HEWLETT-PACKARD INDIA: Selling That Portfolio

India's largest systems and printer vendor says it's the solutions
approach that's kept it going strong. 'Solutions' is the vendor's big
buzz...but HP does have three strengths here. One, its wide product portfolio,
which spans consumer to enterprise, imaging to systems and servers, mobiles to
desktops. Second, its services organization. And third, its integrated sales
team, covering institutional buyers from SMB to government.

HIGHLIGHTS Good growth in systems (laptops, PCs, esp mid- to high-end servers) Services wins in banking, including BoB, BoI, SBI Wide product array: systems and peripherals backed by services and supplies Multiple channels and retail; wide and deep reach Overdistributed, especially printers; low channel margins Services, supplies markets get more aggressive l Start-up Year: 1989 l Products & Services: Printers, servers, workstations , PCs and services l Address: 24, Salarpuria Arena Adugodi, Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 030 l Telephone: 25633555 l Fax: 25633222 l Website:www.hp.com/in

You could argue that it spreads itself thin, such as with the PC business
where no one but Dell seems to really get it. Rival IBM, while giving up topline
leadership in India, is now left with three profitable focus areas-servers,
software and services-after exiting the low margin PC area. But HP India is
strong in two of those three areas, as also in network and telecom software. And
its low-margin hardware is balanced by at least one more slice: the very healthy
print supplies and media sales to its high installed base. And it's done all
it can to shift new sales away from cheap printers to multifunction devices with
better margins or at least with a very healthy appetite for inkjet supplies
(thanks to copies and photo prints).

Desktop PC sales were good in 2004-05: though it could not match the price
aggression of HCL. Some uncertainty in the channels during the Lenovo-to-IBM
transition helped laptops sales. Server sales were strong in most categories,
barring traditional Intel single-processor units where it lost out to IBM. HP
helped Intel penetrate the mid- to high-end better with 700 Itanium systems and
other Xeon multi-way servers shipped. Finance and telecom were big buyers.
Banking was the big story for services-with the rollout of the Bank of India
deal, and new wins including SBI (international branches). Workstations made up
a surprise sales surge.

For consistency, we have now included revenue estimates for HP's India
captive development centers (including HP GDIC, the erstwhile Digital) in the
company total, as we do for IBM, Cisco and others. GDIC, which services HP
worldwide and its customers, grew-over 63% headcount jump last year-and
would by itself have bordered the Top 20. While this consolidation hasn't yet
affected HP's #4 rank in the top five, it takes it very close to #3, making HP
a likely candidate for that spot-next year.