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The past 12 months have seen HP steadily increase its market share in servers and storage both globally and in the Asia-Pacific market. But, "No single vendor can catch the fast growth and catch the fast market," said Felix See, managing director, HP Hong Kong. "In an aggregate manner, the Hong Kong market is mature. But software and services are growing fast, along with SME tech, and enterprise verticals."
The tech giant is doing well at catching these fast markets, judging from their five CWHK awards, spanning several categories.
See pointed to the financial sector-including banking and insurance-as an enterprise growth area. "Compliance issues related to Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel 2 are still key to CIOs," he said. "Disaster recovery is also part of aggregate growth-corporations are still focused on infrastructure."
Statistics from research firm IDC bear out See's assertions. According to an April report from IDC, HP secured the No 1 position in the overall server market (based on unit shipments) in CY2006 in Asia-Pacific (in. Japan) with a 24.9% market share. The firm also maintained a leading position in key segments of the server market in CY2006 (based on factory revenues) including Linux, Windows, Itanium (EPIC) and x86 servers. |
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According to another IDC report released in March, HP led in total disk storage systems capacity (in terabytes) shipped with a market share of 23.7 % in Q42006. In addition, HP maintained its leadership position in terms of total capacity (in terabytes) shipped in the external disk storage market, registering 21.4 % share of the market and a year-on-year growth of 73.0 %.
Globally, HP took the No. 1 position in blade server factory revenues and units shipped in Q4,2006, according a February IDC report. HP overtook IBM to lead the blade server market with 41.9 % factory revenues share and 40.0 % total factory units share, and showed more than ten times the growth of IBM in units and revenues year-over-year. For the 19th consecutive quarter, HP led the worldwide server market in total units shipped, with 31.6 % share in the fourth quarter. HP also outpaced industry unit growth at 4.6 % year-over-year in that quarter, taking share from the two nearest competitors, said the report.
Overall strategy
See spoke of a "broad-level strategy" with three major areas: "First of all, we want to target growth for our company, and much of that is how to invest in emerging markets. Secondly: we need to manage efficiency, streamline bureaucracy, which we accomplish through layers of organization. And finally, we need to manage our capital: both financial and human capital."
"Human resources are the future of our business," said See. The HP GM said his firm has a practice of swapping middle and senior managers between Asia, Europe and the USA where appropriate, so that they can experience working for HP within different regions and cultures. "It's a people-strategy," he said, "aimed at training managers to become 'next-generation leaders'."
BT supplants IT at HP
"The role of the CIO is no longer supporting IT exclusively, but helping drive business," said See. "It's more like a business manager who supports IT. At large Hong Kong organizations like Cathay and the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the CIO sits at board-level."
"Business phenomena like B2B and Web 2.0 services would be impossible without IT," said Fred Sheu, marketing director, Technology Solutions Group, HP Hong Kong. "Technology creates business opportunities. Still, many great CIOs are not all that 'techie'."
Emerging markets
See added that much growth of Hong Kong companies comes from growth outside the HKSAR, especially in emerging markets like China and India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Russia. "It's a great opportunity for us," he said, "to invest a little in those emerging markets."
"The market's not stagnant-there's still a lot of spending," he said. "Banks pool their operations in Hong Kong/Tokyo/Singapore." But See pointed out that HP's strategy is aimed not only at mature markets but at new opportunities in Asia's rising economies, as well as those of eastern Europe.
Conserving resources
"We design our hardware for efficient use of power," said See. "Our servers save 30% [on electrical usage] and our storage devices up to 50%." See said that his firm practices e-waste recycling, and that hardware-efficiency not only saves electrical costs but also runs cooler, helping equipment last longer and saving on air-conditioning costs.
HP in HK mirrors the firm's global sustainability initiatives (see sidebar: "Tech sustainability"). To address both the energy consumed by servers and the energy necessary to cool them, HP continues to develop product offerings that help customers effectively configure their datacenters. According to HP's website, energy use can be reduced by over 25 percent with no hardware changes and up to 50 percent if more efficient servers are purchased. In addition, smaller form factors, such as blade servers, contribute equivalent processing power with lower heat output.
With the amount of hardware the tech giant is currently selling, being on the green side is a definite plus for HP in 2007.
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Tech sustainability
"HP strives to be an economic, intellectual and social asset to each country and community in which we do business," said John Frey, manager, Corporate Environmental Strategies, HP. "The betterment of our society isn't a job to be left to a few, but it is a responsibility to be shared by all."
To this end, HP focuses on three priorities that reflect stakeholder interests and HP's unique capabilities:
Increasing the energy efficiency of HP products and operations
Leading the industry in recycling and reuse options for end-of-life products
Raising standards in HP's global supply chain
HP's vision is to develop environmentally-sound products and solutions, as well as operate in a way to lead global businesses toward a sustainable future. A member of the Dow Jones World Sustainability Index, HP works toward a sustainable future by developing programs that reduce its environmental footprint, and those of customers and partners.
As of January, HP had recycled more than 920 million pounds (417 million kilograms) of hardware and HP print cartridges. Raw materials recovered during the recycling process have been used in automotive parts, fence posts, shoe soles and other new products.
HP is on target to meet its global goal to recycle 1 billion pounds of hardware and HP print cartridges by the end of 2007. Plastics and metals recovered from products recycled by HP have been used in new HP and other products, including auto body parts, clothes hangers, toys, fence posts, serving trays and roof tiles. HP's recycling program operates globally in more than 40 countries, regions and territories. It seeks to:
Reduce the environmental impact of IT products
Minimize waste going to landfills
Help customers conveniently discard products in an environmentally sound fashion
More than 40 HP business computing and display products are now included in an independent online registry that helps institutional buyers select computer products based on their environmental attributes.
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