Grand Total 191

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Number of PC in Use

For firms with less than 20 staff, nearly 60 percent

have installed one to five personal computers. In contrast,

over 60 percent of firms with over 99 staff has installed

over 50 personal computers installed. For the medium-sized

firms, the number of personal computers is more dispersed

with more than 90 percent within the range from 1 to 50

personal computers.

TABLE 4

NO. OF PC IN USE

No. of staff No. of PC Frequency Percentage

Less than 20 o 0 0

1-5 10 58,8 *

6-10 4 23.5

11-20 1 5.9

21-50 0 0

Over 50 2 11.8

Sub-Total: 17 100.0

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20-99 0 1 2.9

1-5 7 20.6

6-10 9 26.5

11-20 6 17.6

21-50 10 29.4 *

Over 50 1 2.9

Sub-Total: 34 lOoTo

Over 99 o 0 0

1-5 5 3.6

6-10 8 5.7

11-20 11 7.9

21-50 26 18.6

Over 50 90 64.3 *

Sub-Total: 140 lOoTo

Grand Total 191

PC usage within different industries is cross-

tabulated as follows :

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TABLE 3

PC USAGE FOR DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES

Percentage T � ‘ Firms Using within the industry PCs industry

Service 16 40.0

Finance 15 44 1

Trading 11 45.8

Insurance 6 54.5 *

Engineering 12 54.5 •

Manufacting 6 50.o

Government/Education 3 18.8

Consultation 3 30 q

Others 8 42.1

Total 80

PC LAN Installed

There are 58.8 percent of all the sampled firms

(ie. 112 out of 191) which has installed PC LANs. The

distribution by size and industry type are depicted in Table

6 and Table 7 respectively:

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TABLE 3

PC LAN INSTALLED VS SIZE OF FIRMS

Percentage of Percentage of „ ^ Has PC LAN firms with the the total no. No. of staff Installed same size of firm

Less than 20 5 29.4 2.6

20-99 15 44.1 7.8

Over 99 92 65.7 48.4

Total 112 58.8

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TABLE 3

PC LAN INSTALLED, VS INDUSTRY TYPES

Percentage of , total no. of

Industry Has PC LAN Installed firm

Service 23 12.3

Finance 21 11.2

Trading 14 7^5 Insurance 8 4 . 3

Engineering 1 4 7 5

Manufacting 8 3.2

Government/Education 10 5 . 3

Consultation 4 2.1

Others 10 5 . 3

Total 112 " 5 ^ 8

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Hardware Particulars

Type of Computers in Use

Around 78 percent (149 out of 191) of the

respondents have installed either mini-computers or

mainframe. Out of these firms with mini or mainframe

computers, only 28 has 20 to 99 staff while all the rest

have over 99 staff.

Those respondsents who use mini- or mainframe computers were not excluded from further analysis because

although the interest of this study is only on users of PC

LANs only, it is very common for firms to have LAN, mini- or

mainframs computers mixing together within organization.

PC LAN Hardware in Use

The actual number of firms using each brand is

depicted in Table 8, whereas Table 9 shows the distribution

of each brand among various industries.

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TABLE 3

NUMBER OF FIRMS USING DIFFERENT BRAND OF PC LAN

Hardware Type No. of Firms Percentage

Ethernet 78 58.2

Local Talk 5 3_2

Arcnet 10 7.5

Token Rings 25 18.7

Star Lan 8 6.0

Others 8 6.0 mmm mm mm ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

Total 134 100.0

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TABLE 3

LAN HARDWARE VS INDUSTRY TYPES

Industry Local Token Star Type Ethernet Talk Arcnet Ring Lan Others Total

Service 18 1 0 5 2 2 28

Finance 12 1 0 5 2 2 22

Trading 8 0 2 2 1 1 14

Insurance 3 0 0 4 2 0 9

Engineering 10 0 3 3 0 l 17

Manufacting 5 0 i 0 0 0 6

Government 8 0 0 2 0 1 11 /Education

Consultation 2 2 1 0 0 0 5

Others 10 1 1 1 1 0 14 — — — 一 _ Total 76 5 8 22 8 7 126

Length of Use of PC LAN

Table 10 shows the classifcation of firms into

groups having different lengths of experience of using PC LANs.

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TABLE 10

LENGTH OF USE OF PC LAN

Length of use No. of Firm Percentage

Less than 1 year 32 29.1

1 year to 1.5 years 25 22.7

Over 1.5 years 53 48.2 * 麵 導 糖 一 一 麵 擊 糖

Total 110 100.0

Assessment of Hardware in Use

The result of assessment of hardware in use are sumitiarized in Table 11.

Table 11

ASSESSMENT OF HARDWARE IN USE

Very Very Good Good Neutral Poor Poor

Cost 8 48 44 6 0

Reliability 12 64 23 7 o

Speed of Response 7 58 30 10 1

Capacity 8 53 38 6 i

Vendor Support 5 34 50 15 1

Overall Rating 5 64 29 7 0

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Software Particulars

PC LAN Software in Use

A Summary of the firms using different LAN software is depicted in Table 12.

TABLE 12

LAN SOFTWARE IN USE

Type No. of firm Percentage

Novell 72 60

3Com 3 ^

IBM 21 17

Apple 3 2

Others 17 14

Total 121 100

Applications in Use

It will be interesting to know what sort of

applications are being run on the PC LANs. By selecting the

firms which has installed PC LANs and studying their current

applications. Table 13 is produced.

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TABLE 13

APPLICATIONS IN USE

No. of firm No. of firm Type of Application Using Not Using

Word Processing 90 19

Spreasheet 76 3 3

Accounting 38 70

Database 83 25

Project Management 38 70

Stock control 16 92

CAD/CAM 14 94

Others 29 79

Assessent of software in use

Summary of assessment of software in use are depicted in Table 14.

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41

Table 14

ASSESSMENT OF SOFTWARE IN USE

Very Very Good Good Neutral Poor Poor

Ease of use 6 71 26 3 0

Vendor Support 2 37 53 1 1 3

No software bugs 3 27 68 6 2

Documentation 3 51 42 9 1

Error handling 3 31 61 10 1

Reliability 4 61 34 7 0

Visual Appeal 5 47 49 4 0

Overall Rating 3 52 45 6 0

Criteria in choosing PC LANs

The respondents were asked to rate from 1 to 9 (1

being most important) their criteria in choosing PC LANs.

The summary of their responses is shown in EXHIBIT 2.

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EXHIBIT 2

CRITERIA IN CHOOSING

PC LANs

Ease

Vendor

to

Market

Price

Reliability

Support

Training

Use

Acceptance

Docunentation

Performance

upgradebility

First

13 *

48 *

4 2

8 8

0 31 *

3

Second

15 *

27 *

15 *

3 4

8 3

30 *

12

Third

11

16

18 *

3 27 *

3 4

21 *

14

Forth

20 *

9

16

2 19 *

7 6

15

23 *

_ 17

9 24

7 18

9 14

8 11

Sixth

12

3 19

17

20

6 19

6 15

Seventh

7 3

12

27

12

18

21

3 14

Eigth

8 1

6 31

9 17

37

1 7

Ninth

14

1 3

25

0 41

13

2 18

N)

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Job Function

The job functions of the respondents are tabulated in Table 15.

TABLE 15

JOB FUNCTIONS OF RESPONDENTS

Job Function Frequency Percentage

Corporate Management 23 12.0

Communication Management 5 2.6

Technical Management 30 1 5 . 7

Operation Management 6 3.1

Information Management 57 29.8

Technical Staff 27 14.1

Others 4 3 22.5

Total 191 100.0 = —————

Role In Purchasing

The role in purchasing PC LANs of the individuals were tabulated in Table 16:

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44 TABLE 16

ROLE IN PURCHASING PC LANs

Role in Purchasing Frequency Percentage

Approve 35 18.3

Specify 1 9 9 . 9

Recommend 72 37.7

Nil 16 8.4

Unclassified 4 9 25.7

Total 191 100.0 = = = _ _ —

Report

Table 17 shows the desirability of the Research

Report to the respondents :

TABLE 17

NUMBER OF FIRMS REQUESTING SUMMARY REPORT

No. Of Firms Percentage

Report required 1 4 1 73.8

Report not wanted 50 26.2

Total 191 100.0

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45

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS

Response Rates

The target population is comprised of the member

lists as mentioned in Chapter III. A global response rate of

8 percent is observed, However, should the responses from

the Hong Kong Computer Society members be excluded, the

response rate should be 38 percent instead.

The observed great discrepancy between the response

rates from Hong Kong Computer Society member lists and the

other mailing list is mainly due to the fact that the other

mailing lists are more targetted to the management

professionals who are more willing and interested to

participate in this sort of survey, in return, they are

expecting to get a copy of the summary report, as indicated

in Chapter III. Another factor is that the returned

questionnaires have stamps sticked and covering letters.

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46

The writers are satisfied with the good response

rate and believe that it is due to the convenience of the

reply format built—in to the questionnaire during design

stage as well as a good target lists of audience.

Company Data

Classification

The distribution of respondents among different

industry types is shown in Table 1 and Exhibit 3.

Approximately 50 percent are from Service, Finance, Trading

and Engineering, reflecting the general trend of high proportion of these industries in Hong Kong.

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EXHI

BIT

3 DI

STRI

BUTI

ON O

F IN

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RIES

No,

of

p7i�

ms

Fina

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Manu

faci

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12

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-J

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48

Degree of Computerization

From Table 3 and Exhibit 4, it is observed that the

major level of computerization in firm with less than 20

staff is personal computers. For firms with 20 to 99 staff,

mini-computer is the dorminate mode of computerization. As

firm size grows bigger than 99 staff, dorminate level of

computerization is mainframe, mixing with mini-computers and

personal computers.

It is also observed that firms usually use more than

one type of computers, e.g. mini-computers mixing with

personal computers or mainframe co-exist with mini-

computers . T h i s can be attributed to the fact that as the

degree of computerization in Hong Kong improves, coupled

with advancement in hardware technology, firms can better

utilize computers in different platforms in areas where the

platforms serve best. Moreover, user sophistication and demand for decentralized approach of computerization have

helped to spread usage of computers to more user

departments, compared to the traditional centralized

approach of MIS. Of course, this will not happen if not

because of the proliferation of better and cheaper micro- or

mini-computers in the last decade.

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EXHI

BIT

4 DE

GREE

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COMP

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No.

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80

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50

Size in Terms of Number of Staff

In general, the large-sized firms respond more

seriously to the questionnaires. Most of them not only

provided thorough answers to the questionnaire but also gave

additional comments and footnotes.

Among the 191 respondents shown in Table 2 and

Exhibit 5, 8.9 percent have less than 20 staff, 17.8 percent

have 20 to 99 staff, and 73.3 percent have over 99 staff.

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EXHI

BIT 5

DIST

RIBU

TION

OF

FIRM

SIZE

No,

of

Firms 20-99

staff

厂葛

,I

(,

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140

Ln

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52

The distribution is more concentrated in medium to

large-sized firms because they are more likely to be PC LAN

users and will be more willing to participate in this

survey. The small-sized firms, in contrast, will most likely

use personal computers in a standalone mode. This can be

explained by the phenomenon that as the number of personal

computer grows within those medium to large-sized

organizations, the demand for control and better

communication among personal computers will soon drive to

the need for PC LANs.

Although it is common for large-sized firms to have

mainframes and/or mini-computers installed in additional to

using personal computers, PC LANs still exist in these

organization due to the need for decentralized or

departmental management information system. In fact, many of

these PC LANs installed will have gateways of some sort to

the mainframes/mini-computers for access of corporate data.

Number of PC in Use

The number of PCs installed is observed in Table 4

or 18 to be proportional to the number of staff within the

organization. For firms of less than 20 staff, the modal

class is firms with 1 to 5 PCs installed, representing 58.8

percent of the firms population. For firms of between 20 to

99 staff, 29.4 percent have between 21 and 50 PCs installed.

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64.3 percent of firms with over 99 staff have more thatn 50

PCs installed.

TABLE 18

NUMBER OF PCs INSTALLED IN FIRMS OF DIFFERENT SIZES

Firm Size

Less than Over N o . of PCs 20 staff 22-99 staff 99 staff Total

0 0 1 0 1 1-5 10 * 7 5 22

6-10 4 9 * 8 21

11-20 1 6 11 * 18

21-50 0 10 26 * 36

Over 50 2 1 90 * 93

Total 17 34 140 191

This is coincident with the writers' expectation

that number of PCs in use is approximately proportional to

the total number of staff. This is particularly ture

recently as users are more knowledgeable about personal

computers and use PCs much more often than before.

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54 PC LANs installed

It is observed that large-sized firms are more

intensive users of PC LANs. For firms with over 99 staff, 92

out of 140 have installed PC LANs. This can be explained by

the need for sharing corporate data and applications arised

from larger PC user base.

Around 59 (112/191) percent of the respondents have

PC LANs installed. From Table 19, insurance companies have

the highest rate of usage of PC LANs, with 73 percent of the

population.

TABLE 19

RATE OF USAGE OF PC LANs IN VARIOUS INDUSTRY

No. of firm with PC LAN No. of

Industy Type Installed Firms Percentage

Service 23 40 57.5

Finance 21 34 61.8

Trading 14 24 58.3

Insurance 8 11 72 7

Engineering 14 22 63.6

Manufacturing 6 12 50.0

Government lo 16 62 5 /Education

Consultant 4 10 40.0

Others 10 19 52.6

Total 110 188 59%

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Hardware Particulars

Type Of Computer In Use

As mentioned in Chapter III, around 78 percent of

respondents have installed mainframes and/or mini-computers.

Around 21 percent of respondents have only installed

personal computers.

PC LAN Hardware In Use

Exhibit 6 shows that Ethernet is the market leader

of PC LAN hardware, occupying 58 percent of market share.

Token Ring is a distant second with 18.7 percent market

share. The rest of the PC LANs market is divided evenly

among Local Talk, Arcnet and Star Lan.

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57

Length of Use of PC LAN

The use of PC LAN is quite new in Hong Kong market.

As indicated by the survey, approximately half of the

respondents have their PC LANs installed for less than 1.5

years. This is expected since Hong Kong market usually lags

behind the US market for a few years in terms of computer

technology.

Assessment of Hardware in Use

As shown in Table 11, the responses of assessment of

hardware in use are clustered between 'good' and 'neutral'.

It shows that the PC LAN users are in general satisfied with

the PC LAN software that they are currently using.

Software Particulars

PC LAN Software In Use

Exhibit 7 shows that Novell is the counterpart of

Ethernet in LAN software, being the market leader occupying

60 percent of market share. IBM is the distant second in LAN

software vendor, occupying a 17.4 percent market share. This

is in coincident with the research result of LAN usage

worldwide conducted by International Data Corporation as

mentioned in Chapter I.

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59

Applications in Use

As shown in Table 13, the three most popular

applications running in PC LANs are word processing,

database and spreadsheet, in their order of importance. This

is no surprise to the writers since these are the major PC

applications and are in great demand of data sharing

capabilities.

Assessment of Software in Use

As shown in Table 14, the responses of assessment of

software in use are clustered between 'good' and 'neutral'.

It shows that the PC LAN users are in general satisfied with

the PC LAN software that they are currently using.

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Observation T^elating Tq The Objectives Of The Survey

The writers would like to analyse in this session

these informaion which is particularly useful in fulfilling

the five objectives of this survey as mentioned in Chapter

I.

Objective 1 : PC LAN Market Segment in Hong Kong

As shown in Table 20, PC LAN usage is more intensive

in large-sized companies in Hong Kong. Over 65 percent

(92/140) of the respondent firms with over 99 staff have

installed PC LANs.

TABLE 20

PC LAN MARKET IN HONG KONG

PC LAN No. of Number of Staff Installed Respondents Percentage

Less than 20 5 17 29.4

15 33 45.5

over 99 92 140 65.7

This observation is valuable as it is generally

assumed that the small-sized firms will be more intensive

users of LANs than large-sized firms.

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TABLE 21

PC LAN HARDWARE AGAINST INDUSTRY TYPE

Local Token Star Industry Ethernet Talk Arcnet Ring Lan Others Total

Service 18 1 0 5 2 2 28 *

Finance 12 1 2 8 2 3 22 *

Trading 8 0 2 2 1 i 14

Insurance 3 0 0 4 2 0 9

Engineering 10 0 3 3 0 1 17 *

Manufacturing 5 0 1 0 0 0 6

Government/ 8 0 0 2 0 1 1 1 Education

Consultant 2 2 1 0 0 0 5

Others 10 1 1 1 1 0 14

Total 76 5 8 22 8 7 126

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TABLE 21

PC LAN SOFTWARE AGAINST INDUSTRY TYPE

Industry Novell 3Com IBM Apple Others Total

Service 17 2 2 0 4 25 *

Finance 13 0 6 0 4 2 3 *

Trading 8 1 1 1 1 12

Insurance 4 0 4 0 1 9

Engineering 11 3 1 1 2 18 *

Manufacturing 3 1 1 0 1 6

Government/ 7 1 2 0 2 12 Education

Consultant i 0 2 0 0 3

Others 6 0 2 1 2 11

Total 70 8 21 3 17 119

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As observed from Tables 21 and 22, service, finance

and engineering are the major users of PC LAN.

It is also observed that the total number of PC LANs

being used in most of the industry types exceed the number

of firms with PC installed. This can be explained by the

phenomenon (as indicated by answers from questionnaire) that

It is common for firms to have more than one unit and/or

type of PC LANs installed, especially in large-sized firms.

Objective 2 : Identify Market Characteristics

The current market is dominated by Ethernet and

Novell in LAN hardware and software respectively. Either of

thein occupy over 59 percent of the specific market (Exhibit

6 and Exhibit 7).

Out of the 112 firms currently using PC LANs, the

reasons for their adopting PC LANs are as shown in Table 23:

p i ^ 中 文 大 學 圊 書 � 藏 " i " !

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64

TABLE 23

REASONS FOR USING PC LAN

No. of Firms mention the Percentage

Reasons Reason (112=100%)

Better Communication 61 55.5 *

Company Image 5 4.5

Cost Effective 29 6.4

Resource Sharing 91 82.7 *

Application Driven 40 36.4

Therefore, resource sharing and better communication

serve as the two major reasons for PC LANs usage.

Among those firms which do not use PC LANs at all,

their reasons for not using PC LANs are as shown in Table 24:

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TABLE 24

REASONS FOR NOT USING PC LAN

Percentage Percentage No. of Firms (79=100%) (191=100%)

Do not know PC LAN 10 12.6 5.2

PC LAN is not cost 24 30.4 12 6 effective •

Other reasons 45 57.0 23.6

Total 79 100.0 41.4

It is interesting to note that 10 firms stated that

they do not know about PC LAN at all. 24 out of 191 (12.6

percent) considered PC LAN is not a cost effective solution

in computerization. 45 out of the total 191 responses (23.6

percent) do not use PC LAN because of some unidentified

reasons. The writers are very interested to know what the

reasons would be. However, the reasons are obviously not one

of the suggested choices in the questionnaire.

34 out of the 191 respondents (17.8 percent)

indicated that they are planning to purchase PC LANs while

45 out of 191 (23.6 percent) will definitely not purchase PC

LANs.

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Objective 3 : Selection Criteria of LANs

Selection criteria indicated by the respondents are

shown in EXHIBIT 2.

Performance, reliablility and price, in order of

importance, are the three major selection criteria for

potential users to choose their PC LANs.

In short, price performance of the LAN hardware and

reliability of both LAN hardware and LAN software will be

the main concern of LAN users.

Although many existing users are considering

upgrading their existing PC LANs (as shown in next session),

upgradability of the PC LAN is among one of the least

considerations when choosing a LAN solution.

Objective 4: Gap between what are offered and what are

needed

The respondents were asked to grade the LAN hardware

and software by a 5-grade system of which 1 represents very

poor, 2 represents poor, 3 represents neutral, 4 represent

good and 5 represents very good.

The criteria of hardware evaluation are cost,

reliability, speed of response, capacity, vendor support and

finally an overall grading.

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Similarly, the criteria of software evaluation are

ease of use, vendor support, no software bug, documentation,

error handling, reliability, visual appeal and finally an

overall grading.

A mean score for each criterion is then worked out

by calculating the arithmetic mean of all the responses to

that criterion.

Mean scores thus obtained of PC LAN hardware and LAN

software are depicted in Table 25 and 26:

TABLE 25

MEAN SCORES OF LAN HARDWARE ASSESSMENT

Cost 3 . 5

Reliability 3.8

Speed of Response 3.6 Mean = 3 . 5 6

Capacity 3•6

Vendor Support 3 • 3

Overall 3.6

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TABLE 26

MEAN SCORES OF LAN SOFTWARE ASSESSMENT

Ease of Use 3.8

Vendor Support 3•2

No Software Bug 3.2

Documentation 3.4 Mean = 3.41

Error Handling 3.2

Reliability 3.6

Visual Appeal 3.5

Overall 3.5

The assessment is further classified according to

the hardware and software type as shown in Table 27 and 28:

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TABLE 27

MEAN SCORES OF LAN HARDWARE ASSESSMENT - BY HARDWARE TYPE

Local Token Star Ethernet Talk Arcnet Ring Lan Others

Cost 3.6 3.8 * 3.5 3.4 3.4 3.6

Reliability 3.8 3.8 3.3 2.9 4.1 3.9 *

Sgeed of 3.6 * 3.4 3.2 2.7 3.7 3.7 Response

Capacity 3.6 3.4 3.6 3.6 4.0 * 3.4

Vendor Support 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.1 3.6 *

overall 3.7 3.4 3.1 3.7 3.9 ** 3.7

TABLE 28

MEAN SCORES OF LAN SOFTWARE ASSESSMENT - BY SOFTWARE TYPE

Novell 3Com IBM Apple Others

Ease of Use 3.8 3.5 3.6 4.3 * 3.9

Vendor Support 3.2 3.0 3.3 3.7 * 3.1

No Software Bug 3.3 • 2.9 3.I 3.0 3.2

Documentation 3.5 3.4 3.2 3.7 * 3.0

Error Handling 3.3 3.0 3.1 2.7 * 3.1

Relaibility 3.7 * 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.4

Visual Appeal 3.5 3.4 3.5 4.0 * 3.5

overall 3.6 ** 3.3 3.5 3.3 3.2

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70

In general, the grading is clustered little above

the mean score of 3. Star Lan score the best overall (3.9)

among LAN hardware while Novell score the best overall (3.6)

among LAN software.

Therefore, the writers draw the conclusion that PC

LAN users are generally satisfied with the PC LANs they are

using. However, there are still plenty rooms for

improvements.

Firms planning to change their existing PC LANs

for different reasons are depicted as shown in Table 29:

TABLE 29

PLAN OF CHANGING EXISTING PC LANs

Percentage Reason No. of Firms (112=100%)

Plan to Upgrade 78 70

Plan to Change Hardware 23 21

Plan to Change Software 21 19

It is interesting to note that 70 percent (78/112)

of exising PC LANs users would like to upgrade their LANs.

This can be explained by the expansion of PC LAN application

and usage after the installation.

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23 and 21 out of the 191 respondents would like to

change the hardware and software respectively. This

indicates that this portion of users are not happy with

their original choice of LANs.

This could be a very great consideration for any

potential PC LAN users before they make the decision to

purchase a particular PC LAN hardware or software.

Objective 5 : Major Applications of PC LANs in Hong Kong

The 112 current PC LAN users were asked to indicate

their application area on their PC LANs and the results are

as shown in Exhibit 8:

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73

Obviously, word processing, database and spreadsheet

(in order of importance) are the three major PC LAN

application areas in Hong Kong.

It can be explained that as volume of word

processing grows, the need for sharing the document become a

necessity which can best be provided by using PC LANs.

Database and spreadsheet applications are obviously

good candidates for using PC LANs as they require lots of

data sharing capabilities.

Job Function

As shown in Table 15, the majority (63.2 percent) of

the respondents are in management level• They surely have

influence in choosing the; PC LANs that they use. Therefore,

the responses are representative of the actual PC LAN users

and responsible answers are assured.

Role in Purchasing

As shown in Table 16, majority (65.4 percent) of the

respondents have significant role in the actual purchasing

of the PC LANs, either in approve, specify or recoitimend

roles. Therefore, the writers are confident that the survey

were addressed to the right audience and their opinions are

valuable in assessment the actual PC LAN market in Hong

Kong.

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Report

Table 17 shows that 73.8 percent of the respondents

request a copy of the survey report. This indicates that the

subject of study is of great interest to the computer

profession in Hong Kong and the survey findings could

be beneficial to the profession in general.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

As the survey findings have been found informative

and indicative of current utilization of PC LANs in Hong

Kong, the writers consider that the objectives set for the

research as stated in Chapter I have been satisfactorily

achieved. Hence, valid conclusion can be safely drawn and

constructive recommendation derived.

Conclusion

Since survey was conducted on Hong Kong computer

professionals through representative member lists like Hong

Kong Computer Society and EDP Management Club of Hong Kong

Management Association, the data collected are very complete

and representative for drawing directive conclusion.

The writers also conceive that the topic of the

research is of great interest to the computer professions.

As indicated, a high response rate of almost 38 percent for

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76

stamped questionnaires has been attained. Moreover, 74

percent of the respondents desired to receive a copy of the

research report. Therefore, the writers believe that the

result of the survey findings is of value both to the

writers themselves and the computer profession in Hong Kong.

Another important point is that the majority (63.2

percent) of the respondents are in management level. Also, a

majority (65.4 percent) of the respondents have significant

role in the actual purchasing of the PC LANs, either in

approve, specify or recommend roles. Therefore, the writers

conclude that the survey findings are significant in

reflecting the actual PC LAN market situation in Hong Kong.

Extent of Usage of PC LANs in Hong Kong

As 59 percent of the respondents have installed at

least one PC LAN in their firms, the writers draw the

conclusion that PC LAN usage is very popular in Hong Kong,

especially in Insurance (73 percent), Engineering (64

percent), Governement/Education (63 percent) and Finance (62

percent). This is in coincident to writers' expectation that

these industries are more intensive user of PC LANs.

PC LAN Market Segment in Hong Kong

From the survey findings, Insurance (73 percent of

respondents are PC LAN users), Engineering (64 percent),

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77

Governement/Education (63 percent) and Finance (62 percent)

are the major users of PC LANs. This is in coincident to

writers' expectation that these industries are more

intensive user of PC LANs.

It is obvious that firms with over 99 staff are more

intensive user of PC LANs, with 66 percent having installed

PC LANs. In comparison, smaller firms have less than 50

percent being equipped with PC LANs. This could be explained

by the fact that requirement of PC LAN grows with the need

for better communication within an organization as the

number of staff increases.

PC LAN Market Characteristics in Hong Kong

The current PC LAN market are dominated by Ethernet

and Novell in hardware and software respectively. Both of

them occupy approximately 60 percent share of the

corresponding market. They are both not being threatened

greatly by their competitors because the second market

leaders within both PC LAN hardware and software are kept a

long distacnce behind, occupying less than 20 percent of

market share.

Resource sharing and better communication are the

two major reasons for PC LAN usage in Hong Kong.

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On the other hand, one third of firms not using PC

LAN consider PC LAN is not a cost effective method.

Selection Criteria of PC LANs in Hong Kong

Performance, reliability and price, in their order

of importance, are the three major selection criteria for

Hong Kong users to choose their PC LANs.

On the other hand, training, documentation and

market acceptance are the least considered factors when a

potential user choose PC LANs in Hong Kong.

Gap Between What are Offered and What are Needed

for PC LANs in Hong Kong

Generally speaking, PC LAN users are satisfied with

what are offered in the PC LANs they are using in Hong Kong.

However, there are still plenty room for improvement

especially in vendor support which scores only 3.3 for

hardware and 3.2 for software out of a scale of 1 to 5.

Majority of the existing PC LAN users are

considering upgrading their LANs. This can be partially

explained by the expansion of application and usage after

the first installation. However, it could also be due to the

fact that the users are not getting what they want from

their LANs. Approximately one fifth of existing PC LAN users

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79

are considering changing their hardware and software. This

is either an alarming signal or an opportunity for all PC

LAN vendors in Hong Kong.

Major Applications of PC LANs in Hong Kong

Word processing, Database and Spreadsheet, in their

order of importance, are the three major applications

running in PC LANs in Hong Kong. These are applications

which require lots of resource sharing and communication

requirement and are thus suitable candidates for PC LAN

implementation.

Recommendation

Based on the survey findings, there are some

important recommendation that the writers believe could be

beneficial to both PC LAN users and vendors.

Firms Already Installed PC LANs

70 percent of existing PC LAN users are considering

upgrading their PC LANs. It is advisable for these users to

make careful study before they upgrade their LANs.

Upgrading a PC LAN may not be as simple as it

appears. As number of users wihtin a PC LAN increases, there

will be potential problems arised such as security and

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control. Some PC LANs are suitable for small number of users

only because they do not have much security and recovery

features built in. As traffic within a PC LAN increases, the

band width of the communication link could be overloaded and

be a bottleneck of the system irrespective of how powerful

the server engine could be. These are just a few important

consideration when a PC LAN has grown to a certain extent.

Therefore, when the number of users increases, PC LAN may

not be a cost effective/efficient solution. Instead, these

firms should start to consider other alternatives such as

mini-computers or mainframes which are more catering to

large number of users and better resource sharing.

Even when conclusion of upgrading PC LAN is drawn

after careful study has been conducted, it is advisable for

firms to do detailed sizing before they make decision to

upgrade their LANs. The fact that 70 percent of existing PC

LAN users are considering upgrading their LANs reflects that

most of the users have not done effective sizing before they

purchased their LANs. Having conducted intensive sizing

exercise could ensure the firms purchasing the right level

of hardware and software capability and prevent future

headaches in another upgrade.

Moreover, since one fifth of existing users would

like to change their existing hardware/software, it is

advisable for the users to carefully select the appropriate

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81 hardware/software before the change so as to prevent future

unsatisfied experience and the need for further changes.

Firms Not Yet Installed PC LANs

For firms which have not installed any PC LANs yet

but are considering this approach, the need for careful

sizing exercise, careful evaluation among alternatives of PC

LAN, mini-computer and mainframe and choosing the

appropriate hardware/software before they make their

investment should follow the same reasoning as mentioned in

the previous section.

In making the decision, they are in a better

position because they will not be bound by what they have

already installed and should therefore make use of the

opportunity more carefully.

For firms not considering using PC LANs at all, it

is advisable for them to look carefully on the benefits of

PC LANs in their organization. PC LAN solution has its pros

and cons in comparing to other alternatives such as

standalone personal computers or mini-computers. It is

important to make sure that firms decide not to install PC

LANs is a result of careful evaluation and not because of

the ignorant of the benefit of PC LAN.

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Marketeers

As established, PC LAN is a fast growing industry.

According to the survey findings, there are 40 percent of

the firms still not using any PC LAN at all. Also, majority

of existing users are considering either upgrading or

changing existing hardware/software. It is also common for

firins to have more than one PC LAN installed within the same

organization as shown in the survey. All these facts show

that there is still plenty of room for the growth of PC LAN

market in Hong Kong.

The marketeers should note that performance,

reliability and price are the major selection criteria for

potential users to choose their PC LANs in Hong Kong.

Therefore, they should strive to improve these aspects of

their products in order to out-perform their competitors.

Industries like Finance, Services and Engineering

are the major users of PC LANs. The vendors should thus

concentrate their marketing effort towards these industries

to gain a better market presence.

The fact that 70 percent of existing PC LAN users

are considering upgrading their LANs and one fifth are

planning to change their existing hardware/software presents

to the vendors a good opportunity to improve their market

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83 share. On the other hand, they should also be careful not to

lose their existing users to their competitors.

Since the three major application areas of PC LAN

usage are word processing, database and spreadsheet, it is

advisable for PC LAN vendors to provide better interface of

their products to popular softwares in these three areas to

help boost their sales. It would be beneficial if they could

form strategic alliances with the popular application

software vendors since it is indicated that 36 percent of

the PC LAN sales are actually application driven.

Noting the fact that it is common for firms to have

more than one PC LAN installed and/or have PC LANs co-

existing with mini-computers and/or mainframes, PC LAN

vendors should develop better interface of their products to

PC LANs of other brands and to mini-computers and/or

mainframes. In short, they should target their products to

excel in a heterogeneous computer platforms environment

which is the most common phenomenon in data processing

nowadays. Whoever could satisfy the need for better data

sharing in a heterogenous environment would surely be best

positioned to become the market leader in the following

decade.

It is indicated that 57 percent of firms not

currently using PC LANs decided not to for some unidentified

reasons (Table 24). It is advisable for marketeers to

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84

investigate in details what are the major reasons for firms

not using PC LANs and then devise a marketing programme to

promote sales to this virgin market.

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^ ^ ^ THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 香 港 中 文 大 學

; ; ; ; ; ^ ; ; ^ ^ ; ; ^ 。 恥 : ; ; ^ ; ; 拟 ” . 霄 • : 零 .

管理學院頑士3程

舰 Prognmincs o- os2783 Ficuhy of Business AdministntioQ 3-7225808 (Town otntrt) 學生專颶研究用奠 Student Research Projects

November 12, 1989

General Manager, Trade Corporation,

47/F, TWO Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Hong Kong

Dear Sir, Re: List of LAN users in Hong Kong

� r o g r ^ e students of the 二 恕 T e n t , 二 。 二 兰 S 忠 4 s 二 』 u J

二 二 二 : 二 a O b J M t y g would be area network users to vhGh 二 ^ tl^H K H ^。此

informative data in p r o c e & J S ^ r l e ^ i i ^ f P r o a c h for

二 r ^ ^ ^ s S S S d S r l ;仏 盟 \ „ S t U e = S /� l e l y for our academic advise the u n d e r 二 , a p p r o v a l , please When the list is rl^g ? a t 5-8082311

Thank you for your co-operation.‘

Yours sincerely,

cneung Wing Kin ‘ MBA I I I Chinese University of Hong Kong

•v

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OCftc. f'l \he M&MJII"'I Dlr.., ""'' ~N/1\ona ~c..,..._

November 2t, 1989

~. Win9-kin Cheun9 MIAIII Chine•• tJniveraity of Jlong long Shati~, H. '1'.

Dear Mr. Cheung,

88

swn... ,-..l..ct "...-. • C:OU.\IIh( "'"·"-I~ TtJcphoM: ... .,.. Tea IIIN tlwat Ha

I am wr1tinv with reference to your recent letter to our Mana9in9 Director, reque1tin9 for a li•t of IBM Looal Area Network uaer• in Hon9 10n9.

...

I am 1orry that we vill not be abl• to eupply the information you requa•t•4 a• it ·11 not our praot1oe to dilolo•• information relatln9 to our ouatomer•' inetallation without havin; their prior con1ent.

Thank• for your intere1t in our ouetomara and wiah your project e~ery eucoe••· .

Sincerely,

Franoi1 ~.x. xwong Administrative A••iatance to Manavinv Direotoz

I ,,

, I

, I

:11

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- 90

THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG· KONG · fi ~- ~ X ;k ~

IftWJI~~IJ±Ilfi WIA Proarammea Paculty or Bualnta Admlnbtntlon

·~-··il9tlft. Snadut Reauda Projecta

Manager Director IBM China/nono Kong Corporatjon Jlrd Floor, Tvo Excbau9e &quare I Connaught Place Hong Kong

Dear Sir,

Than~ you for your pro•pt ref)ly concerning a. 11et of IBM LocAl Area Netvor~ users in Boug Kon9. Aa an alternative, would you pleaH~ consider t·o insert onr queutinnnai fe into those advertise~aaenta or newsletters for your custo~era ?

Looking forwards to your favourable reply.

Hr Vi ng-ki n Claeung MBA Year 3 ntudent 5-8082311 (Office) 3-1860099 (FAX)

1

I

I: I

·.I

I'

\

'\

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==---. Ea. == E ==e..:: = === -~~ .:§, - -- ::= . . ~ ,.. ..=.. - --= - N

=- ='== cJmr .. "' '"" ... .,..., .. •~ IIM c )t6na/llu•'l -. .... c • ..,..,..._

December 29, 1989

Mr. Wing-kin Cheung MBAIII Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, N.T.

Dear Mr. Cheung,

92

SW no.. Two~~ • r~nauatM ~.I ~aft~­Trkptw:~

Trin: 11211' IMKliiiX

I am writing with reference to your recent letter concerning your study on IBM Local Area Network usera in Hong ~ong. We have considered your support requeat but regret to infor.m you that we cannot offer any assistance.

Thank you for your interest in our customera.

. . ... : . . . _.

. .. : .· .. .... . . .

.-.·

· ..... .• . . . . . .. ·

Sincerely,

Robert M. Savage Managing Director

.· . ·: .

0 • • •• • • • •• • ~· •• • • .. • • J - - -:-- .

>> :: ~·:· ,.· .· _:.~:~ .. :.}d:··~· . _-':-,:>: . . . . .. . . •. -- ~ ~ . . .

. . . ·: ;: ' . · . . ·

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93

a p p e n d 工 X 5

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94

^ ^ ^ ^ THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 香 港 中 文 大 學

工«管理學院頑士费程 MBA PropMiunes (^2783 Ficuhy of Business Administntion 3-7225806

(Town cantrt) 曙生專騮研究用箋 Student Reseuch Project!

November 12^ 1989

General Manager, 3Com Limited, 2082, Admiralty Centre Tower I 18 Harcourt Road, ‘ Hong Kong

, I

I !

Dear Sir, 丨

List of LAK users in Hong Kong S i 二 e a u ^ S L T f / S r S r L ; : ? r�gr, 、students Of the :;

蹇 i 目 • • ! 酵 d ‘

Thank you for your co-operation.

Yours sincerely,

—- . - -- • — —. - -

cneung Wing Kin MBA III Chinese University of Hong Kong

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95

I i j

I a p p e n d i x 6 I

' l l

II

ir

•I ‘I

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. . . . . .. .. ..

. . :.~· ' .... :" ,..:. , ~. . . . .. • .. . ..

. . . . . . . . ·. -... ...... . . .. . . . . .. . .

' . . . -~

. . .. . . .. . .... . . .. ... . . . . . .. . •. ... . ~ ... ~ . .. ; :

. . •· . ·: ·g~ . :·... \ .: < · ... .. :.. . . ·'

aoot·»~ vll • 89 oe~at

fC(onj_ ___ --- ··----·- . ·-·-

24 November 1~8Y

Mr Cheung Wing Kin M8A Ill Chfnese Un1vers1ty ~i H~ng ¥ong Shat in Nttw Ttrr 1 ~or i _., Hono kono

Oe.;r Mr Cheung

r. 1 .• a

)I ·•' " ·~ L~ i~ . .,. ,,.,.---.~· ( .. .: AJr..~r...a.,· ~.w: ~~i

;3 HMu ,.,. ""-' tt.~~ T~~-~~~ht ~w: ~&.JtN "\ ~,~yj -: ~~ n\'' ~~.x

t , •• ee1veci your lett~r ~,. ~2 Mov~mber 19BS, re~J~d1ng cut ~u~tG&Daa· l1st. i "'C;\otld ,,ke t-o be hi~pful 'tn rtgard~ tc- .)OU~ rt::.~flrt.;h prujf:r.\.. :Jr.1:.">rl~l\l'te~y. 1t 1~ the po11cy of 3Coo> Curpet·•t1on to not c'~lr~l\ute Gur cust~ft4tr lis~hag datoba:e.

Go~d luek with yo~r pr-oj~ct, .tnd l wi~h yt.J\J ·a suc~~ssfu1 t:ump-~tt'\or. c;f your MS/, courses.

S1nttre1y

lt11 Mess•r \rei Manager \s 1 an ()per at 1ons

M/rs

. I

'I.

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98

THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG· KONG · ~ iO rp -,t * 4! TllEGIWII • SIHC:NlRIITY

IHATIN·NT·HONGKONO·TIL..:O-Ia82111 • TlllX • MlD1 CUt« HX • FAX • (112l O-IK4Dt

IR'rll~~il±ltfi MIA Propvnmn Paeuhy or Bullnns Adml.nlJtratlon

•~-••il9tm• Srvdent leaareh ProjecU

Managing Director 3 Cc. Bong long, Lt4 2802 - 2804 AdairaltJ Centre Tower 1 18 Barcourt Road Rong long

uea a· sir,

T11ank you fot· your prot~pt" reply concerning ~list of IBM LocAl Area Netvorl\ us~rfl in Doug ~on9. ~~ ~n alternltiv•, would you ~lea11P. consider t n 1 nsert our tiUentionnA l re tu to thoHe advertise•enta or nevsl et t era for your cua t 0111era ?

Looking forwards to your favourable reply.

Mr Yilag-kin Cheung MBA Year l ~tudent S-8082311 (Office) l-7860099 (FAX)

1

•I

I I I

,,

I', \,

·',\

,,,

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S C o n j T 100 fcrfHtftt^Ui

TMWI tlHifo^llW

FAX TransiPlsslon S^fj^tiT^^、 Tdrt: 7)55) HIBCKX

December 6, 1989

To : Mr Cheung Wing Kin

K如、”ader, MBA Year 3 Student 了he Chinese University of H ^ g Kong

. From : Mr Bill Messer

I

I I

Dear Mr Cheung I:

Good luck on your project. h

,1'

Sincerely 〉

. TI I

Bill Hesser Area Manager Asian Operations

3C007/14 «

• • • • • • • • ••‘ •• ••• •• . •: 二 : . • • • • : . - • •/- .:-.. • . .• . . •••. .- .. • • V - . , : . • . • .. • . -

:..:厂-••. • . • ... . .• . . . - . . . •. ;; . . . .

, . - • • . 、 . • • .;• •• •. . • .. . • • v • . . . . ••.. • , ..:、:•• : • •., • •• • • • 羞 • • • - • • • • • • • • • • 、 • • , , • : . . • • • , ..:•: . .... ••••• .. :. ..-.••• •• ‘: •;•:•「:.•丄:.:。、-.• • : • • •• • • • •• • • • . •• • • . • • . • • • . . • , •• • - • 贅 急 • • i •-

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102

^ ^ 丁HE CHINESE UMIV^^^I^^^O^I^G KONG 香 港 中 文 大 學

工 理 學 院 頑 士 課 程 MBA Progr»inines ^ ^ Faculty of Business Adminisuition IT^JB

n W ) cantrt) 學生專 «研究用箋 Student Restirch Projects

December 4, 1989

Richard K. Li, President, Hong Kong Computer Society IVr, 485 Lockhart R o a d , ‘ 丨 Causeway Bay Hong Kong ]

. 11

I,

Dear Sir, I'

Re: Membership List

讓 • S P ! 磁 s s H t ! - ;! project to ascertain the extent of application and utilization of local area network in HonrKo^. I

i H l i l t i l s 兹 J H S F ‘

Thank you for your co-operation.

Yours sincerely,

Cheung Wing Kin MBA III Chinese University of Hong Kong

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103

A P P E N D I X l o

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THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

ltlfGMM • SINCNl"'ITY SH &TIN · NT ·HONG KONG · Tl L.: o-88121 1 1 • 11LIX • 1030\ CUHK tol •

~ MX • CIUl 0-~

Ift'lll-rlil±llft MBA ProJRIM'II Faculty or Bullnns Administration

llr Jl B Aa Divisional Cbair•aa Electronics Division The Bong long Institution of Engineers 9/F Island Centre

-· 1 Great George Street Causeway Bay Bong lont

near Sir,

;

104

24tb Jaunary 1990

List of Me•hera of Electronics Division, RliE

" I ,,

\'1 \,

Il l

I

Ye are 1 group of part-tiae MBA progra .. e students of the Chinese University \, of Rong long. As part of our graduation requirement, ve are nov conducting a business research project to ascertAin the extent of application and utilization of personal c011pnt.er loeal area netvorke in Rong Kong. la thia connection, ve should be •uch obliged if you would be kind enougb to provide aa at our coat a full lilt of •e•bera of Electronics Division, DKIE to vbicb ve will approaeb for inforaative data in processing our research. le confira

·. tbat the liat will be used' solely for our acade•ic purposea. Aa aa alternative, you ·aay insert our questionnaires of only one A4 page into your next periodicals for _tbe ae•bera or Electronic• ntvision, RilE. Sbould our · request aeet your approval, please advise ae during office hour at 808 2311.

Tbank you for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

tA~tJtJJ~ Cbeung Ving lin Group Leader

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‘ ‘ • . . . • ‘ • « .

106

HONG KONG INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS J T T P S S U U ^ C ^ R S I CRTTL C ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ M T T W

INVOICE D a t e : _ 2 Z ^ ^^

T o : M r C h e u n g W i n g - k i n •

丨 tem Description Amount H K $

1 One set of label (^HK$1.00/pc) $ 12i.oo ;

m^mmmmmm (

I (•

I

«

[:毳

Payment should be settled wfthln 14dayi For and on uhair of f f o m date of I n v o i c e T h ^ H o n g K o n g institution of Enfl lnMf

Payment by cheque should be made payable to ^^^ " T H E H O N G K O N G I N S n T U T l O N O F E N G I N E E R S ' \ j J / 7

and crossed ^ L J U . ^ ^ ^

Author! Signature

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. 109

• '• ;

• STAMP

Mr W K C h e u n g Flat 6 A , H o i M i n g M a n s i o n R i v i e r a G a r d e n s T s u e n V a n New T e r r i t o r i e s

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110

a p p e n d i x 1 3

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;;;!;;g^RSITY OF HONG KONG 香 港 中 文 大 爭

“ " “

*»oA rrogr&mm«t Ptculty of Burinea AdministraUon ^^2799

,生專•研*用箋 夂 时 Sh)“m Reaetjch frojeeu

30 January 1990

Dear Sir/Madam » • •

- • s • I

• f S

� 丨 o r - 剩 � the 。f。„ • 吻 . . n ,

Yours Truly

,emig Ving jcin Group Leader

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112

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AFPuaTion or rnioNAL cowrm UKAL AREA

ircrvoui iv

none KONC

Mku

whn PAnctJuis

• group o(

nrt'l

im

NBA Third Yor ttodtnu of CUNK conducting

;卯

r对y of P«r_oiwl CMputtr local «rt« n«t«orkf ia Non9 Kong.

11. Typ« of har4v«r« in

【)Ethernet

【丨 Local talk

Tfr fl

Uctr

t M§

W9 to thii quMtiofinairt and prompt rttMrn to ut

【】Arcnet

丨丨 Token rinq

•ill bt Mck apprtcitttd. Afttr coaplttioo, juit (old vp

th«

p«p«r.

() star l«n

•tttp iBd drop to tht B«arby Mil box. Think you lo such!

【】others ( plc«M specify )

OMPAinr DATA

12.

Typti and

numbers of PC

Nodes in ut«

1. CUftification [】Strvicei [) Finance 【】Trading (】Io»ur«nce

uniti of IBM - AT / Co«p*tible

[】Engineering () Uv 【】Medical () Architecture

units of IBM - XT / Cospatible

[j W«ntt(«cturin9 (J Accountin9 (] Confult«nt

units of Apple / Coapatible

【J Keal Ctt«t» 【】Oth«rt (pl«af« •pecify)

ZZZZZZZII units of PS 2 / Co«p«tible

2.

of tuff

��

u..

th.n 20

unif of

Other

. (

.pecify )

【】20 to 99

��

100

or over

13. Leogtb of

(] L««t

th«n 1 y««r

3. D^r^ or co.put.ri..tion

�j jjn

!j 1 I,

”二

二;: ^

”…

【】Pcr«on«l CMputcr

jj 二

=二

二”

: ut r

…•••••nt of tb« hardware of the PC LAN in u"

4. Hov

PC

do^.

your

co.p..y【】

0

[】1-5

co.t

‘ 了

广

T “

V b•竹?

【】6-10

0 11-20

l«ll«bility

【】

(] (j

【】

(j

【】21-SO

(] Oyer SO

Sp««d of rctponte [】

【】

[】

【)

()

.,

Capa

city

() fl

fl ri

ri 5. It your co«p«By •qaipiMd with PC LAJlt? *【】Y"

() No

Vendor Support

【】

【】

[)

[j

[J

• if

90 to 丨

ovT^iiut…

0

I)

【】

n 0

,^

. tO

mkW

MTICTUM

• • wby do«tii I your coapany vant to parcb••鮝 a fc LAN7

I ^

15.

Typ. of foftvtrt

of tb« PC U

N i. o.e

【]Ftir of lots of control

fl Hj

��MoYtll

�3

Co.

[�IBM

��Appl«

0 TOPS

[】

Othtri ( pUait apcify )

【】Otbtrt ( pUaie ipccify )

7. It tb«rt any pUn to purcbaf* PC LAN ?

|【】Y«f « () No

16. Application arvai

1

if

tir

'k^

• ,

U

pro

c«ta

ln

9

【】

D^

Ub

aw

M

DA

^m

nt

J

Sto

ck

Co

ntro

l

! }

J ” 18

(J Sprod .h..!

��frojtct

��CAD/CAN

* ticked, pi

go

to 2

2 【】Acco«iitl«9

(] Othtrf ( pU«.« .peclfy )

•• n'sJuJ^^IiZlfilMl!' • r?

K •

17.

of t“

.oftvre of tb« fC LAK in u"

IJ ••ttr coMUDic龜tioo 【J B«tttr sbar* of rmurcct

fl lM

(] Ap

plica

tion

drive

n TytLlllllill Of

Oct"

Vgood

Good

N.utr.l

Poor

V Poor

u •iwiic

ttat

ut ot povtr

Eat* of U

m ��

I�

()

��

,—

r 二二

•[】】

【【】】((】】[【】】(【】】

•xiting PC UM vlthin on. yar?

【】Yt.(】No

Doci—.t«tiM

(j

【】

(j ()

(j

10.

DO., your

ccpany pU„

to ch.n..

SJuaMmJ'"

[j

[J

[I

[j

[|

your

PC LAJI .•ndor. for H.rdv.r.,【】Y..【】No

Vi.u.l Appl.l

(]

[,

f)

[j

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Page 126: A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE PERSONAL … · computers (minicomputers or mainframes) with different operating systems. Of course, benefits come with cost. Danger of computer

18.

Vbat

ar會

you

Mjor

criteria in chooaing fC

LANs?

fltatt

rati fro« 1 to

10 ( 1 being

the aoit important)

【】

Price

【】Reliability

(i Vtndor Support

f i Training

(i

Ca8«

of Ufe

f j

Market Acceptance

(]DocuMOtation

[j

Perfo

rMDc

e 【】

Upyradibillty

[】Oth.M ( Pltase 8p«cify )

19.

Your

job

function i雇

n

Corpor«t« sanageMnt

[] Operating aanag«Mnt

��

CoMu

nic暴

tion

aan

agtM

nt �

�DP

/info

rMtio

n p

rocts

sin^

i»9t.

[】

Technical Mnageaeot

【】Technical staff or

consultant

20.

Your

role

in purchasing the

PC LAN

is

[] Recomnd

[】Specify

STAMP

[】Approve

() Nil

IITER

VIEV

21.

Do

you

v«Dt to

have

an interview vitb

U8?

(] Yes

【】No

Mr

W K

Cheung

m^H

j Fla

t 6A

, Hoi

Ning

Man

sion

Riviera Gardens

22.

Do

you

wish

to

rectivc a

copy

of

tht suMMry rtport of this lurvty?

【】YM 【】No

丨erricoriw

…End

of Ou««tionnairc …

TIANC

YOU

Page 127: A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE PERSONAL … · computers (minicomputers or mainframes) with different operating systems. Of course, benefits come with cost. Danger of computer

APPLICATION OR

PERSONAL COMPUTER U)CAL AREA VETVOIUCS IN

HONG

EOMG

HARDWARE PATICUURS

are

亀 group of Part-Tiw NBA

Third Year

•tudtnt雇 of

CURK

conducting

* Mrktt turvey of personal computer local «rea

n«tvorki in Hoog

Kong.

11.

Type

of hardware in use

() Ethernet

() Local talk

Your

linctre

ansvera to th

is questionnaire and

prompt return

to

ui

[) Arcnet

() Token ring

"ill

be

such

appreciated. After completion, just

(old

up

tbe

pap«r,

(] Star

lan

•t"P "d drop to the n««rby sail box. Think you so Much!

(j Others ( please specify )

COHfAMY DATA

12.

Types an

d nuMbers of PC

Nodes in use

1. ClaMification [】Services (] Finance 【】Trading 【]Insurance

units of IBM - AT / Conpatible

[]Engine«ring [] Lav

[] Medical

[] Architecture

units of IBM

- XT

/ Coapacible

[】

Manufacturing 【】Accounting

[] Consultant

units of Apple /

Co«p«tible

门 Real

Estate 【】

Othen (pl««8e specify)

units of PS 2

/ Coapatible

^ ^

, ,

units

of

Othe

rs ( p

lease

spec

ify )

2.

Nuaber of staff

(J less

than

20

[)20

to

99

【】100 or over

13. Length of use

[] L«ts than 1 y«ar

,_

(j 1

year

to less

than

1 1/2

years

3. I>«9rte of

coapuUrization

[】Nil

【】j 1/2 y,«rf or aort

【】Peraoiul coaputer

n 鹏inico«puter

14.

AssessMnt of tbe

hardware of the

PC

LAN

in use

(]aaio

fraM coaputer

.-

^ V

good

Go<m1

Neutral

Poor

V Poor

4. Hov Mn

y PC«

does your co

apmy

[] 0

��

co

st

[�

()

[� []

n •?

IJ 6-10

(J 11-20

Reliability

[】

(] 【】

(] []

��21-50

(] Ovtr

50

Spe«d of rcfponse

(]

��

] [�

[]

【,

Capacity

[)

()

(]

(]

(1

It your coapany •quipped with PC

LANB?

* (] Y«f

(] No

Vendor Support

()

[]

(j 【】

[]

• .

Overall RatiDg

(]

()

f]

[1

[1

• it ticktd, please

90 to

8

" "

u ^

^ ,

SOFTWARE

PATICUURS

Why do«8n't your coap«ny vaDt to purchase 應

PC LAN?

El I

_uch

about PC LAN

15.

Typt

of loftvarc of tbe

PC LAN

it ut«

[j F«4r

of lo靡

,of control

[1 ?

®5 •tUctivt

��Movtll

[] 3 Co. n

IBM

[] Apple

(] TOPS

[�

Oth

.r.

( p

l««.«

tptcK

y )

[) Ot

btrs

( pl«i

»t •p

«cify

)

7. If tbtr* any plan to purchaac PC LAN ?

丨【】Y«f & () No

16. Application

I if ticked

,,

I]

procM.ing 【]0«t«b«s« Mnivmnt

J Stock Control

:;

;J?••“

«。f。iJ

【】Spnud sbttt

[】Projtct M

n^mnt

[】CAD/CAH

4 if ticked,

90

to 22

0 Accounting

[] Oth«r. ( pl«..« .p«clfy )

‘ t^:

,

• n.

nt

Of th

. .of

tw.r.

of

tbe P

C LAN

in u

.e iJ

會r coMunicatlon

[】B«tt®r fhare of resources

CoapMy iM9c

[) Application driven

丨】

】二

=:

•。

—【

—•

• T

,T

"r

r

•X1«1 叫

PC UN within

one y.r?

(] Y.s �

�No

Documentation

()

(j

(]

[]

[\

DO.,

your

ccpa

ny p

U„ t

o ch•叫

• M

ulbu

ui"'

\\

fl \]

f;

\\ yo«r exi.ting PC UN vendor, for H.rdv.r.,【】Y« 【】iio

V?二•!

[]

[j

M Software?

【】

Yef

【】No

Ovtrall

Rttio?

【】

【】

【]

[1

H

u IJ

(J

^

1 ->

Page 128: A STUDY OF APPLICATION OF IBM-COMPATIBLE PERSONAL … · computers (minicomputers or mainframes) with different operating systems. Of course, benefits come with cost. Danger of computer

…-

:-

"‘ -

...

mSORAL FArriCUURS

18.

What

ire

you

Mjor

criteria in chootiny PC

LAN雞

PlMM ritt f

ro® 1

to 10 (

1 being th

e aoat

iaportant)

[】

Price

[】

Reliability

[j

Vendor Support

[]Training

[�E

ase

of

Utt

【j

Market Acceptance

[)DocQMOtation

【]Perfonunct

[】

Up9radlbility

【】Others (

Please specify )

19.

Your

job

function it

I] yrpoMte Mn«9eMnt

[】

Operating

fj CoMunication MnageMnt

[】

DP/inforMtion processing »9t

[】

Technical Mn«9«Mnt

(] Technical staff or

consultant

20.

Your

role

in purchasing the

PC LA

M la

[] Recomnd

[] Specifv

[�Approve

��

Nil

STAMP

IHTERVIEW

21.

Do

you

vant

to

hav«

an interview with

as?

[] Yes

【】No

Mr

W K

Ch«un9

WETORT

Flat

6A,

Hoi

Ming

Mansion

Rivi«ra Gardens

22.

Do

you

wish

to

receive «

copy

of

T«uen w«n

th會

lUMiary rtport of thii

furv«y?

[】y„

【】o

朴好 Territories

…End

of Oucftionnalre …

THAJfK

YOU

\—

>

3 二

4

a

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117

a p p e n d i x 1 5

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• 118

^tge No. 1 02/15/90 LIST OF COMPWIIES OF HDfBERS OF EDF MAMAGEMDIT CLUB or BONG KONG KAKAGEMEHT ASSOCIATION

COHPAMY NAMES

AIDGC • FERO ,MERCIAN PRESIDENT LINES LIMITED =2�AN EXPRESS IKTERKAITONAL INC ,SyCAN INTERNATIONAL DATA CENTRE ,MERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP AMVAY ( HONG KONG ) LIMITED SilS ill ^ SYSTEMS ( RK ) LIMITED bank OF AMERICA KT 4 SA BANQUE KATIOHALE DE PARIS BARCUYS BANK PLC BELCIAH BANK INE COJfTAIKER HOLDINGS LIMITED BIS BANKING SYSTEMS LIMITED rjAJJAJ JAJAGIMENT SERVICES LIMITED

巧JTEX OIL HONG KONG LIMITED r lull l ^^ INSURANCE COMPAKY LIMITED AIRVAYS LIMITED CHASE KANHATTAN BANK KA 22IAIIC FIRST BAMK LIMITED CHEMICAL BANK

C;?;; 扣 似 COMPANY LIMITED ciJmlJ 21 HOLDINGS ) CO LTD ( HK ) LIMITED TOKMERCIAL COMPUTING LIMITED COKMUNICATION SERVICES LIMITED 。!ENGINEERING LIMITED COMPUTER LAMD LIMITED COMPUTER POVER

^^ECRUITMENT CONSULTANTS COOPERS I LYBRAND ASSOCIATES LIMITED CULLINET HONG KONG LIHITm DM HENG BANK L I 贿 D DELOITTE HASKINS 4 SELLS LIMITED

'tllllVi ? f f i f f i l i / _ _ >

DOV CHEMICAL PACIFIC LIMITED PAR EAST SYSTEMS LIMITED

S Y丨 T咖 LIKITH)

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<1

119 奢 No. 2

02/15/^0

LIST OR COHPAMIES OF NCNBCRS

or EDF MAKACEHniT CLUB

OR BONG LONO HAMAGEMEKT ASSOCIATION

= = = = = = = = = = = = :

COMPAKY NAMES

HAWG UING BANK LIMITED RAUG SENG BANK LIMITED

, G RONG AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING COMPANY

JJOWG KONG EXPORT CREDIT INSURANCE M P P

I H T ^ N A T I O N A L L L L N S 咖 ' 二 55TA KANAGEMEKT U N I T E D

HSIW CHONG HOLDINGS ( RK ) LIMITED

肪 肌 E DATA LIM HUTCHISOK PAGING LIMITED HYTERCOM ASIA LIMITED

INTERNATIONAL LIHITED IBK WORLD TRADE CORPORATION

PACIFIC LIMITED INTERHATIOKAL COMPUTERS ( HK ) LTMirrn FLEMING B O _ S ( 二 [ t 咖

1 二 ilE/ATHESON AND COMPANY LIMITED J W S E N 4 CONFAKY LIHITED JOHJI D HUTCHISON GROUP LIMITED JOHNSON, STOKES 4 MASTER KODAK ( FE ) LIMITED ^VLOON’ MOTOR BUS COMPANY ( 1933 ) LTD

kvong OK bank limited ) LTD

U ^ W H N E L L DOUGLAS CHINA !C HICROLAB LIMITED US i' SIL HONG KONG LIMITED W A INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATION H Y M JEVBLRy MANUFACTURER LIMITFn

NATIONAL ADVANCED SYSTDJ ! J R ^ ^ L J I ' T O S R 卯 A N C E COMPANY LTD WC* ( HONG KONG �LIMITED NELSON WHEELER GRUBB ft ASSOC'S

NESTLE CHINA LIMITED NHF ZEALAND INSURANCE COMPANY LIMTTPN NIXDORF COMPUTER LIMITED

NOMURA COMPUTER SYSTEMS ( HK ) LIMITED NZI INSURANCE ‘ LIMITED

OLIVETTI ( HONG K O N G》 L I M I T E D

O R A C L E SYSTEMS HONG KONG LIMITED

O R I E N T SHIP MANAGEMENT LIMITED

#

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120

ragt No. 3 02/15/,。

LIST OF C O M P A H I E S OF Nr.NBER6 or ED? MANAGDIEMT CLUB

or BOWC KONC RANAGEMEKT ASSOCIATION … … ” … … … … … … … … …

COMPANY NAHES

O R I E N T A L DATA SYSTEMS LIMITED M I L I P S HONG KONG LIHITED 【RICE VATERHOUSE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS PRIHE ASIA REGIOJI

O U O T I E H T SYSTEMS FAR EAST LIMITED R A S C O E DEVELOPMEMT LIMITED ^CF CONSULTING LIMITEL) R E A D E R S DIGEST ASSOC FE LIMITED I^ESEARCHASIA

^ O Y A L HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB

S E C U R I T Y PACIFIC ASIAN BANK

^ ^ ^ G J U I COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED H I N G TECHNOLOGY COMPANY L I M I T E D

5ITA

OF HONG KONG L I H I T E D S T R A T U S COMPUTER ( UK ) LTD

SUN BUNG KAI PROPERTIES LIHITED SIM H U N G KAI SECURITIES LIMITED FIM MICROSYSTEMS INCORPORATION SWIRE SYSTEMS U N I T E D

工,IKOO GOYAL INSURANCE COKPAKY LIMITED T A N D D I COMPUTERS ( KK ) LIMITED

S^ViJ^E^二,狱im ( ) limited ,ANK OF EAST ASIA LIMITED

T H E B A N K OR TOKYO, LIHITED L ^ L NATIONAL BANK OF C H I C A G O THE: H O N G KONG ELECTRIC COMPANY LIMITED

HONGKONG LAND COMPANY LIMITED T O N W KENNER PARKER TOYS ( H K 》 L T D TOUCHE ROSS & COMPANY T R A N S D A T A LIHITED U L T I M A T E SYSTEMS LIMITED U N I S Y S U N I T E D MERCHANTS FINANCE LIMITED V A B L E M & COMPANY LIMITED W F L L C O M E COMPAKY LIMITED V I N G L U N G BANK LIMITED V I N G O K COHPUTER SYSTEMS LIMITED W O R L D - W I D E SHIPPING AGENCY L I M I T E D

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121

a p p e n d i x 1 6

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. 122

I"籲9奢 N o . 1

02/15/90

“ “ o o H T h n i i t OF h GRour or PROFESSIONALS

PW)VIDED BY A LOCAL SOFTWARE DEALER

COMPANY NAMES I

AIR RONG KONG LIMITED AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK LIMITED BAKCO 01 ROMA

AND WIRELESS ( HONG KONG ) LIMITED CAMERON MICROSYSTEMS LIMITED

^ I O J L ^ ^ P ^ ⑶肝AKY ( HONG KONG ) LTD COKPUTASIA LIMITED ^ G I T A L EQUIPMDFR CORPORATION

DIGITAL EQUIPHENT PAR EAST ELCAJ^ ELECTRONICS L I W T E D ELEC AND ELTEK COMPANY LIMITED RAR EAST BANK LIMITED RIRST PACIFIC BANK LIMITED

( HONG KONG ) UNITE!) GILKAN OFFICE MACHINES ? 5 I ^ I L ^ ^ N E CO LTD - DATACOM SERVICES “ I 1 ^ 4 , 拥 E CO LTD - E X C H M G E DESIGN

L L L R ^ L F ^ L ^ J " ^ ^ ^ ^ COMPONDTTS LIMITED S M R CARGO TERMIMAL LIMITED ^ Z R CHINESE B M LIMITED

INDUSTIUAL 4 COKMERCIAL BANK L ^ I ^ C H I M ) C O M M E H C U L BANK U N I T E D

^^^ ^CINEERIMG LIMITED J ^ ^ J I ^ O K TELEPHONE CCWPAMY LIMITED I H M A J I OVERSEAS BANK

!Umi JJJ^ 5凡NK OF JM>AH limited BANK OR JAPA* LIMITED BUSINESS SYSTEM LIHITED

UTTERKATIONAL BANK OF ASIA

FLEMING AND COMPAKY LIMITED

;JS 咖 贿 TED KOREA EXCHANGE BANK

" ^ A I L M CORPORATIOII KYO¥JI BANK LIHITED

HING BANK LIMITED 狀 INTERNATIONAL LIMITED i;sY;rBASsrBa>。r 船 K 咖

M E L L O N BANK NA

M I T S U B I S H I BANK LIMITED H I T S U I BANK LIMITED M O T O R O L A SEMICONDUCTOR ( HK ) LIMITED W A H Y A N C COMMERCIAL BAMK LIMITED N A T I O K A L BANK OF �KUSThM

N A T I O N A L COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED

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«

123

I'lge Mo. 2 02/15/90

LIST OF COMPANIES OF A GROUP OF GENERAL COMPUTEJL PROFESSLOKALS

P O V I D E D BY A LOCAL S O M F A R E DEALER • * S S S S mZ s s ** • ^ • • ^ 一 一 •葡.

= : = = 二 : = = 二 s = 2 I

COMPANY HAHES

NATIONAL V E S T M I N I M R BANK PLC

JRN^F^IJ^!!!^^ BWFL OF NORTH CAROLINA

NIDDDfSTANDSBANK MV ^LLLTL^.L ; 卵 S E BANKING CORPORATION LTD OVERSEAS TRUST BAXK LIMITED ^ E R S E A S UNION BJUTK LIMITED

M T L I P I N E NATIOKAL BANK POLAROID FE LIMITED TJ^IKIER INTERNATIONAL BANK if〖l!fLJ[。t!ATIONAL BANK OF NEV YORK ,OYAL BANK OF CANADA W M BAXK OR SCOTLAND PLC SAITMIA BANK LIMITED SAIFVA BANK LIMITED

fi愁T INCORPOATION SBUI OH GKOlfp

Ji S If iJ BONG lO^Q�united silr! ‘ COMMERCIAL BANK ? ? 的 R 町 賈 C LIMITED STANDARD CHARTERED BANK STATE BANK OF INDIA NUMITOMO BANK LIMITED SS llTr 沪讽咖 P A N Y LIMITED !^ 以I AND COMPANY LIMITED ^Y* HUHC K M BANK LIMITED SUK HUNG KAI SECUIITIES BAUr

mil technologiSTiSLS K SIRISS BAKK CORPOmiOlf

SANG BAHK LINITCD T A I Y O KOBE BANK LIMITED I^SJ^I^ION BROADCASTS LIMITED T E X V O O D LIMITED

BANK OR CANTO*. LIMITED R ^ M COMPANY U M ? T E D

T H E FUJI BAKK LIMITED I I I J;^I^OJJ? SOYA BEAN PRODUCTS CO LTD T H E KA WAH BAKK LIMITED

? P R O V I N C I A L BANK T O P F A N MOORE LIMITED T O R O N T O DOMINION BANK T R I C O M SYSTEMS LIMITED U N I O N BANK OF HONG KONG U N I O N BANK OF SWITZERLAND U N I T E D COMMERCIAL BANK U N I T E D OVERSEAS BANK LIMITED V A R D L E Y LIMITED V E L L S FARGO BANK LA

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• 124

T^qt No. 3 02/15/90

U S T OF COMPANIES OF K GROUP OF GENERAL COHPUTEIT PFTOFESSIGNALS

PROVIDED BY K LOCAL S O M F A H E DEALER C = = 二 = 二 = = = = = = = = = = :二:二 = : = = = • —

COMPANY NAMES

VESTDUTCHE LANDES BANK VING HANG BANK LIMITED VING LUNG BANK LIMITED VING ON BANK LIMITED YASUDA TRUST AND BANKING COMMERCIAL LTD YIEN YIEH COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED

I f •

»

#

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125

a p p e n d i x 1 7

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DATA LIST FILE - 'BAREP.DAT'

Z^S^AI:】 4 TYPE 5 SIZE 6 QL TO 021 7-27 AT 28-29 H 30-31 APPLE 32-33 PS2 34-35 OTBERHV 36-37 L S G T H II Q22 TO 057 39-74 FUNC 75 ROL£ 76 Q S TO Q59

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01 •DEGREE OF COMPUTERIZATION* Q2 •WO. OF P C 03 •EQUIPPED WITH PC LAN* 04 •NOT KNOV PC U K '

Q5 •NOT COST EFFECTIVE• 06 'OTHER REASONS' 07 'PLAN TO BUY' Q® 'BETTER COKMUXICATION'

05 ' C O M P M IMAGE' QIO 'COST EFFECTIVE' 011 ‘RESOURCE SHARING* 012 'APPLICATION DRIVEN, Q13 'PLAN TO UPGRADE• 014 • P U N TO CHANGE H¥'

' P U N TO CHANGE S V Q16 •ETHERNET' 017 'LOCAL TALK*

018 •ARCNET' 019 •TOKEN RINGS‘ Q20 •STAR LAK' 021 •OTHER HARDWARE, AT •NO. OF IBM AT/COMPATIBLES' Y 'NO. OR IBM XT/COMPATIBLES, J^P^LE •NO. OR APPLE/COMPATIBLES' PS2 'NO. OR FS2/C0MPATIBLES'

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023 •RELIABILITY* 024 •SPEED OR RESPONSE* 025 •CAPACITY• 026 •VDTDOR SUUPORT*

SLL :o作 J^LL RATING or HARDWARE •

028 *NOVELL• 029 •3COM' Q30 'IBM' Q31 'APPLE' 032 •OTHER SOFTVARE' Q33 'VORD PROCESSING• Q34 'SPREAD S H E E T Q35 'ACCOUNTING' Q36 'DATABASE' Q37 •PROJECT MANAGEMENT' Q38 'STOCK CONTROL' Q39 •CAD/CAM. Q40 'OTHER APPLICATION' Q41 'EASE OF USE* Q42 'VENDOR SUPPORT' Q43 •NO SOFTWARE BUG* Q44 'DOCUMENTATION'

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045 'ERROR HANDLING' 046 'RELIABILITY' 047 'VISUAL APPEAL' Q48 •OVERALL RATING OF SOFTWARE' Q49 'PRICE* 050 'RELIABILITY'

051 'VENDOR SUPPORT' Q52 'TRAINIHG' Q53 'EASE or OSE* 054 'MARKET ACCEPTANCE, QS5 'DOCUMENTATION' Q56 'FERFORMAl^CE' Q57 'UPGRADIBILITY* FUNC 'JOB FUNCTIOK' ROLE •ROLE IN PURCHASING PC U N '

(J58 'AGREE TO IKTERVIEV*

059 'WANT OUR REPORT'.

VALUE LABEL

. B K I E , 4 .GENERAL. S • C U S S H A T E S V 5 '^JJ^rr^Ti^r^ ^ •TRADING, 4 •INSURAIiCE,

8 . S i m - / . S T ' ' ' ' ' ‘ , 叨 V E 删 m / E D U C A T I O N .

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133

I

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Periodicals

1. "Looking for the right LANs" Asian Computer Monthly

November 1989:42.

2. "Year of the LAN" LAN Magazine May 1989:82.

3. "Getting to Grips with LANs" Hong Kona Computer

Journal.

Books

4. Uma Sekaran. Research Methods for Managers - A skill Building Approach. John Wiley & Sons 1984.

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