[Info-vax] 2009 VMS Bootcamp notice

[JF Mezei]

etmsreec at yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> So you have systems given up to Bootcamp stuff and time that employees
> should be spending on writing code writing presentations instead and
> people out of the office when they should be on VMS Engineering work.
> So what part of this doesn't cost HP?

I don't know what sort of budget philosophy HP has. But if the VMS group
holds an event which is cash neutral (thus no need for an HP approved
budget), and uses only staff from within its own ranks (so no man hours
to "buy" from another department), then does it really bother HP if a
department holds an event like Bootcamp or not ?

Many  engineers  live closer to the hotel than to the HP offices. It
isn't as if HP needs to send all VMS engineers 7063nm around the world
to new england, is it ???????

> http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=blr-nh41%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=red&PATH-UNITS=nm&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=


The succesive owners  ensured  VMS remained an obscure, unmarketed niche
product. As a result, the customers who end up paying the big bucks,
expect to have greater contact with the vendor, and the
engineers/product managers need to have contact with the small customer
base to know what they need.


DECUS was the perfect vehicle for this communications in its heydays.
Post DECUS, Sue filled a huge hole when she found a way to get Bootcamp
running without any financial help from HP.


When Apple announced it was pulling out of macworld, it mentioned that
it would now leverage the orders of magnitudes more visitors at its
stores, and that it could use the web to make more timely product
annoucements.

If the HP memo about Bootcamp cancellation had mentioned that HP would
be focusing on web-based keynote speeches about VMS and other ways to
keep in touch with the customer base then one would have seen just an
updated way to achieve the same goal. But HP is now cutting the last
remaining link, and it was a damned good one that costed HP next to nothing.

If HP used its contacts with customers to decide on future enhancements
for VMS, what does the end of customer contacts really mean with regards
to long term development plans ?