HP has pulled out all its guns to tell partners it's in the storage business for the long haul. The company unveiled a roadmap called HP Storage Grid at an event in Houston for partners and customers that consists of plans to release a bevy of new capabilities developed in the company's HP Labs by 2008 that provide a seamless, virtualized repository, allowing individuals to search and access data without regard to where it is stored with a unified management infrastructure.
The event comes just one month after poor execution in HP's server and storage business brought the entire company's third quarter down, and the company's share price with it. HP's storage business has taken a nosedive, in part, due to the flawed implementation of an SAP supply-chain and order-management system, which delayed the shipment of enterprise products by months. HP has also lost share in the midrange to EMC.
Vowing that its missteps will be short-lived, chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina was emphatic about HP's commitment to righting its storage ship. "Our determination to lead in storage is unwavering," Fiorina told the crowd of 1,000 attendees in a keynote address, which was also webcast to partners, customers and analysts. She humbly acknowledged HP's missteps. "We know we have to earn your trust and confidence," she said.
After giving her keynote, Fiorina, along with Jack Novia, the newly promoted senior vice president of HP's Customer Solutions Group in the Americas region, met with 15 of HP's Elite Partners, who sell HP systems exclusively. In that meeting, the focus was on improving communication, growing market share, the creation of demand-generation programs and a commitment to help partners grow their sales and margins, Novia tells VARBusiness.
"It was very proactive," Novia says. "I would say the things Carly and I walked away with from the meeting was we got a good start with our partners. We will absolutely the communication channel."
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