Tag: HP

Notebook sales increase

Posted on February 14, 2018 by - News

Multipurpose-NotebookThe global notebook market is improving with 164.7 million units shipped in 2017 according to TrendForce’s latest market report.

The figure represents a 2.1 percent year-on-year increase, massively surpassing all expectations and forecasts. The reason for the increase has been biddings for notebook contracts in North America and regional economic recovery

HP remains the market leader with more than 24 percent of the market share. Its annual shipments hit a new milestone of 40 million units, a substantial increase of 10.5 percent over 2016.

For 2018, the market share of the top six brands is expected to rise to 89.1 percent, squeezing the room for other brands to develop.

Xiaomi and Huawei recorded growth in the Chinese market, but the results of their overseas deployment are unclear.

Lenovo saw a year-on-year drop of 4.9 percent. It enhanced its sales in Asia and Europe but still cannot make up the shipment decrease in 1H17. This has an impact on the brand’s performance, making its market share down to 20.2 percent, ranking the second.

 

 

HP expands its customise-to-order programme for schools

Posted on January 30, 2018 by - News

schoolHP has expanded its ‘customise-to-order’ (CTO) programme by adding a promotion to boost the value for money the education sector gets from its technology.

The CTO approach, which is implemented through the channel, was trialled six months ago with a desktop-only catalogue. It has now extended it to include the 400-series laptop.

The new scheme, HP for Education, allows those that invest in HP hardware to collect credits or cashback of up to £250 per device. These can be used by schools against software, training or device upgrades.

HP has also launched its Parental Contribution Scheme to allow parents to purchase education-specific technology for their children attending primary or secondary school via instalments.

HP’s education business director Neil Sawyer said that schools have tight budgets and have to make difficult decisions every year between buying much-needed education hardware or investing in software such as education programmes and training courses.

“We want to stop schools from being forced to minimise their IT assets or forgo software purchases to invest in vital education technology.”

 

Whitman starts cleaning out her desk

Posted on November 22, 2017 by - News

Meg WhitmanHPE’s Whitman announced she is quitting as the CEO and claims that her channel track record was a critical aspect of her six year reign.

On 1 February 2018, Whitman will be replaced by the current president Antonio Neri, who joined HP in 1995 as a customer service engineer in the EMEA call centre.

Shareholders were not happy – HPE’s shares were down by nearly eight percent in after-hours trading, despite Q4 results topping expectations.

Whitman was appointed as HP CEO in September 2011 following the departure of much-maligned predecessor Leo Apotheker and quickly implemented a five-year turnaround.

She hived off the printer and PC arm of HP in 2015, and put in motion the most significant corporate divorce in history.

HPE’s headcount is now standing at less than 50,000, compared with nearly 350,000 when she joined.

In the UK she was known for dropping in on top HP resellers, including Softcat and CDW in the UK for tea and biscuits and talk up HP and HPE’s channel-friendly credentials at its partner summits.

According to HPE’s statement today, the vendor improved customer and partner satisfaction under her leadership, as well as rebuilding its balance sheet, strengthening operations and reigniting innovation.

HPE has delivered a shareholder return of 89 percent – three times that of the S&P 500 – HPE pointed out.

“I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve accomplished since I joined HP in 2011”, Whitman said.

“Today, Hewlett Packard moves forward as four industry-leading companies that are each well positioned to win in their respective markets. Now is the right time for Antonio and a new generation of leaders to take the reins of HPE. I have tremendous confidence that they will continue to build a great company that will thrive well into the future.”

HPE’s Q4 revenue rose five percent year on year to $7.8 billion, the company also announced.

Whitman will remain on the HPE board of directors.

 

 

HPE quits Palo Alto

Posted on November 6, 2017 by - News

bd_stone_1989In what is an end of an era, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) will save a bit of cash by leaving its Palo Alto headquarters and moving to nearby Santa Clara.

The predecessor HP company was based in Palo Alto from its founding in 1939 until it was split in two in 2015. HP is still based in the city.

In a press release, HPE said that the company no longer needs a facility of the current size and will look to sell the property – splitting employees between three other facilities.

The move comes as HPE continues its radical $1.5bn cost-saving measures that will see thousands of employees laid off, as well as the reported closure of a facility in Roseville, California.

The Aruba offices in Santa Clara will become HPE’s new global headquarters, while other employees will be split between facilities in San Jose and Milpitas.

HPE CEO Meg Whitman said: “Over the past two years we’ve made tremendous progress towards becoming a simpler, nimbler and more focused company.

“I’m excited to move our headquarters to an innovative new building that provides a next-generation digital experience for our employees, customers and partners.

“Our new building will better reflect who HPE is today and where we are heading in the future.”

HPE said it will continue to support the HP garage – the garage where Dave Hewlett and Bill Packard formed HP, now a museum – and the HP Founder’s Office, which served as HP’s headquarters until 1981.

HP talks up the printer industry

Posted on November 2, 2017 by - News

history-of-print-16th-century-printing-companyWhile sales of printers are dropping faster than Donald Trump’s popularity, HP has splashed out and written a $1.05 billion cheque for Samsung’s printer business.

The move gives it the strongest A3 printer portfolio on the market along with 1,300 researchers and engineers joinomg HP from Samsung – along with 6,500 printer patents.

HP CEO Dion Weisler said: “As we ignite a renaissance in printing, we’re thrilled to bring together the industry’s best and brightest talent.

“Together we will build on more than 30 years of print leadership to accelerate our strategy, disrupt new market opportunities, and provide our customers and partners with unique and highly innovative print solutions.”

HP thinks that the A3 market is now the biggest opportunity in the printer space, worth an estimated $55 billion.

As part of the acquisition, Samsung will make an equity investment of between $100 million and $300 million in HP through open markets. Figures released last week suggested that the only place in the world were printer sales had not dropped was the UK – where they stayed the same.

 

HP is making inroads into 3D printing

Posted on October 19, 2017 by - News

o-OFFICE-3D-PRINTER-facebookA while back HP promised that it would take the lead in 3D printing and it is starting to look like it is making good on that promise.

Vendor snuck into fifth place in industrial 3D printer market in Q2, four years after Meg Whitman declared that HP intended to lead the market. To be fair though HP has only had products in the 3D printer market for a year and to get to the top five from no-where is some feat.

With its Jet Fusion line up, HP sold $13.5 million of industrial 3D printer hardware in the second quarter of 2017.

According to beancounters at Context HP took a four percent share of the industrial segment of the market in Q2, behind names that will be less familiar to the channel, namely market leader Stratasys, EOS, GE Additive and 3D Systems.

HP began “pushing strongly” into the channel in the first half of the year, “setting itself up for further growth later this year and beyond”, Context said.

The industrial sub-segment Jet Fusion plays in has experienced mixed fortunes since then, with unit shipments declining in both 2015 and 2016.

Context predicts that the industrial sector will return to growth in 2017, partly thanks to the fresh blood that has entered the market.

Polymer machines continued to dominate the market in Q2, accounting for 90 per cent of the unit volume sales and 61 percent of the printer revenues, Context said.

While HP’s machines are initially focused on polymers, GE Additive – which is another new entrant to the top five – focuses on metal 3D printing.

Context vice president of global analysis Chris Connery said that there was a four per cent decline in the number of industrial/professional 3D printers shipped in the second quarter of this year compared to the earlier year, but the average selling price of these machines continued to climb.

“It now seems that both these trends will change in the second half of 2017. Average selling prices are set to drop with the shipment of new category of lower priced metal-printing machines helping to promote new growth.

“For polymer 3D printing, growth is expected from select technologies as this side of the market continues to penetrate into the manufacturing market and away from just prototyping.”

 

 

HP wants to expand its Ripple Effect

Posted on October 13, 2017 by - News

raspberryrippleicecr_91970_16x9HP is to increase the number of its education vertical resellers involved in its ‘Ripple Effect’ grant scheme.

The scheme – which was launched earlier in the summer – gives resellers £20,000 to grant to schools who buy HP tech though them.

So far, Misco, Softcat, XMA and Academia have signed up with each reseller announced a winning school of their own separate competitions among school customers who had recently purchased HP hardware through them.

The four winners will receive a HP Learning Studio from their respective reseller. The £20,000 suite of HP tech includes a HP Sprout G2 – an immersive computing 3D PC – and a Dremel Idea Builder 3D40 – an education-focused 3D Printer.

The grant scheme will target all HP core education resellers in the UK&I  over the next three to five-years.

HP is targeting new education focussed resellers to help address a chronic challenge facing the vertical: the endemic STEM worker shortfall, currently estimated at 40,000 in the UK.

Most schools only have about £115 pounds per student per year to spend on technology.  HP said that some of its resellers have been screaming out for action and that is why it is investing.

Channel needs to share more, you buggers

Posted on September 15, 2017 by - News

toddlers-fightingHP 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?

HP is now the bright star and HPE is the red-headed stepchild

Posted on August 25, 2017 by - News

Youre-adoptedWhen HP and HPE split, the smart money was on HPE cleaning up, while HP followed the death of the PC into oblivion.

However the latest figures show something strange has happened, and the hardware maker of expensive printer ink is doing better than its enterprise orientated evil twin.

HP third-quarter numbers saw revenue growth hit double digits and profits came in ahead of guidance. Meanwhile HPE has failed to meet expectations for four consecutive quarters. HP’s shares are up by almost a third and the latter’s down by nearly a fifth over the last year.

There really is no reason for this different. PC shipments are in the midst of a five-year slump, according to Gartner. Yet HP’s Personal Systems arm had a third straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth, with desktops returning to growth in the quarter.

CEO Dion Weisler said it reflected the reinvention of its product line in this area: “In calendar quarter two, we outgrew the PC market unit growth by 9.5 points year over year, remaining the number one global PC market share leader with 22.8 percent share.”

HP overall growth accelerated to 10 per cent year on year, compared with seven percent in its Q2, with growth achieved in both its Personal Systems and Print segments for a second consecutive quarter.

The printer market is also in the doldrums, but HP saw growth thanks to a 10 per cent hike in supplies sales, its Print arm grew sales six per cent year on year, and Weisler said HP Inc now has a 38.5 percent total print unit market share.

Weisler vowed that “profitable growth will continue to be our priority”, pointing out that its Personal System Group’s profits, margins and revenues all grew sequentially in Q3 despite the industry-wide component cost headwinds.

“We’ve been proactive with our ongoing productivity efforts, repricing actions and focus on product mix”, he said.

Weisler described Q3 an “outstanding quarter, showcasing strong execution of our strategy he added that the vendor is investing in “future categories”.

It had “raised the bar” in the premium segment with its new Spectre x2, adding that it had expanded its Omen gaming portfolio with a new virtual-reality backpack.

HP made its big entrance into the 3D print market last summer, and Weisler said the vendor has now amassed 45 resellers for the technology globally, as well as more than 20 Reference and Experience Centres. Its 3D print customers include Jaguar Land Rover, Flex and others in the automotive, pharmaceutical, government and education industries.

All up, it looks like HP is doing well.

Westcoast and HP don’t need no education

Posted on August 15, 2017 by - News

tumblr_mcexe0a4MI1rcf9cjo1_500HP is building customised PCs for the education sector which will be delivered by Westcoast.

The move is part of a cunning plan for HP to take a more vertical market approach to life. Westcoast has already been offering customised PC design, imaging and building with a promise of pulling it all together in 48 hours.

IDC has said that HP its channel could pick up £35 million for itself and its channel partners from the education sector. It expects resellers to benefit from the chance to deliver something that is different from other rival offerings that educational customers might be considering.

HP UKI channel director Neil Sawyer said that the education sector had wide and varied computing needs. The CTO initiative empowers these institutions and their users to request specific computing requirements at a speed and scale which was previously impossible, rather than limiting them to a ‘one-size fits all’ plan

The distributor’s immediate task will be to build a network of resellers that can take advantage of the CTO. The scheme starts with PCs but there are plans to include laptops at some point in the future.

HP might consider extending the CTO approach to other vertical markets to try and help smaller customers get the same customisation that larger firms have been able to command for years.

 

Millennials will go for sustainable IT

Posted on June 21, 2017 by - News

millieniansHP managing director George Brasher thinks that moving to sustainable IT will be a money spinner for the channel.

Brasher recently spoke to the Sustainability Summit where he said that more socially aware millennials will begin to exert dominance over IT decision making and he thinks that partners to get on board with device-as-a-service and other sustainable IT initiatives.

HP has pledged over the years leading up to 2025 to reduce its supply chain-related greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent and involve at least 500,000 of its factory workers in worker skills development.

Brasher said this is because HP is responding not only to global “mega-trends”, such as the growth of the global middle class and rise of the sharing economy, but also increased pull from customers.

Those born between the early 1980s and late 1990s, the millennials, are typically more socially and environmentally conscious than those who came before them and – crucially – will soon make up the majority of IT decision makers, he pointed out.

Environmental requirements were starting to show up as part of tenders and customers are calling for it.

Millennials will be more than half of the IT decision makers in a decade, and they really value it. Employees are also calling for it. They really value it as part of being prideful of the place they work, and, again, this is especially true of millennials, Brasher said.

HP pours cash into UK channel

Posted on June 15, 2017 by - News

PF-loadsamoney_2177214kHP has budgeted £2.5 million to spruce up its UK and Irish channel this quarter.

This number is a 25 to 30 percent increase on what the PC and printer vendor normally invests in a given quarterly period.

HP’s UK&I channel director, Neil Sawyer said that the “strategic deal funding” cash was one of several channel initiatives HP is announcing this week.

The aim is to win new-logo business, which are customers that have not typically purchased HP-branded technology before.

One of the ways that HP is doing that is investing more money into its channel partners to go out and represent HP, over and above others.

HP is typically strong in the mid-market and it is going to be focusing a lot on that sector in the coming weeks and months.

HP for Education is entering its second year. This is open to HP’s strategic education resellers.  Last year HP gave a million quid to schools and colleges that purchased its technology.

The maker of expensive printer ink has launched a device-as-a-service (DaaS) initiative with distributors Westcoast and Ingram.

 

Xeretec’s Landscape move creates managed print power

Posted on June 8, 2017 by - News

history-of-print-16th-century-printing-companyXeretec’s move to buy Landscape Group has united Xerox and HP managed print services into a single force.

The latest consolidation comes just three months after Apogee snapped up Danwood with the ambition of gaining a strong position in the world of managed print services.

Xeretec is a Xerox specialist which wants to become an MPS powerhouse but it also wants to broaden its customer base beyond Xerox users.

Xeretec chief executive Steve Hawkins said that Xeretec will continue to consolidate and develop its longstanding commitment to the Xerox brand, building on its exceptional track record of success.

“This best-of-breed acquisition plays to the strengths of both respected brands and both resellers, while introducing new complementary HP devices and value-added services like Device as a Service to even more customers,” he said.

Landscape is an HP platinum partner for managed print, has been around for more than two decades.

Landscape’s CEO David Smith  said that becoming part of Xeretec would provide the business with more opportunities,

“It also brings new opportunities for our staff and partners. By combining Landscape’s 20 years plus of dedicated HP expertise, the scale and nationwide reach of Xeretec and HP’s impressive new entrance into the A3 MFP market place, customers now have an obvious route to investigate what a $50BN “new comer” can offer to enhance their IT infrastructure,” he said.

HP restructuring paid off

Posted on May 26, 2017 by - News

INDUSTRY HP 1The maker of expensive printer ink, HP saw its shares rise more than three percent after hours, amid better-than-expected quarterly results boosted by “pockets of growth” in the PC market.

The enterprise technology company posted adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share, excluding items, on revenues of $12.39 billion in the second fiscal quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 39 cents per share on revenues of $11.93 billion.

The company called it a “breakthrough quarter,” as both the personal systems and print businesses both grew for the first time since 2010. Revenue was up seven percent from a year ago, while adjusted earnings fell two percent from the year-ago period.

CEO Dion Weisler said the company was staying ahead of the competition by mapping out the hot spots for PC growth.

“The real trick in this business is to segment the market, segment again and when you’ve done that do it one more time. Figure out where the pockets of growth are going to be, where the heat map is going to take you. We’ve been looking at areas of premium and gaming – very attractive parts of the market as services,” he said.

All is not that great though as Dell has been seeing prices have been rising for certain components, and there has been increased pressure from newer competition like Huawei in China. But Weisler said the company is experienced with managing all that.

“I think about all competition a lot. I do not get distracted by it. I think we have been very clear on how we can add value to our customers and we are executing on that strategy and it’s working for us. …. There has been a lot of players in this market for a long time. We will compete against them as we do all of our competitors and that’s by playing our own game.”

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Logicalis UK has operating loss

Posted on January 4, 2017 by - News

LossLogicalis is reporting that its UK operation took a hit.

For the 12 months ending 29 February 2016, the UK arm of the Cisco, HP and IBM partner saw revenue drop from £169.8 million in the previous year to £153.9 million, while operating profit swung from £6 million to a loss of £2.1 million.

For the year ending 29 February 2016 the Logicalis Group saw revenue drop from $1.51 billion to $1.4 billion while operating profit fell from $68.1 million to $52 million.
Logicalis parent company Datatec reported its half-year figures on the London Stock Exchange in October, showing a revenue decline of 7.6 per cent year on year to $3.13 billion for the six months ending 31 August 2016.

The company is vendor dependant on the likes of IBM, Cisco and HP and if any one of the principal vendors to the company terminates, fails to renew or materially adversely changes its agreement or arrangements with the company, it could materially reduce the company’s revenue and operating profit and thereby seriously harm the company’s financial condition and results of operations, the company said.

The Logicalis UK claimed that the IT industry continues to be a “rapidly changing environment“and management recognises the need for the company to continually adapt and grow.

“The directors remain optimistic about the company’s future prospects, and are executing a transformation programme which will ensure that it is best suited to deliver its customers in the long term.”