4 | Hewlett-Packard India: Upwardly Mobile

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