A quartet of 3000 partners is aiming at the 3000 homesteader

Details were still forthcoming when we had to put this issue of the FlashPaper to bed, but Lund’s vice president Bill Lancaster is organizing an operating alliance with ORBiT Software, Allegro Consultants and Ideal Computers, all aimed at letting the four firms serve the needs of the homesteading 3000 site. Lancaster said the entity will be called Resource 3000 LLC, and added that it brings together companies versed in low-level MPE/iX operating system development, software tool design, sales and marketing, as well as on-site service and phone-based support for HP 3000s.

Lancaster said Resource 3000 is pursuing commerce from homesteading companies — a segment of the market he sees as a solid opportunity. “There’s still a lot of money in this market, and somebody’s going to get it,” Lancaster said. “We want to capture as much of the 3000 market as we can.” Lancaster estimates that as much as 70 percent of the customers the companies have surveyed don’t know what they’re going to do for a transition plan. That figure might be supported by the slow pickup for migration services and contracts, although most of the HP World attendees believed 2005 was going to be a strong year for migration engagements. Migration service suppliers, he said, “will probably be full up by February.”

In the meantime, Resource 3000 wants to get the word out about its alliance with an in-house newsletter called “The 3000 Homesteader Times.” The newsprint tabloid — Lancaster called it “a house organ’ — will print an issue this fall, combining customer lists from the four companies. With heavy market demand now surfacing for the N-Class servers, Lancaster sees new business for HP’s oldest business server segment. “Companies running MPE are still growing,” he said.

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