FlashPaper: HP slashes prices on upgrades for 3000s

April 1998

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HP slashes prices on upgrades for 3000s

CSY made good on its promise to deliver relief for HP 3000 upgrades, announcing a Spring Has Sprung for the HP 3000 sale on user licenses when you upgrade to Series 9x9 systems. Customers have been complaining for some time about the hidden costs of an upgrade between HP 3000 systems – paying full price for your MPE/iX user licenses again when you’re simply upgrading between boxes. In environments where the operating systems don’t deliver as much built-in value, user license fees don’t add up to nearly as much as they do for 3000 customers. Marketing Manager Roy Breslawski announced at the IPROF Management Roundtable he was ready to address the problem. Breslawski just reported in an early April interview that HP 3000 resellers say those user license fees – which at the top end weigh in at well over $200,000 – were inhibiting sales of HP 3000s. So the division cut the fees by 40 percent, starting now and ending July 31.

The discount covers upgrades from the entire 9x7 line of 3000s, as well as other models: Series 920, 922, 925, 932, 935, 948, 949, 950, 955, 958, 960 and 980. If you don’t see your system listed in there, just wait a bit. Breslawski said the spring sale is only the beginning of the discounting, and other reductions will be unveiled before HP World in early August. What can you save? Well, the discounts go as high as $93,600 if you were swapping from a top of the line 9x7 to a 979 with unlimited user licenses. HP’s also applying the discount in addition to its Trade Up ‘98 rebates, the regular sale it has on the hardware itself each spring. Your rebates will be based on whether you’re upgrading to MPE/iX with IMAGE/SQL, with Allbase, or no database at all. You’ve got to return your old hardware to get the TradeUp ‘98 rates. If you buy through a reseller, the rebate check is often sent to the reseller.

You can combine the user license discounts with other discounts, like education discounts or the HP 3000 Cure 2000 program, but you must own your old server a minimum of 12 months before upgrading. You can’t get a discount if you’re upgrading to used or refurbished 9x9s from HP’s Finance division, and the discounts don’t apply to rental houses, brokerage houses or their agents. That’s all the fine print we heard about at press time.

Breslawski said he’s been hearing customers complain about the steep upgrade fees since he got on his job late last summer. The problem lies in the difference between MPE/iX licenses and those on less-fully-featured systems such as HP-UX and NT. “We’re looking at making more adjustments as the year progresses,” he said. “I don’t want to go all the way to the extreme of saying you should never pay for a user license more than once. The reality is that in the market at large, you tend to buy software every time you get a new box. What comes up is that the cost of the software on a 3000, relative to the hardware, is not quite the same balance as for an NT server, for example. What we’re trying to do is bring that ratio in line. I think 40 percent reflects that.”

Breslawski added that user license fees are a serious chunk of the revenues at CSY, money collected in exchange for its engineering to creates the most unique value of the 3000: the operating system and databases included with it. But even before the discounts were approved, CSY had to show HP that the promotion would be earning more dollars for the division when all the math settles out. That’s an indication of the division’s forecast for sales of new systems. CSY has been trying to entice 9x7 owners to move to the 9x9 line for several years by now, ever since HP introduced a low-end Series 939 sweet spot for upgrading from the older HP 3000s. “We did this fully expecting to increase revenue,” Breslawski said. “Our focus is in growing the market.”

Technology advances on the HP 3000 give users other ways to reduce the cost of user licensing during an upgrade. For example, IT managers can implement ODBC connectivity for systems to cut down the number of licenses needed, since one user job on the 3000 can be doing nothing but feeding data to applications on other systems. This lets the 3000 do a more ‘90s style of work, acting as a server instead of a processor. You can press other platforms into service as processors, like those dozens of PCs you’re already buying license upgrades for every year from Microsoft. ODBC drivers let processes which are children to listeners on the 3000 ride for free. In some cases that might mean the difference between a 160-user license and a 100-user fee, a major savings on the HP software tier. Another place to save user licenses is by Web-enabling applications, using the HP 3000 as a Web server. Breslawski said HP would continue to work with customers to size upgrades with an appropriate number of user licenses – even if that’s a lower number than you’re currently licensing.

Copyright 1998 The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved



	Click here for M.B.Foster Associates sponsor message
	HP slashes prices on upgrades for 3000s CSY made good on its promise to deliver relief for HP 3000 upgrades, announcing a Spring Has Sprung for the HP 3000 sale on user licenses when you upgrade to Series 9x9 systems. Customers have been complaining for some time about the hidden costs of an upgrade between HP 3000 systems – paying full price for your MPE/iX user licenses again when you’re simply upgrading between boxes. In environments where the operating systems don’t deliver as much built-in value, user license fees don’t add up to nearly as much as they do for 3000 customers. Marketing Manager Roy Breslawski announced at the IPROF Management Roundtable he was ready to address the problem. Breslawski just reported in an early April interview that HP 3000 resellers say those user license fees – which at the top end weigh in at well over $200,000 – were inhibiting sales of HP 3000s. So the division cut the fees by 40 percent, starting now and ending July 31. The discount covers upgrades from the entire 9x7 line of 3000s, as well as other models: Series 920, 922, 925, 932, 935, 948, 949, 950, 955, 958, 960 and 980. If you don’t see your system listed in there, just wait a bit. Breslawski said the spring sale is only the beginning of the discounting, and other reductions will be unveiled before HP World in early August. What can you save? Well, the discounts go as high as $93,600 if you were swapping from a top of the line 9x7 to a 979 with unlimited user licenses. HP’s also applying the discount in addition to its Trade Up ‘98 rebates, the regular sale it has on the hardware itself each spring. Your rebates will be based on whether you’re upgrading to MPE/iX with IMAGE/SQL, with Allbase, or no database at all. You’ve got to return your old hardware to get the TradeUp ‘98 rates. If you buy through a reseller, the rebate check is often sent to the reseller. You can combine the user license discounts with other discounts, like education discounts or the HP 3000 Cure 2000 program, but you must own your old server a minimum of 12 months before upgrading. You can’t get a discount if you’re upgrading to used or refurbished 9x9s from HP’s Finance division, and the discounts don’t apply to rental houses, brokerage houses or their agents. That’s all the fine print we heard about at press time. Breslawski said he’s been hearing customers complain about the steep upgrade fees since he got on his job late last summer. The problem lies in the difference between MPE/iX licenses and those on less-fully-featured systems such as HP-UX and NT. “We’re looking at making more adjustments as the year progresses,” he said. “I don’t want to go all the way to the extreme of saying you should never pay for a user license more than once. The reality is that in the market at large, you tend to buy software every time you get a new box. What comes up is that the cost of the software on a 3000, relative to the hardware, is not quite the same balance as for an NT server, for example. What we’re trying to do is bring that ratio in line. I think 40 percent reflects that.” Breslawski added that user license fees are a serious chunk of the revenues at CSY, money collected in exchange for its engineering to creates the most unique value of the 3000: the operating system and databases included with it. But even before the discounts were approved, CSY had to show HP that the promotion would be earning more dollars for the division when all the math settles out. That’s an indication of the division’s forecast for sales of new systems. CSY has been trying to entice 9x7 owners to move to the 9x9 line for several years by now, ever since HP introduced a low-end Series 939 sweet spot for upgrading from the older HP 3000s. “We did this fully expecting to increase revenue,” Breslawski said. “Our focus is in growing the market.” Technology advances on the HP 3000 give users other ways to reduce the cost of user licensing during an upgrade. For example, IT managers can implement ODBC connectivity for systems to cut down the number of licenses needed, since one user job on the 3000 can be doing nothing but feeding data to applications on other systems. This lets the 3000 do a more ‘90s style of work, acting as a server instead of a processor. You can press other platforms into service as processors, like those dozens of PCs you’re already buying license upgrades for every year from Microsoft. ODBC drivers let processes which are children to listeners on the 3000 ride for free. In some cases that might mean the difference between a 160-user license and a 100-user fee, a major savings on the HP software tier. Another place to save user licenses is by Web-enabling applications, using the HP 3000 as a Web server. Breslawski said HP would continue to work with customers to size upgrades with an appropriate number of user licenses – even if that’s a lower number than you’re currently licensing. Copyright 1998 The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved