HP has been telling its 3000 customers about its pending N-Class systems since last year, but now the forthcoming e3000s are being used as a carrot to buy existing 9x9 systems.

In a program which expires on Jan. 31, the Commercial Systems Division (CSY) will be rewarding customers who purchase a Series 9x9 system today. There are generous rebates if they later take delivery of an N-Class or A-Class HP e3000 within six months of when those computers ship during 2001.

The Bridge Program is out in the open in Europe, where the details of the promotion are on the front page of the CSY Europe Web site. In the US customers have been offered the e-genius promotion in public. But CSY marketing manager Christine Martino said that the Bridge discounts are also in the pockets of resellers in North America.

“New platforms aren’t that far away, and we wanted to give our customers reason to act now,” Martino said. She explained that the North American Bridge program “is not something that we want to promote for everybody.”

“Our strategy in the United States is to use it as a sales tool ‘back pocket’ promotion, and not blast it out to everyone. We have other promotions available today, like the e-genius promotion. There’s a bunch of things in the resellers’ pockets right now, and they should each be used appropriately.”

In the European Bridge Program, a customer gets TradeUp hardware credits and a software rebate when buying a 9x9 system and taking delivery by Jan. 31. If they purchase an N-Class system in 2001, not later than six months after the systems ship, they receive a return credit for the 9x9 and 75 percent off MPE, IMAGE and Allbase licenses, up to a maximum of 50 percent of the new N-Class price.

Europe’s customers can also buy 9x8 systems or 929KS systems in the plan, get TradeUp return and software rebates, and get combined return credits and 40 percent off the software licensing price.

North American Bridge deals need special approval through resellers or HP’s Business Development unit, and their details differ. For example, customers buying a $100,000 989 system can get a 75 percent of their user license fee up to 50 percent of the list price of the new N-Class system. Combined with any purchase discounts for that 9x9 system, it could mean virtually free software user licenses. The rebate checks are issued after the Bridge 9x9s are returned to HP.

Bridge is designed to get 9x9 servers — and 9x8s in Europe — into customer sites which need them and can’t wait for the N-Class or A-Class systems. The e-genius program advertised in the US cannot be combined with the Bridge Program, Martino said. “It gets very confusing to users if you put too many things out there,” she said.

Those e-genius promotions are in place for North American customers, but not being publically offered in Europe. North American e-genius customers buy a 9x9 and get 15 percent off 3000 software licenses for databases and MPE, and 15 percent off up-front one-year and three-year support for that software. If a customer also wants to buy the $1,900 HP WebWise secure server, CSY will give them a 10 percent discount off that product, too. The division is also offering special incentives to buy 997 servers, as well as upgrades within that line.

Customers can ask their resellers in North America for any deal. “We chose genius to be a big blowout sales promotion. We chose the Bridge to be a back pocket sales promotion,” Martino said, “used for specific customers and specific situations.”