Fiorina speech has the RoIT stuff

Focus on more than tech for tech's sake, HP boss tells conference

Freedom of choice, adaptability and better return on IT investment (RoIT), was the message from Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard (HP) chief executive, at HP's Ensa@work conference last week.

Speaking to almost 4,000 delegates at HP's sixth and biggest ever Ensa conference, which had the theme of 'adaptive infrastructure for greater business agility', Fiorina said the focus should not be on technology for technology's sake.

"Customers realise it is not the glamour of technology that is important, but the return they get on their IT investment," she said.

Tony Craythorne, sales director at Ideal Enterprise Solutions, said HP was hoping to achieve RoIT by "encouraging end-users to use HP as their end-to-end solution; from the desktop to storage, from software to servers and services".

At the conference HP unveiled several additions to its portfolio, which it claimed will give customers better control of their IT infrastructure.

Fiorina announced new four-way ProLiant blade servers, new financing options, a storage virtualisation partnership with Brocade and new AlphaServers, which she called "a natural stepping stone to Itanium".

Fiorina also stressed HP's commitment to Linux and said she did not see Dell as a threat in the Linux space, because of HP's commitment to services.

However, Jon Collins, associate analyst at Quocirca, said this focus on services could cause VARs problems. "The channel must steel itself for confusion over the coming years, particularly when it comes to 'partnerships' with big vendors," he said.

"Major consultancies and integrators are being bought up by the vendors, which begs the question: who will replace them as the independent voice in the market? Savvy resellers are recognising that a gap is opening in the market, but to fill it, they will have to grow and adapt."