Hi Brian,

Great reply, and I have a few of my own comments...

> In the first place, CSY was apparently about one percent of
> HP revenues, not even on anyones' radar screen.

Maybe less, I don't know.

> In the second place, it is not clear that CSY was a profit
> centre although it might have been.

CSY used to make a healthy profit for the company back in
the "good old days".  A LOT has changed since then, and
lately CSY has not met HP profit expectations.

> In the third place, those who knew nothing (or very little)
> about MPE most
> likely included Carly.  We are blaming her for something that
> she didn't do, rightly or wrongly.

Carly had nothing to do with our announcement. Neither does
Compaq.

> IMHO HP's problems began well prior to Carly taking the helm.

Absolutely, assuming you meant "CSY" where you wrote "HP"; although,
I guess HP did have some serious problems prior to Carl, else
Carly would have never been hired.

> After much reflective thought, it is my opinion that dumping MPE was
> strictly "just business" (or lack of same).  Although I subscribe to a
> stiff dose of paranoia, I think that for the most part CSY genuinely
> thought they were doing us all a favour.

I know this is a very strange thing to say, and I think our
announcement would have been much easier to accept, to understand,
and to deliver if we just said "the business stunk, we need to get
out".  But, from what I know inside CSY, Winston and his staff
really tried to make the business work, and once it was clear
to THEM that we were on an irreversible downhill course, they
decided to do what they considered the honorable thing, and let
you know ASAP that we can't support MPE past 2006.  In hindsight,
I think I would have done some things differently, but it was
not for me to decide, and at the time we had no hindsight.  So,
I agree with Brian's comment above.

> We don't see much talk about the
> impact of the decision on CSY folks but I would assume that
> many of them find it just as hard to swallow as we do.

It SURE was... some of us are still confused and many of us
are unsure of our careers.  But, we have jobs and still work
hard...

> Most 3rd party vendors enjoy a revenue stream from annual
> maintenance fees
> which help finance enhancements and growth, something
> significant that CSY
> apparently didn't share in.  That can be traced back several
> decades at least in HP culture.

Every CSY General manager that I worked for in the last 10-15
years tried to get some support revenue into CSY -- and failed.

...

 regards,
 Jeff Vance, CSY

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