Hewlett-Packard (HP) must continue to be a world-class products company if it is to beat Dell in – and continue to profit from – the PC, notebook and broad-market x86 server markets. However, HP is also one of the two key pillars of another marketplace – that for enterprise IT solutions. This market is governed by very different requirements and places HP in competition with a totally different competitor – IBM. The company must play by very different rules if it hopes to keep pace in this rapidly changing segment. It must take a crash course in becoming a solutions vendor.

HP has demonstrated a clear intention to play in one critical part of the solutions market – enterprise IT solutions. It has crafted its Next-Generation Data Center program as its core vision for this market. HP is also greatly expanding its enterprise account coverage, through the addition of senior industry-focused account executives and targeted pursuit teams, by expanding the range and depth of its solution-focused professional services offerings and by working closely with a growing number of solutions-focused partners. Nice start, but will this be sufficient in a market in which IBM and global systems integrators (GSIs) are continually raising the bar for what customers perceive as IT solutions? Most important, is HP willing or able to play in the enterprise solution market into which these same players are so aggressively moving – enterprise business solutions that incorporate IT as a component?

Table of contents

Key messages

The challenge ahead

HP’s strategic enterprise growth portfolio

Enterprise servers and storage
Software

From product company to solutions company

Infrastructure solutions
Application-level solutions
Industry-focused solutions
Business process solutions

Extending beyond infrastructure solutions

-HP’s solution challenges

Delivering solutions messages to target customers

Portfolio rationalization
HP’s core IT customer base
Go-to-market challenges

Towards becoming an integrated products/services company

Moving up the services value chain
Services as HP solution leads
Strategic service investments
Services challenges

Expanding beyond strategic partnerships into programmatic partnerships

Tier-one ISV alliances
GSI alliances
Can GSIs commit?
Partnering challenges

Will the new HP look like the new IBM?

Assessing HP’s solutions commitment

Table of figures

Figure 1 Requirements for transforming HP into an enterprise solutions partner
Figure 2 Path to HP’s Next-Generation Data Center
Figure 3 The six forms of transformational value add
Figure 4 Ovum Summit’s Dynamic Computing benefits pyramid
Figure 5 HP C&I’s solution focuses