Israel Frankel <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>> etc, etc, etc.
>
>It has always amazed me that, since the advent of PA-RISC, HP seems to
>consider the 3000 line to be problem and an embarassment. Of course
>they are keeping as quiet as possible anything related to the success
>of the 3000 -- they don't want to send what they apparently consider to
>be mixed signals to the marketplace. That might lead to (hold onto your
>hat) people buying 3000s.
>
>I have always believed if IBM had the engineering brilliance to
>accomplish what HP has that their sales and marketing people would have
>put all competitors out of business. What better protection of your
>proprietary system investment than to be able to convert it to Unix if
>you ever need to?
>
>Instead, HP considers their engineering accomplishments at both the
>hardware and operating system levels a deep, dark, secret. On numerous
>occasions we have talked to HP shops who called in their HP rep to
>order an upgrade of their existing 3000 machine. After the sales rep
>got done selling them Unix, Unix, Unix, the poor confused customer
>placed all upgrade plans on hold. We have seen this time and again over
>the years.
>
>Of course, if there is a business reason for doing any of this, it
>would seem to lean in the direction of promoting the system that allows
>you to get the biggest profit marging from the same hardware, and
>everyone knows which one that is.
>
>If the best Unix system is good, and the best proprietary system is
>good, isn't the fact  they both come from the same company good as
>well? Is the fact they are both the same box bad? I'm no marketing
>person, but couldn't all this be translated into a coherent strategy
>that promotes each platform based on the strenghs of both? Is there a
>synergy here? If so, why hide it?
>--
>Israel Frankel
>Business Solutions, Inc.
 
 
I had the privilege of spending some time with the top HP CSY managers
yesterday in Cupertino regarding, PRECISELY, this very topic.  I was
impressed by their openness and sincerity in dealing with a "situation"
that, obviously, they inherited and began about a decade ago.  The new CSY
management team did not (as far as I can tell) plan this in a dark and
gloomy ebony tower somewhere.  So, bashing them will not accomplish
anything.  The best part is that they are very enthusiastic and very
willing to push the HP3000 and to evangelize the whole world about the
greatness of the HP3000.  As an example, they showed me some slick new ads
that appeared 9and will appear) in Money Magazine.  And this is just the
top of the iceberg.  You can imagine how good this felt!
 
The whole thing is now a question of "which came first, the chicken or the
egg?"  (To use my own translation of my own -- perhaps totally off the mark
-- words: Is "HP's perceived hiding of the HP3000" the culprit or is it
"the HP3000 customer's fault for not buying enough HP3000 computers to make
super-top HP management happy with ringing cash registers?")
 
Regardless of the answer to these difficult issues, we are all caught in
the middle of a vicious circle.  We should all strive to provide creative
solutions to get back into a self-sustaining, long-term healthy circle (or,
rather, a self-sustaining, long-term healthy UPWARD spiral!)
 
I could spend days (or months) and gigabytes per millisecond rushing IP
packets of opinion back and forth.  The fact would still remain that, as I
see it now, publishing HP3000 success stories all over the universe is in
the best interest of everyone.  And this brings me to my main point:  Who
knows customer success stories better than the customers themselves?  So,
customers:  Contact your nearest journalist friend (even your local town's
rag) and show them what you do with your HP3000s.  Even better, show them
what you DON'T do: rebooting all the time, recompiling the operating system
whenever a minor revision comes along, and a few other items that escape my
mind now...  You get the point...
 
Gotta go...
 
+---------------+
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, Theoretical Group    Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
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