HP eyes more wallet share
Ann Livermore wants more of your wallet.
Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group, which includes enterprise storage and servers, services and software, said her unit is looking to improve its single digit portion of the spending pie at global 2000 companies.
Here's her plan outlined at HP's analyst meeting:
--Attach services to every product that HP sells. The problem: IBM has HP outgunned on the sales side. As a result, HP has hired hundreds of new salespeople, optimized its channel partnerships and leveraged independent software vendors to get into accounts. Incentives for the sales force is tied to profit margins. Future investment in sales will also be pegged to margin.
In addition to bolstering sales, HP is also adding new foot soldiers. HP on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Knightbridge Holdings, a services company focused on business intelligence, data warehousing and information management. Knightbridge has 700 employees.
--Align HP's software portfolio around business technology optimization. Livermore plans to deliver Mercury software into HP accounts. Citing IDC numbers, Livermore said HP software portfolio is No. 1 or No. 2 in BTO categories such as distributed system management, performance management and availability, software quality tools and IT project, portfolio and asset management tools. Overall, HP is hitching its wagon to CIOs' need to get more business information and manage data more effectively.
--On the hardware front, HP's strategy is simple--sell blades. "We want to blade everything. There's no question this is the way the world is going," said Livermore. She also added that the blade economics favor HP's high-volume manufacturing prowess.
"The fact we ship a server every 12 seconds positions us well for blades," said Livermore.
Meanwhile, HP's wallet grab goes beyond the large enterprises. If you're a midmarket company HP is likely to come knocking via channel partners to pitch its blades and storage products--not to mention a few services. The big question is whether you'll open up your wallets or not.
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