One of the best-attended SIGSOFTVEND meetings at HP World included a brief mention of when the next e3000 models will surface. There was also talk about whether this year’s North American 3000 hardware reseller shakeout was a once-in-a-lifetime event, if more de-authorizing would follow — and what help partners can expect from local HP offices.

HP ISV Program Manager Kriss Rant of the 3000 division (CSY) mentioned that an audio conference scheduled with the 3000’s software vendors would be coming up this fall, “and the focus of that is the new hardware release along with the OS that’s coming out next year. We’ll brief our partners under nondisclosure about that.”

The 3000 software partners will get instructions during that call about early testing of the version of MPE/iX that will drive the new boxes. HP has said its next releases will be the 7.0 version of MPE/iX and the N-Class hardware — the latter being the first boxes ready for IA-64 processors.

HP will have a 3000 hardware and OS release “early next year,” according to Rant. “When we launch, everybody [who’s an ISV] can launch with us. We’ll be a lot more aggressive with our partners than we have been in the past with that program, to ensure we have all the applications and tools ready to go.”

Rant noted that the Computing Solutions Provider Program (CSPP), an HP service for developers working on software for HP platforms, will now make the new Apache/iX Secure Web Server a free download as part of its bundled software. CSPP members get a yearly update of HP’s 3000 and operating system software, as well as marketing and technical information about all HP platforms. Rant has been working to make sure the HP e3000 is “appropriately represented in CSPP.” Membership is $850 per year; online registration is at hp.com/go/partners.

Some partners at the SIG meeting said they’d had problems with the VAB Prep software release program, one that ships new 3000 releases to channel partners to test their applications before general release. HP will be implementing changes in VAB Prep to address this year’s problems.

HP has finalized its list of companies selling the HP 3000 and incorporating MPE/iX applications, Rant said. He encouraged partners at the SIG meeting to establish relationships with the companies at the “Where To Buy” section of HP’s 3000 Web site. North America saw the greatest number of changes, and the remaining hardware outlets are at www.mpeixservers.hp.com/buy/resller_content.htm.

HP wasn’t entirely of the same mind about whether other resellers would be cut from its 3000 program. Rant said that regarding the 3000’s lineup of resellers, “it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to evaluate this list on a regular basis. We have annual contracts with our resellers, and we’ve asked them to achieve certain criteria. If they don’t achieve those, then we have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

Wayne Lucasko, one of the HP 3000 sales managers, believes the winnowing that went on this summer — when a third of the official US 3000 sources got cut or dropped out — was an unusual event. Partnerships between application providers (ISVs) and the remaining resellers are keys to a stable relationship.

“This time there was an emphasis on the dollar volume,” he said. “I think we have a pretty stable list [of resellers] now,” he said. HP measures a reseller’s worth by how much it sells, primarily, and many of those cut from the program this year weren’t selling much. A reseller which aligns itself with an application provider can see “that criteria goes away somewhat, if there’s an alignment with an ISV.”

The questions came as application suppliers at the meeting asked if they could count on doing business with hardware implementers left in the US. Another solution provider’s representative, Cheryl Whitely of SMA, said that HP’s Houston area channel partner representatives showed little interest in working with the provider of e-commerce software for the platform.

“He didn’t want to talk to us, and the reason was he kept asking us how much HP 3000 hardware we were going to sell,” Whitely said. She explained that SMA wasn’t in the business of selling 3000 hardware, but wants to help existing 3000 customers “be successful on that platform, and stay on that platform. He didn’t want to continue the conversation, because we weren’t selling hardware ourselves.”