HP takes the Mantle Seriously as Enabler of Emerging Countries

Whenever there will be any writing about the Indian economic upheaval in the 21st century, the names of Indian business houses like Tatas, Birlas, Reliance Industries, Bharti, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, Moser Baer, etc. will surely be written in golden letters. In the same manuscript, there will surely be a small space for some MNC enterprises like HP, IBM, Sun, etc., which have considerably contributed to the growth chart in the same period. All these enterprises have defined the way the growth can really happen. They have given the industry the powerful tools of IT and telecommunications.

In particular, the MNCs have not only provided the best of the India-specific solutions, but also engaged the burgeoning human resources in their R&D and manufacturing activities. Among the MNC vendors, one name, which has emerged as the friendliest name for the country, is HP India. This Palo Alto, California, headquartered vendor has provided the entire range of solutions that the emerging India requires. Starting from printing, imaging, computing, High-Performing Computing, storing, this company has given everything to this country. It has created, established and supported various types of businesses in India, and more than 90 per cent of its business is done through its channel partners. And, there is no place in India where HP does not have a reseller. Like the TV commercial of Maruti, HP has outlets in literally all the locations. It is believed that HP has the largest base of channel partners, almost touching 5,000.

Sameer Mathur, Head – Solutions Partner Organization, HP India, says,–“More than 90 per cent HP business is done through partners. It means more than 90 per cent of our customers are touched and managed by the partners. From that perspective, partners are the true representatives of HP. If you look at our brand, after-sales service is an important constituent for a customer. Today, our entire service model for commercial products is managed by our partners. Today, we have 175+ partners in close-to 125+ cities who manage customer servicing. So, partners play a huge role in creating the trust in the brand.” Even from the consumer products perspective, the service for notebooks is handled by the channel partners and for desktops by Redington. HP conducts a lot of training and incentive programmes for the channel partners to motivate them to grow more. Some of the successful channel programmes include Reseller Pay for Result Programme, Platinum Club, Mobile Moghul Programme, Workstation Solution Partner Club, Colour in Office Programme, Storage Gold Partner Programme, Thin Client CLIC Elite partner Programme, ESS Software Elite, Partner Alliance One, HP Channel Efficiency Programme, etc.

Sameer adds, “For this year, we will equip the partners technically and invest in enhancing their management capabilities. We will also invest in training them for information systems of their organizations. We are taking about top 25 sales managers of various partners to Hong Kong and Macao for a programme, wherein we will explain to them about the HP strategy. And, in the local level also there will be a lot of programmes.”

He adds, “We have rectified the complaint regarding redeeming of claims. We are now taking data from distributors as to which partners the products are being sold and clear up the claims of the partners directly. We are not asking the partners to send the invoices to us.”

In the printing and imaging industry, HP contributes nearly 70–80 per cent. According to Ashwini K. Aggarwal, Country Business Manager, Consumer Imaging & Printing Products, Imaging & Printing Group, HP India, HP inkjet printers and AIOs have contributed a lot to the reliability and trust of the company. He says, “Trust of a company exudes not only from product or the people of the company, but also from the company’s philosophy. The philosophy of the company actually makes a lot of difference. It enables the people with the right tools and deliver the solutions at the right time that the customers look for in a particular region.”

This is exactly what Mark Hurd, Chairman & CEO, HP, expects. He says, “I believe in an execution-oriented culture. I believe in setting clear goals, implementing tactical plans and holding people accountable.” Ashwini adds, “HP deskjet printers are called the world’s most loved printers. We have one of the largest installation base across the globe, making us much ahead of our peer brands. The most interesting thing about HP is that it is very flexible in creating and delivering right products for India. We do not get just products from abroad and dump in India. For the last decade or so, we have seen people from HP labs coming to India to understand the emerging India, which ultimately helps them in creating India-specific products and solutions.”

Similarly, in the PC market, HP is the largest player. In the enterprise storage market, HP also is the largest player. Similarly, in the HPC, server technology, the company is at the forefront of the competition. In addition to these capabilities, HP offers services, consulting and finance which as a bouquet makes HP the friendliest proposal for any user– business class or consumers–– in the country.

For the credibility of the HP business, the company has engaged Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador for its PC products, which helps the company to generate a lot of recall for the products. Earlier, it was the business-class and elite-class customers who knew about HP, but today the brand has come closer to the consumers.

Before this, the vendor had launched “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign, which was to reach out to the masses and offer customized products to the consumers.

It will not be wrong if one says HP is the mentor of the emerging economy. The fact is that, in 1939, the company was founded by two gentlemen known as Bill Hewlett and David Packard in Palo Alto, California, US. And, it was founded in a garage, but after 69 years, HP or Hewlett-Packard is a Fortune 11 company, with a worldwide turnover of $104.3 billion, with 156,000 employees in 170 countries around the world. The mission of the company is to explore as to how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems and challenges, and realize their potentialities, aspirations and dreams. HP applies new thinking and ideas to create more simple, valuable and trusted experiences with technology, continuously improving the way our customers live and work.

No other company offers as complete a technology product portfolio as HP. HP provides infrastructure and business offerings that span from handheld devices to some of the world’s most powerful supercomputer installations.

HP established its presence in Asia-Pacific in 1963 when its first office was set up in Japan. Today, it has more than 36,000 employees in this region with operations in 14 countries – Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and India.

The company’s strength lies in a network of 20 solution centres, which help the customers and partners to test, benchmark and carry out proof of concepts on proposed solutions. These centres provide direct and remote access to a full range of HP hardware, software and engineering skills, offering a first-hand experience on how infrastructure and partner solutions work together.

There are 158 customer service centres in Asia-Pacific, providing warranty and after- sales support of HP technologies.

HP’s presence in the region also consists of 12 manufacturing sites located across Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and India. HP manufactures PCs, notebooks, Pocket PCs, workstations, servers, storage, networking products, printers, scanners, inkjet cartridges and inks in Asia-Pacific for the global market.

HP in Asia-Pacific conducts R&D out of China, Singapore, Japan and India for products that are marketed both regionally and globally. These are in the areas of networking products, software and mobile, general office and wide-format printing categories.

HP Labs in Bangalore (India) was set up to create a world-class research lab, focussing on the needs of emerging markets such as India. It is one of the seven HP Lab sites worldwide. The mission of this lab is to generate technology innovations for the benefit of the world’s emerging economies by understanding relevant social, cultural, economic and technological drivers. Research here is focussed on the language technology; low-cost Internet and computing access devices; communication concepts and techniques for developing countries; and new models for human interaction with IT equipment and software.

Almost after 25 years HP established its first office in APAC market, HP opened its direct India operations. It also holds the distinction of being one of the first technology companies to set up a base in India. HP in India is one of the largest and most diverse sites for HP outside of the US. HP started its India Software Operations (ISO) in 1989 in Bangalore to deliver enterprise software solutions, product and R&D services to HP customers worldwide. Over the past year, HP’s presence and product portfolio have expanded to mirror almost every activity the company undertakes, be it software engineering, IT services, R&D and BPOs, among many others. HP India became a billion dollar company in 2005 and continues to expand its presence.

HP India business today has touched a turnover of Rs.11,917 crore ($2.645 billion). And, the entire business is done through three different groups, i.e., Technology Solutions Group (TSG): TSG is the provider of systems, software and services to manage and transform business and IT environments with its customers. Imaging & Printing Group (IPG) is the largest contributor of revenue to the company. This group represents IPG Consumer Strategic Centre (CCC) and Hub Software/Firmware and Solutions Lab (HSSL).

IPG’s consumer product portfolio includes printer hardware, all-in-ones, digital imaging devices such as digital cameras and scanners, multifunction devices, associated supplies and accessories. In India, the company has stopped selling cameras. But, according to reliable sources, there is a strong possibility that the vendor will roll back this initiative sometime in the future.

Finally, Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is one of the glamorous groups among the HP portfolio, aims at providing simple, reliable and affordable personal computing solutions and devices for home and business use, including desktop and notebook PCs, workstations, smart handhelds, and personal storage and access devices. The PSG represents the range of HP and Compaq PCs and notebooks and the India Configuration Centre in Bangalore.

Today, HP India is being administered by Balu Doraisamy as the Managing Director of the company. And, he is being assisted by several lieutenants of various groups. For example, Kapil Jain as Vice-President, HP Services (HPS), who has countrywide responsibility for managing the entire portfolio of HP’s Services business, including Consulting and Integration Services, Customer Support Services and Managed Services. Kapil also manages HP’s portfolio of Enterprise Products, including Servers and Storage Products. Ravi Swaminathan is the Vice-President, Personal Systems Group (PSG); Ravi Aggarwal, Vice-President, Imaging & Printing Group (IPG); Zarir Batliwala, Director, Human Resources; and N.V.P. Tendulkar, Director, Finance. Besides these key persons, there are country managers and directors for various category products in all business groups.

Of late, HP has also started selling ProCurve Netowking products and PC peripherals and mobile computing accessories. HP India employs nearly 29,000+ employees in various 42 locations in the country.

HP’s position, globally as well as in India, is almost similar as the company is No. 1 in LaserJet and Inkjet printers, all-in-one and single function printers, mono and colour laser printers, large-format printing, scanners, print servers. It is also No. 1 in x86 Windows and Linux servers, No. 1 in notebook PCs. The company serves almost one billion customers worldwide, which is a little less than the population of India.

The company earmarks US$3.5 billion annually for its research and development of products, solutions and new technologies.

Even though HP has grown to become the world’s largest IT company, its commitment to global citizenship has remained at the core of its business strategy. Global citizenship at HP is based on a foundation of strong corporate accountability and governance, a commitment to environmental responsibility, and active investment in local communities. The company deliberates on how to choose areas where it can make a valuable contribution and support those commitments with not only money but, more importantly, people and products.

Not only that, HP is also committed to making the solutions environment-friendly and sustainable throughout their life cycles, offer product reuse and recycling solutions, and set high environmental standards.

HP has announced the industry’s first business PCs configurable to meet the hardware standards of ENERGY STAR 4.0.

The new HP Integrity rx2660 server has been declared energy-efficient by Climate Savers Computing, the world’s first non-profit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations.

Similarly, at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, HP has committed to reduce the energy consumption of its volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 per cent by 2010. “HP for decades has been integrating environmentally responsible components and processes across the entire product lifecycle,” said Todd Bradley, Executive Vice-President, Personal Systems Group, HP. “We are dedicated to meeting our energy consumption goal of 25-per cent reduction by 2010, and these additional EPEAT-Gold registrations exemplify how HP leads the IT market in reducing the environmental impact of its products and business processes.”

In fact, HP leads the industry in the number of Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold listed products with the introduction of more than two dozen PCs registered at either the Gold or Silver rating levels.

In early 2007, HP Canada received a Silver award in the category of Most Environmentally Progressive Vendor. HP received the Business Leadership Recycling Award from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), which recognizes a company that promotes paper recovery and recycling through educational, cost-effective workplace programmes. HP has also been featured as one among the 100 Greenest Companies by the Newsweek magazine. HP’s name also appears in Fortune magazine’s list of Green Giants, which highlights the ten companies that have gone beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way.

HP also works with governments, IT industry, investors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other communities to understand the issues society faces and to shape policies that support global citizenship. In 2006, HP invested $45.6 million across more than 40 countries to promote economic development, education and environmental responsibility.

Finally…
For instilling loyalty among the HP employees, HP in India has signed an MOU with the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY) and Amrita University, Coimbatore (India) for a dual degree programme for the selected employees of HP in India. The two-year programme will provide the selected employees at HP a new avenue to continue their education while working at any of HP’s campuses in India.