If the future is about delivering and using IT functionality on a pay-per-use basis then companies and service providers need the tools, the strategy and the ability to manage and deliver those services - and they need them now. That`s the drum HP was beating yesterday at what it called the `most significant` software solutions launch it has held to date.
The company, which reinvented itself last year as an end-to-end computing solutions provider, is on a concerted drive to articulate its software vision even more clearly. And it is delivering comprehensive development, integration, deployment and management solutions.
"We believe the world is moving towards services-centric computing," said Bill Russell, the vice president and general manager of HP`s Software Solutions Organisation, in his keynote address. This, he said, would be a world where customers could spend less on computing resources, deploy simpler solutions more quickly and have the flexibility to react to business demands. It`s an interesting strategy. It requires companies to think differently about how they use - and pay for - computing. It requires them to examine their business processes and potentially revamp them in order to be more streamlined and more competitive. And it requires them to choose their IT partners carefully, as the interoperability and flexibility of the solutions they implement are paramount.
HP believes it is in a good position as a result. Its OpenView business, which delivers enterprise maintenance and management solutions, ranks as one of the top 20 software companies in the world. Add in the rest of the software - security, quality-of-service, output management and internet usage solutions - and the division contributed more than $2bn of the $48,8bn revenues that HP posted in its 2000 financial year.
Yesterday`s launch saw the company make three announcements which make its software business even stronger: it explained how the middleware solutions it brought into the fold by recently acquiring US developer, Bluestone, would fulfill a key role in the software strategy; it debuted two inter-related software suites (Netaction, which is new, and OpenView, which already exists but has been enhanced); and it announced over 25 new products, enhancements and solutions that allow customers to `transform their business`.
The Bluestone and Netaction announcements are closely related. `Netaction` is the moniker which has been applied to the suite of software that focuses on business agility and enables customers to quickly develop, integrate and deploy e-services - e-services being HP`s vision of any process or application that a company can take, digitise and deliver over the Internet to have a positive, revenue-generating impact on its business.
"HP Netaction integrates Bluestone technologies into our existing software portfolio, which includes HP e-speak and HP Process Manager," explained Gary de Menezes, the software business manager for Middle East and Africa at HP. "This gives us a great advantage - we can leverage an application server that is based on vendor-neutral Java, J2EE and XML standards, and we can bridge the gap between those standards and the ones that Microsoft .NET environments operate on."
So what of OpenView? "It is still a highly-significant Internet, e-services and enterprise management solution for us. It`s just that `HP OpenView` will now become the family name for an expanded software management suite which provides a complete, flexible infrastructure," commented De Menezes.
The 25 new announcements it made at the launch were centred around manageability, service levels, security and the Internet operating environment - as well as the service provider and solution developer community.
Taken in a collective context this news clearly demonstrates that HP is executing the strategy it outlined in June last year for software to play a key role in the emerging services-based computing world. Testimony to this is the fact that the only corporate acquisition HP has made since then has been of a company which expands its software solutions offering, namely Bluestone.
"Nearly two years ago we predicted that intelligent, useful e-services would drive the next wave of business development opportunities," said De Menezes. "As that vision takes root, businesses increasingly require a strong, flexible software foundation that lets them change, grow and compete. Our goal is to meet that need with an open standards, multi-OS approach to software that allows enterprises or service providers to easily develop, integrate, deploy and manage their Web services."
HP Netaction and HP OpenView are available immediately from HP`s worldwide distribution channels as well as through HP Consulting.
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