The new Solutions branch, created 2.5 years ago, is intended to evolve HP from a company that simply makes devices into a service specialist.
During HP Amplify, the brand’s annual flagship event where partners and distributors worldwide are invited, HP CEO Enrique Lores opens with three key trends: technology, geopolitics, and customer preferences.
The first two are self-explanatory: AI is dominating the conversation, and in the current geopolitical situation, HP is glad that it has been working on diversifying its supply chain for some time.
It’s the customer preferences that we see recurring throughout the entire presentation. The PC manufacturer is launching more than 60 new devices this year, but hardly any are mentioned on stage. What do we hear more than ten times? One HP and The Future of Work.
Stark Contrast
The contrast couldn’t be greater with the previous edition of Amplify in March 2024. Every PC got AI, and the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia, and Intel all made appearances. A year later, it’s quiet during the opening day. Not that the hype is over, far from it, but HP is making the switch to practicality.
Enrique Lores: “The main priority for the company is shaping the future of work. Last year we discussed the tension between what companies want. They want to increase productivity and stimulate growth.”
“The good news is that when employees feel better, their engagement increases, and more engaged employees are also more productive employees. This is a great opportunity for us. It’s about developing products, services, and solutions that help companies be more productive while ensuring that employees feel better about their work.”
Antonio Lucio, CMO at HP, summarizes it in one of the first sentences he proclaims on stage: “Putting people first is my most essential message.”
Total Solutions
Dave Shull, responsible for HP Solutions, emphasizes on stage the company’s vision for the future of work and the challenges IT leaders face with remote work and AI. “HP wants to offer an integrated, comprehensive solution that combines PCs, printers, and collaboration equipment.”
Everything indicates that HP is putting a lot of eggs in the basket of Digital Employee Management Tools. In the first Gartner Magic Quadrant, HP proudly stands out among the visionary manufacturers. It’s surprising that during the keynote, the graph wasn’t presented in large format, given HP’s ambitions in this area.
Central to these ambitions is the HP Workforce Experience Platform (WXP). This tool is an integrated solution that helps organizations manage and optimize their IT environment, completely agnostic. The platform combines PCs, printers, and collaboration equipment in one ecosystem and shifts from reactive to proactive management.
Specifically, IT teams can prevent problems instead of solving them afterward, leading to a better user experience, increased productivity, and more efficient IT management. It’s HP’s variant of DEX, short for Digital Employee Experience.
Tipping Point
Carles Farre, COO Workforce Solutions at HP, points to an important turning point in HP’s existence at the end of 2022. “That’s when CEO Enrique Lores announced that HP needed to evolve from a PC and print company to a company focusing on services. At the end of 2024, HP Solutions was established as a business unit.”
According to Farre, this shift is important. “The focus must be on the result, not on the device.” He also brings out his chef’s attire in his story. “With the full portfolio and WXP, we have everything in-house so that you as a company can cook. Do we deliver the entire dish? Or just the ingredients so you can cook?”
By positioning WXP as agnostic and cleverly connecting via APIs to other platforms such as ServiceNow, the company makes it clear that it wants to play an important role in that segment.
AI After All
So was AI barely mentioned during HP Amplify? No, far from it. AI is also an important component of WXP as well as within HP’s entire lineup. It goes without saying that with the numerous presence of partners and distribution channels, WXP gets attention, but we feel that it goes beyond that.
The fact that we had to search through press releases and presentations for additional details about the new EliteBooks, EliteDesks, ZBooks, and other innovations says enough. HP’s current portfolio for the workplace is quite comprehensive. With WXP, HP cannot ignore the call for services. The ambitions are clear and the foundation seems solid, ready for ‘The Future of Work’ as ‘One HP’.