New HP should "Mix it up!": Gartner

The new HP should consider a mix of the channel management strategies of both

the old HP and Compaq for the best business outcomes. This recommendation comes

in a Gartner report on the likely impact of the new HP’s APac channel strategy

on business partners and end-users.

According to Gartner, while HP has traditionally held very strong

relationships with the channel in APac, this has not easily translated into

marketshare success in some business units, particularly in the PC market.

"HP has a very healthy relationship with its business partners, as

evidenced in the various vendor scorecards performed by Gartner over the past

few years," says Martin Gilliland, senior analyst at Gartner Dataquest.

"However Compaq has had the upper hand in terms of marketshare with 6.6 per

cent of the total APac PC market in 2001 compared to 4.3 per cent for HP."

Combination of HP’s channel strategy and Compaq’s sales strategy recommended Prime opportunities for HP to expand its direct presence in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore

Gartner says HP must ensure all channel types fully understand their direct

strategy at a country level so as not to alienate any partners, as these

strategies are likely to vary considerably from country to country.

According to the report there are other countries in the APac region that do

not rely quite so much on relationships and the logistics and potential return

make a direct presence a very viable option. Countries such as Australia, New

Zealand and Singapore represent prime opportunities for HP to expand its direct

presence.

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