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

To: Windseye who wrote (32986)	9/28/1998 3:05:00 AM
From: Aitch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Thread, Apologies for the late posting of this overview of the keynote address at DECUS Europe and my impressions. DECUS took place in Paris between the 15th and 17th of September. My excuse is that after DECUS I flew to South Africa for my annual holiday and have not been near a telephone line since the 17th. (It's been quite nice actually!! Nice upside surprise for me on CPQ value...) One of the much-stressed themes of this years DECUS was that this was the first joint CPQ/DEC event. DECUS of course is aimed at the DEC users (Digital Equipment Corporation User Society). I spoke to a number of traditional DEC users who were extremely concerned about the integration of the two companies and especially concerned about the continued existence of VMS et al. This underlying concern was almost tangible during the first day of the conference. By the end of the first keynote address I believe that these concerns were effectively laid to rest. The entire conference seemed to "lighten up" and a positive, buoyant air ensued. OK, enough babble, I will try and give you a concise overview of the first keynote address. I did not attend the next two keynote addresses as I was actually attending AltaVista Training (another story completely, which bodes well for both AltaVista software products and the website). The address had various speakers who did not all cover anything particularly new. Bernard Manglier (sp?) the GM of CPQ France did the necessary welcome and intro. Some of his key points were: 1. The merger integrated the "Industry Standard Systems" of CPQ with the "Enterprise Skills of DEC" 2. Combined company is now the (global) 2nd largest IT Company and the largest manufacturer. (Came from 19th in 1992) 3. Listed three major directions for the new CPQ: NT + Internet; 64bit + Alpha; VMS + NSK 4. Listed three major focuses: Enterprise!; #1 position in Customer Service; Strategic Partnerships John Rose then took the floor. (Senior VP and GM of the CPQ Enterprise Computing Group - ECG). Comments on DECUS: 1. Worldwide Organisational Support 2. Alignment with the installed Market Base (very NB) 3. CPQ commitment to focus on Executive level relationships with customers 4. Intent of new CPQ to switch DEC customers to the Worldwide ECG Marketing Strategy (already covered in detail on this thread and elsewhere) 5. Major theme here was that "CPQ values DECUS, DEC customers and installed base as a STRATEGIC ASSET gained during the acquisition/merger" Comments on the ECG Mission: 1. To reduce the complexity of Business Critical Computing 2. Low Risk / High Functionality / FAST time to implement 3. Maximise Total Satisfaction (Customer Satisfaction Theme again...) 4. Single point of accountability 5. Business Solutions and Strong/strategic Customer Relationships Key Strategic Technical areas for CPQ: 1. Industry Standard Servers 2. NT, NetWare and SCO Unix 3. Digital Unix 4. Open VMS (very strongly stressed) 5. Non Stop Kernel (90% of worlds Stock Exchanges and 70% of GSM providers use NSK) 6. Networking and Access Communications 7. Storage 8. workstations 9. Himalaya and Integrity Systems Integration Update and current status: 1. Stressed that the update covered the integration of CPQ, Tandem and DEC 2. ± 250 teams focused on the integration for the duration 3. Product Roadmaps (future) now fully integrated 4. Field and Organisational realignment completed 5. Costs of acquisitions in line with expectations (!) 6. More synergies than differences encountered 7. Focus on Major Account Installed Base currently picking up momentum 8. Engineering alignment complete 9. With integration, Growth acceleration expected 10. Integration has brought to light new customers which individual companies would not have seen 11. Expanded Enterprise market opportunity from $50B to $250B (!) Mr. Rose then went on to briefly list market shares for "new" CPQ Enterprise products. (I missed some...) 43% of IIS market 42% of SAP 36% of SQL 45% of Oracle 49% of NT Storage 60% of MS Exchange CPQ Enterprise Investment Strategy: 1. E-Commerce - Y2K and upcoming Euro Compliance 2. 64-bit computing necessary as large E-Commerce apps require large virtual addressing 3. Continued spend on Open VMS and NSK 4. Open VMS and NSK technologies will be driven into the NT and Unix platforms 5. Drive Unix convergence with NT (ISV's currently partnering to port Digital Unix and apps to NT) 6. Continued focus on Total Cost of Ownership (CA Unicentre / Tivoli / Web Based Enterprise Management etcetera) 7. Expand number of "International Competency Centers" (currently 45) 8. Continued push of "ActiveAnswers" An important point which emerged in the discussion of the above points was that Alpha cpu's will be powering the next generation of Non-Stop Himalaya Systems which are currently utilising MIPS processors. This shows a clear commitment to 64-bit computing. In addition John Rose expressed the ECG goal of making "Digital Unix the most Windows NT friendly Unix". He discussed MS's Common Object Model (COM) which, amongst other things, provides single log on to multiple OS's and TP interoperability. A further important ECG goal is to move High Availability and Fault Tolerant technologies currently supported by NSK, Open VMS, and Digital Unix etcetera into the Windows NT environment. This is seen as a medium to long term push which provides a clear and safe migration path for current NSK, Open VMS and Digital Unix customers. (He mentioned ongoing investment in VMS Galaxy and Affinity Wave 6). He briefly covered a two-pronged strategy for the new CPQ to win against two sets of competitors: 1. Versus Dell and GTW - By direct interaction with clients 2. Versus IBM, HWP and SUNW - Mainly through strategic partnerships (both service and commercially oriented) with ISV's, Service Providers and Major Accounts. Summary: 1. The integration is on track 2. The "new" CPQ has a clear strategy for leadership 3. Services Integration and Customer Satisfaction are primary goals 4. Clear and continued support for current Digital customers with sensible industry standard migration paths into the future All in all, I thought that the address was concise and truthful. I got the impression that John Rose believed in what he was saying. As a shareholder, I left the session feeling positive with the directions management were taking, (at least in Europe). This is a long but valuable post I hope. A lot of the statements have been made separately elsewhere on this thread and in Press Releases, so I hope you did not get too bored.... Regards, H