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Top HP management discovered the
3000
Notice for the HP 3000 at the top
levels of HP keeps galloping along. Sure, CEO Lew Platt put the system in
its rightful place alongside NT and Unix solutions, but he was addressing
the 3000 faithful at HP World. (And many attendees who had no idea what a
3000 was, too.) More surprising was HP’s mention of the 3000 in its
third quarter report delivered to analysts and financial mavens in late
August. Nobody in that crowd expected to hear about the HP 3000; indeed,
some of them might have wondered where this successful product came from,
given its absence in prior HP reports. But there it was in the middle of HP
Vice President and Treasurer Larry Tomlinson’s comments on orders for
the period. “Growth in storage and the HP 3000 was very good,”
Tomlinson told the analysts in a conference call, one whose transcript now
resides on the Web. The system’s first mention in years to the
financial community confirms what division officials have been telling
customers — the 3000 is selling better than it has in years, as many
years as it’s been absent from HP financial briefings. Overall, the
company posted only slight growth in profits, disappointing analysts and
the market. It’s all part of the mystery of investments, but
apparently growth is more important than sustained quarters of more than
$600 million each in profits. Happily, the HP 3000 contributes to that
profit margin better than some of its better-known cousins. Could the 3000
customer base — and prospective customers — dare to hope for an
HP 3000 mention in this year’s HP annual report? It would seem fitting
for a division that won the HP President’s Quality Award based on
close contact with customers.
At presstime ZDNet was reporting
on the circulation inside HP of a videotape from Platt, who was telling his
top managers to rethink spending assumptions. This is an interesting time
for HP to be expressing doubts about its current financial course.
Commodity markets like NT and Unix, which fueled HP’s rapid growth,
come with big spending needs. HP’s top managers plan and propose
divisions' fiscal 1999 during these months of 1998. Customers could give GM
Harry Sterling more proof that the 3000 remains in their long term buying
plans with orders during this fourth quarter, now that the CSY is committed
to the larger investments of IA-64 and PA-8500 growth projects. Those
orders may be easier since HP adjusted prices downward, radically in its
software for larger 3000s. The Series 997/500s saw a price cut of about
$500,000. HP is pricing all of its 3000 systems at costs that customers
associate with the commodity products. It’s one way to maintain the
volume orders that the division is counting upon.
Copyright 1998 The 3000
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