HP reassures customers over Mercury integration fears

HP has moved to reassure customers that only a tiny minority would be affected by its decision to sunset some of its software products as it integrates IT governance specialist Mercury, insisting that no customer would be "left behind" and that clear migration paths would be made available.

At its HP Software conference in Vienna late last year the company had said it would retire a small handful of tools where there was overlap between HP's OpenView products and Mercury's portfolio. David Gee, vice president of marketing for HP Software, said that the final decision on which products would be sunsetted had still not been made, but hinted that some of HP's application management products were likely to be affected.

However, Gee added that very few customers would be impacted and where they do run products that are being retired they would be offered a full and clear migration path. "It is a tiny minority of customers [that will be affected] and we'll go directly to them and offer them a full migration path," he said. "Of more than 9,000 items on our HP Software product sheet, if more than 12 [are effected] I'll be surprised."

Neil Ward-Dutton of analysts Macehiter Ward-Dutton said that overall the integration process was going well, but added that some customers would be concerned about the prospect of some "overlapping" products being dropped.

"It should be a high priority for customers to get answers from HP," he said. "There is no reason why HP should not be able to give them an answer if they ask [about which products will be affected by integration]. If they are serious about building the software business then the existing customer base is vital and I'd expect them to be bending over backwards to keep customers happy."

The company also reiterated its commitment to axing the HP OpenView and Mercury brands and re-branding its software arm as HP Software. HP originally announced the re-branding exercise at its Vienna Conference last year, but since then the OpenView brand in particular has retained a prominent position on the company's website, something Gee insisted would soon change.

"Re-branding takes time," Gee said. "It is like being at BA and having to re-paint all the planes and change all the uniforms and all the lounges – it'll take nine to 12 months to complete the migration."

However, Ward-Dutton argued that HP was guilty of an "execution Snafu" in announcing a re-branding without being in a better position to actually deliver. "I'm not sure it'll make that much difference in the long-term," he said. "But it's a bit of a shame."

Despite these concerns, Gee insisted good progress was being made along the integration roadmap, with the price list having been recently updated to rebrand all products as HP Software products and the company's sales teams this month having attended a major training event to familiarise themselves with the new software strategy and portfolio.

The news comes as HP's latest financial results underlined the growing importance of the software division to the company. Sales from the software business climbed 81 percent year-on-year to $550m and while it still represents just a fraction of HP's overall business, the company claims it is now the sixth largest software player in the world.

Ian Wesley of analysts Ovum said the "good numbers" indicated that the integration process was going relatively smoothly. "On the customer side there was initially a lot of concern, but the fact they've had a good quarter suggests the dirty tricks and attempts to poach customers [from rivals] didn’t really work," he added.

Earlier this month HP announced plans to bulk up its software capabilities further with the acquisition of mainframe transaction monitoring software specialist Bristol Technology. Gee said that the deal would "extend Mercury's p erformance and application management capabilities back into the mainframe". He added that the existing partnership between HP and Bristol Technology should result in a relatively smooth integration process.