From http://www.hp.com/esy/solutions/consolidation/news/wolf.html
Entire contents (C) 1997 by Gartner Group, Inc.
QUOTE
Consolidating on S/390: A Sheep in Wolves' Clothing
IBM promotes S/390 as a consolidation platform for Unix, Windows NT and
NetWare workloads. We believe S/390 for consolidation is appropriate only in
highly specific cases, and we discuss server consolidation issues and
scenarios.
END-QUOTE

Speaking for myself, I can only say that I can see good uses for our HP 3000
that are not encouraged or explored. I imagine that all our mileages vary. I
wish we could all have the confidence that the best tool was being used for
the job. I have started talking with our AS/400 guy about encouraging the
parent company to look at all the technologies at our disposal and what they
do best, and growing the skills to a level of expertise appropriate to our
business, which is supposed to be consulting now...

I am reminded of the saying that when you have a hammer, every problem
begins to look like a nail. When I talk with my best contact in the parent
company about growing our business, he very quickly starts talking about the
HP 9000. That's his hammer; he is coordinating a port of one of our
mainframe products to the 9000 and Oracle. I imagine that that will attract
some customers, but do we in any way become 'market leaders' (or what ever
term one deems as indicating some excellence) by doing so?

-----Original Message-----
From: Denys Beauchemin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 15, 1999 2:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PCWeek Ad


X-no-Archive:yes
I must disagree with Wirt on a few points.  I do not believe that
management types will make the link between, "You have an IBM S/390" and
"Oh yeah, we have an HP 3000 that can probably do the same thing."  This is
far too great a stretch.

Wirt says IBM is generating no new revenues with this ad.  Let me quote
from the ad, once again.:

"IBM can provide a way to get your existing set of servers consolidated and
to train your staff to manage and continue the process.  Our entire
organization is ready to help your company more efficiently, more quickly
and more profitably."

This says two things to me. A)- IBM will sell consulting services to show
you how to do it and to train your staff (this is not free, I am sure.) B)-
IBM wants to be seen as a single organization, dedicated to serving you.

This last is something that HP might want to emulate.


Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com



-----Original Message-----
From:   Wirt Atmar [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Friday, 15 January, 1999 11:54 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: PCWeek Ad

One person wrote a thoughtful private reply to my earlier comment that IBM
is
doing us all a favor by running their advertisement:

> Your customers are probably the exception to the rule, but I think that
>  the majority of 'pointy haired' manager types won't make the connection.
>  In fact, I think that some of the manager types in a lot of
>  organizations wouldn't even know if they had a S/390.  The 'Peter
>  Principal' in full blown glory!
>
>  I think that if HP wants to sway people over or back, they need to be
>  much more vocal about the virtues of the HP3000.  An add like the one
>  mentioned would be a good start.  The blanket adds are nice, but the
>  need to keep up with more adds and different approaches.

It's important to recognize that the primary motivation behind IBM's ad is
customer stabilization, the minimization of back-end abandonment of
S/390's.
The important tag line of the ad is: "You already own it!"

IBM is generating no new revenue (at least immediately) off of such a
campaign. But, by letting IBM pay for a series of ads like this one, the ad
WILL do installed HP3000's approximately as much good as it does current
S/390
owners.

Moving off of one (legacy, proprietary) mainframe system onto another is an
extremely expensive proposition. No one, not even the pointiest-haired
manager, would propose doing that. The tendency is, and always will be,
towards cheaper, not necessarily better. The point of this specific ad is
precisely to educate the pointy-hair managers of the extraordinary value
they
already have in hand.

The moral of that education is universal.

But my saying all of this should not be taken to mean that I am opposed to
HP
running more ads for the HP3000, particularly eye-catching, aggressive ads,
without a hint of defensiveness in them.

Wirt