H-P, UP govt in consultancy services pact

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is working closely with the Uttar Pradesh government.

"We are working very closely with the various departments of the State government like the Uttar Pradesh Development Systems Corporations Limited (UPDESCO) and UP Electronics," expressed Puneet Chadha, Country Manager (Commercial Sales), Imaging and Printing Group, HP India Sales, in an exclusive interview to Business Standard.

The company, in its association with the government, offer consultancy services besides making available its products to the same.

"In UP, we are seeing tremendous growth and the interest taken by the government to develop the facilities is also significant. HP has a very important role to play given the projects that the UP government is undertaking at present," he said adding that computerisation of land records, building over one thousand kiosks around the state, making various filing processes online are some of the activities that the state is engaged in presently and it is where HP comes in the picture.

"The national E-Governance programme is another big draw for us," expressed Chadha.

"Earlier the organisations used to budge for cheapest kind of printers and did not pay much heed to their requirements. But the scene is changing now. We try and assist the organisations to resolve their printing related problems and also try through our task force to discover the exact locations were these problems are located," he added.

To state the importance of printing, Chadha cited the example of a remote location, wherein a person needs to print out a certificate; then he will have to come to the city and queue up in the predetermined process.

But what if the person can get a digital certificate at the very own location, it will not only help him in his proceeding but will also relieve him of the hassle of coming up town. "This in turn provides better management of funds, time and convenience at the customer end," he added.

While explaining the working of the company, Chadha said that they believe in giving 'trusted advice to customers'. This is done by the company by means of working on four components, namely, imparting education through seminars and road shows; penetration in market through commercial channel partners; increased investment in government space and through operational excellence.

HP has over 111 commercial channel partners in Uttar Pradesh alone, who are spread in almost all locations in the state; while 37 such partners in Uttaranchal.

HP has also entered in a contract with the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGSD), wherein it provides its range of 33 products to the concerned agencies at subsidised rates.

"They do not have to go through the robust tender process but we make them available the required products through 'Rate Contracts' designed especially to suit their needs," explained Chadha.

The contract with the DGSD was rolled in June last year and it is scheduled to expire in June this year. On being asked upon the extension of the contract, Chaddha said that it depends on the Government, and added, "We would definitely look forward to the extension of the same."