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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E.H.F. who wrote (22819)	3/21/1998 2:45:00 PM
From: E.H.F.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Alpha Platform Gets Vote Of Confidence -- Automatic Data Processing awards Digital $100M contract for AlphaServers, services By Martin J. Garvey Not everyone is concerned about the long-term viability of the Alpha platform. The dealer services group of Automatic Data Processing Inc. will shell out $100 million over the next three years for several thousand Digital Equipment AlphaServers, with an option to extend the contract through 2003. The group, which services more than 18,000 car and truck dealers worldwide, is buying the 64-bit Digital Unix servers to speed processing of monthly sales reports, accounting, inventory, customer service, factory communications, and other processes. Activities that took three hours with the group's old Motorola 88110-based servers, such as end-of-month data backups, are expected to take about 20 minutes with the Alpha systems. The dealer services group will use the Digital servers in two configurations:The Millennia3 Series 9200 scales from eight to 350 users, and the Series 9300 supports from 350 to 1,700 users. "We'll continue to purchase the latest, highest-megahertz processors and expect to work with Alpha for the foreseeable future," says Miles Lewitt, VP of global systems for ADP's dealer services group. He says he's confident that Compaq Computer will continue to support the platform following its purchase of Digital and that Intel will drive improvements to the chip now that it's responsible for Alpha manufacturing. Lewitt says his team evaluated all the major server vendors before choosing Digital. In addition to performance, he says, "we wanted a commitment to Windows NT and Unix, a commitment to Intel, and a vendor we could purchase desktop systems, NT servers, and Unix servers from." The ADP unit says it also likes Digital's Unix-to-NT integration services. Laurie McCabe, an analyst with Summit Strategies in Boston, says the Alpha platform is secure. "There's a large installed base out there," she says, "and nothing will happen to pull the rug out from under everyone." Copyright (c) 1998 CMP Media Inc.

To: E.H.F. who wrote (22819)	3/21/1998 2:51:00 PM
From: E.H.F.	Respond to of 97611

Compaq Takes Multipronged Approach To E-Commerce By David Joachim Compaq will plant a flag in the E-commerce arena this week with server bundles for Internet service providers, merchants and banks. The offerings, to be previewed at the Internet Commerce Expo in Boston, include payment and high-end server systems from its new Tandem Computers unit, as well as a storefront package in partnership with Microsoft. One product, the ProLiant E-Commerce Server, incorporates Microsoft's Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0 in a "tested and benchmarked" bundle that "guarantees a high level of performance," said marketing director George Favaloro. From the Tandem subsidiary comes the Internet Transaction Processing (iTP) family of commerce products. They include iTP Virtual Store, a high-end server package running Windows NT or Tandem's own Non-Stop Kernal operating system. It is positioned as a bulletproof system for financial institutions or service providers hosting multiple storefronts on a single server. Analysts said Compaq's NT-based commerce servers are well-suited for self-hosted sites but said the company will have a tougher time converting ISPs. "ISPs are primarily worried about scalability, quality of service and security," said Zona Research analyst Vern Keenan. "NT still seems to be secondary to Unix for those qualities." For opposite reasons, Tandem's technology is less suited for service providers than financial services companies, according to Keenan. "I don't see Tandem going into ISPs," he said. "Who's going to plug a proprietary system into networks that tend to get built with a high number of redundant, standard components?" Also part of the Tandem family are the iTP Certificate Security Solution, a certificate authority system out of Tandem's Atalla unit that is based on software from Entrust Technologies Inc.; iTP Payment Solution, a secure payment infrastructure that includes a payment server for merchants, a gateway for banks and a wallet for consumers; and iTP NetACD, software for integrating voice and video into customer-service Web sites. Compaq also is introducing the Pro-Signia and ProLiant Firewall Servers based on security software from Raptor Systems Inc. The firewall servers would be used to protect corporate data from outsiders. The announcements are "a blueprint for a set of solutions that take the guesswork out of setting up an E-commerce site on the Internet," Favaloro said. The Microsoft deal is nonexclusive, Favaloro said, adding that more third-party software packages are on the way. Indeed, Compaq also is bundling Inex Corp.'s Commerce Publisher desktop Web tool for users who outsource their site hosting to third parties. The software will be preloaded with some Compaq PCs and will be downloadable from a Compaq partner site called ClubWeb beginning this May. Zona's Keenan said leaving the software options open makes sense as an increasing number of commerce sites move to high-end packaged applications. "Some of the more expensive commerce products on NT are more complete solutions than the Microsoft product," Keenan said. "So as the market evolves from a build to a buy mentality, the higher-end products should have broader appeal." The ProLiant E-Commerce Server starts at a retail price of $13,696 and will be available in late April. The iTP products are available now, with typical configurations running $350,000 for the gateway, $400,000 for the certificate server and $100,000 for the payment server. The firewall servers will be available in late April at a retail price of $5,860.

To: E.H.F. who wrote (22819)	3/21/1998 5:55:00 PM
From: Mike Gordon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 97611

Sometimes, perception is reality. CPQ is generally perceived as a looser to the novice investing public. Many novices tend to buy mutual funds. Therefore, CPQ is sometimes dumped in favor of GM, KO, etc. However, in terms of future growth, CPQ will probably yield a better return in capital gains than most others. Picture it as a coil which has been compressed to the maximum. It is very resilient and poised to move forward. (Baring any unforeseen market adjustment) Mike