HP, Partners Unveil Solutions to Help Companies Rapidly Build Profitable Portal Businesses - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, May 1, 2000

Hewlett-Packard Company Wednesday unveiled new solutions and services to help companies profit from the exploding market for business portals. These offerings, featuring HP and partner content, make it easy for customers to rapidly deliver bulletproof portal experiences, no matter how far along they are in their Internet progress.

Global marketplace opportunity estimates for online trading communities, e-commerce and enterprise information portals range in the high billions of dollars (U.S.), with several trillion dollars in transaction revenues expected to flow through trading exchanges alone. These next-generation business portals are an efficient way to speed time to market and expand opportunities with customers, partners and suppliers. They are a key element of the emerging e-services economy, which is all about moving the Internet from a "do it yourself" model to a "do it for me" model, fueled by electronic services.

"HP's portal strategy reflects insights from our experiences in deploying portals internally and from helping hundreds of customers and partners do the same over the past year. We know what customers need, and we are delivering a set of flexible solutions, services and mission-critical infrastructure to make it easy for them to profit from e-services," said Nick Earle, president of HP's E-Services.Solutions organization. "With Wednesday's announcements and the realization of next-generation portals, e-services are no longer a vision first articulated by HP, but rather the reality of business in the new economy."

-- The HP Enterprise Business Portal Solution, developed through HP's strategic alliance with BroadVision. It makes it easy for businesses to develop a reliable, personalized portal experience with a pre-integrated gateway for business content, commerce and collaboration. The solution includes complementary components for specific customer needs, as well as comprehensive consulting, mission-critical support and services, all delivered through a single point of contact, the HP E-Services Support Center. Availability is planned for June 16 on HP-UX(1) platforms.

-- A Trading Community Architecture, designed by HP to help companies exploit this fastest-growing segment of the portal marketplace. Central to this is a new relationship with trading exchange pioneer Moai Technologies, focused on enabling highly scalable business-to-business trading exchanges. HP has made an investment to help fuel Moai's growth, and Moai's LiveExchange technology will be integrated into HP trading community solutions and the HP Enterprise HP-UX platform for enterprise-class performance.

-- Expanded HP consulting services, including implementation of a portal pilot up and running in 45 to 100 days. Companies also get a complete portal roadmap, return-on-investment plan and project blueprint. Services for enterprise information portals are available now, with services for trading communities and e-commerce expected in the next 60 days.

-- HP Channels on Tap, an innovative "trusted marketplace" portal ecosystem, which enables customers to purchase hosted services through a local agent -- a reseller or integrator -- who has access to a pre-qualified set of service providers. This new business model, which provides agents, service providers and customers with new business opportunities, is being offered with support from partners CSDev and Solution.com. It should accelerate the evolution of the "software as a service" model and leverages HP's 28,000-strong network of U.S. resellers. The initial release of the Channels on Tap portal system is available now, with more features planned for this fall.

These announcements build on HP's extensive arsenal of capabilities to help businesses and service providers build, run and finance secure portal businesses. Customers can count on HP for mission-critical systems, software and support; IT services, such as hosted application outsourcing and utility computing; and consulting, education and attractive financing options. Through its alliances with other leading Internet solution companies and industry expertise in financial services, manufacturing, electronics, retail and other key sectors, HP delivers the industry's most flexible and complete set of offerings.

"One cannot help but be impressed with the comprehensiveness of HP's portal vision and the degree of detail attending its execution strategy, partnering and pre-certified implementation approach," said industry analyst Mike West, chief executive officer and founder, mwest.com. "HP is well-positioned to enable its customers with a wide range of portals, and the company has what it takes to become a leader in the high-growth portal marketplace." Customers Choose HP to Move Their Portal Businesses Forward

BidBuyBuild and the Web Product Realization Network (WebPRN) are two new HP portal customers. BidBuyBuild (www.bidbuybuild.com) offers an e-marketplace for the construction industry that lets contractors and suppliers conduct business online. Due to the transactional nature of the site, any downtime means lost business, and speed, security and reliability are critical.