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Rubrik: Tagesberichte |
Print-Version
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An open-to-all Meeting with Sun Microsystems at the ETH in Zurich Wrestling with words | |
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Top notches from Sun Microsystems endeavoured to make clear to the around 250 disappointed participants at the meeting the reasons for Sun's decision to pull out of the computer offer. Their apologies were profuse and they promise to make a revised offer before the end of the semester. From Roman Klingler / translation Angéla Rast-Margerison It was a step into the lion's den for the management of Sun Microsystems Switzerland yesterday, at a meeting which took place in the main building of the ETH Zurich. After nearly everything had gone wrong that could have gone wrong with their in-house communication in the run up to the supply of computers, the Sun managers lost no time at least in dealing with the affair and that the company agreed to come "in person" also deserves our respect. Around 250 students responded to the invitation to Room E1.2 in their search for an explanation for the missing 2500 Sun Blade 100 workstations that had been cancelled at the very last minute. To begin with, we can say that even after this event, more questions than answers remain.
Nearly half of Sun's global budget for this position "It is great to be in Switzerland, but not under these circumstances", said Kim Jones from the company's headquarters in Palo Alto (California). Jones is Vice President of "Global Education and Research" and responsible for the company's contacts with universities the world over. The American citizen was flown in to Zurich at short notice from a computer conference in Germany. Her message: The ETH is one of the most important universities for us and we wish to continue co-operation. Why then, asked one student, wasn't the 20-billion-dollar company prepared to invest a couple of million Swiss francs if the they are really interested in good co-operation? Neither Jones nor any of the other Sun representatives was able to supply a satisfactory answer to this question. After repeated attempts by the partcipants to get one, Jones made it understood that the costs for the Sun machines in question would use up about half of their whole budget. And that would be too much for a single university.
The EPFL has its computers The deal was concluded for the ETH by Andreas Dudler, Director of Computing services. Dudler recounted the various stages of the deal, from the very first talks at the beginning of April up until the ill tidings that arrived before Whitsun. Dudler's rendering of the events remain undisputed. Sun, or at least a few individual representatives, were kept informed of the ever increasing size of the order. They were informed of the sales contracts existing between the student's discount organisation (SSD) and students.
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After all, he was never told that there was any probem with the price and number of computers ordered. Dudler also makes clear that he would take up Sun's offer of at least 220 workstations (cf. box). The computers are destined for computer rooms and institutes to replace older Sun machines. Dudler: "It will bring us savings of between a half a million and a million francs and we do not want to, nor can we, relinquish our claim for these 220 workstations."
The head of Sun Microsystems Switzerland, Nic Cantuniar, formally apologised to the ETH and students for the unhappy outcome of the computer offer. Lots of mistakes had been made, the controlling had failed and the misunderstandings remained undetected right up until the final order arrived and it became clear that things had gone horribly wrong. Cantuniar, himself an ETH graduate, confirmed that 600 of the ardently sought-after workstations have already been delivered to the EPFL (the ETH in Lausanne). Cantuniar harvested derisive laughter from the room for his explanation that Sun had noticed the error too late to stop the delivery. Many students wanted to know how it was that mistakes of this magnitude could remain undetected for so long. Diverse answers from the Sun management did not really shed much light on this-to put it mildly. Cantuniar let it be understood that a delivery of 2500 machines to the ETH would have swallowed up six or seven times their annual budget. How on earth could such a miscalculation happen at acompany that was so used to scaling, was the ironic comment of one student. Amazement was what Jan Staes, European Director of Education & Research expressed. He told ETH Life: "It's the sort of thing one might be able to imagine happening in a "banana republic" but not in Switzerland".
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