One Interex Web survey which HP did not tout at the Solutions Symposium was the balloting for the annual HP 3000 System Improvements (SIB). The SIB, run by the Special Interest Groups, gives HP a take on what customers want the labs to pursue over the coming year. The 3000 division says it watches the SIB closely along with other sources of input. This year’s results show the two initiatives around the OpenMPE migration alternative topped all other requests on the Web-based ballot, completed by 172 customers. The item asking HP to help MPE last beyond 2006 earned 1,100 votes, even though the ballot prevented voters from casting more than half their available votes for the request. Forced by the Web design to hold back their votes for this item which asks HP “develop a plan that would address the needs of those customers who do not want to migrate, who can not migrate, or who need more time to migrate,” the customers cast the rest of their ballots to have HP help on an emulator to mimic 3000 hardware on Intel systems, which picked up the next highest number of votes. It wasn’t even close; the two OpenMPE items almost outdrew the total votes cast for the ballot’s 21 other requests.