3000 NewsWire to launch SolutionStore 3000

Customers looking for HP 3000 applications, utilities and services will be able to turn to the Web’s first all-3000 online directory next month, when SolutionStore 3000 delivers e-services for solution suppliers and HP 3000 sites.

Operated by the 3000 NewsWire, SolutionStore 3000 (solutionstore3000.com) will open for searches in July as the first directory of products and services entirely devoted to HP 3000s. The Web site is taking on free HP 3000 listings, as well as more extensive paid entries from the leading HP 3000 solution suppliers.

“It’s all-3000, all the time,” said NewsWire publisher Dottie Lentz. “You will be able to browse to our free Web site and search for what you need to keep 3000s important to your company.”

Hits on the directory are guaranteed to be 3000-related. SolutionStore simply won’t be stocked with any directory listings not relevant to HP 3000s — giving it a unique position in the current field of online 3000 product information resources.

The new Web site is the realization of a founding goal for the NewsWire, now in its fourth year of publishing. “We first proposed offering a SolutionStore for the 3000 in the summer of 1995, when we launched the NewsWire,” said editor in chief Ron Seybold. “The Web has matured to the point that it’s our best delivery vehicle for this kind of information, so we’re ready to give the market its first focused directory as an e-service.”

SolutionStore 3000 will also be distributed twice yearly as a printed directory, including a Best-Of compilation of the popular Hidden Value technical tips column that has run for almost four years in the NewsWire.

Paid listings for the site can be dynamically updated by solution suppliers, using a Web-based interface protected by password security. The update facility lets companies keep data on products and feature sets as current as possible. Dynamic updating gives paid listing providers complete control over their information.

“We need this service to be deep and accurate just as much as any HP 3000 customer, to track the growing number of MPE/iX solutions,” Seybold said. “More than 250 companies worldwide are offering HP 3000 software, and our estimates of the product base run as high as 10 times that number. We’ll be using SolutionStore to produce the NewsWire’s coverage, too.”

SolutionStore 3000 will be ready to accept entries from product providers in late June, according to site designer and HP 3000 channel partner Joe Geiser of CSI Business Solutions. CSI is creating a site where the product data is stored on an HP 3000 in an IMAGE/SQL database, then adding a Web front end that’s interfaced with a Windows NT Web server. NT Web services are being chosen because the site will have secure credit card capabilities, something currently unavailable on HP 3000s.

The site will let customers search by category, company name, product name, state/country, price range and types of clients supported by the solution. When a customer gets a reply to their query, it arrives as a 10 product summary page. Free listings will appear below the Premium, Deluxe and Standard paid listings, and the paid directory entries are eligible for links to appropriate articles from the NewsWire’s three-year archive of HP 3000 editorial. Deluxe listings get included cross references and a company logo, while Premium listings will include links to demos and an active banner ad. All listings, including Standard, include a link to the company’s home page. Standard listings start at $99 per product for a year.

“This is a new kind of e-service for the HP 3000 market,” said Lentz, “because we’re creating a directory with the breadth of free listings and the depth and detail of paid services.” SolutionStore will also include a leading news article on the main search page, to help generate traffic to the site. For more details on posting a listing to the site, contact Lentz at 512.331.0480, or by e-mail at dotlentz@io.com.