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| May
2001
HP shifts support structure for e3000s New format introduces support as products, unifies servers’ policy HP has always hoped to bring benefits to its HP 3000 customers from its HP 9000 business. The company calls its new e3000 support structure an attempt to deliver simplified support contracts, a benefit which HP 9000 managers may already be experiencing. How much benefit the new plan will deliver remains to be seen when customers purchase new systems. Starting May 1 HP rolled out the first of two phases of change in e3000 support. Purchasing support from HP now means doing business with HP Services, one of the six main business units formed in Hewlett-Packard over the last year. During the next two years, HP e3000 owners will get accustomed to buying support products, rather than support options, for their 3000 systems. In addition, phone-in assistance (PIA) will be purchased on a per system basis, rather than through a central system. In the current plan, HP says customers purchase PIA for a central system, then all other systems get a License to Use. HP says in today’s support model, problems are replicated on this central system. In the new PIA model, problems are addressed on specific systems, so each system receives the level of support it requires.
The look of a new HP e3000 support purchase also drops items with a charge of zero, something commonplace in current agreements. It also gathers support services into “banded” categories, such as N-Class servers, A-Class systems, or Series 9x9 HP e3000s. In the second phase of the change, contractual support from HP will be banded in the same way that new system business is being banded in phase one. The company won’t be forcing any change on e3000 customers right away. But since many e3000 sites already have HP 9000s installed, the new support plan could already be in place at those sites. HP wants to extend this structure of buying support as products. Todd Brue, Program Manager for HP’s Reinvented Support Structure at HP Services, said the changes could mean some increases in costs, as well as decreases. But he believes the changes also prompt an increase in simplicity of ordering support and understanding support contracts. “We’re trying to be a holistic company that has a common look and feel,” Brue said. “Business by business we’re modifying support, and we’ve done the HP-UX business already. Now we’re going after the HP 3000 business, because customers have both systems, and they want to see things in the same way.” Current HP 3000 support paperwork lists every product individually. It’s also littered with items like H00, H24 and L00. These are being rolled up into a single product number such as H4405C, with an option itemized for each product supported (See figure at left). “One of the complaints we got in the past is that we’d have a lot of zero-dollar options for support,” Brue said. “We’re shortening things up a little. HP does a better job with products than it does with options. With options we were having to play games to get all the finances to come out right. Now it’s a lot easier, because the support products are attached to the product lines.” While HP won’t be saving a lot in resources through the changes, it gets a unified method to administer the contracts. “To the degree that customers get a whole lot of systems and then things get complicated,” Brue said, “when they look at their contracts everything’s going to look the same — maybe not today or tomorrow, but in the next couple of years.” The changes are significant to HP’s business as well as the customers. Support revenues could well outpace the dollars spent to purchase new e3000 systems. Brue said he believes Hewlett-Packard has “a lot more [support] contracts than we’re selling new business by now.” Comparing prices is an exercise left to the customers who opt for the new support structure. System administrators managing only 3000s “will probably leave it as it is, and won’t worry about the price,” Brue said. “There will be more than a year we’ll give them to switch.” Customers can contact their HP support coordinator to change to the new structure. Brue said the change is a revenue-neutral move for HP. The company will be working with customers “one on one, because if their price goes up — and on paper there are some situations where the price on paper will go up a lot — we’re not planning to stick that to the customers. We’re already starting to work discounts and deals so [the price] can stay the same. We’re not doing this to milk a lot of money out of the installed base.” The ultimate goal of the support structure changes is an increase in Web-based automation for handling support contract issues. Even with innovations like the Support Contract Assistant for Web-based contract review and renewal, Brue said, “There’s always people behind the scenes making it work. We want to get to the point where we can actually have computers making renewals happen, and you don’t have to have a PhD to do that process.” He mentioned automated e-mail reminders of expiring contracts as one potential benefit of a fully automated process. Change comes at a cost, but Brue believes a uniform presentation over various product lines will benefit customers who own e3000s as well as other HP products. The changes will surface first for customers buying e3000s. “We can publicize these changes a lot, but it really doesn’t affect somebody until they buy something,” Brue said. “When they look at their contracts for support packs to printers to HP 3000s, everything will have the same look and feel. Some people will say they understood the old way, and they may view this as not a good thing. Looking a little in the future, most customers are going to say this is really good.”percent on any 9x7 contracts signed after Feb. 1.
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