HP Builds Channel For Vertical Solutions
By Christina Torode, CRN
9? 24, 2002 3:59 ?? ET
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is holding its Network and Service Provider Business unit up as a poster child for a new sales strategy.
The strategy involves moving away from product line sales of printers and software, for example, to vertically focused solution sales in which partner services are integrated with HP's.
For now, this effort is limited to the Network and Service Provider Business unit, which serves the telecommunications industry. The $6 billion business, post-merger with Compaq, is HP's largest industry unit.
Over time, the vertical solutions strategy is expected to extend to financial services and manufacturing, HP's second- and third-largest vertical targets, said Joy King, director of worldwide marketing and communications for the unit.
"With the traditional product line sales approach, customers felt like they were dealing with four or five different HPs," King said. "But customers would rather buy solutions delivered in a framework within their industry. Not just the solution,they want someone who knows the acronyms, the history and the problems in their industry."
HP garners 19.6 percent of IT spending in the telecom space, not including peripherals sales, she said.
King said channel partners,particularly solution providers with telecom expertise,will play a larger role in providing HP's vertical solutions.
"Now with our industry vertical focus, smaller companies have the ability to do business with HP and have their solutions integrated into HP solutions for the market," King added.
HP will provide vertically focused solution providers with resources such as preintegration with the partner's solution, marketing, benchmarking and financing.
UshaComm Technologies' billing and customer care software, for example, was integrated with