According to the MD, HP has changed fundamentally in light of global acquisitions completed last year. “The acquisition of 3Com last July was essential in providing a fully integrating networking solution and becoming a full Cisco competitor in the networking market. 3PAR was again a key acquisition for HP to expand our storage portfolio for cloud solutions, as was EDS for business outsourcing solutions and ArcSight for security software”.
He added that HP has grown significantly in South Africa, much faster than the market itself. “We have employed here over 200 people just last year”, said van Rees.
In 2011, HP South Africa will look further into expanding in the converged networking segment, driving innovation and leveraging the supply chain by becoming a one-stop-shop player rather than a point player.
“We will continue to provide full integration and optimization to meet the instant-on demands from customers with our Instant-On-Enterprise solutions. Our research indicates that most companies spend 70% of their IT budgets on infrastructure and only 30% on innovation- and HP is capable now of flipping this ratio”, explained van Rees.
He added that the development of new energy-efficient technologies continued to be of utmost importance.
Another area that HP is focusing on is the mobile device and tablet market. Said van Rees: “Globally, our HP Slate has been around for almost two years and now is being remarketed with Windows 7 OS – it will probably come to South Africa next year. The same goes for the touchscreen smartphone HP Palm, which will be coming shortly to South Africa. We are really excited about it and we plan to expand this segment according to the responses we get”.
Van Rees continues- “Another area we are looking into is the graphics software market, it’s an all new market which can be huge for us, especially in label and billboards printing – we have the infrastructure to do this”, he concluded.
According to van Rees, HP will open an additional ten offices throughout Africa next year; and will establish a presence in Africa’s smaller markets like Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia.
What has happened to ITE Distribution in South Africa who used to sell the Palm mobile phones? Please let me know where I can get help with my Treo Pro that I bought from them 2 years ago?
Thank You