HP Aims New Campaign At Smaller Businesses

Small and midsize companies are turning into the hottest IT spenders around, and Hewlett Packard launched a campaign Thursday squarely aimed at that market.

The effort, called Smart Office, represents a $750 million investment by HP that Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO, says is designed to help small and midsize businesses meet all their needs.

By some estimates, the IT market for small and midsize companies to be more than $300 billion. According to Fiorina, HP already has a significant presence there: nine out of 10 small and midsize business currently have an HP product, and last year, more than $21 billion in HP's revenue came from small and midsize business. ''We intend to extend our leadership,'' Fiorina says.

Smart Office includes more than 100 different products and services, including an HP ProLiant server that comes pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 and can support 75 users right out of the box, new desktop systems that come bundled with software, new printers, and online resources to help customers assess the products and services they need.

''Just as small and medium-size business are the lifeblood of our economy, technology is the lifeblood of small and medium-size businesses,'' Fiorina says, adding that these companies need more than help buying technology. They also need help setting the technology up, running it, modifying it and servicing it. They also need a company with a broad range of technology, from PCs, printers to PDAs, notebooks, servers, workstations, storage, networking solutions and a broad partner network that includes Microsoft and Intel, she says. ''They need a presence in every community so the right kind of help is a phone call, a click, or a block away.''

According to Fiorina, ''there is only one company in the world today that can stand in at every step of the way to help small and medium-size business get more value out of technology. That company is HP.''

HP also introduced Smart Finance services that feature multivendor financing and leasing programs available directly from HP or through channel partners. The vendor also launched a special financing program available in the United States between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 that lets customers choose between a 0% lease rate or no payments until 2004.