HP Inc CEO Dion Weisler says that the channel must “build stronger muscles” in the “sharing” economy.
Talking to the assembled throngs at the HP Re-invent World Partner Forum in Chicago, Weisler said trends such as rapid urbanisation, a changing workforce and the accelerating pace of new stuff mean people are changing how they buy products and services. No kidding.
“The rate of change is happening at a staggering pace – the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Change equals opportunity, and there is disruptive change all around us. So how do we capture the opportunity together?”
Rapid urbanisation was important to the channel “because people and businesses are in smaller spaces with greater efficiency needs and are shifting from owning things to an on-demand, service-driven economy”.
The sharing economy, as personified by the likes of Uber and Airbnb, which provide shared access to goods and services, claiming it “is changing absolutely everything”.
“The channel and all of us need to build stronger muscles here,” he said. “It’s no longer about buying and selling boxes; it’s about improving end-user outcomes and having experience-centric solutions that provide the customer with what they want exactly when, where and how they need it.”
Whatever that means.
Weisler said businesses are at an “inflection point”, and channel partners can help vendors optimise their operations and their investments.
He added that the move from transactional to contractual is behind HP’s Device-as-a-Service offering, which saw improvements it announced during the event. Weisler said its stuff lets customers reduce costs, shift CapEx to OpEx and have the flexibility to scale as they need it.
Is that clear?
