Thought for the day:Delivering on the roadmap
- Posted:
- 00:00 30 May 2002
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Certainly, a product roadmap has now been released, detailing which company's technology will predominate in each of the key areas. This has been put together with commendable speed, in all but a couple of areas is reasonably decisive, and contains few surprises.
But now comes the tricky problem for 'New HP' of delivering on those promises.
From a user perspective, there are several issues to consider:
- For product ranges that are to be phased out, there is, in most cases, a reasonable transition period. The prudent course of action must be to evaluate the strategic options as soon as possible, and when considering the New HP option, to take advantage of the vendor's need to retain existing customers. The user's bargaining position will be particularly strong for the next nine to 12 months.
- For product ranges that are to be retained, make sure that the product roadmap fits the organisation's forward strategy, and look for opportunities to consolidate usage of these technologies. This may particularly be the case where investment decisions have been postponed because of uncertainty over the past six months.
- Users must also take steps to clarify their relationship with the new company and its distributors and partners. In the UK, the shape of the organisation's top levels has been announced, and lower tiers will follow shortly. For those companies with a direct relationship with HP or Compaq, a meeting with the relevant contact should be sought as soon as possible. In the case of partner relationships - distributors, systems integrators, and value-added resellers - it is likely to take somewhat longer for the new structure to become clear, but pressure should, nonetheless, be maintained on partners to provide information.
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For New HP there are many banana skins that lie along the route ahead. Despite the positive reception for the roadmap, it was worrying to receive this week from HP, a communication offering special deals on Omnibook portables and HP Vectras - both products that will, in due course, be phased out.
New HP has declared its ambition to be the only credible rival to IBM as a global IT provider, but to do this, must offer customers some clear defining advantages. It must also use its extensive services group to deliver on solutions, rather than relying on its mantra of product innovation.
New HP's offering? Would you take a ride >> CW360.com reserves the right to edit and publish answers on the Web site. Please state if your answer is not for publication.
Tim Jennings is research production director at Butler group.
