Re: Question for the Group

On Jun 12, 3:35 am, Michael Kraemer <M.Krae...@xxxxxx> wrote:
JF Mezei schrieb:

Not long ago, there was an article on how airlines now assign employees
to monitor discussion groups on the internet to spot horror stories,
investigate internally and fix problems to prevent/reduce such horror
stories.

Not only have airline realised that the bad publicity is hurting them,
but they have realised that these forums are a great place to spot
problems in their "systems" and bypass layers of employees who are
affraid to report bad news to their bosses.

You seem to forget that for those airlines their main business
is at stake, whereas for HP VMS is a negligible quantity.

HP HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY GIVEN SIMPLE TASKS IT CAN DO TO SHUT US UP AND
MAKE US FEEL COMFORTABLE (marketing) AND HP HAS STEADFASTEDLY REFUSED TO
CHANGE ITS POLICY TO PREVENT MARKETING OF VMS.

You repeatedly seem to forget that it's not HPs task to make
you feel comfortable but rather their shareholders.

Yes, but we believe HP is mistaken in allowing a proven money-maker
(when supported properly by its owner) to languish for no apparent
reason. We believe the shareholders would like more profits even if
they came from VMS!

For them, VMS is entirely unimportant, as you can easily
deduce from HPs quarterly results.

Yes, VMS is unimportant to them. But that ignores its POTENTIAL. We're
saying the situation with VMS is bad and you're telling us "but the
situation is bad, so why bother". That's EXACTLY why to bother. If it
were good, we wouldn't be having this discussion! It's the POTENTIAL.

HP should know that the short live "renaissance" preiod not long before
the premedidated massacre of Alpha had caused VMS to grow by close to
10% in a few months.

There still is no evidence that one has to do with the other.

Is there a better competing explanation?

Even if it was so, even a 100% growth wouldn't be noticeable
on HPs bottom line.
Also, I wasn't aware that the typical VMS customer is
susceptible for short term marketing.

If HP had allowed its printer and imaging dept. to shrink to VMS
levels would you be saying the same things? Would it kill them to
spend a small portion of VMS profits on some solid marketing? And if
it worked, and I think it would, would the shareholders come yelling
"What? All these increased profits are from sales of VMS? Horrors! I'm
selling my shares right away. I don't want any profits if they're from
selling VMS! I'm OUTRAGED!!!"


And that was a very modest marketing budget. But it
proves that VMS has great potential.

It doesn't prove anything. Maybe HP is smarter than you
think, they have analyzed their situation and concluded
that it isn't worth a marketing dime to try expand their
user base beyond the usual legacy crowd. This is essentially

Maybe not. Businesses don't always do what's best for themselves.
Banks fought the gov't against the requirement for a $50 maximum
liability for lost or stolen credit cards, but that may well be what
made their acceptance by customers so easy! And the banks have
profited quite handsomely from credit cards. (Well, I remember reading
this in an Op-Ed article.)

what that lady, Ann Livermore (?), publicly stated.
There you have HPs official word on the whole story.

Can you please supply a link? I missed it.

And if you are a former employee, then your letter to Hurd could have
far greater impact if you can freely "tell it like it is" and point to
the very poeple who are squandering a great source of revenus/profits
and misguiding Hurd on the true potential of VMS.

What profits ? Look at those Q2 results and figure it out yourself.
Even if you're optimistic and assume 1/3 of BCS to be VMS
this would mean $300M revenue and $60M profit
(assuming 20% margin is still true, which isn't that far away
from HP average 8%, BTW), almost negligible compared to the
$2000M profit of HP in total.

Again you're justifying letting the patient die by saying, "Look, the
patient is dying. Let's go home." It's the POTENTIAL profits. High-
margin profits.

History has proved that companies are willing to spend more for VMS if
it weren't allowed to languish as it is. Would it kill HP to try?
Would the shareholders revolt if profits from VMS increased? Doesn't
it make sense to market your high-margin products?

AEF

.

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