December 1996 FlashPaper

News so hot it might ignite

HP 3000 orders roar as HP's fiscal year ends in new records
HP reported its quarterly figures to wrap its fiscal year, posting yearly record revenues, orders and profits. Everything in sight was up -- well, almost everything. Fourth quarter profits were down slightly from the prior fourth quarter, and HP lost more than half of its 1996 gains in profits as a result of exiting the disk drive business. Another interesting dip in HP's latest period concerned its Unix solutions, by unconfirmed reports. The story on the profitability of any particular HP product line is strictly an internal affair, so any report you hear from anyone is more conjecture than fact. Just the same, here's what we heard: HP's Unix business didn't post a profit in its last period, while the HP 3000 business did, as usual. The financial results reportedly stem from the tougher sledding Unix sales have encountered since Windows NT became the darling of all analysts and editors (present company excepted). Selling things like HP 9000s hasn't gotten that much harder, but it has become less profitable as the solutions compete with lower-cost NT solutions. That would seem to match up with the note included in the financial report about HP's Unix business. HP said that HP-UX servers "posted a good increase, but orders for workstations were weak." The less mission-critical the computer, the more likely that Windows NT can get in front of a Unix order. The pressure on HP's profits could also be seen in the fact that despite selling 12 percent more than the last fourth quarter, HP posted 4 percent lower profits than the prior period.

The HP 3000 came in for no mention in the latest report on HP's fiscal finale for 1996, but those in the company who are as loyal to the server as its customers delivered an interesting figure. It seems the HP 3000 business finished the year at 130 percent of quota for US sales, and 126 percent of the worldwide quota.Vince Clapp, one of the members of the HP 3000 "SWAT Team" who travels the country talking up the advantages and advances of the HP 3000, unveiled the figures at the latest NECRUG user group meeting in early December. These HP sales reps can be counted on to give the brightest possible take on the 3000's performance and its future; one of them pointed out last year that the HP 3000 business at HP would be a Fortune 500 company if it was spun off into a separate company. So when you're looking for a reason behind HP's record $2.6 billion in profits and $38.4 billion in sales for 1996, you can know that the HP 3000 contributed its share, and more than HP expected, during the fiscal year. Combine that with the rumored rough sledding of the Unix products' profit, and you've got reason enough to increase investment in HP 3000 operations during the coming fiscal year. We've also heard that HP has decided to do that, although we haven't been able to get Commercial Systems Division general manager Harry Sterling to confirm it. We wouldn't want it to be at the expense of that profitability the division has maintained for more than two decades. Companies protect the products which continue to post profits most consistently. Maintaining profitability is also a central tenet of the HP Way.

Cast your ballots to improve IMAGE/SQL
The SIGIMAGE Special Interest Group mailed its ballots on improvements to IMAGE/SQL, including items that call for a new way to deliver SQL functionality to IMAGE without any need for learning the Allbase/SQL way of managing databases. HP's Jon Bale, who manages the database lab and is a likely candidate to lead a Solution Team, says that anything the customers get behind will get serious attention inside CSY, so your votes to simplify the SQL interface will have an impact on HP's development plans. Winston Prather, who heads up the R&D efforts in the division, says that CSY will be working more closely than ever with the Special Interest Groups like SIGIMAGE. If you haven't received a ballot or want to join the SIGIMAGE effort, contact Leah Robertson at Interex (800.INTEREX or robertso@interex.org). You've got until January 20 to get your ballots in. (See our January issue for more details)

Step Up to 9x7 hardware for less, and get application and memory deals
With a new fiscal year in place, HP has changed its discount processes and launched new deals on HP 3000 hardware purchases. The changes apply whether you get your systems through a reseller or direct from HP. The program with the longest lifespan so far is is the Step Up upgrade program, which targets those of you operating 9x7 systems at the lower two thirds of that "Wright Brothers" line of HP 3000s. The program gives a 15 percent discount to customers who board upgrade from one such system to another among the 917, 927, 937, 947, 957, 967 and 977. You can qualify for a 30 percent discount when you upgrade from any of those systems to a Series 987 or 987/150. HP's also tying other discounts to the Step Up purchases, like a 25 percent reduction in Open Market Web server software (either the regular flavor or the new Secure Web Server, detailed inside our issue this month). Since it's likely you'll be reaching for more memory during the upgrade, HP will also knock off 10 percent on the purchase of HP memory as part of the deal. The discounts are in effect until May 31, and they only apply to the Fundamental Operating System and the hardware. HP is targeting the promotion at customers who don't want to spring for a 9x8 or higher HP 3000, but are looking for more processing power. The upgrades to anything but the 957 and higher would be a wash, since the 917 through 947 have the same processor power by HP's own figures. But the 957 delivers 60 percent more performance, and the 967 doubles the processing power of even a 947. Step up to the 987/150 and HP predicts you'll see 4.5 times more performance than a 947. That's an increase in horsepower that will cost $28,788 less than it did this year.

HP has also made a shift in the way it calculates your discounts during trade-ins of systems. The former method delivered a set dollar amount of trade-in credit. The new TradeUp '97 program provides discounts as a percentage of the new server's list price. HP says the benefit of the change is that customers trading to more expensive systems get a greater leverage on their existing systems. TradeUp '97 also works if you're trading in"competitive" non-3000 systems. You must own anything you're trading at least a year before the deal. What's different is the way the new discounts are totalled up. In the past, HP "discounted your discount" when calculating the bottom line on TradeUp deals. Now it figures your TradeUp discount and your Purchase Agreement Discount (PAD) at the same time. The difference is slight; an upgrade deal that costs $64,600 until the end of this month will cost $66,000 after January 1. And if your PAD discount is higher than 24 percent (lucky you), then you won't get any extra advantage from it if you want to use the Trade Up program. TradeUp '97, available for purchases of 9x8s or 9x9s, goes into effect January 1.

Where's that HP 3000 TV training going?
We're glad to report that MPE/iX-specific Technical Close Up satellite broadcasts are still in the plans for HP's 1997 activities, because it's been more than a year since any airtime was dedicated to a 3000-only subject. HP's recast the last two training opportunities, covering data warehousing and the new 5.5 release of MPE/iX, into "Eventless Events," according to host George Stachnik. That kind of market-speak means that training formerly broadcast to HP offices has been distributed by video and audio tape instead. The live audience component, formerly something that customers around the US and Canada could benefit from through direct participation, is now a "live studio audience." The taped version of these sessions was always available after the event, so why cut out the live and interactive portion? Simply put, HP's looking for a way to save money, and it wanted to test out two events to see if anybody missed the satellite element (or in the case of the audio show, the phone hookup). The results of the shows, and your feedback on whether going to eventless events are good enough, will determine how much HP spends on training you like this.

There's another debate going on at the Direct to Customer communications branch of CSO, however, that you might be more interested in -- the content of any broadcast events which concern the 3000. Stachnik says an alternative school of thought to the 3000-specific shows suggests that "instead of focusing each of our broadcasts on one platform, we should strive to make our broadcasts cross-platform as much as possible. Our market research indicates that most customers are already cross-platform or in the process of becoming so." If you were one of the people who attended the World Wide Web TV training HP gave in April and liked it, HP is putting a lot of emphasis on your opinions to justify this new approach. On the other hand, if you feel like the Technology Close Ups haven't had enough 3000 specifics since 1995, then you'd probably like to see the two CSY TV shows which are scheduled for 1997 focus on MPE/iX issues. Stachnik suggested a 5.5 show and one on connection techniques involving the 3000 and ODBC. Those sound like better ideas to us than more air time promoting the capabilities of the 9000 line to HP 3000 managers. If the 9000 division is planning any such shows to let the HP-UX managers see the advantages of the 3000 -- well, then we might think differently about cross-platform training. You can tell George which kind of HP TV you'd prefer by sending him e-mail at george_stachnik@hp.com.

Patches for the 3000 are online, but they're a crazy quilt
If you're paying for Web access by the hour, you may want to wait awhile before relying on the HP 3000 patch distribution process over the World Wide Web. As we went to press users were reporting that searches for MPE specifics were yielding way too few hits, and that the search engine returns only C.50.00 patch information. The online MPE/iX Patch digest contains only the prior week's digest and no information on how to get previous editions. One user reported that "none of the standard mailing list addresses that are used to get further information work. One can only presume that past digests are either not available or are not available to the general public." HP is still obviously ironing out the bugs in its presentation of MPE/iX patch materials over the Internet, so we'll do you a favor and NOT print the Web address until things improve. Complaints about the service can be directed to HP's Worldwide Customer Support Organization, which manages the information and the site.

Fund your 3000 training schedule with 1996 funds
Mark down some budget funds you might have left for this year to pay for some great training opportunities during 1997. Start out with a symposium scheduled to begin January 24th in San Diego on high availability and high-end system strategy. Former Lund Performance Solution guru Bill Lancaster and OESC will bring together HP, Quest, ORBiT and Allegro Consultants to assist in understanding and implementing high availability solutions as well as planning high-end system strategies. For $595 and a one day commitment you can learn mirroring, shadowing backup techniques in one room. Contact Lancaster at 541.926.1542 to register. And if you're looking for a way to round out that training budget before year's end, a $99 renewal of your NewsWire subscription will earn you our new Best of Hidden Value and net.digest training guide. Call us at 512.331.0480 to renew.


Copyright 1996, The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved.