Q&A: HP's EMEA president on how the vendor's strategy is evolving

Nick Lazardis talks CRN through the high-level plans at print and PC vendor HP

With adoption of as-a-service models and emerging technology increasing, how has EMEA strategy changed?

It is the same global strategy, just extended into the regions.

We have three pillars. The first is what we call core, which is our traditional print and PC business. The middle pillar is growth, which are fractions of the core. We are great at core print, but then we have our foray into the copier space. That is part of the growth area because traditionally we have a core share in print but in A3 we weren't even playing, and the market is the same size. So we build on what we do well. We wouldn't look at chairs and say we want to be a chair manufacturer now!

In personal systems you have device-as-a-service, along with premium and gaming. In some countries in EMEA we are now number one in gaming.

The third pillar is future. That is where 3D printing sits, and virtual reality with PCs.

How has device-as-a-service adoption in EMEA compared with North America?

In EMEA, MPS happened around similar timeframes. DaaS was slightly behind North America, which generally moves on these new concepts faster. I'd say a couple of months [slower in EMEA], but in the past it would have been years.

European customers - large corporates - have moved fairly fast in EMEA so we haven't seen that lag. If you're not working in the business you'd say both have moved at the same pace.

Europe is not a homogenous market. In mature markets - the UK, France, and Germany - you find a lot more corporates proactively coming to us. It is still a little bit behind in some of the more emerging markets, unless you're talking about the large corporates there.

How has your increasing focus on DaaS affected your overall strategy?

It is not just about selling a printer and hoping you continue buying from us, it's about services. A large organisation, rather than putting it on its balance sheet, will go under contract.

Those large organisations that already taking managed print are coming to us and saying they want to do device now too. They have the infrastructure and they know how to do it. It is a little bit more difficult to introduce it to someone who hasn't done it before because [you have to explain that] they don't own the device.

That is now accelerating. We have been established with MPS, but the good thing is that these partners can leverage it for DaaS. That is what Reinvent is about [this year].

What changes do your partners have to make to adapt to the shift?

If you rewind 10 years in our industry, everyone was a box mover. Now you need a sales organisation that knows how to sell the value of a contractual service. We go in and help design and build a solution - where people sit, where we put the PCs - so we have to be able to sell that.

But transactional is still a massive part of our industry, so we have to make sure that we don't over-pivot to contractual too quickly. It is not like transactional business is going away. [People like me] will always want to own my PC, but millennials are quite comfortable with the transaction models.

Do I need to own a PC or do I just need to do something on a PC? That is the mindset of that younger generation.

What challenges does this create?

It is balance; how fast you want to go and in what order. The benefit is that no partner hasn't come from a transactional background. The vast majority do managed print and some are doing device.

They also know the value of moving too fast - some end users are not ready to move yet. It is really pace and sequence.

Where would you say HP is in relation to its competitors when it comes to DaaS?

We have an opinion, but I will give you the opinion you'll hear from our partners. Our partners are hearing it from every vendor. Most print vendors are there already and they're hearing it from all the PC vendors. The feedback we have been getting, which has been reflected [at Reinvent], is that we are further down the path of being prepared and creating the future than some of the others are.

But with any new development - whether it is a business model or a product - the way it usually starts is it is an idea, then a discussion, then a few people test it, then people start to buy it. Then the rapid acceleration starts to happen.