HP Rolls Out Smart Office Program For SMBs

Notably absent from the event: HP chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, plus her executive team. They were scheduled to make the presentation at the Small Business Administration's 50th Anniversary conference in the nation's capitol. Fiorina joined via a conference call to unveil the company's third major roadmap this year. In May, HP unveiled its Adaptive Computing strategy and last month its announced plans to expand into the consumer products arena.

Backed by an investment of $750 million in R&D, marketing, and sales and services programs, Fiorina rolled out the new Smart Office with a bevy of products and services aimed at companies ranging in size from 5 to 999 employees.

Like IBM, Microsoft and others that have placed huge bets on small and midsize customers, Fiorina said $21 billion of HP sales last year came from SMB customers. Fiorina argues that with its broad line of imaging, consumer and enterprise products, its SMB offerings will have greater breadth than those of its rivals. "We are able to leverage our experiences in the enterprise market and the consumer market to help small and medium businesses get more out of their technology investments," she said on Thursday.

The new products range from the Color LaserJet 9500 that Fiorina describes as "Kinkos in a box" to entry-level SANs. Among other products HP rolled out are a new line of ProLiant servers bundled with Microsoft's new Windows Small Business Server 2003, and a new line of desktop PCs with small form factors. For example, the Desktop Access Center includes built-in telephony functionality and computers targeted at the legal, healthcare and retail segments customized with industry applications

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The program will combine direct product sales with support and integration services from partners. Fiorina downplayed the impact of direct sales on partners. "For some time now, much of this industry's obsession has been around the direct model," Fiorina said. "HP, like others, has significantly improved its direct customer capability. But we also know that buying a product is only the start. We know that many [SMB] business owners trust and value the personalized service and close proximity of support professionals who can work on sight. At the same time, customers tell us they value the consistency, comprehensiveness and security of working directly with a manufacturer."

In the coming months, John Brennan, senior vice president, HP Small and Medium Business, and Kevin Gilroy, vice president and general manager for HP Americas commercial channels, will develop a strategy to forge tighter partnerships. "I'll be working with Kevin to make sure we really understand within our SMB partner network which VARs and which channel partners are really peaked in which vertical areas," Brennan said. "We will do a real aggressive job of understanding that so we can bring a range of solutions to them."

As part of its SMB strategy, HP also rolled out service offerings that HP can resell. Called CarePack Services, the program is designed to give SMB customers access to IT services that typically are only available to larger enterprises such as desktop, server and application support.

The program is tailored so that solution providers can sell the services at a discount and receive recurring revenue from the customer, says Marci Meaux, vice president, channel partner management, HP Services. "It's packaged efficiently for SMB customers,' Meaux said.

The service offerings include: