The buying sentiment is coming back

With the recession impacting businesses around the
world, how has HP PSG fared in the last one year?

Perhaps, barring a few months last year when the entire industry went
through a lean phase, I can confidently say that HP India has seen good growth
in the last one year. And an indication of our growth has been the series of
launches including HP Minis, All In Ones (AIO), ThinClients, Workstations and
the likes. We have also refreshed our commercial line of notebooks from ProBooks
to EliteBooks. In terms of customer experience programs, when we introduce any
new product or solution it has to do with enhancing the customer experience. For
instance, our multi-seat solution targeted at the education sector brings down
TCO, lowers power consumption since PCs are energy efficient; enabling students
with special needs using these solutions by way of Touchsmart PCs.

In the last two to three years, Dell India has geared
up to pose stiff competition. Your take?

I would not want to comment on the competition. However, I would like to add
here that the kind of PC penetration that we have, I believe there is scope of
growth for all. Our strategy is not driven by competition; instead it is the
customer needs which drive us. We are constantly learning what the customer
wants and improving in terms of products and solutions, resulting in innovation
and delivery. Even as our competitors may be focusing on specific geographies,
we at HP think globally.

What will be your strategy to target the growing SMB
market?

In order to target the SMB space, we have HP certified partners who offer
customer-centric solutions based on customer requirements in terms of product,
solution, configuration, etc. At HP we have strong channel relations with
partners for whom we encourage skill building, information sharing to enable
more skill-set building for partners as well as to upscale their operations.

With PSG sales down in the last year or so, what will
be your strategy to grow business this year?

While the overall industry went through a lean patch, PSG has been able to
work profitably in India; the buying sentiment is coming back and we do see
positive trends. In the APAC, PSG has seen a growth of 26% y-o-y. The strategy
this year will be to increase customer satisfaction and bring out solutions
targeted at specific customers.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in