Its the top IT player in the Indian market, and it has the widest product portfolio.

Theres the rub. HP wants to be big in services, like IBM. But services are a tenth of revenues, unlike IBM. HP says it wont go for mega-deals at the cost of margins. And products are huge. Systems moved from 45% to 60% of revenues, with Indias annual doubling of laptop sales for the third time.

FY 07 saw a big consumer thrust, and HPs "The computer is personal again" campaign. The home vertical at 18% of sales was second only to BFSI (19%), followed by government and telecom: these four added up to 68%. HP is not over-dependant on services for margins. Consumable supplies keep the peripherals business going, with HPs huge base. For systems, its laptops. For its technology group, theres storage, and services.

And services did grow. Managed services doubled, on a base of earlier BFSI deals (BoI, BoB, UBI, UCO Bank). It did have some telecom wins, with Reliance, BSNL and Bharti. In healthcare, it won a deal for management systems in 19 hospitals and 14 medical colleges in Maharashtra. It signed up with Karnataka to provide an e-procurement platform.

Its SMB business grew 60%, with a micro-vertical approach (for cooperative banking, textiles, ITeS, etc) and a thrust into class B and C towns. And HP launched over 23 products, and a second, Rs 100 crore plant in Pantnagar at year-end, to make up to 500,000 computers a month.

Three-fourths of its staff in India work for HP worldwide and its customers. Counting exports, then, the services story is big for HP India. DQ

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