Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia): HP is giving new life to its software business that
is predominantly Openview dependent and wants to become software major. It has
lined up a simple proposition to achieve it: have 70 per cent of the businesses
coming from software licenses and the rest from services.
HP’s senior sales and marketing executives for software, unveiling the
company’s ambitious drive into the software party, before its Asia Pacific
channel partners here today said the company is investing heavily in developer
programs, sales channel programs and adding more teeth to its direct marketing
efforts through HP Software Solution Organization worldwide.
Though HP is pitched against CA and IBM in the network management segment
that brings it over $1 billion annually, it has put together a more ambitious
vision of becoming the plumber in a world which it perceives to be dominated by
Web services. Called Netaction, HP’s new initiative appears to be a quick
answer to Microsoft’s .Net and Sun’s SunOne. But HP begs to differ. "We
are not competition to either MS or Sun. We are more of an open industry
standard player and our solutions talk to any other software, says Peter van der
Fluit, vice president, HP’s worldwide software sales and marketing.
Though Openview is HP’s mainstay for now, it is rapidly building a
foundation for its Web services business by bringing together disparate pieces
of software solutions under Netaction umbrella. Several pieces are coming
together into making this. HP’s recent acquisition -- Blue Stone -- brings in
the Web server that competes with iPlanet, BEA Weblogic and IBM Apache. It has
HP Application Server, which it is giving away free for developers to download.
It has a core services framework where its platform independent platform Chai
and the e-services framework e-Speak concepts merge. These three components sit
on HP’s Internet Operating environment. Over this is built the HP’s Web
services container. It is here HP will make its money by deploying various Web
services for its customers.
In the coming year, HP is planning to launch Opencall Media platform and the
next year it will launch a communication portal platform. Opencall is HP’s
trump card in the VoIP segment that allows enterprises and network operators
like telcos and mobile phone service providers to offer voice and data
communications using Internet Protocol.
HP’s thrust in the coming years will be on Enterprise IT services market,
telcos, SAN/Storage and it will focus on voice call services using Opencall for
2002-03.