THREAD --- What EP said yesterday --- positive article ---Investor News
Pfeiffer: Compaq Will Expand Enterprise Program To Channel
(04/29/98; 11:28 a.m. ET)
By Steven Burke, Computer Reseller News
NEW ORLEANS -- Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer said the computer maker will expand its enterprise-solutions partnership program later this year to include leading service providers and systems integrators. As part of that plan, Compaq also will roll out later this year an Enterprise Extranet for channel partners.
"We will empower our channel partners with the tools, knowledge, and best practices necessary to make it faster, simpler, safer, and more cost-effective to deploy and operate industry-standard enterprise applications," said Pfeiffer in an address here in New Orleans at Computer Associates Interational's CA World conference. Earlier Tuesday, Houston-based Compaq (company profile) announced it was partnering with CA along with channel partners CompuCom Systems and Vanstar to preinstall Unicenter TNG on Compaq servers and workstations.
The Enterprise Extranet, which will be rolled out to corporate customers after the channel, will "standardize the knowledge we have collected around planning, deploying, and operating enterprise solutions," said Pfeiffer. "This knowledge will be available in the form of tools and enablers that will help you plan more effectively, deploy more rapidly, and operate more efficiently."
The move to include partners in the enterprise-solutions partnership is an important signal Compaq said it intends to continue to leverage the channel in an all-out bid to be the No. 1 company in the enterprise-solutions segment of the market.
The solutions partnership with system integrators and service providers is part of a sweeping effort Compaq is implementing to push forward its E2000 initiative. The E2000 plan is aimed at dramatically increasing the use of industry-standard systems for enterprise applications. Pfeiffer stressed Compaq's value-added resellers and partners, including CA, will be a critical part of this effort.
Pfeiffer said the E2000 architecture, which includes eight-way multiprocessing industry-standard Intel servers and ServerNet, a high-bandwidth network-interconnect technology developed by Tandem, will let Compaq deliver industry-standard clustered systems next year that perform 200,000 transactions per minute, moving that to 500,000 TPM by 2000. Pfeiffer said an "enormous breakthrough" will reduce the total cost of computing for some enterprise applications from $39 per transaction per minute today to $5 in just two years' time.
"This will set a new standard for price performance and will also give you much, much greater flexibility and the opportunity to go open industry-standard architecture all the way," he said.
"By the year 2000, we expect to offer flexible standards-based alternatives that will rival the performance of the most robust proprietary systems," said Pfeiffer. "So now is the time to think about it and make these choices."
Pfeiffer, who showed a video that touted Compaq as a "builder of solutions, not just boxes," said Compaq is "focusing on all elements of the planning and deployment" of enterprise applications.
Pfeiffer also touted the company's Club Web program, which he called a "one-stop online store stocked with products and services" offered by Compaq partners. "All of it is working together and easy to use because it is being brought together by Compaq's initiative," he said. "The primary purpose of Club Web is to connect customers with providers such as Web developers, ISPs, and resellers whose separate skills in planning, implementing, and maintaining these customers' Internet solutions."
Pfeiffer said Club Web gives Compaq partners "tremendous leverage" in delivering Internet solutions. The program is aimed at letting partners get an e-commerce website up and running as quickly as possible, in some cases as little as one day.
As to the pending acquisition of Maynard, Mass.-based Digital Equipment, Pfeiffer said Digital, Compaq's Tandem, and Sequent have signed up for a common Unix and Compaq is "expecting others to consider that and possibly join." Compaq is also continuing to partner with Santa Cruz Operation on Unix on the Intel platform. Furthermore, Pfeiffer said he considers Digital Alpha an open industry standard, adding Digital is in discussions with Advanced Micro Devices to manufacture the chip.
"When the Digital deal is formally closed, which we expect in the second quarter, we will come forward with our entire strategy and the positioning of Compaq, Tandem, and all of them combined. Clearly, the combined strength of Compaq, Tandem, and Digital will create a global computer company with a customer value proposition that will be truly unique in the industry."
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