Tag: HP

Red Hat EMEA channel conf details announced

Posted on July 4, 2013 by - Events, News

redhatOpen source profiteer Red Hat has announced dates for the fifth Red Hat Europe EMEA Partner Conference in Madrid this year.

The event will run from 29 September to 2 October 2013 and will open with keynotes from top executive veep in sales and services, Arun Oberoi, and CTO Brian Stevens. Veep of partners for Red Hat EMEA, Petra Heinrich, will also be speaking about general partner strategy.

There will be a series of panel discussions on current and future trends in open hybrid cloud, middleware, platform offerings and product strategies. As is expected from this sort of thing, there will also be breakout sessions and talks on best practices about enterprise IT, specifically focusing on using open source tech and making the shift from physical to virtual and cloud platforms.

Red Hat is calling on distributors, ISVs, OEMs, system integrators and other partners, potential or existing, to discuss with each other and gain access to Red Hat’s top execs. Platinum and gold plus sponsors, IBM and HP respectively, will also be attending.

The company asserts, in a tone which would not sound out of place read by Genesis P Orridge over an abrasive and menacing tape loop: “The Red Hat EMEA Partner Conference will be comprised of three pillars. Pillar one is built on datacentre integration with the key themes of partner enablement and IT modernization. Pillar two is built around middleware and the requirement to migrate legacy applications in an open environment. The third pillar focuses on solving the new workload challenges inherent in open hybrid cloud and big data environments.”

HP Software UK in channel push

Posted on July 4, 2013 by - News

HPHP’s channel director for UK & Ireland has said the channel is crucial to expanding business in the territory – while also handing ten percent of direct sales over to resellers.

HP Software has lofty plans to double its size and this will mean a slight strategic shift in how the division operates.

Speaking at an HP event, CRN reports Toffis acknowledged the channel business share is leaning on direct sales.

Toffis pointed out that partners are key to the company’s aggressive growth strategy, not just in the UK, but worldwide. “We know we can’t do that without partners,” Toffis said. “We need partners to help support us in the growth and we’re investing to be able to do that”.

Recently, HP tinkered with its Partner One T&Cs, slashing the amount of certifications required by half, in a bid to bring in more channel partners.

At the moment, HP’s UK, France and German operations mostly run through direct sales, but here in Britain over half of all sales do involve a partner on some level.

Last year, HP announced its intentions to introduce a One HP strategy across the board – that is, to unify the operations of its many, many divisions and simplify the way each of these engages with partners. HP execs, speaking with ChannelEye, have individually confirmed this is on track, and so we could expect to see similar movements across other UK&I market segments.

HP thinks about smartphones again

Posted on July 1, 2013 by - News, Products

HPHewlett Packard is apparently seriously considering re-entering the smartphone market. In related news, we did some research and found out that HP did indeed make phones at one point.

Joking aside, HP was a force to be reckoned with in the days of Windows Mobile. It viewed smartphones as a natural extension of its once massive iPaq business, but smartphones of the day were just too big, too slow and unattractive.

In 2010 HP acquired Palm and started making WebOS devices, but they flopped. HP launched its last WebOS phone in 2011, but now it might give smartphones another go, although the new generation will probably feature a different operating system and rumour has it that Android tops the list at the moment.

In a recent interview with Indian news agency PTI, carried by The Indian Express, HP Senior Director Consumer PC and Media Tablets Asia Pacific Yam Su Yin said the company is focusing on all market segments. When asked whether smartphones are one of them, she answered yes, but noted that she couldn’t give an exact timetable.

“It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game,” she said.

However, HP might have a lot of catching up to do, but Su Yin believes the company can pull it off.

“Being late you have to create a different set of proposition. There are still things that can be done. It’s not late. When HP has a smartphone, it will give a differentiated experience,” she said.

At this point there is very little to go on, but HP probably won’t be another also-ran Android peddler. It will probably need to integrate a few of its business services into the upcoming phones, and recently the company has been making quite a bit of noise about its cloud services, which should end up on the feature list.

Despite that, we’re not sure we share HP’s optimism. The market is already overcrowded and overheating. It is about to get even tougher as Chinese manufacturers start to look beyond the local market and as some PC component makers enter the space. On the other hand HP has a nice brand to play around with and a top notch sales force.

Notebook shipments hit new low

Posted on June 28, 2013 by - News

ancient-laptopContract manufacturers of notebooks had one of their worst quarters on record in Q1. According to IHS, they suffered a worse than expected quarter, with shipments to Apple and HP tumbling to the lowest level in three years.

Global shipments from ODMs in the first quarter totalled 33.2 million units, down 17 percent from 40.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The downturn was four to five percentage points than what IHS had originally forecast, prompting more concerns about the beleaguered industry. Taiwan based ODMs build notebooks for Apple, HP, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, Asus and Toshiba.

The knock on effect hit ODMs hard. Quanta got the worst of it, with a 27 percent plunge in shipments. It lost its spot as the world’s top ODM to Compal as a result. Furthermore, Quanta apparently received “conservative” orders from Acer, Asus, HP and Apple during the quarter. Compal saw a quarterly decline of 5 to 7 percent and it weathered the storm a bit better than other ODMs, thanks to stable shipments to Dell and Lenovo.

Wistron’s drop in shipments was 16 percent, but it still managed to rank third. Inventec saw a 9-percent drop and it ended in fourth spot, while Pegatron wasn’t as lucky. It saw its shipments plummet 21 percent, finishing the quarter in fifth spot.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel, though. ODM shipments are expected to improve in the second half of the year. The key drivers of growth will be cheap ultrathin PCs with touchscreens, along with new models based on Intel Haswell parts. In addition, Microsoft will lower the licencee fee for Windows for notebooks with a screen size of up to 11.6 inches, as we reported from Computex a few weeks back. Better late than never.

HP changes partner cert requirements

Posted on June 26, 2013 by - News

HPHP has updated its ParterOne programme, and it looks like a simplified model.

Certification requirements have been tinkered with across the board and in all regions.

Partners will get their compensation depending on membership status as well as regions, plus sales incentives for products and services.

It also looks like HP is going a little more liberal on certifications – with some areas such as the Enterprise Group having their certification requirements halved, from 44 to 22. ChannelEye has asked an HP spokesperson to clarify on other certification requirements.

We have asked HP if this announcement is to do with it changing its T&Cs and are waiting for a response.

In a statement, HP said the programme offers “predictability, simplicity and profitability”, and has been successful at helping partners bring in more revenue. It seems to be part of wider efforts to have each HP group more in common and horizontal.

*Update HP told us it modifies the PartnerOne Ts&Cs every year. Next year, HP says, changes to the program Ts&Cs will be told to partners at the time of the full 2014 program announcement in October 2013.

An HP spokesperson said that cert requirements are important to the PartnerOne Specialist designations “throughout all of HP’s “value” business”, which includes Software, Enterprise Group and parts of PPS.

The idea is that more partners will attend HP training and get certifications to, basically, become accredited to sell more kit across all the business units. It is cutting Enterprise group certifications from 44 to 22.

“We believe these competencies are a real value-add for our partners, as they allow them to differentiate themselves in the market,” the spokesperson said.

Analysts call on Acer to rethink its strategy

Posted on June 24, 2013 by - News, Opinions

acer-logo-ceLast week Acer held its annual shareholder bash in Taiwan, which was marked by a strange mix of optimism and admissions that the company was unprepared for the boom in tablets. Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang issued an apology to shareholders, as he failed to boost the company’s shares, but he reiterated Acer’s commitment to the traditional PC market.

Industry prays for the death of XP

Posted on June 13, 2013 by - News

tombstoneHP executives have been revealing that the maker of expensive printer ink did not think that things would get better until Microsoft pulled the plug on XP.

Hardware makers had been hoping for a boost to their PC bottom lines because of Windows 8’s release. When this happened, initially they blamed Microsoft’s awful interface.

But it turns out that the calmer heads in HP see the problem as a global market thing.

Windows 8 did seem to suck up the usual number of consumer PC sales, but what it did not manage to do was make a big splash in the more important business market.

The business market, particularly in the EU, has been locked down by poor economic factors. Many companies have insisted on using ancient machines running XP, rather than running newer software which requires new hardware.

Microsoft prolonged the agony by extending the life of Windows XP by providing extended support. It did this for the best of motivations. There was a fear that cash strapped companies would not upgrade anyway and just leave their networks open to attacks by running insecure versions.

However, for all Microsoft’s good intentions, it also gave businesses no reason to upgrade their hardware for another couple of years.

Now Microsoft has confirmed that XP’s time really is up now, and businesses are starting to see that their computers which must be getting on to a decade old really do need to be put out to pasture.

HP confirmed that it was starting to get new orders for PCs from upgrading firms who see that the writing is on the wall, and some other resellers who ChannelEye has talked to have confirmed the same things.

The more conservative of them are going for Windows 7 machines, but there is also a move towards Windows 8 from companies who want more future proofing.
It is an interesting potential sales pitch for channel partners who need to find new customers, or to dig up their sales lists from customers who did not return their calls seven or eight years ago.
If HP is right, then this could be the stimulus that the PC market desperately needs to get itself moving.

 

HP might improve fast

Posted on June 13, 2013 by - News

Meg Whitman, photo by Mike MageeThe maker of expensive printer ink, HP, might pull its nadgers out of the fire a little quicker than many had thought.

Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman has been sounding curiously optimistic of late.
She told cable network CNBC that revenue growth was “still possible” for the computer maker in its next fiscal year.

The only thing that did not get many observer’s hopes up is that she did see the performance of the overall PC market was a wild card.

Some analysts think that the PC market has gone as low as it will ever get and it can only start picking up now.

Others think that everything is doomed and we will all be trying to write long reports on our smartphones by next Tuesday.

Nevertheless, investors seem to be a little more hopeful in HP’s future and its shares rose four percent on the news. You can pick up a second hand share, with a limited mileage, for $25.22 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading after Whitman’s interview.

Wall Street analysts are generally still pessimistic. They have estimated revenue of $108.9 billion for HP’s 2014 fiscal year. That would be down from their expectation of $111.4 billion for fiscal 2013, which ends in October.

HP launches tablet POS thing

Posted on June 13, 2013 by - News, Products

HPHewlett Packard has introduced a new point of sale (POS) solution aimed at retail and hospitality businesses.

The HP ElitePad Mobile POS Solution is basically and HP ElitePad tablet with HP’s retail jacket for ElitePad. It is designed to integrate into existing IT infrastructure and connect to store systems on the go.

As many as 57 percent of retailers plan to implement tablets in their stores over the next one to three years and HP is clearly trying to cash in on the trend.

The package includes a 1D/2D barcode scanner and three-track encrypted bi-directional magnetic stripe reader (MSR). It also has an integrated detachable hand strap and an optional secondary battery for extended endurance.

“Consumers expect the same personalised experience they get online or on their mobile device in a retailer’s brick-and-mortar store,” said Kobi Elbaz, director, Commercial and Retail Solutions, Printing and Personal Systems Group, HP EMEA. “With the HP ElitePad Mobile POS Solution, store managers and associates are empowered to move the sale from behind the counter, giving them the ability to assist the customer right on the sales floor for immediate customer satisfaction.”

The HP ElitePad is available in EMEA, but the HP Retail Jacket for the tablet will show up in September.

HP expands its big data products

Posted on June 12, 2013 by - News, Products

old schoolHP has expanded its big data products portfolio so that partners can tailor products so that clients can squeeze more out of their business information.

There is a lot of money in these sorts of products. According to HP research, nearly 60 percent of companies surveyed will spend at least 10 percent of their innovation budget on big data this year.

However the study also found that one in three organisations have failed with a big data initiative and are wary of getting their fingers burnt again.

HP thinks its new enhanced portfolio delivers big data out of the box so that it can enable enterprises to handle the growing volume, variety, velocity and vulnerability of data that can cause these initiatives to fail.
The new product range is based around HAVEn which is a big data analytics platform, which uses HP’s analytics software, hardware and services.

George Kadifa, executive vice president, Software said that big data enables organisations to take advantage of the totality of their information—both internal and external—in real time.

It produces extremely fast decision making, resulting in unique and innovative ways to serve customers and society.

HAVEn combines proven technologies from HP Autonomy, HP Vertica, HP ArcSight and HP Operations Management, as well as key industry initiatives such as Hadoop.

It avoids vendor lock-in with an open architecture that supports a broad range of analytics tools and protect investments with support for multiple virtualisation technologies.

HAVEn uses all information collected including structured, semistructured and unstructured data, via HP’s portfolio of more than 700 connectors into HAVEn.

It means that organisations can consume, manage and analyse massive streams of IT operational data from a variety of HP products, including HP ArcSight Logger and the HP Business Service Management portfolio, as well as third-party sources.

In addition to this HP announced its Vertica Community Edition. This is a free, downloadable software that delivers the same functionality of the HP Vertica Analytics Platform Enterprise Edition with no commitments or time limits. Clients can analyse up to a terabyte of data before spending more cash on an enterprisewide solution.

There is also the HP Autonomy Legacy Data Cleanup—information governance package. According to HP this helps clients analyse legacy data, lower costs and reduce risks while squeezing value from big data.

HP taps Google apps and services for SMB boxes

Posted on June 12, 2013 by - News, Products

HPHewlett Packard has joined the Google Apps Reseller program and the first products packed with preinstalled Google apps are on the way. The first phase of what HP calls “HP SMB IT in a Box” will feature existing HP hardware, including PCs and printers, but it will also ship with an assortment of Google apps.

The Goog suite includes Google Apps for Business, Google cloud based communication and collaboration tools, or in other words everything from Gmail and Docs, to Google Drive and IM. An HP management software layer will be on top of them to simplify environment and cut operating costs.

“HP recognises the constantly evolving needs of SMB customers in today’s dynamic business environment,” said Ron Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs and Solutions, HP. “Together with HP’s channel partners, we will offer our customers an incredible bundle of PCs, printers and Google Apps for Business, enabling business owners to focus on their customers instead of worrying about IT.”

HP says the HP SMB IT in a Box will continue to grow to encompass all the technologies SMBs need. Eventually, the solution will include integrated consoles for resellers, IT administrators and end users, allowing easy access to the entire solution, including Google Apps for Business.

The company was quick to point out that its collaboration with Google already includes Android and Chrome devices. Although it looks like a routine PR line, it could be also viewed as a shot across Microsoft’s bow.

HP SMB IT in a Box will be offered through HP’s network of reseller partners. The initial offering is expected to be available to select resellers in the United States in July followed by broader availability worldwide by the end of the year.

European PC market continues downward spiral

Posted on May 15, 2013 by - News, Products

pc-sales-slumpThe global PC market contracted 13.9 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and Europe seems to have taken the worst hit. Sales of PCs in Western Europe fell off a cliff in the first three months of the year and they are down 20.5 percent year-on-year. Big brands like Acer and HP did even worse, experiencing a drop in excess of 30 percent. 

HP talks up the unsinkable Itanium

Posted on April 24, 2013 by - News

Der Untergang der TitanicWhile many in the industry have been writing off HP lately, the maker of expensive printer ink says that it is about to make a comeback, but has made Itanium  part of its cunning plan.

At the unveiling of Odyssey, a project ” to redefine the future of mission-critical computing”, HP said it wanted to transform the server market.

Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Business Critical Systems, HP, Martin Fink told All Africa that HP’s plan is more cunning than a distributed network of foxes wired up in a supercomputer of cunning.

HP has in its hands a roadmap which annex UNIX and x86 server architectures to bring industry-leading availability, increased performance, cure cancer and put everything in a single platform.

Fink said that these days organizations were challenged with increasingly tough service-level agreements and all sorts of terrible pressure to be efficient with their IT budgets.

HP reasons that in a perfect world they would have the availability and resilience of UNIX-based platforms along with the familiarity and cost-efficiency of x86.

So HP is coming up with a development roadmap includes ongoing innovations to HP Integrity servers, HP nonstop systems and the HP-UX and OpenVMS operating systems.

The roadmap also includes delivering blades with Intel Xeon processors for the HP Superdome 2 enclosure and the scalable c-Class blade enclosures , while fortifying Windows and Linux environments with innovations from HP-UX within the next two years, Fink said.

After HP released “DragonHawk,” its customers have been asking HP to expand the mission-critical experience that is delivered today with HP-UX on Integrity to an x86-based infrastructure.

He touted project Odyssey as something that HP partners would really want because it offered a “Intel’s continued innovation with a multigenerational Itanium processor roadmap”, combined with existing and future mission-critical capabilities of Intel Xeon processors, allow HP and Intel to provide customers with greater flexibility and choice.

Together with HP, he said that Intel would be able to give customers the ability to do mission-critical computing on their terms, with a broad range of operating systems and applications, he added with a straight face.