Serbia is an attractive market to invest in for HP

• You’ve been in charge of HP business in Central Europe - Can you tell us your impressions about working in this region? Which are the main trends that European customers follow?

I am the Managing Director for HP Central Europe countries which include Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Israel and all the Adriatic countries including Serbia. In this role, I am providing country leadership and driving profitable growth for HP’s printing and personal systems businesses across Central Europe countries.

I started my career in 1999 as a financial controller in a French company working on Merger & Acquisition. In 2000, to fulfill my ambition for entrepreneurship, I created my company which was the first online photofinishing and photo-sharing company in France. As this business was far too early to the market I decided to go back to the corporate world and I joined HP in 2001. Since then, I held several interesting and varied roles across the company. I kept my appetite around entrepreneurship all along my 18 years in HP by holding responsibilities in Product Management in France, Channel Sales in the Middle East, leading the HP Africa team out of Johannesburg, South Africa and now, leading the Central Europe countries out of Vienna, Austria.

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I started 6 months ago in the region and I discovered a fully diverse part of the world with each country having its specificities, its culture, but a common ambition: to grow their economy and develop their country. This common goal is driving me to design the right ambition for HP into this region, to apply our Sustainable Impact strategy around the 3 pillars Planet, People, Community, and to be successful with the right talented people I have seen in each country.

Regarding the trends the customers are following in Europe and in this region, I can see 4 main trends :

-  Millennial expectations and behavior: Millennials don’t represent age or a group but rather a way of thinking, working, and acting. They are the Decision Makers of today & Executives of tomorrow, they want outcomes & experiences, not just products or services that are capable of getting the job done.

-  Mobility & security are changing everything, including the way businesses will operate in the future. Mobility exploded with the consumer segment, but the real opportunity and application are in the commercial space. Similarly, security is a disruptive force as the number, intensity, cost, and sophistication of threats & hacks are increasing. Security starts with protection for data and ends with the protection of devices.

-  Everything as a Service is developing quickly into the Commercial business. There is a clear acceleration to services-led & contractual led motions.

-  The last disruptive trend we can see is a trend we call Blended Reality. Blended Reality is our vision of bringing a seamless physical & digital world to life. It introduces a virtuous cycle of productivity & creation, where inputs – like immersive computing, & outputs – like 3D printing are seamless & intuitive.

All the worldwide or European trends are seen in Central Europe countries, with some countries being even more advanced on specific trend such as the Czech Republic on their Online business penetration for IT which is above 60%.

Central Europe is an interesting region to work for and to drive to capture these trends and to continue to position HP as a leader from our Core business to our Future models.

Foto: Nikola Tomić

• Tell us more about HP products? What makes them unique on the market - Let’s talk a bit more about the HP Multi channel?

We celebrate the 80th anniversary this year. HP introduced the first desktop computing device in 1968, we’ve been making PCs longer than anybody.

In 2015, HP separated into 2 independent companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and we started a new journey, reinventing our business. HP strategy of Core, Growth & Future is grounded in innovation & execution across the portfolio.

The innovation in Core covers premium, gaming, home, and business printing.

Our professional and personal lives are blending, consumers demand more personalized products where design matters as much as the technical specs. To meet these shifts, we are innovating our Premium products: HP EliteBook x360 is powerful enough for the office but sophisticated enough for personal use; HP Spectre Folio has the craftsmanship of a luxury leather good combined with the functionality of a next-generation PC.

Gaming is one of the world’s fastest-growing businesses and Central Europe is home to more than 50% of all EMEA gamers. HP continued to strengthen the OMEN by HP range, with the introduction of a number of new devices, displays, and accessories. With the best performance per dollar, OMEN by HP is perfect for the performance gamer. The professional and enthusiastic gamer will appreciate the overbuilt and overengineered OMEN X line-up, while the HP Pavilion Gaming portfolio offers top gaming performance with the flexibility for other PC use.

Home printing fits the modern smart home and mobile-centric lifestyle. The beautiful HP Tango helps free up time while providing required mobility. The pocket-size HP Sprocket is for on the spot, sharable printing. You can print from the cloud on any device, scan on smartphones and more thanks to the HP Smart app.

• Which have been the best selling products for HP in Central Europe? And what can we expect next from HP?

Switching from Core to Growth portfolio, we move to the world that is being defined by services and on-demand business models, and where cybersecurity is a disruptive force.

HP DaaS combines the hardware and lifecycle services to improve reliability, satisfaction and financial predictability for business. HP analytics services monitor and predict device health, help customers proactively manage multi-OS device environments and mitigate issues. Recent and planned enhancements to the service include: expansion to include VR Solutions; embedding machine learning to offer predictive analytics and superior endpoint management; the new HP Tech Café Market.

HP has reinvented printing for the business of any size, offering: HP Roam, contextual, secure on-demand printing; HP Jet Advantage, seamlessly and securely integrating print into digital business workflows, Managed Print Services (MPS) solutions to improve costing, uptime, and security. The addition of superior and secure A3 multifunction printers drives growth potential.

HP is recognized by IDC’s MarketScape for Security Solutions and Services, for delivering industry-leading printers from BIOS level up, including Secure Managed Print Services, and HP Sure Start. At HP we are constantly striving to protect customers from counterfeiters with new security measures, for example, customers can authenticate HP ink and toner with the HP security seal using a QR code scanner app.

The future of print is sustainability. HP original supplies combine excellent print quality with less waste. More than 80% of our ink cartridges and 100% of HP LaserJet toner cartridges are manufactured with close loop recycled plastic. Over half a million pounds of ocean-bound plastic used to make original HP ink cartridges. HP ENVY Photo Printer is the world’s first printer made with close loop recycled plastics.

• HP has been the regional leader for years. You are also covering the Serbian market, tell us your thoughts on Serbian customer trends. Where does Serbia stand in comparison to other European markets?

The market in Serbia is still growing and especially into the Consumer segment, and it is a very attractive market in terms of potential with Worldwide and European trends applying here as well.

The consumer market will continue to grow in the next years to come and the omnichannel will become more and more an opportunity to create new business models for Serbia. We are seeing Online sales growing, and consumer behavior expecting more great experiences to buy from User Interface to Delivery Services.

Education in Serbia will continue to be a growth area as well in order to digitalize the schools, create the school of the future and support the 4th Industrial revolution with the preparation for the skills of the future.

So Serbia is and will continue to be an attractive market to invest in for HP.

Foto: Nikola Tomić

• For the very end- How do you see the future of IT market?

“Everything as a service” is and will be reshaping how businesses buy and use the technology. The next generation of IT users demands more flexibility and choice. This creates complex manageability, security and privacy challenges for businesses, especially with the new GDPR legislation. Recognizing the increasing pressures on customers, HP is offering the “as a Service” model to offload the time and expense of deploying, managing and securing IT infrastructure.

Choosing a device is a security decision. We saw the cyber threat evolve way beyond the software layer, with hardware attacks accelerating in 2018, making ‘endpoint’ devices, including PCs and printers, a favored target for hackers. As a result, HP has continued to build its cybersecurity from protection to resilience, pioneering new security IP from the hardware up. It means that today we have the world’s most secure PCs and printers, something HP is incredibly proud of. In 2019, we’ll see the built-in security like HP SureRun (automatic detection and prevention), HP Sure Recover (automatic recovery) and HP Sure Start (automatic self-healing) become even more valuable to businesses and consumers, and entry point security will follow.

HP’s vision is to change how the world designs and manufactures, and to lead the 4th industrial revolution, investing in 3D printing & Multi Jet Fusion. We are already seeing more uses for 3D printing in the automotive, transport, industrial, medical and consumer markets. 3D printing, along with analytics and virtual technology, will continue to impact industry and manufacturing by shortening production processes and supply chains. There is also significant environmental impact - 3D printing lowers emissions by reducing tooling in pre-production, lowering sub-assemblies required in mass production and moving manufacturing closer to end users.

More businesses are also looking for efficiencies and moving to a more circular and low-carbon model. Last year HP saw a 38% year-on-year increase in deals where sustainability was a requirement, we expect this to continue growing in 2019. At HP, we set out a clear belief from the start of doing business the right way. That means protecting our planet, our people, prioritizing diversity and inclusion in our business, and those of our partners, and strengthening our communities. HP is acting on 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

HP will continue to deliver on commitments, driving sustained and profitable growth. Our future begins today.

(Telegraf.co.uk)