The intelligent "Human Network" is emerging, says Vorkon Patra-yanan, the regional managing director of Cisco Systems for Thailand and Indochina.

"Now we have IP, or Internet Protocol, phones, the wi-fi computer notebook and mobile phones that can double as a train ticket since the user can download the ticket's barcode onto the phone and then use it as a pass. Or we could advertise a restaurant on the aerial maps on Google Earth or watch a football match on our mobile.

"Another interesting example, depicted in a recent TV commercial, is where a group of Indians holds a wedding party, presumably in India. Then a relative video-records the event live and instantly sends the clips to family members and friends in London.

"All these are possible due to the intelligent IT network which is behind the scenes," explains Vorkon, who at 48 is a 20-year veteran of the IT industry.

An MBA from the University of Texas, Vorkon says US-based Cisco, which currently controls more than 70 per cent of the global IT network market, focuses on security, IP communications, wireless communication and mobility.

To ensure that countries around the world where Cisco operates are prepared in terms of human resources, the firm set up the Cisco Networking Academy Programme a decade ago.

The programme works with educational institutes and related organisations in more than 160 countries worldwide. In Thailand it is partners with 38 institutes and offers certification programmes for advanced and general IT networking skills.

Sandy Walsh, the regional manager for the Cisco Networking Academy Programme, says it has attracted more than 10,000 educational institutes as partners and turned out 1.6 million students in the past decade, making it the largest e-learning programme of its kind.

"In Asia and the Pacific we've produced about 100,000 students in IT networking, offered as part of a university degree programme or as part of the high-school curriculum," says Walsh, 40, an Australian who has been based in Singapore for the past decade.

Among the Networking Academy's partners in Thailand are Rangsit University and King Mongkut Institute of Technology at Lad Krabang.

Overall, the programme is aimed at dealing with the global shortage of people with networking skills. In Asia Pacific the shortfall is estimated to be 210,000 people this year and is projected to grow to 396,000 in 2009.

As for Thailand, the shortfall in skilled IT personnel this year is 4,000 people, and it is expected to grow to 6,600 by 2009.

Walsh, who graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, says the skills situation appears to have shifted dramatically in the past 5-10 years as IT has become an integral part of virtually every business and rendered many existing business models obsolete.

In other words, the demand for integrated IT skills has broadened dramatically to the extent that all students need to consider IT as a necessary part of their education if they want to get a job after graduation.

According to Walsh, it's no longer just about working in specialised IT companies since the technology has now been applied across a range of sectors, in healthcare, retailing, manufacturing, services, hospitality etc. Now businesses are supposed to build around IT.

Vorkon cites the potential use of IP phones (phones with video screens) in retailing as an example.

"King Power, the country's largest duty-free retailer, recently installed 1,300 IP phones to better manage its customer service, inventory and other aspects of its business," he says.

According to Vorkon, such a system greatly improves productivity since key information about customers and other business intelligence is stored in the system's integrated database for further use.

This means the company will be aware of its customers' preferences in advance or can check its inventory online for speedy replenishment so that it doesn't miss sales opportunities at the Suvarnabhumi Airport or its downtown duty-free shopping complex.

All this is thanks to the intelligent network that Vorkon, Walsh and their fellow IT professionals are working to usher into every aspect of life.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com