Build an Adaptive Enterprise!

In the two years since we've developed and introduced the Adaptive Enterprise, we've learned that it is vital for us to focus and specialize on a series of strategic building blocks that, when connected over time, helps you build your own Adaptive Enterprise.

'How agile is my IT?' is one question most frequently asked of us by customers who want to evolve toward an Adaptive Enterprise. We answer that question with our Agility Assessment Service.

Our Agility Assessment Service measures your enterprise and allows you to compare yourself with some of the best 300 companies in the world, on topics such as IT agility, change management and ratios between IT Infrastructure and application innovation.

Based on the results of an Agility Assessment, we can construct a series of pragmatic solutions your company could follow.

For example, Steelcase, Inc. turned to HP for an Agility Assessment to help quickly identify ways to improve its ability to respond to change. According to John Dean, vice president of Global E-Business and CIO at Steelcase, 'I was hoping that from our HP Agility Assessment we'd get verification for the direction we were heading and new ideas for becoming more agile. We got both.'

And that's the idea. Agility is not new. But what's new is HP's ability to measure and manage agility. HP has spent more that two years studying how to actually manage and measure agility.

Today, we have the people, unique processes and technology to determine the actual agility of your business processes as well as how agile they need to be. It's important to remember that not every single process has to respond at the speed of light. Once a company understands agility, HP can offer a practical approach to assist your company in becoming a much more Adaptive Enterprise.

Your company is unique and your requirements are unique. Because of that, we've created adaptability in our solutions to meet your demands on how you would like to engage with HP.

For example, a company can select HP as a trusted partner for evolving toward an Adaptive Enterprise and also choose to have HP build the solutions to support more powerful strategies, as Bank of India did. Bank of India has always been innovative, but the focus of the organization is on banking, not technology.

'We want to align our IT strategy with business strategies, which will help us serve our customers better,' says M. Venugopalan, chairman and managing director, Bank of India. 'With HP, our vision can become a reality.'

On the journey toward the Adaptive Enterprise, HP will play a role in making the Bank 'business agile', and at the same time ensuring it receives the best available industry-standard solutions and services from HP.

In addition, HP will help the Bank to reduce total cost of ownership, incorporate significant technology benefits and conserve capital. HP will leverage proven global methodologies such as IT service management (ITSM) to reduce time to implementation and improve operational control with around the clock operations.

'We were looking for a partner with the right domain knowledge and expertise in integrating and managing large projects,' says Venugopalan. 'We chose HP due to their experience in both outsourcing and systems integration. Furthermore, HP will help us evolve our infrastructure, ensuring the most cost-effective utilization of IT'.

Our solutions are designed to be flexible, to support your business goals and align IT and business. We'll match your requirements for the delivery and support of technology and solutions. For example, at Proctor and Gamble, HP was chosen to build a solution and then operate as an outsourcing/managed services provider.

Like most companies, P&G sought methods to reduce costs while rapidly responding to change. However, technology or IT innovation are not items not found on the list of P&G's core competencies. That's the reason P&G selected HP as its strategic IT supplier to help the company on its journey toward the Adaptive Enterprise.

The goal? Deliver benefits of substantially lower costs and accelerated innovation, and ensure increased synchronization between IT and business by outsourcing to HP.

'HP's Adaptive Enterprise solutions will give P&G the ability to more quickly and easily deploy IT resources and services to meet the needs of our global businesses,' says Filippo Passerini, global business services officer, Procter & Gamble.

'HP solutions combined with HP's innovation and commitment to service excellence provides the flexible infrastructure we need to continue to innovate and grow our business,' says Passerini. (See Feature article: Capitalize IT: Adaptive Enterprise delivers business value)

The only way we can successfully help on the journey toward an Adaptive Enterprise is to remain adaptable ourselves in the delivery of technologies and solutions.

For example, let's say that you're a company that already has an architecture, knows what you want to do, and just needs some more terabytes, more CPUs or specific software. So for a limited engagement, we can be a supplier.

Or perhaps you need to create a network that spans a country or a continent?

Let's take a look at another HP customer, Fiat Auto. An inventive automaker, Fiat Auto is renowned for distinctive small cars that combine style and value. Fiat Auto has won Europe's premier automotive trophy, the Car of the Year award, more often than any other car manufacturer.

But as look-alike models and discounters crowd the market, Fiat intends to distinguish its brand by the caliber of its service as well as the quality of its cars.

'Our relationship with HP enables us to innovate not only in cars, but also in service,' says Claudio Javier San Pedro, Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Business Unit Fiat.

'Our HP consultants have provided us with the best hardware and software solution for us. They also bring us HP's industry experience and vision. HP has steered us onto the right road-one that is wide open to the future.'

That partnership solution is Fiat Link. With Fiat Link, Fiat Auto develops a customer relationship throughout the buyer's experience with Fiat, including after sales services.

When most customers enter an auto showroom, they go straight to models of interest. With wireless HP Tablet PC in hand, the Fiat salesperson can join the customer and, while creating the initial rapport, gather information to serve the customer.

Behind the scenes for Fiat Link is a solution developed by HP Services: a three-tier, Linux-based infrastructure that includes a customer relationship management (CRM) system, powered by an Oracle9i Real Application Clusters database on HP Integrity servers equipped with 64-bit Intel® Itanium® 2 processors.

Just about all the information that a customer and dealer need is instantly available through the HP Tablet PC, including a car's features and options in colors, upholstery and accessories, which Fiat Link displays in photos. The system presents special offers and extended warranties, press reviews, and comparative data on other models from Fiat and its competitors.

Fiat Link can also calculate the trade-in value of the customer's current car and generate the offer. Equally important, after the showroom visit, the customer can amend order preferences by logging in from any Web browser via a private code.

The dealer's record of the customer can guide follow-ups, such as a call to schedule a test drive. Currently being rolled out, Fiat Auto expects Fiat Link to integrate and enhance sales and support across 5,800 retailers in Europe by early 2005.

With Fiat Link, Fiat Auto can consistently improve a customer relationship throughout the buyer's experience with Fiat- even after the sale is complete. It allows Fiat and its customers to maintain two-way communications from introduction through the sale, and for as long as the owner possesses the vehicle.

Just what are your requirements? Chances are good that we can help. HP can take whatever role your need for us to take. Our customers appreciate that we are not prescriptive; we are your partner along the journey to an Adaptive Enterprise.