| Sow seeds to grow the 3000 Plant some applications if you really want to improve your platform's future |
Good news isn’t hard to find. New applications for
the 3000 are,
however. In the eye of this storm of renaissance is the
relative
calm of commercial application development. We’d like
to see some
of the current zephyr that’s creating utilities,
middleware and
connectivity begin to blow software in that will sell new
HP 3000s.
HP will be doing its part in the next month,
shipping out a low-cost
development 3000 loaded with the software needed to create just
about anything. There’s ample third-party support for
the idea,
too. Some of the best developer tools will be shipping with the
system, virtually free.
| More middleware, umpteen
utilities, and cheap connectivity all
dance around the central need for the
3000’s continued health:
applications to drive system sales to new
companies. |
There’s ample activity all around this core
requirement for the
3000’s continued health. We count three different ODBC
driver
solutions for sale from third parties. A pair of Java-based
terminal
emulators are either delivered (Minisoft’s) or in beta
test (WRQ’s).
Java itself is being fine-tuned by CSY to deliver
cross-platform
development capabilities. Internet readers are even hearing
about
a free offering in the terminal emulation arena, created by a
well-regarded software company.
I wonder if what the 3000 market really needs is a
free version
of something that’s contributing significantly to the
revenues
of two other firms – or even three ODBC offerings.
We’d be the
last ones to discourage anybody from cutting more code that
runs
on HP 3000s and offering it to the marketplace. But more
middleware,
umpteen utilities, and cheap connectivity all dance around the
central need for the 3000’s continued health:
applications to
drive system sales to new companies.
We expose in this issue evidence of some of that
growth. Open
Skies, Performing Technologies, Amisys/HBO and Distribution
Resources
Company are placing HP 3000s in sites where the system
never served
before. To some extent, an offering like AICS
Research’s QueryCalc
can be an engine for new HP 3000s, given a company’s
willingness
to use it in place of PC solutions for billing and accounting.
And solutions like Mitchell Humphrey’s FMS II often
make an HP
3000 that’s already doing shop floor work absolutely
vital to
a company’s bottom line by controlling financials. Our
hats are
off to all these MPE application suppliers.
We need more of that kind of code, and soon.
It’s a marvelous
thing to have Year 2000 tools and utilities to keep HP
3000s productive
and running through the millennium shift. Lots of people agree
that the HP 3000s out there are going to enjoy a protected path
during the century change. It’s a much harder course
to be migrating
critical business processes to a new platform at the same time
you’re making sure your data’s dates are
straight. We’ll probably
see fewer HP 3000’s shut down during the next two
years than any
other time in the latter half of the decade.
But that respite won’t last too long beyond
2001. HP, its channel
partners and resellers who care about the 3000, and people like
you, need to take advantage of this two-year tunnel to
build new
business solutions. Solutions for sale to others. Or at the
least,
overhaul older applications which could benefit from things
like
Web access and client-server integration.
This is daring work for a company to do. Creating
market demand
for a platform is a byproduct of building a business solution,
software that lets a company get to work. You offer something
like a symphony management package or an airline
reservation system
without even mentioning what computer it runs on. In the early
going, nobody even asks. They just want something to keep the
seats full, whether they’re on a 737 jetliner or in a
concert
auditorium. Down the line in the sales process, somebody
may ask
what kind of computer is keeping track of the seats.
That’s when
the developer has to screw up their pride and say, “An
HP 3000,
of course. We wanted a platform that was always
online.”
By contrast, it’s easier to sell software that
already knows
where it’s going – the installed base of HP
3000s. These utility
solutions are important to lots of companies, just as vital to
business success as any application. But they’re not
the seeds
of growth for the platform. And as more than a few of our
Vision
experts have noted, that growth is essential.
There’s only so much any utility, programming
language, middleware
or connectivity tool can do to keep the HP 3000’s
place at the
table. Even advances like 64 bit MPE and b-tree indices
only help
nurture existing systems. It takes application developers
to put
the seeds in the ground.
It’s not like the alternatives to HP 3000s for
application development
are really any better. Creating applications to run on NT and
Unix platforms – or even on big, wooly PC LANs –
really only delivers
one serious advantage to a developer. That’s right,
it’s market
size. At the same time they approach those big troughs, so do
dozens of other companies, all hungry for the same customers.
Then there are database complexity, scalability and systems
administration
problems aplenty in all those alternatives. These issues
are solved
for companies that can be sold a new HP 3000.
HP itself is now willing to sell the 3000 as a
business solution
to companies with business needs but no 3000s onsite. It
wasn’t
always the case, but the new “sell any OS”
business practice from
HP is giving the 3000 a chance to use HP’s channels.
But the channel
can’t deliver a flood of new 3000 systems without
applications
to open the gates.
Outside the windows of many of our readers’
offices, the ground
is hard and cold. Sunlight is scarce. But if you want a
lush garden
of applications, you need to plan your planting months before
the frost breaks. You open the seed catalog and dream, and
order
up visions. We’d like to encourage the capable wizards
reading
our pages to grow new HP 3000s, and make more customers appear,
with application efforts. Think of us as the Smith &
Hawkins of
HP 3000 development, the place to find the implements. Use the
tools we review and examine on our pages to prepare the soil.
Plant an application, or create a tool, where one
didn’t exist.
The business seedbed is rich in opportunity for a system with
more than 25 years of success.
|
– Ron Seybold |