HP Inc. continues to show partner momentum at this week's HP Reinvent conference in Chicago. Key tracks included Women in Technology; plus interactive topical sessions spanning workplace transformation, endpoint security, mobility, everything-as-a-service and transformational selling.
And of course, there were plenty of product and channel announcements. Here are five that caught my attention.
1. New PCs & Accessories
HP announced new premium commercial notebooks and all-in-one (AiO) devices, along with displays and accessories. The newly announced HP Elite 1000 Series is engineered for work and play with thin and light designs, and the industry’s brightest displays, and is designed to pass MIL-STD testing for the harshest environments, HP claims.
Along with the Elite 1000 Series, HP announced several accessories. The Sprout Pro by HP G2 features dual touchscreens, a dedicated digital inking space to sketch and annotate, and a downward-facing camera to share or digitize real-world objects. HP ShareBoard can broadcast a real-time feed of dry-erase board activity to remote participants, or capture the feed to share later. The company also announced a monitor built specifically for video conferencing and a mouse that can use a real-time virtual pointer to highlight on-screen content.
2. Device-as-a-service Offering
Enhancements to HP's DaaS platform also surfaced. To help optimize IT assets and resources, HP DaaS now includes fleet analytics to find potential device health and security risks. This will allow IT departments to proactively resolve these issues before they impact the end user. Customers can also tailor their agreement to include additional lifecycle services, from installation and configuration to workplace services and secure disposal and recycling. A new fleet flexibility feature allows customers to flex their plans from 5 to 15 percent to meet the needs of their changing workloads.
3. Partner training program, HP University
The newly announced global program includes online and instructor-led training throughout 170 countries, and will be offered in 11 languages. The program was piloted and tested with strategic partners in three markets prior to deployment. The company hopes to enable HP’s partner ecosystem to migrate to evolving business models such as contractual and subscription sales with HP University.
4. Printing Solutions
The company also announced new printing solutions like HP Roam, which is a new universal business printing experience that enables mobile professionals to print anytime from any location and any device, and retrieve their prints securely from a growing set of print locations at the office, at home or at public sites. Print jobs can be submitted to the cloud as content is being consumed or created and picked up at the location of choice without having to worry about device to printer compatibility or connectivity. In addition, GPS and Bluetooth technologies allow for fast auto-discovery of printers while authentication ensures a protected, secure release of prints. They also released several new printers.
5. Security Advisory Board
A new Security Advisory Board organized by HP aims to reinvent how companies stay ahead of the security game, by bringing a trio of outside security experts inside the company. All three initial members have unique first-hand expertise in the world of hacking and the latest developments in security technology and strategies claims HP.
- The person HP chose to lead the advisory board is security consultant Michael Calce, a.k.a. “Mafiaboy,” who launched his public career in 2000 at the age of 15 by unleashing a massive cyberattack that brought down Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon. It led to an FBI manhunt and $1.7 billion in economic fallout.
- Joining him is Robert Masse, a partner at Deloitte (acting independently in this instance), with more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity.
- A third member is Justine Bone, who began her career doing reverse engineering and vulnerability research at New Zealand’s version of the U.S. National Security Agency before leading security for companies, including Bloomberg LP. She’s now the CEO of MedSec, which analyzes technology security for healthcare companies.
The Security Advisory Board will work with HP to identify evolving threats and help companies adapt to the fundamental changes taking place in the security landscape.
HP: Surprising Momentum
No doubt, intense competition continues across the PC and printer markets. Yet HP delivered remarkably strong results in its most recent fiscal quarter. And the company is looking to close the $1 billion Samsung Printer Business buyout any day now.
Rival Dell EMC also claims to have PC market momentum. In stark contrast, Lenovo has struggled in recent months to grow its overall IT business -- particularly in the data center market vs. Dell EMC and HP Enterprise.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
