hp introduces OpenView Smart Internet Suite

Products Designed to Help Internet Service Providers Increase Service Revenue and Improve Quality of Service

LOS ANGELES, March 11, 1998 -- Hewlett-Packard Company today announced the HP OpenView Smart Internet Suite, part of the HP OpenView Internet Service Management Program, announced Feb. 17. The announcement was made here at Spring Internet World, which runs through March 13.

The HP OpenView Smart Internet Suite includes two Internet service-management products, HP Smart Internet Usage and HP Smart Internet Assurance. HP Smart Internet Usage is targeted to help Internet Service Providers (ISPs) develop a comprehensive understanding of their subscribers' Internet usage. This knowledge, in turn, can help ISPs improve services and migrate to more profitable, usage-based pricing and billing business models.

"With Smart Internet Usage, ISPs not only can manage their subscribers' usage, but they also can bill subscribers the same way that electric companies do, by the actual amount of service used," said Bernard Guidon, HP vice president and general manager for the Telecom Business Unit. "Smart Internet Usage can help ISPs manage costs and increase revenues."

HP Smart Internet Assurance is targeted to help ISPs manage their service performance and make diagnosing subscriber problems easier. These capabilities allow ISPs to optimize their system and network resources to improve service delivery and trouble-shoot and resolve customer problems more quickly.

"As subscriber levels increase, managing Internet services such as Web access and E-mail becomes a tremendous challenge for ISPs," said Dushyant Sukhija, marketing manager of HP's Internet Infrastructure Operation. "Our Smart Internet Assurance products help ISPs monitor and manage their Internet services to meet this challenge and to deliver high-quality service to their subscribers."

HP Smart Internet Usage has been deployed at Telstra Multimedia in Australia to implement usage-based billing. Without usage-based billing, Telstra's Internet-access service would have to rely on subscription revenues as the sole means of recovering costs. The costs associated with downloading content could not be captured in a basic monthly subscription.

U.S. Pricing and Availability
HP Smart Internet Usage is expected to be available in the spring. Pricing for these products will be determined by the configuration and can be quoted on request.

About HP
HP is the official information-technology hardware and maintenance supplier to the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament. Selected for its technology and skills to support and manage mission-critical applications, HP will help create an information-management infrastructure for handling game-scoring; media centers; personnel accreditation; hotel information; and various ticketing, stadium, warehouse and back-office operations.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. It is the second-largest computer supplier in the world, with computer-related revenue in excess of $35.4 billion in its 1997 fiscal year. HP has 123,300 employees and had revenue of $42.9 billion in its 1997 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.hp.com/telecom/.

NOTE: Web links in this release may take you outside the Hewlett-Packard Company Web site. HP does not control and is not responsible for information outside the HP Web site.