Hello Friends:
 
Joe Geiser wisely states he was "a bit skeptical of the "fall of the 3000"
posts," but then goes on to say "I read in Information Week IBM targeting
3000
users for an AS/400 sales campaign." Joe adds that the article reports that
IBM believes the AS/400 system is prime to take over the HP 3000 market.
 
The system is no more prime today than it was before IBM began its
marketing campaign. There have been recent developments in AS/400 operating
system technology relative to 64 bits, but that's not what has won the very
few converts to the ranks of Big Blue.
 
A broader list of applications has leveraged the migration of every
reference account we in the press have been given. IBM says this is the
real target of their marketing effort. The sites needed software, and
couldn't find what they wanted running on MPE/iX. Customers say they loved
the HP 3000, but needed a revised application. Most of these few-in-number
customers work with off-the-shelf software, and they have few options if a
program first written in the 80s won't be upgraded or enhanced. They are
small to mid-size shops with no taste for in-house development
 
Every customer so far has had to make a severe break in IT operations --
they have chosen to dump IMAGE and many years of HP 3000 training. And all
of them are facing some kind of data conversion. The simplest one I've seen
so far is a company that is completely walking away from 12 years of data
and starting anew. IBM is helping in that company's conversion.
 
The "campaign" consists of a letter mailed to a few thousand HP 3000
customers, a discount of about 10 percent on AS/400 hardware, and financial
help to pay for the data conversion and training.
 
Being targeted is nothing new to HP 3000 sites. In 1986 Digital targeted
the HP 3000 community just outside the Interex show in Detroit. That was
the year that two-page ads proclaimed "Digital has it now," making hay over
delays in HP's RISC program. A suite of VAX systems whirred rather loudly
in the hotel across from the Cobo Hall convention center. An IMAGE wanna-be
included datasets named after well-known HP 3000 luminaries. Digital called
the effort its "Systems Attract Program."
 
The next day on the show floor, some HP officials could be seen sporting
buttons saying, "Don't be a SAP for DEC." It's marketing. You get targeted
if you're successful.
 
HP's solution to the shortfall of HP 3000 applications has been to suggest
those applications can be hosted on HP 9000 and NT systems. They can, but
ample evidence suggests that choice is substandard to running native MPE/iX
applications.
 
Companies are after the HP 3000 business because it's the most loyal and
most intelligent set of IT managers in business. Applications drive system
decisions. You write 'em, or buy em, but choosing them is the horse that's
in front of the cart. Whatever the market can do to encourage continued
development on HP 3000s will be the best counter to the IBM AS/400
marketing effort. To date, few companies have responded. Three of the four
reference accounts converted more than two years ago.
 
We'll have coverage in our August issue of the NewsWire on this marketing
effort. Visit our Web site at http://www.3000newswire.com/newswire to sign
up for a free trial subscription (in the US and Canada, if you haven't
already).
 
Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 News/Wire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP3000
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