10,000-Member Encompass Sets Bold Agenda for 2006; HP's largest user group eyes future following year when Interex's closing, Hurricane Katrina and new partnerships re-shaped its user community

Business Wire, Jan 17, 2006

CHICAGO -- Encompass, the HP enterprise technology user group, has set a bold agenda for 2006 including enhanced peer-to-peer idea sharing and valuable technical education which will expand member growth within its newly re-shaped community of more than 10,000 IT professionals.

Encompass President Kristi Browder, director of IT at Silicon Labs in Austin, Texas, says 2006 "will see Encompass find its stride as HP's largest user community and a hub for learning, networking and advocacy."

She adds overall goals include ensuring that members can learn from each others' experiences, can easily and economically tap online and face-to-face technical education and can voice their technology or product service issue to HP and know they will be heard.

Specifically, Browder has set these seven goals for the Encompass user community (www.encompassUS.org) in 2006:

Goal 1 - Expand technical education resources.

Focus more sharply on member educational programs such as business continuity issues, HP-UX, Linux, MPE, networking, OpenVMS, OpenView, security, servers including HP's AlphaServer, the HP 9000, Integrity, Integrity NonStop and the e3000, storage, Tru64, Unix and Windows.

Goal 2 - Increase the member community to welcome higher numbers of former Interex members and HP Certified Professionals.

Extend and expand special offers and incentives designed to increase the number of IT professionals choosing to become Encompass members and who also choose to become HP Certified Professionals.

Goal 3 - Attract more users to the 2006 HP Technology Forum.

Help produce a larger and even more content-rich HP Technology Forum, to be held Sept. 17-22, 2006, in Houston, Texas. The inaugural 2005 event in Orlando attracted more than 4,000 participants following an initial postponement of the HPTF, originally scheduled to be held in New Orleans. Details about the HPTF can be found on a specially developed Web site at (www.hptechnologyforum.com).

Goal 4 - Expand delivery of Web products to members to provide year-round educational opportunities.

Deliver via the Web site more content-rich information on topics such as business continuity, server consolidation, regulatory compliance and security management and the role of IT integration.

Goal 5 - Increase member participation in online Webcasts.

Launch additional online educational Webcasts in 2006 to encourage peer-to-peer idea exchange. Additionally, members will be encouraged through various promotions to access other online educational events, best practices and content via the Encompass Library. Technical information, tips and news about HP technologies will also be promoted by encouraging access via the Encompass Web site.

Goal 6 - Increase participation in Local User and Special Interest Group meetings.

Provide for and increase the number of year-round educational opportunities and face-to-face opportunities made possible through sponsorship of Local User and Special Interest Group meetings.

Goal 7 - Open doors for members to effectively voice their issues before HP

Easily enable any Encompass member to voice their technology and service issues through the HP User Group Online Advocacy Program.

A Look Back on 2005

Summarizing 2005, Browder says Encompass embraced former members of Interex after the user group closed its doors. "We chose to offer them a new user group home through a free one-year membership to Encompass."

Additionally, the HP Technology Forum, initially postponed due to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, was re-located to Orlando and successfully completed its inaugural event. There, for the first time, Encompass members and HP employees learned new technologies side-by-side.

Browder says that although Encompass "faced and met very difficult challenges in 2005, we are very excited about and prepared for a successful 2006."

About Encompass

Encompass is a community of IT professionals who deliver information technology solutions for complex and multi-system computing environments, focusing on the HP (and legacy Compaq and Digital) technologies, including HP-UX, Enterprise Storage, Enterprise Unix, OpenVMS, Linux and Windows. The organization promotes the unimpeded exchange of information by providing members with professional development programs, technical training, information exchanges, advocacy programs and networking opportunities. Encompass is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA. To learn more about Encompass, visit www.encompassUS.org.