After all those court battles, shareholder votes and newspaper campaigns for
and against the merger, HP finally merged with Compaq to form the new HP on 7th
May, 2002.
According to Balu Doraisamy, President, HP India, there is no uncertainty for
partners any more. Says he, partners are key to HP’s growth strategy and will
continue to be a critical competitive differentia-tor in the new HP."
The new HP is looking at partners to extend HP’s reach; to augment HP’s
capabilities to provide complete solutions; and to provide local presence,
services, delivery, customization, and "customer intimacy." The
company is moving towards a model in which it will compensate partners for the
varying levels of value they add, versus a "one-size-fits-all"
approach to partner compensation.
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Balu |
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Milestones |
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Product and brand choices made to minimize disruption and confusion | |
Compensation for partners for varying levels of value they add |
WRONG NEWS AT A BAD TIME
The merger news had come at a wrong time in September last year when sales
were going down the hill. Compaq partners in particular felt let down because by
the sweat of their brows, they had built up the brand with the commendable
support of the vendor.
According to Balu, the new HP has studied world-class examples and adopted
the best thinking for the integration. During the integration planning, an
"adopt-and-go" strategy has been thought about, taking the best models
and methods rather than trying to create hybrid processes.
The new HP claims to have managed the integration planning with the rigor,
process control and governance of a huge development project, and will manage
the actual integration the same way. The partners will be given full access to
the entire range of HP and Compaq products and will work with them to drive
business.
Be that as it may, what the new HP now needs to do is drive this message on
the field taking partners into confidence. It need to take extra care of Compaq
partners whose insecurity is greater than that of HP partners.