That the belief in oneself is passport to success has been proved time and again. It was not so in the distant past that questions were hurled at the HP executives: when is HP getting out of the PC business? Many analysts even predicted that the company would sell or spin off the struggling PC division.
In 2006, HP sold 35 million PC units globally, and became the world’s No. 1 PC vendor for two quarters in a row. From an industry also-ran to the world’s largest PC supplier is, indeed, a remarkable achievement. Its PC division now accounts for about one-third of the total revenue.
The Palo Alto-based company has continued to dominate the printer market. Its server and software divisions have become more competitive.
HP’s resurgence is a truism. After a period of uncertainty that marked the tenure of former CEO Carly Fiorina at HP, the company streamlined its operations, enabling it to compete more forcefully in a wide range of markets, from servers to printers and IT services.
In the last fiscal year, ending October 31, 2006, HP’s personal systems group, which includes commercial and consumer PCs, accounted for 32 per cent of its revenue. Imaging and printing accounted for 29 per cent of the company’s revenue, and server and storage made up 19 per cent.
Analysts have attributed HP’s resurgence to CEO Mark Hurd, who is credited to have brought NCR “back from the brink”.
Apart from being synonymous with product innovation, HP offers a sprawling array of products in dozens of different markets. HP has a wide range of products and services. There are consumer-oriented areas and business-oriented ones. Consequently, the company has a wide range of portfolios. The company provides enterprise and consumer customers a wide range of high-tech applications, including personal computers, servers, storage solutions, printers and networking equipment. Its software portfolio includes operating systems, print management tools, and OpenView, a suite that encompasses application, business, network infrastructure and product lifecycle management.
HP’s Adaptive Enterprises Strategy, which is unique in the industry, helps enterprises integrate technology with ease. Not only does it respond to the business requirements quickly but also turn business challenges into business opportunities. Similarly, in the storage space, HP ILM helps enterprises fulfil the entire transition process from capture to manage to retain and deliver the data.
HP has enjoyed a long and excellent relationship with India. HP’s foray into Asia-Pacific dates back to 1963 when it opened its first office in Japan. Today, the company has more than 36,000 employees in this region, with operations in 14 countries’– Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Though HP’s major market in Asia is Japan, the company saw growing demand for its products in other countries, including India. HP zeroed in on India with a view to making the country its software “showcase centre” for Asia-Pacific. HP India was set up in 1989. India became HP’s one of the largest markets outside the United States. HP India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HP, has made its presence felt vigorously in the Indian market. The company has come a long way since it riveted its eyes on the country ever since the country began to show signs of emerging as an ideal IT destination. It can be said without a shadow of doubt that HP’s gradual entry into India was a spillover of the image that the country enjoyed as a fast-growing software and IT destination.
The fast-growing Indian market is rapidly embracing new technology and quickly becoming a centre for R&D, design, testing, manufacturing and marketing.
According to the third-quarter 2006 figures released by IDC, HP outshipped all other major vendors in the worldwide server market for the 18th consecutive quarter. The company surpassed market growth in the worldwide blade server market, with 43.8-per cent year-over-year factory revenue growth. HP also grew faster than the market in units shipped in blades and, with 35-per cent revenue market share, had more than three times that of the third-ranked competitor.
In the high-performance computing market, HP was No. 1 in revenue, with a 34.5-per cent market share, and outgrew the market in revenue and shipments. HP beat industry growth in revenues by nearly two times with 13.2-per cent quarter-over-quarter growth, and it grew units shipped by 5.7 per cent versus a virtually flat total market. “
The balanced performance in both units shipped and revenue illustrates HP’s continued strength across the board in the worldwide server market,” said Mark Hudson, Vice-President, Marketing, Enterprise Storage and Servers, HP.
“Customers can feel confident partnering with HP as we continue to demonstrate our value today and moving forward.”
Highlights of the analyst firm’s worldwide report include:
HP maintained the No. 1 vendor ranking worldwide with 28.8-per cent total server shipment share, and unit shipments grew faster than the market. The company maintained the No. 1 position in worldwide high-end UNIX server factory revenue and also gained market share from competitors in the volume UNIX segment in both units and revenue.
HP has been named a leader in the business service management (BSM) software market by Forrester Research, Inc.
In the Forrester Wave BSM report, HP Software earned the highest score for business service mapping and the second highest score for both its overall current product offering an end-to-end monitoring.
Forrester defines BSM as software that dynamically links business-focussed IT services to the underlying IT infrastructure.
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31, 2006, HP revenue totalled $91.7 billion.
India as a market is central to HP’s focus. In India, HP has many firsts to its name. It will be pertinent to underline that from the Indian perspective. HP $25-billion acquisition of Compaq saw the company vaulting to the largest IT giant in the country, leaving behind the likes of TCS and Wipro.
HP commands the x86 market in India. According to the sales figures from IDC, HP has maintained leadership position in the x 86 server categories in unit shipments in India. According to the Country Manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP India, Rajesh Dhar, “With this new entry level servers, customers will now have access to the expertise and guidance they need through HP and its strong network of channel partners. This new addition is the result of tremendous market acceptance of HP’s technology and its leadership in the x86 domain in the country. Market verticals such as BFSI, telecom, oil and gas, insurance, manufacturing, micro verticals and SMB continue to be the key segments driving HP’s x86 momentum in India.”
Located in Bangalore, HP Labs in India is the seventh of its kind in the world.
The competitive advantage of HP lies in that it is the only vendor who has service centres in 103 cities across India. HP is frequently recognized as one of the India’s most popular brands by different business surveys.
HP is the largest player in the printing and imaging space. The company has a large range of inkjet printers, laser printers, MFD, AIOs and scanners. Globally, the company must be enjoying more than 45 per cent, leaving the nearest competitor Samsung at 9 per cent. And, in India it is much bigger.
What have been the cha
racteristics of HP from the start which set it apart from its competitors, it is its extremely successful approach to business known as “The HP Way”. HP’s distinctive culture and its innovative approach, trust and respect for people, responsibility to society, and integrating local values and customs set the standards for well-managed, global companies. These enduring values remain the hallmark of HP India.
In fact, the hallmark of HP’s success is its channel engagements, which are the best in the industry. It is believed that the company has the largest number of channel partners. No double, HP is considered as the channel favourite company. If Balu Doraisamy, MD, HP India is the schemer of bringing cutting edge technology-laden products to the country. He has countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from the Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses. Balu also holds additional responsibility for the operations of the Technology Solutions Group (TSG). His generals are Kapil Jain, Vice President, HP Services (HPS), Ravi Swaminathan, Vice President, Personal Systems Group (PSG), Ravi Aggarwal, Vice President, Imaging & Printing Group (IPG). Their Lt.Generals are the country managers and the directors like Hemant Tiwari, Director, Enterprise Servers & Storage, TSG, HP India, Avijit Basu, Country Marketing Manager, Enterprise Storage and Server Technology Solutions Group, HP India, Ashwini Agarwal, Country Bussiness Manager, Bussiness Imaging & Printing Group, Samir Shah, Country Manager, Commercial & Enterprise Printing Imaging & Printing Group, HP India, Rajesh Dhar, Country Manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP India, who help the senior management to device the plans to position the products in various geographies of the country.
These people really understand the nerve of the market, which is driven by the channel partners and execute various programmes to keep the partners upbeat about selling the products and solutions aggressively.
HP has embarked on an aggressive go to market strategy to target end users and channel. The company will be conducting roadshows for end users and the channel in 100 cities by the end of 2007. HP has developed a unique end user advocacy program for the HP Officejet Pro Series - ‘Masters of Microbiz’.
Partnership is a much-valued word at HP India. Recently, HP and HCL Technologies have entered into new partnership to manage program for assured IT performance of HCL Technologies’ BPO division. With this HCL BPO has become the first in India to successfully deploy the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) based management solution, uniquely positioning it to expand its service to global customers. The newly deployed infrastructure management services will harness 400 plus server & network infrastructure at HCL BPO.
HP has introduced its new range of inkjet based HP Officejet Pro All-in-One and single function printers that deliver small businesses up to 30 per cent lower cost per page than laser printers with record-breaking print speeds, and professional high-volume laser-quality colour and mono output.
“The new HP Officejet Pro All-in-Ones and single function printers represent another milestone for HP’s high-performance inkjet systems, allowing us to provide small businesses with new color printing options,” said Ashwini K. Aggarwal, Country Business Manager, Business Imaging & Printing, Imaging & Printing Group, HP India Sales.
HP leads the high-end inkjet based All-in-One printer market with a market share of 92 per cent (Source: Q4, 2006 IDC India).
In the latest developments, HP has acquired Voodoo Computers, a privately-held PC manufacturer in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and maintains Voodoo as a brand within the company. Similarly, ProCurve, the networking arm of HP has finally entered into the Indian market. Subhodeep Bhattacharya, who was heading the Channel Alliance for HP earlier is leading this business as Country Manager, ProCurve India. Under this brand, HP provides end-to-end solutions in the networking space and the products are being distributed by Ingram and SES in India. The biggest achievement of the brand is that NASA, the US space agency, the only switches they use is from ProCurve. They believe that ProCurve is only switches which functions in the space sustaining radiation pressure, atmospheric pressure etc. and it is very low mean time between failures.
Finally…
For HP, corporate social responsibility tops the agenda in its scheme of things. The company has been recycling products since 1987. It developed the Designed for Environment (DfE) policy in 1992. Last year, it has entered into a joint initiative with the World Wildlife Fund US (WWF-US) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operating facilities across the world. Since 1989, HP has shown its commitment to investing in the welfare of the Indian people.
HP: All-in-One, One-in-All for IT Requirements
