HP Ups The SMB Ante

In its commercial product launch in the printing and imaging business
division, HP rolled out 25 new printing solutions, including 10 printers at a
media briefing in Shanghai. The products are aimed at the SMB business segment,
a vertical that the vendor is focusing on very strongly in APAC.

The new additions include color printers and multi-function devices, which
the company claimed, was optimized for producing professional-quality marketing
materials, business collaterals and everyday docu­ments, quickly and affordably,
in house.

Said Herbert Koeck, VP-Commercial Printing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP,
APAC, “The launch builds upon our Print 2.0 strategy, which will allow our SMB
customers to print when and how they want-in-house, at retail or through a print
service provider.” One of the introductions is the color laserjet CP1215 printer
series, priced at $249, which is HP's lowest priced desktop color laser printer
till date.

HP also introduced a new system rebrand for its ink-based officejet line-up
with printers and cartridges to offer low-cost per page business printing.
Besides these, it announced new online tools and solutions like easy printer
care software 2.5i which helps SMB customers who do not have a dedicated IT
support team, to set-up, maintain and view the status of up to 15 printers on a
network.

The Jetdirect 690n wireless network-printing server was also rolled out to
offer upcoming enterprise customers to share several printers to be shared on a
single network using an 802.11g wireless connection.

Not just printers

The company is keen to dissociate the printer as a standalone device used
merely for printing in the SMB segment. Instead, it is positioning these
machines as a complete suite of solution, which includes hard­ware, supplies and
services, which the vendor is valuing at $103 billion globally by 2010. The
company is also betting its money on the in-house marke­ting opportunity,
especially for the SMB, which it is estimating will be around $40 billion by
2010.

HP's latest products on display

To ensure that it has the highest recall in the SMB business segment, the
company will invest $300 million into a global marketing campaign, which will
target SMB and large customers. It has also enhanced its 'Office Printing
Channel Program' (OPCP) and 'Solutions Business Partner Program' with an
accreditation, certification and test program for its 64,000 world­wide channel
network.

Cruce Dahlgren, Senior VP-Global Enterprise Business, Imaging and Printing
Group, HP said, “We have quadrupled the total contract value of HP managed print
services, bolstered our Print 2.0 strategy with the recent acquisition of
Exstream software and expanded our focus on imaging and printing solutions that
help customers to optimize their infrastructure, manage their enterprise and
improve workflows.”

Worldwide, HP's IPG business in 2007 grew to $28.5 million in revenue terms,
which was a six percent growth YoY. Globally, it shipped one million laserjet
devices in 2008, while its Indian single function market grew from three lakh
units in 2005 to over six lakh units last fiscal.

Training matters

The printing business is growing and HP is elated about it. Having
introduced over 25 printer solutions aimed at the growing small and medium
business (SMB) market, the company is now working on empowering partners to take
these to market, especially in the APAC region, where the SMB companies are
spurring the growth.

Koeck said that in the Indian market, HP would work closely with its partners
in the upcountry cities to enhance their technical skill sets. “We strongly
believe that for a partner to do a good job of selling our products, he has to
have the necessary compe­tencies in place. This year, we will put a lot of
emphasis on reseller certification.”

Keeping in mind the fact that it is the solution providing community that
caters to most SMB customers, HP is also going to work with these partners to
improve the capabilities in areas that are allied to printing. This would
include offering services aligned to networking, security and storage, which can
be aligned to setting up the printing network of the customer.

HP has recently introduced the OPCP, which is an enhanced version of the
erstwhile program for the value channel to make it more broad based. Partners
registered under this program would have access to HP's entire imaging and
printing portfolio. In addition to that, it will also extend to the hardware,
service, solutions and supplies compo­nents so that more partners can be drawn
under the program.

HP has also revitalized its Solutions Business Partner Program (SBP), where
it works with other vendors whose solutions can be interoperated and integrated
for addressing specific business challenges.

The vendor has also come out with specialized printing solutions for
enterprises that can manage their output environ­ments and streamline their
document workflow. The controlled cost printing allows these enterprises to
manage, track and recover costs for printing usage through multiple types of
billing. These range from pre-paid cards and debit applications for companies
with low printer output to per-user charge accounts. When integra­ted with
back-end proces­ses, this solution enables tracking and billing of user groups
that can be broken down by individual need, user group size, department, or
geographical locations.

With all these initiatives on its anvil, it is not surprising that HP is
banking heavily on the solution providing community to entrench itself in the
SMB market. This will enhance its existing channel network with more extensive
training programs to achieve its business objectives in India.

VINITA BHATIA

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in

The author was hosted in Shanghai with HP