HP Readies Direct-Sales Blitz For Commercial PCs

Hewlett-Packard

Under the aggressive sales effort, the IT giant aims to boost the amount of commercial PCs it sells directly to 33 percent of total PC sales by fiscal year 2004, up from about 10 percent today, said Duane Zitzner, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, on Tuesday at the company's meeting here with security analysts.

Zitzner said HP plans to target "corporate and enterprise accounts" directly, while "customer choice" will determine "where and how" purchases are made in the commercial, SMB and consumer segments. As part of the initiative, HP is preparing a direct-mail campaign targeted at the SMB space, and the company plans to form an internal telesales group, he added. "We will be aggressive in adding resources and head count [to this group," he said.

At the same time, HP is committed to improving its relationship with solution providers, Zitzner said, noting that he has been meeting with the company's U.S. and global channel partners to help improve go-to-market interaction.

HP is trimming costs across its entire supply chain, and new distribution strategies and supply chain improvements will provide more than $500 million in savings in the near future, Zitzner said. "The key thing we have to do here is aggressively go into direct sales," he said, referring to the $27 billion Personal Systems Group business.