Small business owners are faced with the daunting task of installing, managing and supporting their PCs and Web sites with limited or no IT support staff. Allied to this is their constant worry about total cost of ownership (TCO) as the evolution of hardware and software continues unabated.
Darryl Brick, general manager: SMB at Hewlett-Packard South Africa, says small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to ensure their IT infrastructure is based on comprehensive, worry-free solutions, encompassing affordable, business-class hardware, market-leading software, Internet services and outstanding support.
HP SA will exhibit its range of products targeted at the SME market at Live, the Internet and networking event for medium to smaller companies. The event is being organised by Events Ontrack and will take place from 4 - 6 October 2001 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
"HP already has a significant presence in the SME market by virtue of the kinds of products we offer," Brick says.
"More than 25% of our revenue is derived from the SME and retail sectors. We now want to capitalise on that market presence by offering even more comprehensive business solutions in conjunction with our channel. This will involve leveraging off a strong partnership with independent software vendors and other alliances."
To bring this plan to fruition, Brick says that HP will forge even stronger ties with its channel by assisting them to design business solutions as opposed to product solutions.
"Our small and medium businesses (SMB) programme is already up and running and involves a combination of customer relationship management and closed loop marketing (CLM), which uses the channel to close the deals with value adds," Brick explains.
"There are obviously many advantages in this for the channel because they get business coming through their doors courtesy of us."
A strong part of the SMB programme revolves around what HP refers to as "combinations", which are similar to bundles but focus more on hardware rather than software.
"Our channel will play a vital role here because we are relying on them to deliver services on our behalf," he explains. "We are concentrating heavily on moving away from pure box sell into offering service and support."
Brick says that, at the Live Expo, HP will demonstrate its ability to offer end-to-end business solutions for SME businesses. "We will demonstrate the benefits of HP technology and combinations thereof," he explains, "concentrating on how our solutions are able to decrease TCO for SMEs.
"The length and breadth of our product portfolio means we can offer SMEs end-to-end solutions."
Exhibitors at Live include those companies which specialise in Internet and networking products, services and solutions for the SME market. These include Internet technology, e-commerce, e-privacy, e-services and portals, e-business and security, e-marketing and advertising, service providers, Web page designers, content providers, networking systems and software.
Live will be co-located with Money World Africa, the national banking, finance, insurance and investment expo.
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