HP Universe

Monday - June 16, 2008

8:00 a.m. - Tim Chase (Loadtester) and I walked across the street from the Venetian to the Mirage to eat their breakfast buffet. Warning: Across the street in Vegas terms is like a 20 minute walk. you better have some good shoes around here.

10:00 a.m. - Today is the partner summit portion of the conference. We registered this morning. Both of our registrations were incorrect and it was a little bit chaotic. I was registered as a speaker, but I am not a speaker. Tim was registered for the partner summit only, which was incorrect. We had to get his registration changed to include the full conference. HP gave us tote bags (sponsored by Cap Gemini), conference programs, a book on QA testing, some books to take notes on, and a water bottle. Tim and I went up to get our "SpotMe's" and our friend SHARK71 became quickly enthralled with this gadget which allows conference attendees to swap business cards.

11:30 a.m. - After a grueling effort (sarcasm alert) registering and getting our SPOTME's , it was time for lunch. And of course I was one of the first people in line, food being the most important thing to pay attention to at conferences. We hung out with Scott Hysmith (CompuCom Excell Data), Nick Kordich (nworks), Brad Purcell (BIAS Corp.), Jonathan Starr (J Starr Solutions LLC),  Caleb Billingsley (Orasi Software) Lydia Casillas (SKYIT Group), Joseph Blomker (Maryville), John Calebresi (Powertest). 

01:00 p.m. The Partner Summit begins. Tim and I were in the front row, wanting to take it all in.  Dale Irvin kicked us off on a positive note. Tim Chase won a $99 American Express gift card. Way to go Tim! I have decided Tim is buying breakfast in the morning. Scott Strubel, director of HP Americas Software Alliances welcomed all of the partners. There are over 12 countries represented at the Partner Summit. 80 partners sponsored the event. Sounds like a lot of cool stuff is planned for this week.

Scott introduced Tiffani Bova at Gartner (VP Research, Indirect Channel Programs and Sales Strategies Worldwide) who talked about industry trends and opportunities for the software channel. Partner collaboration is something taking off in the the market. I totally believe in this model. The only problem is that you have to be very careful who you collaborate with. There is a huge element of trust that has to be in place, even when two partners are doing very different things. According to Gartner, the CIO strategic Management Priorities in 2008 were:

1. Delivering projects that enable business growth
2. Linking business and IT strategies and plans
3. Attracting closer relationships with customers.

Tiffani talked about Virtualization being a business changer, and some crucial questions to ask:

1. Is the business ready for speed?
2. is the business ready to share?
3. Does the business want variable IT costs?

Good questions!

Some good news for Loadtester - Tiffani revealed one of the largest areas of growth where companies are going to be spending money on between now and 2011 are Performance and Availability. According to Gartner's research, budgets are either going to stay the same or increase. They are not seeing the "economic slowdown" effect - at least not yet. Interesting.

Next up at the Summit was a partner panel made up of five partners, and Scott Strubel acting as a moderator. The partners represented were Nate Stuyvesant (Genilogix), Michael Morris (MW2 Consulting), Rick Langsford (Pepperweed Consulting), Jon Furner (ResultsPositive), and Anand Moorthy (North American Testing Services). The discussion was around thriving in times of change through unique offerings. As a side note, it was good to finally meet Jon Furner today. We have talked on the phone several times since 2004. Nothing like a conference to have a opportunity to meet face to face. I liked the panel, but the marketing terminology was flying faster than than I could keep up. No offense, but it would have been cool if someone would have jumped on the chairs like Tom Cruise, since the format was like Oprah.

Charles Neal (HP Vice President of Alliances) talked about how HP is investing in software and the role that partners are playing in the growth of the company. On a global basis annually, partners (like Loadtester) provide 50% of software licenses and 85% of implementation services.  The biggest challenge for HP is getting more people certified in the software and getting the skill sets up. The BTO market is a $6.7 billion dollar market for 209 and growing at more than 10% a year. The BTO software portfolio (which stems from the Mercury acquisition) accounts for over 80% of their software business.  HP is #1 with 68% of the market with regards to automated software quality and automated performance solutions. The nearest competitor has 11%. 

03:00 p.m. - Break time!!!  During the break, I was able to see a lot of friends, including Bob Crews (CheckPoint Technologies), Tamara  Cowan (AVNET),  Scott Jefferies (Orasi Software), Bill Hayden (Orasi Software), Russell Zilles (IQ Services), and my old boss from another life - David Torrisi (who is now the SaaS Delivery Director - Americas Region for HP,  which seems to be getting a lot of emphasis at the conference). I saw Raul DeLeon (Genilogix) and Robert Linton (CorTechs) in the hallway. Great seeing all of you!

Stephen Myers (HP) - Host of Partner Galaxy Events and other Partner Enablement stuff. Likes BBQ too!

With all the IT marketing terms flying around today, I have decided that we need to start an HP Universe "BS" Bingo card. I am working on it now. Should be available for download tomorrow.

04:00 p.m. - Scott Strubel is back with another round table discussion. This time, the panel includes HP experts around many of the main software solution. It included Michel Feaster (Director BSA), Stephen Smith (Sr. Product Marketing Manager), Yrieix Garnier (Sr. Product Marketing Manager), Matt Schvimmer (Director of Marketing, ITSM), and Jonathan Martin (Chief Marketing Officer). This panel covers Business Service Automation, Business Service Management, Quality Management, Service Management, Project and Portfolio Management, and Information 

Some hot topics that HP talked about today were Data Center Transformation (i.e. Opsware) and Software as a Service (the Mercury solutions are available now, and more are planned in the future). 

05:00 p.m. - Christian Pugh and Rod Lehman finished up by wrapping up some of the information already heard, as well as go over the key resources available to partners. 

05:35 p.m. - The partner awards were given out and Scott Strubel wrapped up. Tim and I are about burnt out on terms and acronyms. Our heads are spinning and we're ready to take a break. Were heading back to the rooms. I am going to update the site and get ready for the Partner Reception tonight and the Avnet reception at TAO later. 

06:30 - 08:30 p.m. - Hung out with Karen Dicks (Melillo Consulting) and several other long time buddies from the Mercury days.

09:00 p.m. - It's off to TAO at the Palazzo hotel, a conference held by Avnet, our distributor. Thanks Avnet. I have to say that those guys are great to us and we love dealing with them. You rock. Thanks Tom, Tamara, Mike, and all the gang.

Lydia Casillas (SKYIT Group) - She can talk shop with her eyes closed!!! 

Mitch Neff (Advanced Marketplace) - now you are hanging out with the wrong crowd!

Scott