Under the plan, HP will offer a group of printing and imaging products as well as business PC products designed especially for SMEs, to help them turn their traditional office into a technologically smarter place.

As SMEs are the backbone of the world's economy, the adoption of IT will help them improve their working processes and increase efficiency, said Adrian Koch, HP's senior vice president of personal systems for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

SMEs are set to be HP's key market area. The company has put a focus on helping this group of businesses utilise IT to increase their competitive advantage, by working with business partners to offer smart office-based products.

Koch said the market was a huge business opportunity for HP as SMEs are increasing their awareness of IT and they require more complicated IT products for their businesses.

According to an International Data Corp report, the value of IT used in the SME market in the Asia Pacific will exceed US$52 billion (Bt1.92 trillion) next year, with a 10-per-cent growth rate. It also predicts that IT expenditure in this market will reach $66 billion in 2010.

To deliver IT to suit SME demands, the company has a policy to develop products to serve customers in each particular region, and for the Asia Pacific product development is conducted under the "Design by Asia for Asia" concept.

As ease of use and price are a major concern among SMEs, HP has developed innovative technology for its products to simplify their management and, importantly, reduce the total cost of ownership.

Janice Lim, the director of HP's imaging and printing group for Asia Pacific and Japan, said the company had bundled various kinds of innovations into its printing products to enable SMEs to move into the modern office environment.

The company, for example, has integrated a new instant-on technology in its printers to offer users much faster printing speeds. The technology will allow a printout within 10 seconds even when the machine is in safe mode. Normally, when a printer is in this mode, it requires 10 to 15 seconds to warm up before making a print, but with this technology, the machine can start printing immediately.

Meanwhile, the company also offers other technologies to allow SME customers to manage more easily, have better resource control, and enhance security in their printing assets.

The technologies include the universal print driver, which allows customers to use a single driver for all networked HP printers; easy printer care, which will let customers to track their supply levels; Web Jetadmin, peripheral management software to help with remote configuration and management; and secure printing, which uses a fingerprint authentication system for secure access to the printer.

With business PC products, the company also aims to help SMEs enhance desktop PC security and manageability.

Joergen Jakobsen, the vice president and general manager of the commercial systems unit, HP Asia-Pacific, said growing businesses had been plagued by security threats, so the company had worked with partners to sell products with strengthened security, cost reduction and better manageability.

He said the company had adopted Intel vPro technology to include in its business PC products to offer advanced manageability. This technology, when used with the appropriate software, allows customers to manage their PCs by changing settings or reconfiguring the system remotely.

The firm  also built in a standard Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 embedded security chip in its business PC products to enhance protection for physical assets and data.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation

NEW DELHI