Hewlett-Packard Co is still high on the idea of comprehensive IT service management and asserts that its OpenView offering is now the only one in the industry that can deliver on that promise. Olivier Helleboid, general manager of HP’s OpenView Software Division, says that his team has been working tirelessly in recent months to integrate all the disparate pieces that comprise OpenView and now claims that essentially all of the proprietary integration necessary has been completed. Helleboid says that rivals Computer Associates International Inc and IBM Corp’s Tivoli unit continue to talk about service management – which he defines as management of not only the infrastructure but the services that the infrastructure provides – but have yet to come up with the products to deliver it. He believes they will eventually, but feels that HP’s lead in the area may prove to be their undoing. What’s next, Helleboid says, in the area of OpenView integration is build it around a common repository based on Microsoft Corp’s Common Information Model, work which will begin at the end of the year and will continue into 1999. HP boss Lew Platt insists that he wants software to generate 10% of his company’s total revenues by 2000, and Helleboid insists that his group will have a large role in attaining that goal. He boasts of a dedicated sales and support staff for HP software of 250 and more than 350 partners for OpenView alone, which he says has seen 40% to 50% sales growth over the past few years. When asked to talk about market share goals, Helleboid insists that HP doesn’t enter a market to be a niche player, and fully intends to be number one. He promises more agreements with hardware vendors in the near future, but won’t mention any names.
