Customers now want best return for every dollar spent

Pragati Verma
The Financial Express
As customers today are very conscious and look for IT infrastructure that contributes towards data security and lower total cost of ownership, Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) workstations and servers are tuning in. Dennis Mark, who heads the commercial systems unit at HP Personal Systems group (PSG) is banking on products that promise return on investments as early as three months. In an interaction he elaborates on HP’s plans and the environment. Excerpts:

As customers squeeze tech spending, how do you compel them to buy new computer systems?

Yes this environment is tough. In this environment, a customer will ask for the best return for each dollar spent. Having said that, the good news is that we are seeing an economic momentum. In countries like China and Vietnam, there are a lot of opportunities and we are seeing a positive sentiment. The key thing for companies is to invest in technology that will help them to be more productive and more competitive in their respective industries.

Our new workstation series called Z have been designed keeping performance in mind. This is especially true for SMBs, where the work done in five days can be brought down to 2.5 to 2.7 days due to the high performance of the workstations. From their perspective, there is a productivity improvement of almost 85%. For the same amount, architectures using these systems can double their work and this generates a lot of saving and ability to do more projects in the same amount of time. As a result there is huge saving for them.

How different is the product profile today?

Customers are more demanding in this environment. For example, an architect can complete his work using the new Z series workstations in 27 days or 1 month, while otherwise he would take 2-3 months. So in a very short period of time, he can realise the practical benefit of the investment.

Time to realise the return on investments (ROI) have come down by three to four monts time. So the design of the workstation was able to enhance the performance.

We spoke to our customers on how they used our workstations and gathered their feedback. We came together with BMW DesignWorks to design the internal chassis and the internal airflow. This partnership enables us to integrate the handle on the top of the machine so that it may be moved around easily. At the bottom, we added a layer of a material that enables users to shift the machine easily. These minute details come together to enhance the computing experience for the customers and offering better productivity.

Do you expect customers to buy more HP products like after the 1997 crisis?

Our market share has been steadily increasing. Hence during these difficult times too, we continued to invest in meaningful innovations. An economic slowdown doesn’t mean we stop—we continue to invest in the market and technology. In such a tough scenario, we aim to understand our customers’ needs better and fine-tune innovations to suit them. We want to continue to help them in their business to become more competitive. The crucial thing is to be with the customer and retain their loyalty. Like I said, it will be about keeping the relationship going and not merely buy and sell. The strategy is ‘we grow as they grow’.