American History 1988
Chapter 215 - 209: Moat

Chapter 215: Chapter 209: Moat

Byte Company’s meeting room, Dean had once again convened a board meeting directed at the decision-makers.

Those seated here were either major shareholders of Byte Company or its true executives.

Board members there just for show were not included in the invitation, as this concerned the company’s core secrets.

Of course, this meeting also took the opportunity to formally appoint John Chambers as the senior executive for the European market.

But the real content of the meeting was for Dean to specify Byte Company’s development plan for the next twenty years.

This was important for everyone, as had been said before—if Byte wanted a more successful IPO, Dean also needed to toss out more concepts.

As a company about to go public, it must have its own grand development strategy.

This plan or concept, regardless of whether it could be realized, had to be impressive enough; otherwise, how could they push the stock price up?

Of course, Dean wasn’t just pie-in-the-sky; he indeed had greater expectations for Byte Company.

However, before formally starting the topic, Dean decided to first throw it to John Chambers.

"John, everyone now positions Teams as an instant messaging software for the office area, right?"

"Yes, it performs very well in instant messaging and file transfer."

The numerous board members in the meeting room nodded in proud agreement.

Teams’ some exceptional feature designs had already gained fame, even these directors who didn’t understand technology had heard of them.

According to market feedback, the larger the company, the more robust the demand for Teams software.

It greatly facilitated communication, replacing the former unidirectional contact of face-to-face, or phone to phone.

Now it had become establishing contact on the same platform, which undoubtedly made workplace communication more efficient and convenient.

"That’s not wrong," Dean nodded without surprise, "but I’d prefer to think of Teams as a collaboration software."

"Collaboration software?" John Chambers heard this concept for the first time, and Valentine and Durell looked at each other, perplexed.

"Yes, let’s expand our scope, not limiting ourselves to just instant messaging software."

Dean signaled Anna to distribute the business plan, "This is the development strategy for Byte Company that I’ve written for the future, I call it ’The Vision Plan.’"

A thin white paper, probably only a dozen pages or so.

The attendees curiously flipped through it, completely unaware of how far ahead this plan was.

Dean had spent nearly two months organizing it, this white paper might carry the development trajectory for internet technology for the next twenty years.

"Collaborative work, that’s the positioning I have for Byte Company." Besides the white paper, Dean even took out a sketch.

"What I call a collaboration software is a software tool that supports multiple users online simultaneously, with team collaboration as its goal.

If we categorize by product type, it can roughly be divided into five categories: document collaboration, remote meeting, project management, instant messaging, and micro database."

"Mother F*cker, I understand every single word you say. But when you put them all together, I feel like an idiot."

Valentine was dizzy with all these names, and his instincts told him they were all troublesome.

"OK, let’s talk about it specifically." Dean began, smiling, to delve into what applications collaboration software would have in work.

"Document collaboration class, everyone has used WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, or Microsoft’s Office suite.

But have you noticed? Although these software can handle text or spreadsheets, they are designed for single users at the end of operations."

"What do you mean? Are you saying that a single document can be used by different people at the same time?" Durell asked subconsciously.

"Bingo~" Dean snapped his fingers, "Document collaboration software supports multiple people editing collaboratively, real-time editing, storing, and sharing of documents.

Imagine this, a sales manager needs to tally every salesperson’s performance.

With document collaboration software, he no longer needs an assistant to confirm with everyone via phone calls.

Now, he just needs to open his computer, regardless of where or when he is.

Every salesperson just needs to input their data in the spreadsheet, and the task of tallying is done.

In the backend, the sales manager can see in real-time the information tallied by each person.

He can then further create sales reports based on this to report to higher-level management."

"Of course, this is just one of the countless use examples, the smallest of the many applications for document collaboration."

"Wow," the audience was astounded by the scene Dean painted, they had never thought document software could be used like this.

"As for the remote meeting and instant messaging class collaboration software, I think everyone has some understanding of them.

Yes, our Teams is one of those. However, due to infrastructure limitations, the applications for remote meeting class are still few and far between.

But in the future, Teams will definitely combine instant messaging and remote meetings into one.

It will support not just text and voice calls but also video conferencing, which is one of our goals."

This was the first time Dean had clarified the future development direction for Teams software.

"Micro database collaboration software is more specialized, mainly aimed at developers.

For example, modular code design, third-party embedding features, team data sharing, and so on."

Research institutions and business labs, among others, will be its target audience. We’ll discuss it more later.

"Now, let’s take a look at the project management collaboration software. Here are some sketches of the software interface I’ve designed."

Following the white paper, there were several handwritten drafts. UI interfaces and rough functional overviews were all included.

"For the project management collaboration software, I’ve designed modular features such as task boards, file repositories, and sharing walls.

On the task board, you can create tasks and advance the project progress with team members.

It supports the visual representation of projects as mind maps or flowcharts and also includes features such as message boards, to-do lists, collaborative writing, and file sharing.

Management can also complete operations such as process approvals, task tracking, and task assignments on it.

The file repository stores various internal company documents and supports quick search and convenient access features.

As for the sharing wall, it’s a place for everyone to share their ideas or chat about life, to speak freely and uninhibitedly."

Dean had drafted sketches for these features, vividly presenting to everyone what collaborative software should look like.

After viewing the white paper and the sketches, everyone was speechless for a long time.

They were amazed by Dean’s grand "Vision Project" and simultaneously shocked by the boundless creativity within.

"I have a feeling," Valentine caressed the white paper, "that Byte Company will be Sequoia Capital’s most successful investment."

He was fascinated by the plan, and the white paper in Valentine’s hands appeared as beguiling as a girl stripped of her clothes.

Durell took a deep breath, feeling a growing sense of regret.

Perhaps he should not have handed over the lead investor role in the second round of fundraising to Valentine for the sake of investing in Go Company.

At least at present, the prospects of Byte Company seemed much clearer and more feasible than Go Company’s.

"I’ll call Morgan Stanley right now; they should come to Silicon Valley! They’ll be captivated by this plan!"

Arthur Locke couldn’t wait a moment longer; he had seen ideas more astonishing than those of Jobs in Dean.

No, this was not just creativity; this was strategy!

A founder with good ideas might be easy to find, but a business genius with strategic vision was one in a million.

Yes, as the representative of some big shots, Arthur Locke had also attended today’s board meeting.

He now felt incredibly fortunate for having stolen Dick’s business, with a premonition that Byte Company would bring returns that surpassed his initial investment in Intel.

Seeing Arthur’s hurried departure from the office, everyone merely smiled nonchalantly; he was too eager to show off.

Changes were happening in Silicon Valley, and those who couldn’t keep up would be mercilessly eliminated.

"So?" David Morgentaler tapped his pipe against the table, "Byte Company already has a concrete plan, doesn’t it?"

Even the sketches Dean had made indicated that there must already be activities within the company.

"Worktile," Dean uttered softly.

"What?" Valentine didn’t quite grasp the meaning.

"Project management collaboration software, Worktile—that will be Byte Company’s next product.

I’ve had David secretly put together a development team, just like we discussed: task boards, file repositories, sharing walls...

These are all targets we are striving to achieve, and they are intended for the same corporate internal users as Teams."

"Why not the document collaboration software you mentioned initially?" Valentine still couldn’t forget those magical features.

"Because there are too many competitors," Dean spread his hands, "MicroPro, Lotus Software, Microsoft—all are industry leaders.

If Byte entered this field, intense competition would be expected, and the idea would be easy to be copied by rivals.

But the project management software market is a blank slate; we are the first to swim naked in these waters."

"A wise choice," David Morgentaler agreed.

Byte was not yet public, and it was best not to provoke Microsoft’s sensitive nerves at this time.

After all, the latter was also growing rapidly, and let’s not forget that Teams 3.0 entirely relied on the Windows platform.

Bill, that wily old man, had no qualms about playing dirty; who knows what underhanded tactics he might employ.

"First, there is the instant messaging collaboration software, that is, Teams. Then there is project management collaboration software, Worktile, which is under development.

Following that, there will be a micro-database, remote conferencing, and document collaboration. Once all these are realized,

imagine, if you will, what could happen if we were to integrate them all."

"Oh, God!" Jimmy couldn’t help but widen his eyes in amazement, "They can also be connected together?"

"Of course, otherwise, what could Byte use as its moat?"

Everyone in the meeting was trembling with excitement.

Alright, they had underestimated Dean’s ambition and Byte’s potential.

But actually, that was nothing, because Dean had not yet mentioned the cloud services collaboration plan to them.

This concept was far too advanced, not twenty years ahead, but perhaps even thirty.