Steal the enemy's base at the start and build a technological empire.

Chapter 415 The Internal Strife at Star Technology Comes to an End

May 20, 2002, New York.

Fiona sent an email with the subject line "Star Technology CEO Appointed." Ling Yun opened it; the email was short, containing only a few lines.

"Mr. Ling, the board of directors of Xingchen Technology just voted to approve the new CEO. Robert Carter, former senior vice president of IBM, in charge of software business. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley nominated him, and Yixiang also agreed. Carter sent an email to all employees this afternoon saying that Xingchen system will resume updates, and version 3.0 is planned to be released by the end of the year. But I heard from the technical team that the core code of the new version is basically the same as the 2.2 version before you left, with only a few minor fixes and interface adjustments. The technical team said that they haven't written any new code for a year, and it's good enough that it can run."

Attached to the email was Xingchen Technology's latest market share data. Lingyun clicked on it; it was a bar chart. In 1999, Xingchen's system accounted for 47% of the new installation market. In 2000, 59%. In 2001, 38%. In the first four months of 2002, less than 20%. Microsoft Windows rebounded to over 60%, and Xinghuo's system quietly rose in the domestic market, with installations exceeding 800 million.

Ling Yun finished reading the email and closed it. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

In the year and a half since he left Xingchen, the board of directors of Xingchen has fought countless times, changed three CEOs, lost a large number of engineers, and its market share has dropped by more than half.

Now, they've finally chosen a CEO. Not from Goldman Sachs, not from Dell, not from HP, but an outside professional manager. This means that all parties have given up, compromised, and accepted the situation.

But compromise does not equate to revival. What can a professional manager do without the founder's authority, the trust of the core technical team, and a deep understanding of the product?

He could only maintain the status quo, maintain the stock price, and maintain it until someone was willing to buy. Carter said that the Star System would release version 3.0 by the end of the year, but Ling Yun knew that version wouldn't have any real innovation.

Because all the innovative people have left. Eric is in Shanghai, and half of the core code architects are at Spark. The rest are lucky if they can make minor fixes.

Ling Yun stood up and walked to the window. Outside, it was early summer in Jinan, the sun shining brightly. He looked out for a long time, then picked up the phone and dialed Wang Jianguo's number.

"Over at Xingchen, a new CEO has been appointed. Their market share is still declining. Meanwhile, what's the installed base of Xinghuo's system?"

Wang Jianguo said, "Last month's data was just over eight million. The education system accounted for 40%, government and enterprises accounted for 30%, and individual users accounted for 30%. But the growth rate is accelerating, with about 500,000 new installations per month."

Ling Yun said, "This speed is not enough. We need to break through ten million by the end of the year. By June next year, we need to break through twenty million. We don't have much time left to expand our territory. Yixiang has integrated Xingchen's resources, and even without a new version, they have enough strength to challenge us."

Wang Jianguo said, "I understand."

After hanging up the phone, Ling Yun stood by the window, gazing at the sunlight outside for a while. Then he picked up his phone and sent Li Mo a text message: "The Xingchen matter is over. From now on, stop thinking about how to compete with them. Think about how to make sure they can't catch up with us."

Li Mo replied, "I'm already thinking about it. The order for the educational version of the Starlight 2 just arrived today, 50,000 units."

Ling Yun glanced at the text message and sat back down at his desk. On it lay a newly delivered report—the quarterly progress report for the Spark Mobile Business Unit. He opened to the first page, where Li Mo had handwritten a summary: "The second version of the StarCore chip has been successfully taped out, with a clock speed of 400MHz and a power consumption of 580mW. The Spark OS prototype has run smoothly, with a touch frame rate of 45fps, targeting 60fps. The StarPhone engineering prototype has been assembled and is currently undergoing testing."

He closed the report. The story of the stars had ended; the story of the sparks had only just begun.

January 1nd, 9:00 AM.

At the Xinghuo Group headquarters, the large conference room on the third floor had been temporarily converted into a command center. Three large screens hung on the wall: the left one displayed the ERP system's backend monitoring, the middle one showed data dashboards for each department, and the right one featured a huge flowchart marking every step from procurement to production, sales, and finance. Some nodes were green, some yellow, and a few red.

Chen Zhongming sat at the command console, three computers in front of him and a walkie-talkie in his hand. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone. He had dark circles under his eyes, indicating he hadn't slept well for three days in a row.

Jiang Feng sat next to him, a laptop in front of him displaying a scrolling code log. The technical team members were scattered across various departments, each with a walkie-talkie to report on the situation at any time.

At 9:00 AM sharp, Chen Zhongming pressed the intercom button. "Attention all departments, the ERP system is officially switching. Data entry into the old system ceases immediately; all data will be processed on the new system. Purchasing department, you can go first."

The purchasing department's voice came through the walkie-talkie. "Purchasing department received. First order entry... Supplier data incompatibility, system error. 'Supplier coding format incorrect' message."

Jiang Feng tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "The old system's supplier code was 8 digits, the new system's is 12 digits. A batch was missed during the data migration. Give me five minutes."

He accessed the database, located the supplier records, wrote a few lines of SQL, and filled in the missing code. Then he said into the walkie-talkie, "Purchasing department, try again."

"Okay, it's approved."

Chen Zhongming breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could finish exhaling, the walkie-talkie rang again.

"Production Department. Material coding is messed up. The same material has two codes in the new system, and the BOM cannot be extracted from it."

Jiang Feng typed again, "The old system used material names plus specifications, while the new system uses pure numeric codes. There were omissions in the mapping table during the migration, and I'm fixing them now."

"Sales Department. Customer information import failed, with the message 'Incorrect data format'."

"Finance Department. Accounts receivable don't match; there's a discrepancy of over 20 million."

Problems kept piling up. Jiang Feng's fingers barely stopped moving on the keyboard, while the technical team ran between floors, answering calls, checking screens, and modifying code. Chen Zhongming sat at the command center, his walkie-talkie never leaving his seat.

At noon, Ling Yun arrived. He didn't speak, but stood behind Chen Zhongming and watched for a while. On the big screen, there were still five red nodes, a dozen or so yellow nodes, and less than half of the green nodes.

Chen Zhongming turned his head, about to speak. Ling Yun waved his hand. "No need to report, I just came to take a look." He pulled up a chair and sat down next to him.

At 6 PM, all red nodes were eliminated. At 9 PM, three yellow nodes remained.

At 11 p.m., the purchasing department said on the walkie-talkie, "All orders for today have been entered and the data has been verified to be correct."

The production department then added, "The entire BOM has been regenerated, and the production schedule for tomorrow has been issued."

The sales department stated, "All customer information has been migrated successfully, and the order data has been verified to be correct."

The last person from the finance department said, "The accounts are reconciled. The discrepancy of over 20 million was due to currency conversion issues, which have already been adjusted."

A few seconds of silence fell over the command center, then applause began, first scattered, then growing louder. Chen Zhongming leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. He turned to look at Ling Yun.

"President Ling, the system has successfully launched."

Ling Yun stood up and patted him on the shoulder. "Thank you for your hard work. Let everyone go back and rest. Starting tomorrow, keep a close eye on the data and fix any problems immediately."

A month later, the system stabilized. At the monthly summary meeting, Ma Baoguo said, "Previously, the end-of-month inventory took three days; now the results are in half a day."

Lingyun said, "This is just the beginning. SCM and CRM will also be launched successively. We can't stop on the road to digitalization."

After the meeting, Jiang Feng stayed behind. He walked over to Ling Yun and whispered, "President Ling, when the ERP went live, I discovered a problem. Our data architecture wasn't designed with cross-border business in mind. Now, with more and more overseas orders, currency exchange rates, tariffs, and multi-currency settlements are making it very difficult for the system to handle."

Ling Yun looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I suggest initiating preliminary research on the next-generation ERP system. This shouldn't be just patching things up, but a complete redesign of the architecture. We need to take into account cross-border operations, multi-currency compatibility, multi-language compatibility, and compliance with various regulations. This system shouldn't just be for Xinghuo; it can be developed into a product and sold to other Chinese companies going global."

Ling Yun thought for a moment and said, "It's possible. But don't affect the stability of the existing system. First, assemble a small team to design the architecture."

Jiang Feng nodded, turned and left. Ling Yun watched his retreating figure and suddenly realized that Xinghuo's path to digitization had only just begun.