The IT major made a slew of announcements to get enterprises on board for its plan on “New style of IT” but will it succeed in getting them to sign on the dotted line?
The IT industry is going through a transformation and it would not be wrong to say that another IT boom is expected few years down the line. To help companies cope up with this change and also to catch up with compelling needs, HP has launched a string of products and services to help organisations navigate the complex process of IT transformation and develop a robust strategy to take advantage of these new dynamics for services and processes that drive innovation and growth.
According to IDC, the rise and convergence of the four pillars of cloud, social, mobile and big data is having a transformative effect across all industries. By 2020, IDC expects the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) information and communications technology (ICT) industry to generate almost $900 billion in spending, with more than 55% coming from technologies and solutions that drive the four pillars.
Organisations are hence, under increasing pressure to respond to this rapid shift and take advantage of the “New Style of IT” to transform their operations, improve their competitiveness and enhance customer interactions.
Keeping this in mind, HP at an event organised for the Asia Pacific and Japanese market (APJ Summit) at Mumbai, announced a string of launches. To begin with, the company announced the launch of new age infrastructure which includes things like virtual cloud networking SDN (software defined networking) application, new datacenter switches, enhancements to existing solution from the company for automating routine IT tasks and reducing IT operational expenses etc. The company also came up with more efficient converged systems and innovations in the datacenter model.
“The ‘New Style of IT’ is rapidly transforming the role of IT as provider of infrastructure support to strategic business partner,” notes Jim Merritt, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Group APAC, HP. “With innovations built on HP converged infrastructure, HP is enabling organisations to rapidly virtualise, simplify and automate their data centers to deliver fast, efficient IT services that drive business innovation.”
The IT major has also jumped into Advisory Services to enable companies to strategise better for dealing with the problem of mobility and related issues.
Working with and for society
So, while the company time and again spoke about the new style of IT, it is also doing some CSR activities like opening eHealth centres in association with Narayana Health in India. eHealth centres are rapidly deployable healthcare facilities, powered by HP’s cloud-enabled solution. They are built to connect patients in remote areas, who couldn’t previously afford or access healthcare, to receive remote consultations and diagnoses from physicians and specialists. Housed in shipping containers or existing facilities, each eHealth centre is customised and fully equipped with cloud-integrated diagnostic equipment. The company plans to do a phased implementation program and will install up to 20 eHealth centres over the next 18-24 months.
“Addressing the challenges of providing quality and affordable healthcare to patients in rural India requires a New Style of IT,” explains Neelam Dhawan, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Group and Country Managing Director, HP India. “HP cloud-enabled technology, which is central to eHealth centres, is helping to change the dynamics of the healthcare system in India. By working with organisations like Narayana Health, we are able to expand the eHC program to more parts of India”
Shifting focus
While enterprise remained the major focus of the summit, the company also launched some colourful products for the consumers, with special emphasis on the youth.
HP launched a range of consumer notebook and touch convertible PCs, and a variety of colourful accessories delivering new eye-catching options for consumers in India. “The products have shrunk by 35% and boast of better capabilities than before,” says Ketan Patel Director, Computing Category, Printing and Personal Systems, HP India.
Keeping the youth in mind, the company is not only offering vibrant colours like electric blue, vibrant red etc, but also packing the product with 4GB memory Nvidia graphic cards for better gaming experience.
“We ensured that the performance is not compromised at any point at the same time making it very youthful,” adds Patel. All the products also come bundled with accessories which were earlier missing from most HP laptops and PCs.
Sealing the deals
Besides launching products for enterprises as well as consumers, the IT major also spoke about some important deals that it has recently bagged. Shell, to begin with has extended the HP hardware and services agreement to support the oil major’s global business in more than 100 countries and for over 100,000 employees and contractors worldwide.
Under the renewed five-year agreement, HP will deliver more than 150,000 products to Shell including HP PCs, tablets, peripherals, printers, workstations, servers, storage and networking hardware as well as innovative IT integration and support services. All equipment will be provided either directly or through HP’s worldwide network of local channel partners.
Another important deal which the company spoke about was with CIBIL (Credit Information Bureau India Ltd) wherein, HP will use its converged infrastructure to improve the performance of its IT operations to meet the needs of its expanding customer base and accelerate business growth.
Moving on
From launching new servers and datacenter switches, to CSR activities, HP tried to get every sector on board with its new plan of evolving the IT. While the company has already done some appreciable work in the field of data centers but most of it is already available in the market through other IT leaders like Cisco and the likes.
