Hi Everyone,

Although I regularly read 3000L I have very rarely participated in the
discussions.  With recent threads around HP’s Multi-OS Strategy and HP
e3000 positioning I feel the need to add my perspective.  Sorry for the
length of this post, but I have very strong opinions about this.

Over the years I have met many customers and partners and developed
lasting relationships.  For those of you who I have not personally met,
let me provide a bit of background on myself.  I’m currently the general
manager responsible for the HP e3000 business within HP.  My history with
the HP 3000 dates back approximately 25 years.  I first used an HP 3000
when I was in 9th grade, then all through college, then as a customer, and
the past 16 years with HP.  My entire career (actually my entire adult
life) has been related to the HP 3000.  I jokingly tell folks that I’ve
either been playing with the 3000 (a bit of hidden computer geek in me),
or being paid to play with the 3000, or more recently leading teams of
people playing with the 3000, for most of my life.  I’m a strong believer
in the value of MPE and IMAGE and proudly display my MPE Forever pin in my
office.

Having said all of that, let me now also say that I understand your
concerns.  Believe me, I do.

So let me give you my perspective on the executive communications that
have taken place in the past months.   There have been many
communications, press releases, quotes in interviews, etc., that have not
appropriately mentioned the HP e3000.  This is NOT by design.  I guarantee
it.  This has been caused by a number of factors that I’ll try and
explain.  This is not intended to say it’s acceptable, it’s not, but
rather just to provide some facts to the emotional discussions.

I believe the biggest cause for some of the miscommunication is related to
the Reinvention of HP.  In the past HP was a very distributed,
diversified, company of many product lines.  Each product line was wholly
responsible and did not interact often with other product lines.  Each had
 it’s own market strategy, communication plans, sales, etc.  Each product
line communicated entirely about itself.  This led to many problems in how
HP interacts with customers.  HP has been viewed as having fantastic
products but very hard to work with.    So, over the past year HP has been
focused on restructuring the way we interact with customers, market our
products, etc.  Customer facing organizations are taking on responsibility
for all HP products.   This has caused the number of HP employees that
need to be very familiar with our HP e3000 business strategy to grow
considerably.  In the past, communication about the 3000 was very
contained within CSY.  Now many parts of HP are involved in advertising,
marketing, and executive speech writing, etc.   Now, combine that with a
company of >80,000 employees, and remember that the HP e3000 is relatively
a smaller product line than HP-UX and HP Netservers, and the result is
that you have miscommunication about the platform.

Even prior to the recent 3000L discussion threads, my staff and I have
been working closely with other parts of HP to ensure that the HP e3000 is
appropriately positioned   I have had many personal conversations with HP’
s top executives and they are all very supportive of the HP e3000.  They
recognize the history, value the product, even more so value the
customers, and truly feel bad about the miscommunication.   I feel
confident that you will see a difference in the coming months.  This
however doesn’t mean that MPE will be mentioned every time HP-UX is, or NT
is, or whatever.  I do believe there are times when HP needs to tailor the
message to the specific audience.

The majority of the feedback that has been sent to me, Ann, Carly, etc.,
has been very constructive and I really appreciate that.   We are all
supporting the same cause.  However I’ve read a few posts and gotten a few
emails that I think are not productive.  Wild accusations of political
infighting, strategies to kill the 3000, etc., are absolutely untrue and I
believe are counter productive.   Letting HP executives know more about
the loyalty and passion MPE customers have is not a bad thing, but when it
’s done is a non-professional manner I personally think it hurts our
mutual cause.

My quick summary would look something like this:  The recent HP
communications regarding HP’s Multi-OS strategy that did not mention the
MPE operating system are not accurate and are unacceptable.  HP recognizes
this and is working hard to improve our internal processes to ensure that
MPE is appropriately positioned in future communications.  A bit less
polished and more to the point way of saying this would be:  Yes, MPE has
been inappropriately missing from HP communications and we are working
hard to fix it.

So, thanks for listening.  As always I’m very interested in your ideas and
feedback.

Looking forward to seeing you at HP World!

Winston


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