PROJECT REPORT ON

A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN LAPTOP SALES AND MARKETING OF HCL AND HEWLETT PACKARD (HP) LAPTOPS IN INDIA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my pleasure to be indebted to various people, who directly or indirectly contributed in the development of this work and who influenced my thinking, behavior, and acts during the course of study. I express my sincere gratitude to Ansal Institute of Technology and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprashta University for providing me with an opportunity to undergo summer training. I am thankful to Mrs. Geetanjali Singh for her support, cooperation, and motivation provided to me during the training for constant inspiration, presence and blessings. Lastly, I would like to thank my Parents for their moral support and my friends with whom I share my day-to-day experience and receive lots of suggestions that improve my quality of work.

Anirudh Singh

List of Content:
Sl. No. 1. 2. 2.A 2.B 2.C 2.D 2.E 3. 3.A 3.B 3.C 3.D 4. 4.A 4.B 4.C 4.D 4.E 5. 6. 7. 8. Particulars Synopsis The Theory Of Channel Sales The ABCs Of Channel Sales Hybrid Models Managing Relationships New Products, Models And Markets The Shortest Distance Hewlett Packard India (HP) About The Company Product Legacy Of HP HP Compaq Laptops - Knowledge Management On Product Processes Strategy Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) About The Company The HCL Family Who do we look for? Why HCL? Enjoy your day, everyday, at HCL Research Methodology Unique Selling Points Of Hcl And Hp Laptops SALES AND DISTRIBUTION CONCLUSION

1. SYNOPSIS Technology is the only dependent factor for mankind in this century and it runs faster like a thought. From a macro environment, it has created a micro environment and promises to make us more handicap without it, even for a fraction of a second. Objective of our paper is to identify the competitive difference between Laptops of two companies. One is an Indian home-grown entity and the other one is an international and well-known and established brand within India. They had an old partnership and today they offer different product ranges to the Indian consumer. Each carry strong brand value plus great selling proposition to lure its customers and we compare how. PRODUCTS TO COMPARE Notebooks (laptop PCs) HP Pavilion notebook PCs, Compaq Presario notebook PCs, Business notebook PCs HCL Laptop

2.

THE

THEORY

OF

CHANNEL

SALES

POINT

OF

DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN A CHANNEL SALES AND DIRECT SALES

A straight line, conventional wisdom says, is the shortest distance between two points. As a result, conventional wisdom also suggests that the most efficient way to deliver products to customers is to cut out the middleman. But conventional wisdom isn't always right. A direct path from information technology (IT) vendors to end users, for example, is not necessarily the most efficient or effective way to reach customers, something scores of vendors have already discovered.

In fact, two-thirds of all computer and peripheral sales go through indirect distribution channels, according to Raymond James & Associates. While IT vendors have often tested the direct-selling waters, many have discovered that the channel (Understanding The Channel) allows them to concentrate on their core competencies, such as research and design, brand management and demand creation, while distributors handle tasks like logistics and credit, and resellers configure complex multivendor solutions and manage intimate endcustomer relationships.

Apple, IBM and Toshiba are good examples of vendors that know the value of the channel and, according to recent figures from The NPD Group, a research firm that tracks sales through distribution, are vendors whose recent channel

sales have shown significant increases (Dec. 02 over Dec. 01). Even vendors that emphasize direct sales for personal computer products have continued to rely on the channel to get peripherals, enterprise products and networking gear to their customers.

Why take an indirect path to market? Surprisingly, the most obvious reason is cost. Cutting out the middlemen sounds like a good idea, in theory. But few technology products stand on their own; most require services like integration, inventory supply, financing, accounting, IT support and training. Distributors and the reselling channel are all about reducing the costs associated with providing these services. While people generally think middlemen generate more costs than a direct supply chain, the opposite is usually true.

2.A The ABCs Of Channel Sales

One way to get to the true cost of direct vs. indirect sales is to do an "activity based costing" (ABC) analysis [Steve Raymund Perspective]. When vendors use an ABC analysis to do a thorough and detailed examination of the specific costs of the many different activities associated with selling a product, they often discover that direct sales cost them as much or significantly more than channel sales. Direct sales are full of unrealized and sometimes hidden expenses, from the salaries and overhead of maintaining a sales force to the costs of the systems needed to deliver products with the accuracy and efficiency contemporary customers have come to expect.

Vendors have nothing to lose and everything to gain with an ABC analysis. Establishing a detailed set of metrics that capture every conceivable cost, internal and external, gives vendors a true profit picture. In the words of a recent CFO magazine article: "ABC can help companies figure out ways to raise profits without raising prices."

2.B HYBRID MODELS

An ABC analysis of the actual cost of what it takes to get specific products to specific customers can reveal that it's cost-effective to reach some customers directly but others via the channel, all within the same vendor's go-to-market strategy.

IBM's Personal Computer Division, for example, has implemented such a hybrid distribution strategy to allow customers a choice. Many customers want different channels according to particular products and situations: The key for IBM is to manage each route to market - whether direct or indirect - for profitability. In its own analysis of channel vs. direct strategies, IBM has discovered that direct sales may offer higher gross margins, but those margins are typically offset by the many expenses required to support the direct sales effort.

HP has one of the most talked-about - and most often misunderstood - hybrid strategies in the IT arena today. When HP launched its Hard Deck program in 2001, and later its Partner One sales program in November 2002, the media treated the announcements as if HP were abandoning the channel community

entirely. With Partner One, even though the program had other attributes besides a direct-selling option, HP's channel partners feared the computer giant would shift a significant amount of its products from indirect to direct channels.

In reality, these hybrid strategies have had a limited effect on direct sales. Under the more recent Partner One, for example, the percentage of HP's U.S. direct commercial sales rose only a single point in the first quarter of FY 2003, and the Palo Alto, Calif., technology giant continues to drive a significant portion of its worldwide sales through its partners. "Two-thirds of our business comes as a direct result of our partnership and our collaboration with you," said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and CEO, to a gathering of channel partners at the HP Americas Partnership conference in February 2003. In some product categories, HP is especially dependent on the channel - more than 95 percent of its printer sales, for example, go through channel partners.

2.C MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS

Although there are times when it may make sense for vendors to work directly with a handful of major end-user customers, managing relationships with the thousands of other businesses and consumers who use their products is an almost impossible challenge. One of the biggest values distributors offer is that they save vendors from the headaches of thousands upon thousands of individual relationships, transactions, electronic linkages and telephone calls they would otherwise have to handle on their own.

Thanks to distributors, vendors only need to manage a handful of relationships to move their wares to end-user businesses and consumers worldwide. Distribution lets them run lean and mean, eliminating many of the resources they would otherwise need in place to reach and manage those many thousands of annual sales transactions on their own.

2.D NEW PRODUCTS, MODELS AND MARKETS

Another reason mega-vendors like HP and IBM continue to depend on the channel is that it allows them to reach into small business markets with new products and technologies. Each small-to-medium business (SMB) customer has individual needs that have to be addressed, making it virtually impossible for IT vendors to achieve economies of scale servicing these customers, especially when the customers need solutions, not just boxes.

For most, the only smart way to reach into the SMB market - with its requirement for multi-vendor IT solutions - is to partner with the channel, using its thousands of value-added resellers as an extension of the vendors' own sales forces. And the best way to reach those thousands of resellers is through the distributors that serve them, supplying them with the multitude of products they need to create varied and individual multi-vendor solutions for their clients and providing them the financing vehicles and support they need to get the job done.

The same holds true in the mid-market space. Most mid-market solutions consist of complex, multi-vendor designs. While one configuration may work, two or

three other configurations, platforms or combinations of products may work better, and it often takes the expertise of a vendor-neutral, multi-vendorexperienced distributor to assist resellers in choosing the right course and the right combination of products for their end customers.

Today, for the same reasons many traditional vendors have used the channel to take products and services to market, vendors such as Sprint and T-mobile are embracing distribution and the channel to drive greater sales in completely new technology markets. Vendors use distributors to pass sales strategies and positioning tips to their resellers, who in turn match the developing technologies to the specific needs of their individual customers.

And vendors - traditional or otherwise - can use the channel to develop brandnew go-to-market strategies with existing partners. For example, under its Open Value program, Microsoft uses distribution to manage transactions for software licenses. With distributors tracking the licensing sales, resellers get commissions without the associated reporting headaches, leaving the resellers free to manage their long-term end-user relationships. Cisco Systems is another beacon of creativity, having developed a similar channel delivery mechanism for its warranty programs.

In the mid-market arena, where end customers may have their own in-house IT staff, the channel still plays an important role. Distributors and VARs work together to plan implementations, troubleshoot problems and design future upgrades that will allow the end customer to grow uninterrupted.

Service and support where you need it, when you need it, and how you need it is a significant reason the channel has evolved and flourished as a technology delivery system that addresses real-world problems with multi-vendor solutions, overcoming obstacles that fall back on the vendors' shoulders in a strictly directselling model.

2.E THE SHORTEST DISTANCE

So, in addition to being the most effective way to reach many customers, the channel in many cases is also the most efficient. As it has evolved through the decades, the channel has trained customers to expect world-class logistics support via experienced distribution powerhouses with national and international warehouse networks capable of handling significant daily orders from major customers and scores of individual orders from smaller customers. It's a system that's difficult, if not impossible, for individual vendors to cost-effectively duplicate. As a result, vendors have discovered that, for many customer relationships, the channel really is the shortest distance between two points.

The new HP in India is the first entity across Asia to integrate the channel policies of erstwhile HP and Compaq. In this new channel policy, the new HPs Indian entity has integrated the two sets of channel policies including credit terms, cash discounts, stock price protection and inventory management. It has got a two tier channel program that measures the sale outs (sales from channel partners to end customers).

The company has also put in place, regular auditing of all channel programs by an external auditing agency, which wasnt the case for Compaq. Besides this, a new CRM function has also been introduced to look after the interests of the channel partners. HP has also allotted user IDs and passwords to Compaq channel partners to monitor their performance online, the same way as HP channel partners have been doing so far.

Rajendra Kumar, Executive VP, HCL Infosystems "Our market is so competitive that there can't be a major difference in prices"

HCL has been around for more than 30 years and have developed a huge sales and support infrastructure. It has been very strong on the logistics front, in terms of delivery and distribution. HCL has got an immensely proved turn around time, challenging Dell. Customers can send enquiries to HCL stores through our website. Due to the complex tax structure in the country, it is difficult to implement a direct model. There are states where VAT is not applicable, while some have Octroi. It is still early days for online shopping. Customers want to touch and feel the products. They may go online to seek information, but prefer to go to a store to buy. Even if 3,000 customers buy online, it is not something that would make one sit up and take notice. Why would anyone buy direct when he can get the same price from a partner?

o Sales Management Sales structure HP Business Unit

1. Technology Solutions Group (TSG)

3. Personal Systems Group (PSG)

2. Imaging and Printing Group (IPG)

To simplify the company and bring its sales force closer to customers, HP will dissolve the Customer Solutions Group (CSG) - a standalone business group responsible for sales to enterprise, small and medium-size businesses and public-sector customers. It will merge the sales function and related accountability directly into three individual business units - Technology Solutions Group (TSG), Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) and Personal Systems Group (PSG). This will give each business unit greater financial and operational control of its business.

HP has a wide range of global operations happening from India. Over threequarters of its 29,000 staff (including contract staff) work on services for HP worldwide and its customers

3. HEWLETT PACKARD INDIA (HP)

3.A About the Company: The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly referred to as HP, is an American information technology corporation, specializing in personal computers, notebook computers, servers, network management software, printers, digital cameras, and calculators, among other technology related products.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States, HP has a global presence in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging, and also provides software and services. The company, which once catered primarily to engineering and medical marketsa line of business it spun off as Agilent Technologies in 1999now markets to households and small business products such as printers, cameras and ink cartridges found in grocery and department stores.

HP posted US $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006 compared to US$91.4 billion for IBM, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion.

HP is the largest worldwide seller of personal computers, according to market research firms Gartner and IDC reported in October 2006; HP holds a near 3.5% market share lead.

HP has a successful line of printers, scanners, digital cameras, calculators, PDAs, servers, workstations, and home-small business computers, many of the latter were acquired during the 2002 merger with Compaq. HP today promotes itself as not just being a hardware and software company, but also one that offers a full range of services to architect, implement and support today's IT infrastructure.

HP has three business segments: Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS), HP Services (HPS), and HP Software are structured beneath the broader Technology Solutions Group (TSG).

3.B PRODUCT LEGACY OF HP Agilent Technologies holds the direct product legacy for all HP original company products founded in 1939. Agilent's current portfolios of electronic instruments are descended from HP's very earliest products. HP entered the computer business only after its instrumentation competencies were well-established.

After the acquisition of Compaq in 2002, HP has maintained the "Compaq Presario" brand on low-end home desktops and laptops, the "HP Compaq" brand on business desktops and laptops, and the "HP ProLiant" brand on Intelarchitecture servers. (The "HP Pavilion" brand is used on home entertainment laptops and all home desktops.)

3.C HP COMPAQ LAPTOPS - KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ON PRODUCT PROCESSES

HP's Product Processes Organization (PPO) is a corporate group with the mission of advancing product development and introduction. It includes such diverse functions as Corporate Quality, Procurement, Product Marketing, Safety and Environmental, and Organizational Change. The Product Generation Information Systems (PGIS) group serves each of these functions. Bill Kay, the PPO director, put PGIS at the center of the PPO organization chart because he felt that information management needed to become a core competence of PPO. The PPO knowledge management group is currently working on three projects. One involves competitor information for HP's Components group. The goal of the second project is to create a Web-based interface to primary and secondary research information. The third system manages international marketing intelligence.

3.D STRATEGY Strategically, both the brands have adopted similar techniques. The threat of new entrant has been absorbed by co-branding and selling or offering distribution network strength.

These employees span a range of divisions and subsidiaries, whose names change rather often, but which have grown consistently. GDIC, once Digital GlobalSoft, became the Global Delivery Application Services Center, headed by P Venkatachalam and G Padmanabhan, the flagship application services center in HPs global network. HP Global eBusiness delivers finance, accounting, HR and other business processes for HP and its worldwide customers, with 6,500 employees in four centers in Bangalore and Chennai. HP ISO became the Systems Technology & Software Division, led by V Subrahmanyam, focusing on R&D for software products. And a Hub Software/Firmware and Solutions Lab, led by Sandy Lieske, develops software and firmware for printers and MFDs (HPISO used to do this earlier).

Company Hierarchy structure

Then theres the team led by Frederick Ravikumar which sources and supplies parts and services to HP in 10 countries. The Global Competency Centre, Bangalore, led by Paul Van Ingen, provides tech support for a range of products,

including and also software, networks, etc. The Global Solution Center, Bangalore, headed by Jesudas Andrade, provides helpdesk and other technical services for enterprise customers. Infrastructure Technology Operations, led by MS Prakash, provides remote infrastructure and service desk services to over 140 customers across the world. And IPG Consumer Contact Center, led by Ramesh Giri, supports global print and imaging customers. And HP Labs India (led by Ajay Gupta) addresses emerging markets for ICT.

4. HINDUSTAN COMPUTERS LIMITED (HCL)

4.A About the Company: Hindustan Computers Limited, also known as HCL Enterprise, is one of India's largest electronics, computing and information Technology Company. Based in Noida, near Delhi, the company comprises two publicly listed Indian companies, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems.

HCL was founded in 1976 by Shiv Nadar, Ajai Chowdhry and four of their colleagues. HCL was focused on addressing the IT hardware market in India for the first two decades of its existence with some sporadic activity in the global market.

In 1981, HCL seeded a company focused on addressing the computer training industry, NIIT, though it has currently divested its stake in the company. In 1991, HP took minority stake in the company (26%) and the company was known as HCL HP for the five years of the joint venture. On termination of the joint venture in 1996, HCL became an enterprise which comprises HCL Technologies (to address the global IT services market) and HCL Infosystems (to address the Indian and APAC IT hardware market). HCL has since then operated as a holding company.

HCL is a leading global Technology and IT Enterprise with annual revenues of US$ 4.7 billion. The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India,

HCL

Technologies

(www.hcltech.com)

and

HCL

Infosystems

(www.hclinfosystems.in)

The 3 decade old enterprise, founded in 1976, is one of India's original IT garage start ups. Its range of offerings span R&D and Technology Services, Enterprise and Applications Consulting, Remote Infrastructure Management, BPO services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration and Distribution of Technology and Telecom products in India. The HCL team comprises 53,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, operating across 18 countries including 360 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including several IT and Technology majors.

4.B The HCL Family

At HCL, people are not just employees but family. So, like an important member of the family should, you get endless freedom to experiment, unlimited empowerment to execute your dreams and the rare opportunity to be an entrepreneur.

HCL Infosystems is the progenitor of the HCL Group and is known as the Entrepreneurial Incubator in the Indian IT industry. We believe in empowering people to help achieve their goals goals that are achieved by the coming together of talent and innovation, powered by ownership and freedom to experiment, leading to tremendous growth and gains for the individual and the

organisation. We pride ourselves in being a pioneer in creating the Indian IT Industry, by pioneering the creation of the people for the industry.

Our HR philosophy is beyond HR Practices and Systems, where we are ceaselessly creating the HCL Family, whose DNA is Pride, Passion, Performance and People, with an inexhaustible Spirit of Entrepreneurship.

4.C Who do we look for?

Our objective has always been to acquire quality people and groom them to become entrepreneurial Leaders. HCLites are people who take pride in continually doing better than their best; people with a passion to succeed; people who have a fire within to perform and realize results.People who want to WIN (W Work hard, I- innovate and N-never giver up). 4.D Why HCL?

Ranked Top 3 Best Employer Survey in IDC-DQ Survey 2006 Ranked Best Employer in IDC-DQ Survey 2005

We are one of the few IT companies in India that provide a lifetime comprehensive career plan. At HCL, we look at the strengths of a person and accordingly assign future job roles to match those. People can chart their own career options of Entrepreneur or Manager or Technocrat. HCL provides an open canvas of opportunities for each individual, which is how 90% of our top management is from campus (people who joined us as trainees straight from campus).

Be an Intrapreneur - An organisation with a large number of recruitments from campuses all across India, creating entrepreneurs from and for HCL.

Endless growth opportunities in an open and entrepreneurial environment where your team mates and manager become your best friends.

A company where the diversity of 360+ locations, languages and cultures blend seamlessly into a challenging work ethos of the HCL Culture that fosters excellence, recognising and rewarding performance.

A career with diverse, rewarding & challenging assignments everyday...with the freedom to create, articulate new ideas, collaborate with the sharpest minds and truly realise your potential.

Learn HCL training facility in the city of Hyderabad is spread over a sprawling 16 acres with

residential facility to accommodate 165 employees at the same time in training. Equipped with class rooms, labs, canteen, a recreation centre and dedicated faculty with vast experience in the IT industry, we conduct over 25000 man days of internal classroom training every year.

Classroom trainings are further complimented through Enable Leadership Enrichment and Development - which provides a comprehensive automated learning tool to each employee through various online learning options.

360 Degree Feedback for a holistic quality improvement and individual development plans.

Learn from Leaders who have a three decade rich history of inventions and innovations.

Grow iPerform, our online Performance Management System tracks result achieved through daily to weekly to monthly to quarterly review system for Career Planning and

Position planning.

Mindia TechXperts, a fast-track career growth programme identifies and groom young engineers for leadership positions in a short period of 18 months.

We continue to promote Indian traditions and recognize talent in diverse areas, through he much acclaimed HCL Concert Series - a tribute to excellence in human endeavor.

80% of our top management today are people who joined straight from campus.

Own Pioneer in IT industry for ESOP started in 80s. Profit Sharing Scheme since 1997 for all employees.

HCL One Quarterly Awards Night is a gala celebration every quarter when the HCL family gets together to celebrate achievements of individual and team performances.

Bottom up communication channels providing opportunities for employee opinion.

HCL Towers - Houses for our employees.

4.E Enjoy your day, everyday, at HCL

A dynamic, fast paced and flexible work environment that nurtures relationships and constantly celebrates our people's happiness, hobbies, achievements, festivities....... At HCL, we make everyday work an enjoyable and fun experience

HCL Concert Series

Sporting Champions

Celebrating Festivities

Extending the exclusive blend of creativity and excellence from IT to the Cricket, Squash or Golf - you can find

Celebrations, frolic, carousing, quizzing are all ingrained in HCL. Be it a festival or commemorating one of us or applauding a team - we do it with a bang paint the town red. We make Diwali brighter than the lights with stalls, music, antakshiri, dance, mimicry - name it and

world of music and dance, them all here in HCL The HCL Concert Series Our intra-

is a tribute to excellence in organisation and human endeavor. Every month you are invited to enjoy four evenings of soul satisfying music or enrapturing dance performance by some of the best artists in India inter- organisation competitions ensure that even the workaholics are

involved in playing or we have it. cheering at least. Table tennis in office everyday makes not Our Christmas is warmer than Christmas puddings with Santa Claus, Xmas trees for

only the class players all teams and lots of tinsel. pursue their interests, Holi or Pongal or but also helps the amateurs take a break.
Innovate at HCL HCL One Awards

Rakshabandhan, all are a way to celebrate our "unity in diversity".

Picnics and more at hcl

Innovation is promoted in every part of the organization and the results are seen in the various examples of innovations that have come from our own employees. Give wings to your ideas with our unique innovate@hcl.in

To commend the achievements of our people, we raise a toast to the achievers and have a frolicking party every quarter. Win the Glittering Trophy, Blue parties.Diamond, or an Acrylic Star for your performance. These rejoicing, reveling moments are not to be missed

We as a family go to trips, outings, picnics, movies, river rafting - move away from the work environment, from the city towards nature - in the lush green environment to rekindle and refresh our spirit. These adventurous trips help us strengthen our camaraderie

We carry on with the comparative study of the two brands operational in todays market scenario, offering notebook, laptop to direct consumers as well as a large portion of institutional sales.

5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Market Survey Method had been adopted to do this product survey A sample size of 100 customer in the age range of 20 to 35 have been surveyed by a set questions and upon a rating scale of 100 both the products have been rated. (Annexure 1) HPCompaq Product brief / description available Product store availability Delivery speed After sale briefing After sale service Look & Feel / Sturdiness Operations **Rating out of 100 **Sample size 100 50 60 50 25 60 80 85 HCL 50 45 40 25 45 60 75

6. UNIQUE SELLING POINTS OF HCL AND HP LAPTOPS

HCL Infosystems has entered the growing notebook market with the launch of its 'HCL Laptops' brand.

The new notebooks come loaded with software specific to various segments like defense, corporate, retail, etc and the company provides customized solutions specific to each segment. The company manufactures these notebooks at its Pondicherry plant with a capacity of 1 million units per year. Initially, these notebooks were made available in over 600 cities in the country through its channel network and also offer "best assured support", which includes insurance cover, along with online support and real-time support at 300 locations.

Although HCL also distributes Toshiba laptops in India, but the brand value does not get diluted as Toshiba carries its own brand image and a separate distribution system.

7. SALES AND DISTRIBUTION The vendors selling HCL laptops pushes its notebooks through 250 retail outlets across the country and the focus are more on the larger towns. It is also looking at consumer electronic retail partners.

o Minimizes the number of contacts needed for reaching consumers. Supply chain systems should focus on cost reductions and improvements in efficiency across the chain. He also harped on collaborative process for decision making in the entire supply chain to achieve the ultimate objective of cost reduction and competitive price to the customers HP believe in the following distribution strategy 1. Direct Distribution for its commercial uses product like big corporate. 2. For its new initiative like e order fulfilment basis where customer put there order online it cut the cost of HP. While in the contrary of Hp, HCL having different point of view in this arena HCL has a direct sales, channel sales and retail sales network pan India. Continuously meeting the ever increasing customer expectations and applications, its focus on integrated enterprise solutions has strengthened the HCL Info systems capabilities in supporting installation types ranging from single to large, multi-location, multi-vendor & multi-platform spread across India. HCL Info systems, today has a direct support force of over 3000+ members, is operational at 360+ locations across the country and is the largest such human resource of its kind in the IT business in India. HCL Info systems has pan India presence across metros and non-metros.

2. Break the bulk and cater to tiny requirements It's difficult to hypothecate as it's only the beginning. There are clues available from the evolution of IT retail through large-format chains in advanced markets like the US. As the retail revolution spreads and competition intensifies, there will be serious downward pressure on prices. And this could lead to the retail chains adopting a value-add model. In the US, some chains have launched their own PCs to give them better control over pricing, margins and inventory. Many others have moved to providing packaged services and solutions to SMBs. eventually, most chains will end up competing with both, the commercial and consumer IT channels o From the Perspective of HP

HP are treading cautiously & surely don't want to miss the opportunities the retail revolution presents, but simultaneously, Company don't want to upset there partners. Company experience in other countries has taught us that once these retailers gather critical mass, they tend to arm-twist suppliers. A large national chain may simply say 'No' to us for not offering the price it wants. This could have serious consequence on the brand and business.

HPs primary objective is to protect best interest. While HP will tie up with all major chains, will also strengthen HP channels by increasing engagement with them. HP are yet to finalise there product strategy, but to avoid conflict we might reserve certain brands for channels and push premium brands through retail chains. For instance, Presarios will go through channels while the Pavilion range through retail chains. o From the Perspective of HCL HCL launched its first retail outlet in 1996 with a specially configured PC aimed at the education segment, called the Beanstalk. Today HCL PCs, notebooks and peripherals are available in more than 1,000 HCL-authorized retail stores across the country. It has uniquely positioned its products in the emerging retail scenario, adopting a two-pronged retail strategy branded stores and large format retail. George Paul, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems Limited, highlights a few points: The Retail Expansion: HCL ventured into large format IT retail through its Digilife store in July 2006 in Gurgaon. In a short period since, 32 stores have been opened in remote places like Ambala, Varanasi, Meerut, Trichy, Panipat and Vijaywada. The brand is also available across the large format stores like Hypercity, Chroma, E Zone, Big Bazaar and Reliance Digital outlets. HCL Digilife stores feature a unique experience zone with the widest collection of IT and digital products. Customers can actually experience their favourite digital lifestyle products.

Product Range & Post-sales Support: The range includes PCs, notebooks, digicams, mobile phones, gaming consoles, printers and office automation devices. HCL in India has the largest service and support network with over 3,000 engineers available at more than 360 locations. HCL Digilife stores leverage the strong back-end service and support infrastructure. The target audience: HCLs IT retail model distinctly targets consumers and spontaneous buyers of latest IT and digital products. The typical customers include early adopters, gaming enthusiasts, technology savvy professionals, and families with children. The Indian consumer appreciates digital lifestyle even in smaller cities to experience the latest technologies. Retailer vs Reseller: The retail chains target audience is the consumer segment, while reseller channel caters to business customers. Generally, the channels suffer a loss because in the absence of IT retail chains, they used to cater to consumers also. However today, there is sufficient room for expansion for both IT retail chains and traditional channels. The HCL Digilife stores are better positioned as a parallel line of IT distribution that coexists with the traditional resellers network. Future Plan: In the last 10-12 years, IT retail has been growing at a phenomenal pace. HCL will expand its retail chain to 200 Digilife stores in the next two years. The ultimate goal of the company is to open an HCL Digilife store in every Indian town. 3. Supply products in suitable assortments (matching segments of supply with segments of demand)

How HP compete that: HEWLETT Packard has consolidated its supply chain management by relying on a mix of outsourcing and its own resources to meet the challenge of global distribution strategy for its products. Based on a careful study of the various parameters of lower cost reduced time cycle, it has made a supply chain management plan to be able to build its capacity seamlessly to provide the customers with high quality products at a reasonable price HP recorded the highest shipment market shares across commercial and consumer desktops, portables and workstations. To cater to the increasing demand and expanding markets for its computing devices, HP India announced the launch of its second manufacturing facility in the country at Pantnagar, Uttaranchal this quarter. The plant will have an initial capacity of 3 lakh computers per month once it commences operations in March 2007. The facility will manufacture HP's latest range of desktop computers, workstations, notebooks and servers For Example:The HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC series was launched in 2006, and in just one and a half years it has managed to contribute to almost 10 percent of HPs market share (around 41 percent of the overall market). HPs entry-level notebook is priced at Rs 50,000, and young people are the biggest buyers.

HP India points out that users, particularly the youth, not only want productive features like speed, but also an attractive design and entertainment features such as a remote, media centre, photos, DVD and Live TV etc. HP coming up with new technologies in notebooks, like the HP Imprint technology in notebooks (a high-gloss coating with inlaid design for the notebook finish). How HCL Compete With: The Channel Business of HCL Infosystems has an extensive network of over 3000+ resellers across 900 locations. It has actively promoted the penetration of PCs in the home and the small office/home office (SOHO) segments. For Example:Weight is perhaps the biggest consideration in buying a portable gadget, but in the case of notebooks people are not willing to compromise on the functionality just because of weight. In India, battery life becomes an important feature due to a combination of increasing travel and erratic power supply. HCL is working on newer technologies and products which offer longer battery life.

4. Provide salesmanship. HP provides salesmanship in following manner. 1. Though Retail chain 2. through Direct Channel 3. through the portal (Part of Direct Ordering Concept) HP have 144,000 resellers and partners, but at the end of the day ... HP are dramatically under covered, and have not off by 10 or 20 percent, It is off by more than that, HCL provides salesmanship in following manner. HCL has India's largest distribution and retail network, taking to market a range of Digital Lifestyle products in partnership with leading global ICT brands, including Nokia, Apple, Casio, Kodak, Toshiba, Bull, Ericsson, Cisco, Microsoft, Konica Minolta and many more. o HCL Info systems biggest strength, say experts, is its channel and distribution network. o Retail Outlet Service provided by the Technical people. o HCL, have varying strategies to increase their market share. HCL Infosystems, which is seen as a strong player in the desktop space, for instance, seems to have understood the importance of diversifying its product range. The company ventured into notebooks in early 2006 and is

already among the top three notebook vendors in India by sales, says International Data Corp.s local unit.

o HCL Info systems biggest strength, say experts, is its channel and distribution network: it has over 44,000 dealers and retailers spread across 4,500 towns and villages. Over the years, we have taken advantage of Indias largest service and support network to retain our market leadership in multiple PC categories, says J.V. Ramamurthy, director, operations at HCL Info systems. o The company is looking to increase the number of both its retail outlets as well as resellers, with a focus on deeper penetration into rural India. 5. Help in price mechanism Computer came and appalled the world with its speed and storage capacity. But after sometime it was felt that it should be portable, fast and storage-enhanced. It gave birth to laptops and notebooks with cutting edge technologies. Advancements after advancements took place and market became flooded with technically enabled notebooks. Now the time has been that no new technique inspires the market much. So, will it be appropriate to assume that saturation is grabbing the market, fast leading people in to reluctance about new advancements that take place in this important segment of IT hardware?

But before you build up your opinion, you must spare a glace at the

stunning notebooks launched recently by some of the key vendors like HP, Lenovo, HCL, Fujistu, and Apple. These notebooks are undoubtedly, technically improved and bear all latest features you can hear of. But what makes these notebooks special are their classy looks and aesthetics. Vendors have started comprehending the call of the fashion-loving society and, thus, are aggressively introducing classy, elegant, stylish and ultraportable notebooks in the market.

Especially the year 2008 should be regarded as the year of fashionable as well as cost-effective notebooks. Taking a lead in this segment HCL Infosystems unveiled the cheapest and ultra-portable laptop MiLeap in different colors and fashionable contours. The company boasted to target a consumer who needs to stay "connected, informed, entertained and productive anytime and anywhere." With the launch of MiLeap it was being believed that it would sweep the market not only on the basis of its looks but on the basis of price as well.

Barely two months after Apple launched its MacBook Air, the thinnest laptop in the market, it waged as though a war in the market because Apple soon got its rival from Lenovo in terms of ThinkPad X300 ultraportable machine. The notebook weighs 2.93 pounds and brags of more features than Apple MacBook Air. Lenovo has equipped this notebook with three USB ports and DVD Writer, in comparison to MacBook Air's one USB port and no writer. To register its strong presence in this arena, Fujistu had already made its debut with its LifeBook U1010. Fujitsu

launched the smallest laptop with advanced 3.5G technology. Noting an upward trend towards wireless communications and mobile computing, Fujitsu has made high-speed connectivity available in 2 different stylist models, with display size of 5.6 and 14.1 inches.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) in its attempt to combine electronics with fashion gave its competitors cause to envy by rolling out three new HP Imprint designs in a colorful event in New Delhi. The three imprint designs, which are Verve, Thrive and Asian Odyssey, are more attractive for their aesthetics than for their technical aspects. It was obvious as well from the way these designs were put on display at the launch. The company tried to fuse IT with fashion as HP's international brand ambassador and tennis ace Serena Williams in pink knee-high costume walked down the ramp with the notebook in hands.

Running a look at this shows that IT is going fashion-hit. Keeping an ultraportable laptop embedded with classic looks puts you in the front row of fashion conscious people. Without any inhibition, these notebooks are going to hit the market. Only thing that will keep market peers wait is : after fashion what is going to be the vendors target to continue as a leader in the industry? HP India price Mechanism:In Indian perspective company dealing with two segment

1. Compaq ( Low cost Notebook) 2. HP Pavilion (High end and High cost Notebook) Form the both of point of view HP leading the market with the share of 26.7% ; Hp doing well in the lower middle class segment with their Compaq Presario brand and for the higher end company try to maintain their monopoly with HP Pavilion series to targeting the youth and young generation. HCL India price Mechanism:HCL Info systems, has announced a $350 laptop. With the lowest-priced laptop currently retailing for over $700 (excluding the "One Laptop Per Child" laptop effort), let's examine how HCL arrived at this price for India and how other companies might learn from it. Ironically, the announcement of the $350 laptop coincided with Apple's showcasing of the Airthe thinnest laptoppriced at $1800 US. Obviously, the two products cater to entirely different market segments. However, there is a lesson here for well-known brands wanting to make a foray into large markets such as India and China. Whenever a global brand enters an emerging economy, there is a tendency to adopt a "skimming strategy." Even at its simplest, the approach is to multiply the home country price by the exchange rate, add the customs duties and taxes, and arrive at the price. This is counter-productive, given the mobility of people and the propensity to ask a colleague or a friend to pick up one of these products and avoid the customs duty and tax component. Almost every week, Indian

consumers receive offers of well-known brands from the USA and UK for a price less than half of what we would have to pay if we were to buy the same product through an authorized intermediary in India. The consequences for both producers and customers are hard to miss. Producers are missing out on huge opportunities, and customers cannot have access to service when they need it, unless they are willing to pay a heavy price. Thus, we have a classic lose-lose situation. The software industry is currently suffering in India and China in large part as a result of misguided pricing strategies. Software piracy in India is estimated at over 70% - compared to about 25% in the USA. One can take some comfort in the fact that piracy has come down from over 90% a few years back to 70% now, but this is a staggering figure and one that casts a shadow on the credibility of the Indian customer. Various measures have been suggested to thwart the pirates educating people, coming down heavily on users of pirated software and so on. But these address the symptom, not the disease. The software industry is just now realizing that price-sensitive markets such as India need to be approached differently than more mature markets. The use of Purchasing Power Parity as a determinant of prices can be a useful option. As an example, if software that is priced at $100 US is priced at INR 800 (just over $20 US) in India, with specific safeguards to prevent reverse exports, piracy could be curbed to a great extent. Such an arrangement has worked successfully in other intellectual fields. Typically, a management text book in the USA can cost $120 or more.

Converted into Indian Rupees at the exchange rate, the price would be beyond the reach of most students and even libraries. The concept of low-cost editions meant for sale only in South Asia has done wonders to the adoption of the latest and the best books by institutions of higher education. Low-priced editions are priced in the range of 300-400 INR (about $10). Going by this argument, Apple's latest offering should be available in India for Rupees 15000 (roughly $350 US) and about 25000 (roughly $630 US) even if one were to add local taxes. If this were to happen, how many customers would HCL's offering have? Probably not too many. Successful tapping of high-volume markets requires that marketers adopt innovative pricing strategies to suit local conditions, as opposed to a global pricing strategy that many marketers seem to be adopting today.

6. Look after a part of physical distribution and financing How Hp functioning Hewlett-Packard (HP) India has tied-up with Rashi Peripherals, a leading distributor, for the distribution of HP TFT monitors in the country. Along with this announcement, the company has introduced nine new display options. HP has now decided to focus on the component and retail segment. Rashi, along with its reach and penetration in B, C, and D Class cities, is all set to take HP LCD TFT numero-uno position in this segment in India." And for the finance HP having venture with Bajaj capital to easy finance their product through various channel partner and also having 0 % finance scheme with ICICI bank to take the advantages of corporate dealing. How HCL doing :For the distribution company having biggest advantages for distributing different branded product in India i.e. 1. Nokia 2. Toshiba 3 .Apple I pod Taking these advantage company precisely following complete supply chain distribution role where their product comes from warehouse and goes to retailer. Finance:

HCL will have partners targeting specific segments and will also provide financing option with EMI as low as Rs 699. This will help to bring down two layers of affordability and thus will help widen the market."

7. Assist in merchandising HP partner gets branding, HP authorization, HP goodwill cover. Also gets the back ends, the infrastructure access. for example, a typical partner does not have to file hardcopy claim with hp - his payment is paid automatically by hp basis his purchase from tier 1 distributer In the mean time HCL have a direct support force of over 2800 members covering 360 locations. It distribution presence in over 800 locations and reseller network is now over 3000. The channel partners have been an extremely contributing resource in increasing the awareness levels. Being the direct interface with the buyer, channel partners are well aware of the importance of their role in the companys campaign. As a part of this campaign, HCL using information mailers and training programs to, through effective communication to partners. The objectives are two-fold: The channel community should be able to identify and abandon counterfeit products, and secondly, the community should, in turn, be able to guide and educate the buyers about the potential pitfalls.

8. Provide market intelligence Hewlett-Packard (HP) in its attempt to combine electronics with fashion gave its competitors cause to envy by rolling out three new HP Imprint designs in a colorful event in New Delhi. The three imprint designs, which are Verve, Thrive and Asian Odyssey, are more attractive for their aesthetics than for their technical aspects. It was obvious as well from the way these designs were put on display at the launch. The company tried to fuse IT with fashion as HP's international brand ambassador and tennis ace Serena Williams in pink kneehigh costume walked down the ramp with the notebook in hands. HP continues to strive in the direction of providing superior products, enhanced reach, and excellent after sales service even in the B and c cities. We had a series of new launches this year wherein we offered superior product proposition across various segments. This in addition to our unparalleled pan India service network and superior post sales service has contributed to the consistent growth and success of the company in the notebook space."

Running a look at this shows that IT is going fashion-hit. Keeping an ultraportable laptop embedded with classic looks puts you in the front row of fashion conscious people. Without any inhibition, these notebooks are going to hit the market. Only thing that will keep market peers wait is : after fashion what is going to be the vendor target to continue as a leader in the industry? In the contrary of Hp ; HCL Especially the year 2008 should be regarded as the year of fashionable as well as cost-effective notebooks. Taking a lead in this

segment HCL Infosystems unveiled the cheapest and ultra-portable laptop Mi Leap in different colors and fashionable contours. The company boasted to target a consumer who needs to stay "connected, informed, entertained and productive anytime and anywhere." With the launch of Mi Leap it was being believed that it would sweep the market not only on the basis of its looks but on the basis of price as well. 9. Act as change agents and generate demand HCL Technologies bagged a five-year $160-million contract for BPO service operations from telecommunications service provider British Telecom. Burgeoning government orders drove growth at HCL Info. In fact, the share of the government in HCLIs order book is over 60%. The company also benefited from the extension of 100% tax benefits to IT hardware players for a period of three years in the Exim Policy for 2003-04. The reduction in cell phone duties resulted in a reduction of prices by 11%-12% and also curbed grey market sales to a great extent. Growing sales of Nokia cellphones also boosted HCL Infosystems telecom distribution business. HCLI received an order to automate value added tax services from the Andhra Pradesh government. In January 2003, HCLT entered into an alliance with Aalayance Inc, a US-based $4.5-million company in the enterprise application integration and business integration space. In April 2003, The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) an international organization dedicated to delivering storage networking architectures, education, and solutions for the IT community, joined forces with

HCL Technologies to further advance the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S). HP Hewlett-Packard announced the availability of HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express software in India.

The new storage Data Protector Express is easy to install, operate and manage for businesses which require simple, reliable, efficient and affordable data protection solutions. The new solution will offer a consistent interface and functionality across three operating systems: Windows, Linux and NetWare environments. The product supports tape, disk and optical devices as the backup media.

Built on a three-tier architecture, the new solution provides simple and reliable data protection, fault tolerance and increased performance. The three-tier architecture supports distributed backups using multiple Media Servers while retaining centralized control for customers.

The solution comprises agents for the protection of networked file servers, application servers and desktop machines. Additional features such as open file backup, D2D2Any (disk-to-disk-to-any) backup and bare metal disaster recovery minimize the impact of backup and recovery operations. The self-tuning parallel backup stream delivers high backup and recovery speeds. Operations and monitoring are performed via a customizable graphical user interface (GUI) that

can be run locally or remotely with a common look and feel across all operating system environments Following the two method both the company is trying to find out new space for striving the growth in double digit in Indian subcontinent also fact is the covering emerging market like Bangladesh, Bhutan etc.

8. CONCLUSION

To conclude, we could sum up that HCL and HP both possesses their individual USP (as indicated above). HCL traditionally strong in distribution network which lured Toshiba to circulate its brand in India and on the other hand HP giant in innovation. Both the organization used their distribution network skill in India and introduced co-branded products to sell among the Indian consumers. Like innovation in technology is fast, consumer desires also changes fast and these two brands together have brought the international brands to come inside India and win the market.

We cannot say that these two brands are competitors to each other in any of its product segment because information technology features are more or less similar at any given point in time. The only thing which matters the most is after sales service and availability. In after sales service HP has been the best. Being a foreign entity it has used the domestic manpower to work for its benefit in India.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marketing Research By G C Beri Marketing Management By Philip Kotler

JOURNALS Computer Express Data Quest Computer Today News Paper Economic Times (CD) Times of India Hindustan Times. Website: www.hclinfosystems.com www.computerexpres.com <http://www.computerexpres.com>