HP extends helping hand to start-ups

Now Indian start-ups and emerging enterprises will get help on information technology "� from selection of the product or suite to operation and maintenance "� that too from the global IT major, Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The US-based company is launching its 'HP Total Care' service in India, after its commercial rollout across many global and Asia Pacific markets.

"Every enterprise requires the right kind of IT infrastructure to reach the desired levels of efficiency. It is a big challenge for many of these companies to deploy the right IT products and services as not all of them have designated chief information officers or IT managers," HP India Director (Commercial Business) Personal Systems Group Nitin Chaudhry said.

Through 'Total Care', HP will take care of all the computing needs of the large enterprises and small and middle enterprises (SME). This will enable these companies to concentrate on their core competencies, he added.

HP will advise customers to choose the IT products, their deployment, training of staff and maintenance among others. The company would also provide customised services and products, depending upon the need of a particular sector or industry.

'Total Care' is being launched in India after studying the Indian market and customising the offerings to suite the needs of the companies in the country, he added.

IT spends by the small and medium enterprises (SME) in the country are slated to grow by 24 per cent this year, which is the fastest amongst all the BRIC countries.

Under the 'Total Care' plan, customers can walk into HP Business Solutions Centre to select their required IT infrastructure "� ranging from servers, printers, laptops and desktops "� while the company also provides finance for it. The company has tied up with ICICI Bank for providing loans to the emerging enterprises.

According to Chaudhry, HP will support the users by providing tools and resources on maintenance and operations, back-up and other support among others.

The plan will also offer a range options and protection plans, and certain fee-based services like Data Recovery Services (DRS) and Notebook PC Tracing service among others.

One of the most important offerings is the transition services HP offers, under which the company will look at upgrading the technology and equipment, migrating data and switching to newer operating systems and software depending on the change in the business needs of the company.