Interview ...
Mike Zamora
Asia Pacific Real Estate Manager
Cisco Systems

Background... Mike Zamora of Cisco Systems, responded to three e-mailed questions on Oct 21, 1999. Although Zamora's physical office is in Hong Kong, "My virtual offices are throughout greater Asia Pacific. Given me a network connection, a desk and a phone, and I am ready to set up shop. Our Asia Pacific's borders are Japan in the North, New Zealand in the Southeast and India in the West." ... Zamora is the Regional Chairman for the Asia Pacific Council and the Asian Representative for the Global Development Board of IDRC.

Pike: What are the challenges of connecting to the net during your Asian travels?

Zamora: The greatest challenges are speed and reliability. I have the capability to hook up at our various offices around the region via a high-speed network connection. However, as I also have to do other work when on the road, I then hook up from the hotel room at a slower speed (modem limitation). Due to this slower speed, when I am at a non-high speed location, I will put on my attachment filter to limit the size of the automatic downloads. This allows me to get around a large attachment to my other emails.

Pike: How does eFax help you communicate more effectively?

Zamora: EFax is basically my mobile inbox. Your faxes are sent to your e-mail address. The sender does nothing different other then faxing to a different number. My consultants know to send everything to my eFax number as I will see it sooner and I can respond back quicker to them. In addition, I can also forward the information on to other people as an attachment, versus having to fax around. Thus it is also cheaper. Previously when I was on the service provider side, I was able to call into my secretary to determine what was important and what I wanted her to fax to me. Since I don't have that resource, I had to find an alternative. EFax was my alternative. I recently returned from a weeklong trip to an empty inbox. I had a lot of eFaxes, but no items in the inbox that could go "stale." I have also been told by some people that they EFAX to themselves and use their hard drives as a mobile filing cabinet. Now that is really a virtual office. Have hard drive, will travel. ... (Note for step-by-step instructions, click PikeNet's Web Resources / Web Related / question #9.)

Pike: Do you use a web-based project management application to coordinate your relocations?

Zamora: We are in the process of finalizing a web-based system which will incorporate lease management, project management (managing the entire process, starting with the site selection, including the design process, construction schedule, budgeting and the final end user review of the facility) and future deal/expansion analysis. This tool is designed to be used throughout the world in all of our global facilities, which means international measuring units and currencies. It was designed from the ground up so that we could incorporate all the items that were important to us as a global corporation.

Clarification: Several subscribers pointed out that "Left Behind," one of Amazon.com's bestsellers to CB Richard Ellis, should be described as a Christian book. Here's the synopsis from Amazon: "This fictional account of life after the Rapture delivers an urgent call to today's readers to prepare their own hearts and to minister to others." I apologize for the confusion.

--Peter