With the Compaq merger bedded down and sales up in the southern African region, HP is gearing up to boost profits and differentiate itself from the plethora of IT hardware and software suppliers out there. And according to local officials, `services` is the ticket to getting this done.
The majority of small and medium businesses need some form of services to keep their IT systems running efficiently; for large enterprise organisations, it`s an absolute necessity. However, the challenge for HP has been to explain and market that concept of services to companies in the region.
"When you say `services`, people invariably think break-fix - repairing printers, configuring servers and replacing disk drives in storage subsystems," says Glenda Hudson, the business development manager for services and support in southern Africa at HP.
"This is a significant component of our business. However, we can offer a great deal more around Microsoft, Unix, Linux, Cisco, Oracle and SAP technologies, among other things."
So, in addition to fundamental hardware and software support, HP is focusing on `mission-critical and proactive services` - services that directly impact a customer`s actual business. They include integration, implementation, business consulting, outsourcing, and technical and business services. And they help companies to streamline processes, grow market share and improve the way they service their own customers, says Hudson.
"These services are sold by HP or our authorised partners. We can structure them to meet a customer`s particular requirements - and so that they maximise the utilisation, performance and security of the existing IT infrastructure."
This whole drive seems to be supported by data recently released by international research house, Gartner. The company positioned HP highly on its magic quadrant for services vision and delivery - just behind global computer maker, IBM. Gartner also suggested that HP was the strongest player dedicated to high-availability Unix service and support.
"IT infrastructure services are particularly strong. Many local companies have invested in infrastructures over the past few years. They now need to manage their costs and maximise their ROI from those systems," says Hudson.
"One of the areas where we`ve seen rapid growth is internal IT departments that service their broader organisations. Service level agreements between these parties are becoming increasingly important. HP can assist the IT department so that it matches and exceeds any SLA."
Customer support services are another strong business area for HP. "These are far removed from low-end services, though. They focus on minimising unplanned downtime, being proactive, reducing business risk and protecting data in large, complex installations," says Hudson.
From a southern African standpoint, HP has spent much post-merger time refining its services portfolio to meet the specific needs of local customers. Hudson notes that SA is handled by a separate HP office but that South African companies expanding north are certainly on her radar screen.
"In-country hardware support is delivered by HP authorised support partners. For the SADC territory we have partnerships in Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe," she says.
"These partners are a fundamental way to reach customers and provide in-country support in line with response times that meet customer`s business requirements."
For more information on HP`s solutions and activities in Africa, surf to www.hp.com/africa.
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