August 19, 1999 Web posted at: 12:22 p.m. EDT (1622 GMT) by Deni Connor

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SAN FRANCISCO (IDG) -- The 25th HP World conference Tuesday got off to a rocking start, literally, in San Francisco. An earthquake shook up the more than 10,000 IT managers attending HP World.

Interex, the International Association of Hewlett-Packard Computer Professionals, sponsors the event.

A keynote address by Anne Livermore, CEO and president of HP's Enterprise Computing Group, was not quite as exciting as the earthquake, but did get the show moving. She suggested that the company's e-services activities would make HP felt throughout the industry.

Livermore cited e-services as a way to reach customers, make money, create efficiencies in the business process and maximize a company's current infrastructures. She defined e-services as any asset you can make available via the Internet.

HP's new CEO, Carly Fiorina, also addressed the crowd. She said that HP owes its customers a clear vision of the company's direction. She also said the company needs to pay more attention to customer service than its stock price.

Another HP executive, Nick Earle, spoke about some of the misunderstandings surrounding e-services. He said that following "the dot-com companies is not the right model" and creating portals is not generally successful unless you are the first to do it, like Amazon.com.

Earle cited the success of Security First, a banking portal, where users can check their balances as well as buy tickets and other services online. He also noted that in only six months Ariba.com has generated $6 billion in purchases with over 250,000 suppliers. HP gives Ariba free equipment in exchange for a percentage of Ariba's online revenue.