The fuzzy concept of e-services got real at HP World, when HP announced the first apps-on-tap deal from the HP 3000 division (CSY) since the company rolled out its e-services concept in May. HP 3000 customers will be among the first to get their hands on applications delivered from Internet-linked servers, the heart of apps-on-tap.

Ann Livermore, CEO of HP’s Enterprise Computing business, said in her kickoff keynote speech at HP World that the technologies of e-services “will let you reach customers in whole new ways, and let you make money in whole new ways.” The former claim is already true for HP 3000 channel partner Telenomics, the first of many software providers rolling out an e-services offering.

This fall the world will be able to order telephone management services delivered from an HP 3000. Because it’s an e-service, all a customer needs to get started is an Internet connection and some phones to manage. Telenomics is making its PWARE program something that businesses can enable for just cents per use, running from HP 3000s in a Boise, Idaho HP datacenter. PWARE over the Internet will be available in November.

The 3000’s first e-services step through a third party supplier is endorsed by a customer already using services delivered from a remote HP 3000. PWARE customer Palm Springs Convention Center has been using the Telenomics software for almost 10 years, the last three as a remote service from an HP 3000 located at Telenomics headquarters. The Center’s vice president and general manager Jim Dunn said, “Over the past 18 months, we’ve experienced tremendous growth in our telecommunications needs. Moving our service to the apps-on-tap model is the natural transition to continue to receive secure and reliable service, with the added benefit of HP and Telenomics support.”

Livermore said in her keynote speech that HP has “pre-integrated packages of solutions targeted at making e-services real for you. Rather than building large, complex systems, you can rent these services over the net. We’re aggressively pursuing this market by forging partnerships with a number of companies.” She quoted a Forrester Research report that up to 20 percent of all applications would be apps-on-tap within two years.

The deal with Telenomics sets that company up as a provider of PWARE application services and support, while HP does the datacenter support. President Rick Hupe of Telenomics said the arrangement puts his company’s application into a larger market than just companies which want to buy and manage HP 3000s.

“This will simplify everything and take us out of our niche role,” Hupe said. “So our market becomes basically anybody, if you have a PBX or Centrex system and telephones. There’s over two million PBXs sold each year, and the majority of the time call accounting is sold with it. But we’ve found that most people who have it don’t even use it. We’ve always been a niche vendor — if you had a 3000 or a 9000, we have a better solution.”

HP and Telenomics were pursuing agreements for the PWARE e-service with Nortel and Lucent at presstime. Neither voice provider has its own call accounting system. “They use third parties’ [software today], and when they do RFPs for PBXs, they literally hope that call accounting isn’t included,” Hupe said — because the integration is complex and non-standard. “The idea is to outsource it, and do it all through e-services,” he said. “I use the saying, ‘Let Lucent or Nortel do your voice, and let HP do your data.’ ”

Although the new e-services deal keeps the 3000 systems out of the customer sites, Hupe said working with the HP 3000 provides the advantage of stability and easiest integration. “On the 3000, we go in and in one day put it up in our sleep,” he said. Telenomics will continue to resell HP 3000s along with its software in addition to working the e-services deal. The company also offers an HP-UX version of its application. The MPE/iX version will be the one running in the HP data center.

“Our new venture will change the way business and consumers use the Internet,” said Commercial Systems Division general manager Harry Sterling at the conference. “It will help establish pay-per-use solutions as the next generation of Internet-enabled computing. It unleashes the power of e-services inherent in the 3000 platform. For just pennies for use, companies can efficiently manage their phone systems.”

Sterling added that the partnership will let companies integrate the phone management e-service with back-end systems such as general ledger, accounts receivable, ERP and human resources. “It’s a business application built as a pay as you go service, delivered via the Internet,” he said.

PWARE features include online telephone directories, telephone billing, call-detail reporting, reporting through e-mail systems and the ability to track all calls. Because PWARE can potentially save a company thousands of dollars in fraud detection, HP expects it to be easy to justify the cents-per-use cost, and even easier to sign on, since the HP 3000 doesn’t have to clear IT hurdles to start working for a company. The tracking ability enables a company to detect pirated telephone calls, those illegally placed through a company’s system by an outside party.

The Telenomics e-services deal with HP is not a prelude to being purchased by the HP 3000 division, Hupe said. HP launched a similar deal last fall when it acquired Open Skies, Inc., the supplier of reservation systems for airlines. The Open Skies applications are also available as remote services to airlines that have no HP 3000s installed.

More e-service partners

HP said there are other deals with 3000 software vendors being prepared for the apps-on-tap arrangement. One in play at HP World was for WebBookstore/3000, the new application from BizNetTech.net (see “New Web app opens books on university store” in our August issue). After demonstrating the application to new HP CEO Carly Fiorina on the conference show floor, BizNetTech.net is set to enter an arrangement to provide its Web application, modified for selling tickets, to arts groups served by Performing Technologies, Inc.

BizNetTech.net’s e-service, dubbed Webstore/3000 in its latest incarnation, will Web-enable the arts organizations such as city opera companies and performing arts centers.

“Selling tickets over the Internet is a pretty sexy application,” said Gary Biggs of Performing Technologies. “Most of our customers operate fairly large boiler-room phone-order centers. If we can take on some of that load, it’s a cost savings.” The Webstore/3000 e-service would be delivered from BizNetTech.net servers. HP also wants to deliver the application as an e-service from its Boise data center.

The deals change the rules for getting 3000s working at sites, skipping over the “sell it to the IT department” phase. CSY has interviewed almost a dozen 3000 channel partners for prospective e-services apps-on-tap arrangements, according to sources in HP.