• Home
• /
• Local business

HP ProCurve Eyes 30 Per Cent Sales Growth in Gulf this Year

To achieve this goal ProCurve has planned to focus more on the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar this year, said a top official of the company.

“Compared to the last couple of years’ growth rate it is difficult to attain the target, but it is expected that despite the global slowdown the company will grow at a minimum rate of 30 per cent year-on-year, Alaa AlShimy, general manager of HP ProCurve Middle East, told Khaleej Times in Chantilly, France, where the networking major unveiled the HP ProCurve ONE programme, at a Europe Middle East and Africa partners and media event held recently.

“To help customers address the increased pace of change within their businesses, HP ProCurve is combining its own technology with some of the most innovative, respected and visionary companies in the world,” 
said AlShimy.

“Establishing partnerships with major technology companies delivers business value by increasing the efficiency of network applications.”

The HP ProCurve, which has eight per cent market share in the Middle East, generates three per cent of the total revenue from this region.

Alberto Soto, vice-president and general manager for HP ProCurve in Europe Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, explained the company’s plans for the future.

“The biggest news is that we are moving away from the second-tier of vendors and are being seen as the clear alternative to the incumbent,” said Soto.

The EMEA is the biggest region for HP as it earns over 50 per cent from this region and rest of the revenue comes from other two regions i.e. Asia Pacific and Americas. We have excellent track record in this region, he added.

Ranked second in the networking business, HP ProCurve and its EMEA partners shared their future strategy with media people in Chantilly.

“One of the drivers in terms of growth is the current economic environment and the other one is that whenever we face an enterprise or corporate customer who is searching for an alternative then we are the clear alternative,” explained Soto.

Soto was positive regarding ProCurve’s latest products and pointed to the fact that they were the culmination of much research and development on the part of HP. Given the current financial crisis affecting the world Soto pointed out that the company remained committed to the emerging markets.

“It does not matter if we are experiencing great growth or even a slowdown in the emerging markets; we have a strategy to ensure we keep our pace. We did not go too fast when things were going very well in the Middle East, instead we took a conservative stand and were careful in which countries we placed our resources,” said Soto.

The networking major expanded its Adaptive Networks vision by announcing two initiatives that enable customers to address rapidly changing enterprise data centre needs and improve the efficiency of their 
network applications.

Also, adding to HP’s extensive technology portfolio, HP ProCurve unveiled data centre switches and management software designed to help customers lower costs, mitigate risks and drive business growth.

The HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem (HP ProCurve ONE) is a multi-vendor alliance program that optimises the performance of enterprise-class applications with HP ProCurve infrastructure. Participating in the program are technology leaders such as Microsoft, Avaya, McAfee, F5 
and Riverbed.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com