HP 3000 distributor Client Systems (303.337.7300) has announced a new source of capital and several additions to its board of directors, including marketing consulant and author Geoffrey Moore of The Chasm Group.
Moore and majority investor David Chase of Vestor Corp. joined with Client Systems president Pat Maley in announcing the recapitalization of Client Systems, a company that distributes HP 3000 and Oracle solutions. Client Systems is one of only two distributors authorized to handle the HP 3000 product line, the other being Integration Alliance Corp.
The move brings in new capital from Vestor for continued growth as well as Moore's marketing experience to Client Systems, company officials said. The firm began as a subsidiary of Distribution Resources Company, an HP 3000 solution provider. Chase said that Maley, who worked with Moore's Chasm Group before joining Client Systems in 1994, has increased revenues for Client Systems by 50 percent over the past two years and brought the distributor to profitability.
The latest addition brings Moore, whose book "Across the Chasm" is widely read by HP's managers, onto the board of the firm. He said his capital position is "modest. My position is more from a point of view of acknowledging my contribution as a marketing strategist."
While Moore was glad to acknowledge his influence within HP, he said he's better known by HP 9000 and desktop groups than within the HP 3000 division. Moore has been a featured speaker at Client Systems' reseller conferences. He said his move to expand his role with the company was prompted as much by the firm's activities as a Value Added Distributor for Oracle products as its HP 3000 involvement.
"I don't want to over-set the expectations of the HP 3000 community," he said. "Oracle has had more of a lead than HP to date in this relationship."
But Moore said he sees a strong role for second-tier companies like Client Systems in maximizing the value of the HP 3000, a market which he said is in "Main Street condition."
"What somebody wants in a Main Street market is to continue to add value to an operation without forcing them through some infrastructure changes," he said. "What we're trying to do is get maximum value from that installed base as customers for as long as we can. That includes some renewal, but not revolutionary renewal."
Moore said HP 3000 customers need to "look to second-tier providers to make those changes for them. That's where I think Client Systems is going to be able to make a real strong offer."
Moore, whose efforts for the firm will revolve around its MarketBuilder program, said that HP 3000 customers "have applications that are fine -- and then the world changes and they need to continually update their applications software. A second-tier channel that can go out and add a lot of value, without putting pressure on HP to make a lot of modifications is the right thing for the market."
Moore said he believes there's significant overlooked value in HP 3000s.
"The interesting play for the 3000 community is that markets neglect the back half of the life cycle, and they tend to get off of successful platforms way too early," he said. "If I were a 3000 person I'd look toward the IBM mainframe. What you're seeing with the mainframe isn't exactly a resurgence, but more like the market correcting its past excesses. IBM realized that this is a long-term, permanent part of its architecture. There's no reason why the 3000 can't take an analogous role in its domain."