HP user groups mull merger

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 05 February 2008 10:26

IT Industry - Market

Today's Hewlett-Packard is the result of several mergers, but the company's customers still belong to user groups reflecting the old structures. That may be about to change.

Compaq acquired Tandem (the 'NonStop' company); Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC); and Hewlett-Packard and Compaq merged.

But the user groups that had grown up around those companies largely continued as separate entities.

DECUS (Digital Equipment Users Society) expanded its scope to include technologies beyond the DEC heritage and was renamed Encompass.

HP-Interex is a federation of user groups in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, and includes some national bodies in that area still operating under the DECUS name.

ITUG serves the ex-Tandem community.

The three bodies have announced they plan to consolidate to form a single community of users of HP enterprise products and services.

"Our intent in pursuing this new unified organization is to bring value to the entire HP community by creating expanded user group member benefits and relevant content," said Nina Buik, president of Encompass in the US.

"We believe that with this stronger worldwide representation, we will be able to greatly improve our member and partner programs, and deliver greater value to all our constituencies."