lufkin@hpccc.HP.COM (Paul Lufkin) (09/16/90)
TO: Apollo INTERNET Customers
FROM: Hewlett-Packard Company
SUBJECT: Response to Open Letter "Hewlett-Packard, Apollo
Customers, and the Internet"
DATE: September 15, 1990
___________________________________________________________________
HP thanks you for the open letter, titled "Hewlett-Packard,
Apollo Customers, and the Internet". HP has continually received
the highest satisfaction ratings from our customers. We have
done this by listening to your inputs and responding to your
needs. The letter identified several very important issues
surrounding support of HP/Apollo customers. Although HP has been
aware of most of these issues and actively working on solutions,
the letter has drawn further attention towards our communication
of solutions to the issues.
The open letter contained the following three major requests:
1. Improved response to APR's ("Resource allocation within HP")
2. Electronic mail services ("Use of Internet")
3. Services via the Internet ("A public archive")
This message will respond to these issues. We believe that
issues 2 and 3 are closely linked and will address those jointly.
1. Improved response to APR's: When HP receives an Apollo
Product Report (APR), our highest priority is to get it
fixed. Normally, fixes committed to in these responses are
put either in the next patch train or the next release,
depending on the seriousness of the defect. By the end of
September, HP will start to distribute to all of its support
customers Domain SR10.3. This Domain release was
specifically created to address many of the APR's submitted
by HP/Apollo customers, not to add major new functionality.
The beta test period for SR10.3 lasted 19 weeks, much longer
than in past releases, and produced very favorable comments.
In fact, one ECAD vendor said SR10.3 was the "the highest
quality release from Apollo, ever." In addition, HP is
significantly increasing lab investments at the Apollo
Systems Division to further reduce the turnaround time on
defect-related APR's.
HP currently accepts APR's via email, over the phone, or
through regular mail. HP will investigate creating an
address on Internet, specifically for submitting APR's,
which would be available to any HP user. We currently
return an acknowledgement letter after an initial technical
review of each APR. This technical review includes
verifying and duplicating defects and collecting further
information to make sure the APR is well understood. Our
goal is to complete the technical review and return an
acknowledgement letter within 30 days of APR receipt. We
currently meet that goal for more than 80% of the APR's and
are investigating methods to reduce this time.
HP sends a second letter to each customer submitting an APR
as soon as a response to the APR has been formulated. For
defect-related APR's, the response always includes the
action that will be taken to resolve the APR and the timing
of that action. Through telephone feedback and recent
onsite interviews, we have become aware that our
acknowledgement letters often do not reach the original
submitter of the APR. One option we are exploring to
correct this problem is phoning back an acknowledgement. HP
believes that responding to APR's is a critical part of
support, and we will continue to improve this process.
2. Electronic Mail Services and Services via the Internet:
Hewlett-Packard appreciates that electronic services are
very important to workstation customers. HP is committed to
creating and delivering services that meet your needs and
help your productivity.
Currently, HP's strategic investment in electronic services
is HP SupportLine. HP SupportLine is an electronic support
tool that is included at no additional charge with every
right-to-update license. Every HP/Apollo customer who has
purchased the right to upgrade their software already has
access to this service. HP SupportLine includes practically
the same databases that the Response Center Engineers use to
solve customer problems. HP SupportLine's keyword search
feature enables users to quickly find valuable support
answers. HP SupportLine already includes much of the
information that is requested in the Open Letter. HP will
continue to enhance this service to meet Apollo user needs.
We introduced HP SupportLine to customers at ADUS in
September 1989 and shipped HP SupportLine to HP/Apollo
support customers worldwide in February 1990. There are now
nearly 1,000 answers to Apollo support questions in HP
SupportLine. Many of the organizations that signed the Open
Letter already have purchased the rights for software
upgrades, and therefore HP SupportLine is available to them.
HP wants to make HP SupportLine available to those
customers, via the Internet. Clearly, the Internet is very
important, because it is a de facto communications network
standard among a large number of our workstation customers.
Hence, Hewlett-Packard agrees with the open letter that
making these support services available through Internet is
desirable. We believe that this would be a significant
benefit to those customers. However, Internet does have
specific guidelines for its use, and the final decision
regarding HP SupportLine's use via Internet rests with the
Internet governing bodies. HP will violate neither the
terms nor the intent of the Internet governing bodies.
However, HP will actively seek an interpretation of the
Internet guidelines to determine whether HP SupportLine
meets the "commerciality" requirements. Hewlett-Packard
believes that Internet guidelines could be interpreted so
that HP SupportLine meets the "commerciality" requirements.
Specifically, Hewlett-Packard's reasons are the following:
1. HP SupportLine is already available to many Internet
users;
2. HP SupportLine is not sold separately;
3. HP SupportLine's purpose is to provide information to
enable customers to support their systems and hence
further research and development activities. HP
SupportLine is not oriented toward selling products or
services.
HP will publish a status update concerning a ruling by the
Internet boards no later than November 1.
Other issues that were highlighted in the open letter are
addressed below.
* Patch Issues: HP has been aware of the need to dramatically
improve the flow of information regarding known software
problems and relevant patches when applicable to our
workstation support customers. Well before the Open Letter
appeared on the Internet, resources had been committed to
addressing these issues, in a consistent manner, for all
HP9000 and Apollo support customers worldwide. Several
active projects are underway in the following areas, for
example:
Patch Information: Starting February 1991, Apollo defect
status and responses (i.e., Software Status Bulletins) will
be published on a regular, monthly basis. This information
will be electronically available via HP SupportLine, and
hardcopy versions may also be mailed to support customers.
HP SupportLine supports full-text keyword searching, which
should significantly assist users in research and resolving
software problems.
Patch Code Availability: HP distributes Apollo patches on
an as-requested basis via regular mail on cartridge tapes.
These patches are sent from local Response Centers within
each country throughout the world. Some Apollo patches,
such as those required for security issues, are distributed
to all customers just like a software upgrade. All of these
services are currently available to Apollo software support
customers.
Hewlett-Packard is now aggressively developing other methods
which would facilitate the electronic transmission of
software patches, worldwide.
* Security: HP is aware that there are Domain functions which
have been viewed as features to some, and potential security
issues to others. The Apollo Systems Division is developing
a technique to make these functions customer-selectable.
* Alert System: HP currently notifies customers of critical
support issues in a several ways. HP support customers are
alerted to critical support problems from their field
representatives, customer letters, and in emergency patch
shipments to every affected support customer. We will
investigate how we might also use Internet, to complement
the other existing communications channels, to facilitate
this customer communication.
* International Support: The Open Letter identifies delays in
HP's international distribution of Apollo software upgrades.
We continue to look for causes of distribution delays and
eliminate them as quickly as possible.
HP is committed to providing the best support in the industry and
continually gets a high ranking for customer satisfaction. We
have done this by listening to our customers inputs and
responding to your needs, both in terms of product quality and in
support processes. The upcoming ADUS conference in San Diego
will provide further opportunities to better understand customer
needs, and HP will be well represented there. We value your
input and thank you for the time and effort that went into the
Open Letter.
Regards,
Dave Perozek
General Manager, Apollo Systems Division
Marc Hoff
General Manager, Application Support Division