A year is in the books at HP Inc., and to mark the one year anniversary of the Hewlett-Packard Co. split into HP Inc. and HPE, we took a look back to see just how this first year went.
You may not call the first year of HP a home run for the corporate giant, but you wouldn’t necessarily call it a strikeout either. It falls somewhere in the middle, at least according to Tim Brunt, program manager of personal computing at IDC Canada, who spoke briefly with CDN about the anniversary.
“I don’t think [the first year] has necessarily been kind yet, and I think where they are having success they are also having equal numbers of struggle,” Brunt said. “They’re certainly leaning in the right direction in several areas with the network they have been laying, which has been very successful in the areas they want to be successful in.”
Most recently, revenue was down year-over-year in the third quarter by four per cent, and the company announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs worldwide by year’s end. But its footprint in commercial PC sales has become much stronger, with the gap between HP PC sales and competitors growing by almost 15 per cent in the last year, and with investments into printing and copying, HP plans to keep that growth as they move forward.
One-on-one with Mary Ann Yule
For more insight, ITWC spoke with Mary Ann Yule, the president of HP Canada. Since Yule came into the position at the start of 2016 after spending 12 years at CDW Canada, CDN’s No. 1 solution provider, the coming anniversary is a big moment as she completes her first full year with the company. Yule spoke with ITWC for an one-on-one interview.
“The HP Inc. opportunity to me was so exciting because of this bold agenda to reinvent and amaze customers, and that was appealing to me because it had the energy of a startup, but with already magnificent brand with a tremendous heritage that is emboldened and committed to making amazing technology to delight our customers and our channel partners,” said Yule, speaking about her first year with the company.
A big moment came this past September when HP Inc. spent $1.05 billion to acquire Samsung Electronics’ printer business. HP went into the deal as the worldwide market leader in printing and imaging with 40 per cent market share, a spot they have held for the past 30 years, but with only a minor footprint of five per cent in a copier market that was valued at $55 billion.
“We said we were going to continue to focus on these areas in print to be able to deliver better printing solutions than anybody else, and we did it. We put our money where our mouth is,” Yule said. “We bought the Samsung division to be able to participate in the A3 copier space, alongside the other great technologies we already have in the print space.”
New ventures include 3D printing
This past year, 3D printing is is another service HP is heavily investing in, with partners including global organizations like BMW, Nike, Autodesk, and Johnson & Johnson. By working with its partners, HP has put its commercial 3D printing technology to work in automotive, consumer goods, and medical applications.
“The separation really enabled us to become faster, nimbler, and more focused overall,” said Yule. HP has revamped its PC offerings, with a new look for its hardware lineup, launching the Omen platform for gaming, and the creating a new product in the Elite x3, a workspace that allows users to use their handheld as a desktop.
On the channel side, this year HP launched its new device-as-a-service, which was built entirely with channel input for the channel. “HP has always been a very channel strong organization, it is in our roots. Because of my history in the channel, it helps me understand what makes sense for HP in the Canadian channel, which is a paramount aspect of our business,” Yule said.
Year two begins today
Year one of the new HP Inc. hasn’t been perfect, but there has been growth that HP hopes to build upon going into year two.
“We are going to continue to focus on our core business, and the core technology, and ensure that we enable our partners to continue to win with us and capture market share. For 2017, we’re going to continue innovating, and building on these successes.”
Watch CDN for our continued coverage of the Hewlett-Packard split – one year later – later this week as we interview Charlie Atkinson, managing director of HPE Canada for the other half of the story.
