HP 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.
