The Hindu Business Line : HP to focus more on print service

`Tactics without strategy is just noise before defeat.' Following the counsel the Chinese General Sun Tzu, Hewlett-Packard has announced various changes in its approach to the competitive printing market in Asia Pacific.

From being deal-focused to looking at the overall account picture, and dropping the transactional approach for a consultative one, and introducing flexibility in its products using innovative technology such as Edgeline, the $94-billion firm hopes to capture a fairly huge piece of the $147 billion enterprise printing market.

Renting Equipment

HP has hired business process, technology and service consultants who will reach out to customers and help improve workflows. Managed print services, a new offering, has also been launched .

This is expected to be adopted across APAC region. In this model, the company will rent printing equipment and undertake maintenance for a contract period that will last a few years.

"This will be an advantage to clients as they will not have to worry about keeping abreast with technology. Small and medium businesses who need to scale up fast will choose this option," said Ms Kelly Tan, Vice-President, Enterprise Printing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, speaking to reporters at the Winning Edge conference held in Beijing recently.

HP has tripled its sales team in the last nine months. In 2006, HP's market share in the laser segment was 54 per cent, and that of laser multifunction printers was 34 per cent. In India, HP holds a market share of 46 per cent in multifunction printers.