A few days after our front page report on the matter last month, HP changed its mind about charging for this year’s Webcasts which will offer specific advice about migrating from 3000s to the HP 9000 systems. Webcast host George Stachnik of the 3000 division’s marketing team wanted to be sure HP’s latest move made it into print in our next issue — apparently the story sparked a new wave of indignation over the division’s hopes to charge for the Webcasts , pouring a fresh round of rain on the division’s cost-recovery parade. Stachnik had first responded on the Internet that he was surprised at the customers’ criticism. He wanted to make clear to us that HP had changed its mind in the first week of February. NewsWire subscribers who get our Online Extra e-mail update, as well as readers of the 3kworld.com Web site, knew about the latest plan. We promised to put HP’s change of mind into print this month as well.

While the change of mind is evident, it remains to be seen if the division has had a change of heart about the matter of asking customers to pay for anything else related to migration. The reasons behind the HP shift in Webcast pricing still weren’t clear as of our FlashPaper deadline, but the critical response from customers must have had an impact. Stachnik said that every expense gets analyzed for cost at today’s HP, and the expense of producing technical instruction had to be borne by some HP entity. Customers suggested that the other HP divisions which hope to win 3000 customers’ business might pay for the Webcasts. Giving away specific technical advice for free through the Webcasts has not been a regular practice through this year — the shows have had more of a marketing, teasing content (to use Stachnik’s description). Whatever specifics surface next will be offered for free beginning sometime in April or May, he added, and HP will announce registration information during the month of March for the shows. Early registration, which earns a customer the right to ask questions interactively over the Web, is one of the perks of getting a spot in the show. Space is limited; HP contracted for only 500 seats on the Web portion of the show last time out, although anybody can ask a question by dialling into a phone number. Getting one of those 500 spots in the Webcast gives a customer another way to ask questions, by posting them through a Web site where the slides are displayed live.

Getting those Web questions answered is a delayed process at press time. Stachnik said that as of the first week of March he was running behind on publishing HP’s answers from the January Webcast in an FAQ file. A higher priority for him in that week was engaging the HP sales force with the 3000 division’s customers. Stachnik said the sales force has expressed a greater interest in the 3000 marketplace since the division announced its plans to end HP’s involvement with the platform. It’s gratifying to hear that the HP sales force wants to engage the 3000 customer base, though such interest would have been of more help while HP’s commitment to selling the computer extended beyond next fall. Several customers have reported that IBM had already contacted them about shifting to the AS/400 platform. IBM announced at a conference in late February it was targeting the 3000 customer base. It’s not the first time Big Blue has yearned for 3000 sites to migrate — but it’s definitely the first time IBM made the migration offer while HP 3000 division itself promoted migration to its satisfied customers.