By Ramdas S
To boost the sagging server demand in the country, HP India is planning to revitalize market strategy for its x86 servers. In order to achieve that, the technology major is creating a granular micro-vertical strategy, forging stronger vertical-specific ISV partnerships, and creating attractive bundling with ProCurve networking products.
“In the last 12 months, the Indian x86 server market shrunk by almost 25 percent. From $400 million last year, it has shrunk to $300 million. Though HP has maintained its market share, our revenues from server business have dropped significantly. We plan to revitalize the market by rolling out several new and strategic initiatives,” said Rajesh Dhar, Director, Industry Standard Servers, HP India Sales.
Although the market has seen a revival of demands over the past three months, HP is taking no chances. “Deeper focus on channels and product innovations can play an important role in bettering the prospects of the server market. We will ensure that our channel partners scale up energies and focus on what we call consultative selling,” he added.
According to Dhar, average selling price of servers has seen a significant drop in the past six months as processors have become faster and building blocks cheaper. “As virtualization is maturing, server consolidation is gaining momentum. A customer, who has hundred servers, needs only 15 to 20. So it’s important for partners to create opportunities by identifying new problems and offering newer solutions.”
To predict what the customer will buy in each vertical, HP is taking a more granular micro-vertical approach. “We are identifying customer requirements for each micro-vertical and based on this assessment creating a complete solution for the customers in alliance with ISVs and our server partners. In the education sector, for example, we have forged alliances with several ISVs for digital content solutions such as digital libraries, and ERP. This would enable our partners to take the right solutions to the customer,” he added.
Partner training, too, will remain a key focus. “Despite the slowdown, we have launched several new training platforms during the last year. This year, the focus of our training programs is on how partners can create new opportunities for selling servers,” said Dhar.
As ProCurve business has been integrated with its enterprise business to form the new HP Enterprise Server Storage and Networking (ESSN) Group, Dhar said channels should expect exciting server bundles along with networking gear. “We will be focused on the data center and server room market. Currently, we are in the process of enabling 50 of our top enterprise partners to address the opportunity.”
The company’s focus over the next 12 months, Dhar added, is less on partner expansion and more on enabling existing partners to move up the value chain and do more business. |