Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG elected Gerhard Schlumeyer president and chief executive at the beginning of October and he is making everyone everywhere speak English all the time, declaring it to be the official language of the information technology industry. Meanwhile the company’s US-based Enterprise Systems Division, set up to peddle the RM200, RM400 and RM600 machines reckons its third year will be its hardest. It already has 40 RM servers installed in the US and says it will have 35 to 40 sales, marketing and engineering types working for it in year one and 120 people in year two. It should be at break-even by then because it does not have pay any of the engineering or development costs although it intends to move some of those resources to the US. Division head Joe MacGuire is pretty confident of his chances, because, this is the first situation he has been in where his budget is larger than his sales targets. Sales will be made largely through indirect channels.
