Hewlett-Packard Co says it has agonized long and hard about creating a dedicated Internet division and decided it doesn’t have to be an inventor of net technology in order to be a supplier of net technology. The company also didn’t think such a division would sit well with its corporate culture and instead Internet technologies dug out of the labs by Internet technology officer Ira Goldstein will be made available to each division. But Hewlett Packard has formed a centralized internet marketing group to push the company’s internet brief of extending the enterprise, by which it means selling Hewlett Packard kit for intranets, extranets (business-to-business services) and electronic commerce. In terms of system technology it’s got handheld web browsers, wireless servers for the home and network personal computers ready to sell, plus a Network Computer makeover of its X Windows terminals waiting in the wings. And the company has written some software it’s calling AdminFlow software aimed at web-based workflow.
