In 2001, two events rocked the HP e3000 community. First, at the e3000 Solutions Symposium in February, HP unveiled its five-year plan for the growth of the venerable e3000 system. Nine short months later, HP announced it would end the sales and support of the HP3000 product line. Many wondered what had gotten into HP. Most felt betrayed.

Bill Lancaster, spokesman for the newly formed consortium Resource 3000 heard the rumblings from afar. Shortly after HP’s November 2001 announcement, Lancaster – a 20-plus year veteran of the HP 3000 - left the community he’d done so much to build and support. He thought that HP had abandoned not just a product line, but an important community of dedicated customers. He took HP’s announcement as an invitation to look outside HP and the e3000 for business opportunities. For the next three years, he successfully indulged in several newer technologies, leaving the e3000 behind for
“professional reasons.”

Despite his successes elsewhere, this past May Lancaster accepted an invitation from the partners at Lund Performance Solutions to reenter the HP e3000 community. “They wanted me to help them take the company back to its roots,” he said. “What was missing for them was the loyalty and camaraderie they’d had with their e3000 customers. The timing was perfect. I was at a point in my life where community meant more to me than money or technology. I didn’t realize how disjointed the e3000 community had become.”

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