Böblingen, April 2nd, 1997

The new Eloquence Version A.06.00 for HP-UX and Windows NT platforms can be ordered. Many of you have already worked with Betaversions in recent months and have substantially contributed to further enhance the product components. I would like to thank you all for this engagement - as well on behalf of our developers. Eloquence Version A.06.00 with all available options will be on the HP pricelist as of April 1, 1997 under the same product number B1368B as before and will replace Version A.05.10. The Runtime Environment (B1367B) will not exist any longer, as it became redundant for two reasons: the new version offers a protection mechanism for source code and the new license options provide high cost flexibility.

As well effective April 1,1997, Hewlett-Packard will use a new distribution channel for Eloquence:

Marxmeier Software Entwicklung GmbH will act as a subcontractor and will handle all orders and shipments on a worldwide base. This will increase flexibility and will substantially decrease turnaround time for orders. We know you will appreciate, especially when you need additional user licenses.

As you already know, Eloquence Version A.06.00 has got a new database subsystem and you would definitely expect it to be as stable and safe as the current one. We all work hard to have this quality level achieved end of April and will start shipments the day after.

Then you will have the choice to install your Eloquence applications on HP-UX or on Windows NT platforms. However, for Windows NT the user interfaces of your application programs must have been changed to work with dialogs for ISA Dialog Manager.

For all orders which we receive now, a special arrangement is offered: You can immediately get a prerelease version. Together with that, we will deliver Eloquence version A.05.12, both Development Package and Runtime Environment for installation on HP-UX platforms as usual. When the final A.06.00 is available, you will automatically get it without extra cost for you.

Even with the final Version A.06.00 we will deliver as well Version A.05.12 on the same media, at least for next few months. If required, you can install A.05.12 and upgrade to A.06.00 lateron. Please note, that the new licensing scheme applies to both versions.

As in the past, all Eloquence users with an active update contract will get a DDS tape with A.06.00 Software. We expect distribution to start in May.

As there is no Eloquence Runtime version any longer, update contracts for the B1367B product and the B1368B product will be treated the same. For both types of contracts we will deliver version A.06.00. Where sourcecode protection is required the new protection mechanism in version A.06.00 must be used.

Attached to this mail you will find another new item for HP Eloquence Version A.06.00: a technical data sheet. This will become part of all future product shipments.

We will be glad to send you additional copies, just let me know.

Have you ever visited the Eloquence homepage?

At 'http://www.hp-eloquence.com' you will find lots of information about and around Eloquence, like pricelist, latest technical information, marketing information, mailing-list access, add-on products and offerings from MSE.

For personal exchange of information and experiences we would like to meet you at a partner conference in June. The conference for european partners would take place at HP Böblingen, whereas the conference for partners in US/CAN could take place at a partner's site close to L.A. Please let me know asap if you would be interested in a conference at all and if the time frame would be ok. Suggestions for topics are welcome, too.

Finally, I would like to give you an idea about future development steps:

More and more Eloquence programs are modified to provide a graphical user interface, based on dialogs for ISA Dialog Manager. However, an expensive tool is required to go beyond the conversion of FORMS and create a really attractive user interface: the ISA Dialog Manager Development Kit.

Hewlett-Packard und MSE consider to integrate a graphical dialog editor into the new Interactive Development Environment. We are still in the investigation phase, but we will let you know about the results.

With best regards

Tel: +49 07031-142767 Fax: +49 07031-146839
email: juergen_schumm@hp.com