Fiorina Looking Beyond the 'Hot Box' at HP World Speech

The deal reated a company with 140,000 employees serving 1 billion customers in 160 countries. After one quarter of operation, the company has merged most of its systems, from the phones to sales and marketing.

The combination of technologies and manpower puts HP in "a much better position to serve you than we were a year ago," Fiorina said in her keynote address at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Now, HP aims to integrate its many hardware lines, which include support for several CPUs, including x86, Itanium, Alpha, PA-RISC, and multiple operating systems (Windows, Tru64, HP/UX, OpenVMS, Linux). "People want end-to-end solutions, not the latest killer app or hot box," she said. "Our goal is to improve our system delivery technology to help do what you do better and easier."

That means better interoperability, improved systems resource management and support for standard components. "We think it's time to make these systems work together better," said Fiorina. "We can't expect you to invest in new technology until we make sense of what already exists." The one area she said would receive increased attention would be OpenView, which would eventually support the entire HP product line.

Regarding the Compaq merger, Fiorina said other industry giants were only now realizing what HP figured out, that customers want a complete solution from one provider, and cited recent announcements. Sun Microsystems announced last week plans to sell Intel-based Linux systems and Dell Computer struck a deal with Lexmark International where Lexmark would provide Dell-branded laser printers.

Both moves are a sign those companies are looking to broaden their product line, which, Fiorina pointed out, HP already has. Then she took a swipe at IBM, saying "IBM is reverting to completely vertical integrated strategy of

the '80s, so you can't have it your way, but you can have it IBM's way," which drew some laughs from the overflowing crowd.