"A while ago I met with Nelson Mandela..."

Louis Gerstner, looking positively cherubic in a halo of light, did a little strategic name-dropping during his keynote speech at the 1995 Fall Comdex. The IBM chairman related his conversation with the South African president, and it was full of implications about power and access-the currencies of governance-and of the potential of networks to propagate both to the common man. The two men discussed the promise of interactive networks as a delivery vehicle for education to infrastructure-poor and teacher-scarce native homelands.

Both men, in some ways, seem unlikely leaders. Prison is an improbable internship for a presidency, and Gerstner looks much too neighborly to be a world-class executive. For some reason, I unfailingly picture him in a barbecue apron. Nonetheless, both men have an undeniable fire in the belly, and both want to change the world.

Gerstner's method-which he unveiled at Comdex -is something he calls network-centric computing. It is the vision-thing he initially scorned but now embraces. Think of network-centric computing as an adult Internet, a world in which "every digital device [is] connected to every other digital device...." Gerstner utterly believes that the power of the network will "transform every business, organization, and institution in the world." If so, it will, by extension, transform people.

In Gerstner's model, applications, data storage, and processing power will be migrated to the network (preferably IBM's global network), and customers, including understaffed educational institutions, will outsource computer services. Communication will augment computation, and virtually every person will benefit from access not only to boundless information, but to unlimited computing power as well.

For AS/400 customers, the implications are profound. Imagine, no direct investment in hardware or applications; no operating system upgrades; no system management; no staff. Pay as you go, like paying for your car, only while you're actually driving it.

I contacted the chairman's office to see if this wired world order had reached the heady halls of Armonk and found out something unexpected. The chairman's communication mode of choice is an AS/400-albeit one with a fax router and an E-mail LAN gateway. And, if anything launches Gerstner's perceived revolution, it will be what's on that AS/400.

Sally Goerlitz is the corporate office systems manager. Among other things, she oversees a staff of people who support Gerstner. A key part of that support is an AS/400-based client/server application called Executive Organizer. Developed by Integrated Systems Solutions Corporation (ISSC)-the wholly owned IBM subsidiary whose biggest client is IBM-the system integrates no fewer than 24 IBM products into a tool for the executive revolutionary.

True to its name, Executive Organizer organizes executives-thousands of them-as well as world leaders, politicians, decision makers, and, most importantly, customers. In other words, the top of the economic and industrial food chain. "When Louis Gerstner came to IBM," Goerlitz explained, "he had a list of 5,000 key executive and customer contacts." The departing chairman had compiled a similar list, and additional names have been added over the last two years. The database now contains about 12,000 names. For each entry, a bio and history exist. Prior to meetings, the chairman can analyze the particulars of his last meeting, reviewing what was discussed, when, where, the nature of the relationship, and any supporting documents. In a very real sense, the AS/400 links the chairman of IBM to a world of possibilities.

The AS/400 also electronically captures some 20,000 pieces of mail addressed to the chairman annually, and an additional 10,000 faxes, memos, phone calls, and bits of E-mail correspondence. The AS/400's imaging capabilities are used to scan letters into the system, which are annotated and automatically routed to the correct aid or executive for response. Goerlitz said the system is currently being rolled out to the nine members of IBM's Executive Committee. New features will include sending images by Lotus Notes and, since executives frequently travel, a mobil dial-in feature and voice annotation are planned. There are also plans to link Gerstner's Madison Avenue office to his personal AS/400 in Armonk.

The AS/400 "first names" database is important because personal persuasiveness, personal networking, will ultimately help sell the notion of network-centric computing. It is a vision Gerstner will try to market with each interaction, each meeting he holds with industrial and political leaders-like Mandela.

There is considerable evidence that the effort is well under way. The total value of IBM's worldwide managed operations reached $30 billion and is growing at a rate of 100 percent annually. Campbell Soup just signed a $600 million, ten-year outsourcing contract; Goodyear has a seven-year agreement; Mercedes-Benz signed a twelve-year deal that outsources the design, integration, and management of its first U.S. auto plant. Such long-term, big-dollar deals are not likely made without the personal touch of the chairman.

Additionally, IBM already manages the world's largest private data network, linking 850 cities in 100 countries. Therefore, a high-speed, high-bandwidth networking structure is available, and interest, especially among larger customers with complex MIS needs, is growing. For good reason. Campbell, for example, estimates that, by outsourcing, it not only will rid itself of the complexity of running a major MIS operation, but expects to save $200 million as well. From a customer's perspective, the network-centric model substitutes the power of the computer for the computer itself: all MIS services outsourced; all MIS anxieties tranquilized.

To the larger, trend-weary public, just the thought of another computing trend brings on an Excedrin headache. Gerstner himself admitted at Comdex that the computer industry "absolutely thrives on hype. It's constantly prowling for the 'next big thing' to promote." But hype or not, rest assured there is a lag time between vision and implementation, even at IBM. For those of us forever chasing technology, here's the good news. The network-centric chairman is using a reliable AS/400. And even that is a recent innovation. A year and a half ago, the head of the biggest, baddest, leading-edge, high-tech, whiz-bang computer company on the face of the globe was still using... drumroll, please...a S/36! Customers, it seems, weren't the only ones hanging on to their S/36s.

Besides business, I wondered what Gerstner and Mandela talked about. Perhaps they talked about changing the world. Perhaps Mandela expressed gratitude for the millions of dollars in grants IBM provided in support of minority programs in a transitioning South Africa. Perhaps Mandela's hope for his nation can be served by Gerstner's hope for his corporation. Perhaps IBM's technology can be a partner in liberation as each man, in his own way, offers people the gift of empowerment.

Nelson Mandela once said: "Our playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around us. We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in everyone....As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Liberation is a lot to ask of technology. But equal information equally available may be a hope made real by the power of global networks. Maybe Gerstner's on to something.

Victor Rozek has 17 years of experience in the data processing industry, including seven years with IBM in Operations Management and Systems Engineering.