This is the widest range for any IT vendor in India, save distributors: PCs, laptops, servers, storage, printers, supplies. Tying the picture together, the past couple of years, have been services. Large annuity contracts from banks; major projects executed at Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, UCO Bank and SBI; and infrastructure in telecom and manufacturing.

The SMB area was hot too, helped by a micro-vertical focus: cooperative banks, textiles, pharma, construction, auto-ancillaries, and BPO. 

Along with the services mandate, it helped to have the two other divisions with their own P&Ls, under key executives who focused on their product categories: imaging and printing (IPG), and personal systems (PSG). To get to some cross-leverage across the three divisions, a global focus on margin improvement triggered some bundling (printer with PC, CDMA card with laptop, storage with server...).

HP's PCs sold well in the BPO space, a traditional Dell stronghold, and in government. Though with HP's 21,000 DGS&D PC sales, HCL was ahead, and Lenovo not far behind. Retail was strong, through the Compaq and HP outlets. Endorsements from Shahrukh Khan helped in smaller towns.

HP dominates printers, and there were few players beyond Canon who really competed. Samsung could fill some gaps in HP's entry laser range, but it was recovering from a management shakeout. Xerox was mild. Epson was a no-show beyond DMPs. To fill its laser gaps, HP pushed its business inkjets hard: with separate ink tanks, they offered cheap and fast prints. They sold well, though they caused some worries among the laser product teams. Overall, MFP and AIO (multi function/all-in-one) products rapidly took over. And, of course, the evergreen and profitable supplies, which brought in over Rs 700 crore.

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