Slew of SME products from HP

reseller to get the goods, according to ITBusiness.

HP says the SME market is worth $234 billion, and its new products beef up its array of servers and networking hardware that smaller shops might use.

The new products include two new servers to HP's ProLiant line, two new network switches, and a storage box ready to be virtualised.

“We had taken this approach before,” says Duncan Campbell, VP of marketing for SMEs at HP. “It's now more vetted out through the new technology.”

HP's hope is that those new entrepreneurs will then grow businesses that need the servers, storage and networking gear that HP provides, reports Small Business Computing.com.

“It gives you end-to-end management support of all the capabilities we've had across our ProLiant server but now for the SMB space,” McLeod Glass, director of marketing, industry standard servers and software at HP explained. “We're bringing the goodness of enterprise-class management to the small business category.”

HP Financial Services, the company's leasing and lifecycle asset management services division, is also offering two financing options for businesses in the US and Canada on HP equipment priced between $1 500 and $250 000, reveals eChannel Line.

The new financing option offers a 0%, 12-month lease with $1 purchase option or a 0%, 36-month lease with fair market value purchase option.

“The new thing here is the new floor, with a minimum purchase level of only $1 500,” Campbell said. Finally, HP is upping its investment in its HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs, which empowers micro-enterprises and SMEs to create new revenue streams. Since 2007, HP has spent $20 million on the programme.