-- [ From: John P. Burke * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
 
On 14 September, Chris Bartram wrote:
 
>For those of you that haven't seen it yet, HP has a 2-page spread ad
in
>Network World about HP being an Internet solution... not much detail,
but a
>url at the bottom of the page. Call me curious - I looked up the page
>(http://www.hp.com/go/internet) and it's pretty neat! It doesn't tell
you
>ANYTHING (other than that they WILL tell "us" something after
September 25).
>Anyone have any idea what's happening? I'm sure it's HP-UX related,
but I
>was still curious.
 
On 27 September, John Beckett wrote:
 
>Well, here we are at Interop.  It's a celebration of computers that
can
>work together: TCP/IP, Client/Server, all that neat stuff the HP 3000
does
>these days.  A few-score thousand potential customers attending.  HP
has a
>big booth with all sorts of stuff.  Except...
 
>Asked a sales lady why they didn't have one here.  She said, "those
old
>boxes don't sell very well against the new hardware anymore."
 
>Please, somebody, correct me and tell me I simply couldn't find the HP
>3000 in their booth.
 
Also on 27 September, Ken Sletten wrote:
 
>I went to Interop-Networld in Las Vegas last year;
>basically asked the same question;  basically got
>the blank-stare answer.  HP is doing a better job
>of selling and advertising 3000's than they used to,
>but continuing incidents like this one tell me that
>Olivier Helleboid needs to do more selling of the
>3000 within HP.  For HP outside of CSY, the 3000
>still seems to be pretty much terra incognito...
 
>Another note for the IPROF-96 HP management
>roundtable:    Will HP have a 3000 at Networld-
>Interop in 96 ??  Now that it speaks POSIX and
>WWW, no excuse not to.....
 
Pardon me while I get up on my soapbox. Ah hmmmm.
 
If you have www access, you've probably discovered by now that
http://www.hp.com/go/internet is a production of GSY marketing and
therefore
does not even breathe a hint that Hewlett-Packard has an operating
system
other than HP-UX. No surprise there. Compared to CSY, GSY plays
hardball
marketing.
 
However, since the web site is titled "Take your business to the Net
with
Hewlett-Packard" and the link is highlighted on HP's home page, the
inference
is clear: HP does not see the HP3000 as a player "on the net".
 
Hewlett-Packard management and, what is worse, CSY management, see the
HP3000
as a niche market product. Don't expect to see the HP3000 at Interop
next year
either. CSY spends its marketing budget preaching to the choir: even
the
vaunted ad campaign in major trade publications is targeted primarily
at
existing customers (make us feel good about our continuing use of the
HP3000).
 
Furthermore, the recent Novell, SCO and HP announcements/agreements
about the
future course of Unix do not bode well for the future visibility of MPE
and
CSY within HP. They are in danger of becoming an afterthought, if not
already.
 
I have had the opportunity to talk at length several times with Olivier
Helleboid since he took over CSY. I think he is sincere in the belief
that the
HP3000 should be targeted at specific application driven markets. I
just think
he is wrong. The volume will be too low to sustain the necessary R&D
and
support networks.
 
I also think that, having no real prior background with the HP3000, he
lacks
the zeal, commitment and, yes, passion for the product, that so many of
its
long time users and his own staff exhibit. Compare his approach to that
of
Carol Mills, his counterpart at GSY. It is more than just a style
difference.
 
I see CSY's marketing as wimpy and apologetic at best. Either MPE/iX
should be
transitioned to merge into HP-UX at some future date (in which case no
marketing is really necessary) or MPE/iX should be positioned as a
general
purpose server platform competing equally with HP-UX, Windows NT, MVS,
OS/400,
etc. Generally speaking, I see many shades of grey in most issues, but
in this
case I believe the issue is black and white. Interoperability is
critical in a
transitioning environment. However, in any other situation, operational
and
economic pressures dictate the minimum number of distinct server
platforms
necessary to perform the mission. It will take time, but eventually,
there
will be no room for niche systems.
 
I know CSY marketing people monitor this list. How about an honest
dialogue on
the future of the HP3000 and MPE/iX?
 
"Passion" for an operating system? Maybe I've been working too many
hours.
Climbing down off my soapbox,
 
John Burke
[log in to unmask]