By Kevin Murphy in Paris
Hewlett-Packard Co yesterday set its e-services vision ball rolling, announcing that its OpenView systems management software is the first enterprise application to be integrated into its e-speak services framework. The company, at its biannual OpenView Universe user show in Paris, France, said an e-speak management service will become available in the first half of 2000, around about the same time as the first third party e-speak services hit the market.
E-speak is HPÆs protocol for dynamically brokered services on the internet. It consists of a collection of development tools and APIs and an XML-based set of protocols, designed to allow companies to create services which can then be aggregated and sold online by other companies using a third party broker. An early example is expected to be an online travel shop that will bring together e-speak based services such as hotel, flight and car rental bookings into a one-stop booking services.
HP has now built OpenView interoperability into the protocol, so service providers will be able to manage their e-speak services using the next version of OpenView rather like they might currently manage their network resources or application response time. This is expected to shift a few more copies of OpenView. But if a user does not want to buy the software, HP will also offer e-speak service management as an e-speak service.
Elsewhere at the Universe show, HP announced the European availability of OpenView as an outsourced service in a deal with Telefonica Data, a subsidiary of Spanish incumbent telco Telefonica Group. Under the new offering, available in the US since June, companies can implement OpenView as an application service to their customers. HP shares in the risk, taking a cut of the received monthly service fees rather than an upfront payment.
The usual application service provider business model applies, meaning the service providersÆ customers also do not have to take the risk of paying for a full implementation themselves. Telefonica is the first company to take the offering in Europe, to be offered in Spain and Latin America, but the deal is not exclusive.
