Hewlett-Packard Co, which announced a slew of new OpenView products and partners on Tuesday (CI No 3,360), used its OpenView Universe 98 event in Boston to broadcast the message that it is indeed a software company. Chief executive Lew Platt couldn’t stress that enough, pointing out that software is now being run as a separate business and saying his goal for the company is to have 10% of its total revenues driven by software and software- related services by 2000. The company is expecting such revenue this year to reach $1bn. John Bleuer, worldwide marketing manager for OpenView, said the Boston gathering could be viewed as a coming out party for HP software, and especially OpenView, its crown jewel. After nine months of acquisitions to beef up OpenView and add NT support, everything is integrated and working, according to Bleuer. Platt indicated that his company’s software efforts will continue to support multiple platforms and that HP will continue to make acquisitions to ensure its place in an open systems world. OpenView Universe trumpeted the idea of service management, an industry buzzword that isn’t easy to define. HP sought to present its vision of service management as a broad initiative designed to bring IT managers more into the mainstream of corporate structure and more in touch with both business strategies and customers. Platt said IT staff should have the software tools they need to relate IT to the bottom line, by concentrating less on the infrastructure than the services it provides. In a sense, then, the idea of service management in HP’s eyes is a full network and systems management package that also helps CIO’s and corporate IT people to more proactively plan technology initiatives with shorter implementation periods and a focus on the business end of the spectrum. The company thinks service management will be the next big thing and has high hopes for its strategy which is entirely centered around OpenView and its installed base of 120,000 customers – who HP says are demanding comprehensive service management packages. In addition to the new products and capabilities announced Tuesday, HP unveiled a roadmap for OpenView which includes more partner announcements, increased attention to the internet and a focus on furthering the product offerings and capabilities with respect to NT-centric environments. When asked whether there was a lot of work left to do in the area of NT, Bleuer replied there’s always more to do.
