Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2/Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso/hotlines/cnhl/mdiaz.txt

Text File | 1993-03-23 | 26KB | 600 lines

It is really a tough act to follow Rich Sevcik after such an
upbeat presentation of our computer systems strategies.  I am
sure you are as excited as I am about our present and future
product offerings.

It is wonderful to see the strength and robustness of our HP
3000's.  20 years after it's birth this system still is in a
class all by itself.  It's scalability, connectivity, ease of use
and price performance continues to be an industry leader.  And,
with the introduction of our new and very successful Corporate
Business System, this is more true than ever.  With our newly
recruited data center oriented partners and it's strong poxis
compliance, it is becoming the mainframe alternative of choice.

Our success with our UNIX-based multiuser systems continues to be
spectacular.  So far this year in the Americas, we are running at
a 42% growth compared with last year, and this comes after two
consecutive 50%+ years -- way ahead of the industry average in
all these years.  And, as Rich mentioned, we are adding more
applications every day, so that we can provide the right
solutions to solve your business problems.

Our workstation order sales, so far this year, are also ahead of
the industry average.  Recently we have introduced to the market,
powerful, low cost workstations (under 5K), and began using new
distribution channels to make it easier for you to get these
products.  So, thanks to all of you for your confidence in HP.

However, the secret of our success has been our commitment to our
customers and to do anything we can to meet your expectations.
Your trust and confidence is one of our most valuable assets, and
I would like to do whatever is necessary to maintain it.

It is no secret that our industry is going through very difficult
times and, although we are doing better than many others, it is
also becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve that
objective.  However, it is precisely in difficult times when we
must redouble our efforts and find creative ways to give you the
best level of sales coverage in the industry.  This is my pledge
to you.

As you can see, we are making significant investments in
providing you with the latest and most powerful technology at an
industry leading price performance.  We want to ensure that we
protect your investments in HP products and services and, above
all, that you feel delighted in your partnership with HP.

It is about this last part that I would like to dedicate my
presentation.

I want to speak candidly to you this morning about the way HP
communicates with you, now and in the future.  You are our best
customers.  You are very important to us.  Yet lately, some of
you have not been as happy with the sales coverage you are
receiving as in the past.  I take personal responsibility for
addressing this problem, and I am going to tell you today the
steps we are taking right now to improve things for you.


Recently, I have been receiving comments from portions of our
customer base - many of you in this room today - that our ability
to service your needs as a sales organization has been declining.
This concerns me.  HP has always been considered one of the best
companies to do business with.

We have received input from many sources, including letters,
Customer Advisory Councils, and various surveys that tell us
something is wrong.  The Interex Strategic Concerns Survey has
been particularly helpful in pinpointing problems.  In May, HP
sent our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey to over 9,000
customers soliciting feedback on sales interactions, among other
issues.

Since "sales interactions" falls squarely on my shoulders, I want
to share with you some of the feedback we have received.

Frankly, some customers are concerned that we are reducing or
changing our sales coverage to their organizations.  Some don't
see their friendly HP rep as often as they used to.  For others,
the primary sales contact point changed from a face-to-face sales
rep to a telephone-based sales rep, and they wonder if HP has
lost interest in them as customers.  I assure you, we have not!
Still others, like this customer comment points out, are mainly
concerned with a lack of consistency when interacting with HP.

          Slide 2


          "I would like to keep the same sales
          representative for more than six months.
          have had at least seven (I'm starting to
          lose track) different representatives since 1988."


Some customers, like this one, have pointed out the negative
impact that some of our internal business processes and systems
have caused.  The tough economic climate that we all live in led
us to reduce some of our resources in the field last year.
Unfortunately, we discovered that some of the imperfections in
our processes that provide things like product configurations,
quotations and invoices had been partially masked by our hard
working people.  As a result, we have had to accelerate our
efforts to improve these key business processes.  More on that
later.


          Slide 3

          "It takes too long to get a quote.  It should
          take several hours, not a week or more!"


Happily, not all comments received were as negative as these
first two.


          Slide 4

          "Very personalized service and responsive best
          describes our sales representative.  Even though
          we're not a large account, we feel very grateful."


This customer's comments, for example, describes the kind of
feeling that I believe all of our customers should have when
interacting with HP.  HP has always prided itself with hiring
excellent people that are dedicated to performing their jobs
well.  And I am convinced that, given the appropriate support and
organizational infrastructure, our sales force can deliver this
level of satisfaction to all of our customers.

Providing this kind of "customer delight" is my vision for the
Computer Systems Sales Force in the Americas.

But we still have a ways to go to achieve this vision.


          Slide 5

          "In our view, HP is going backward in its business
          relationships with customers."


This input from an MIS Director states just how far we are from
achieving our customer satisfaction goal with some of our valued
customers.  Having earned a reputation over the years for being a
company that cares about it's customers, this final customer
quote deeply concerns me.

I am fully committed to achieving our vision for the sales force.
Much planning and hard work has been done over the past few
months to begin addressing the issues you have raised.

Thanks to your comments and feedback, we have been able to focus
our energy in the 3 areas most critical to successfully
partnering with you.

We will work to:

1)  Improve the primary sales interface with you our
    customers

2)  Enhance our communication with all our customers, and

3)  Improve our key business processes that directly
    affect our relationship.

Let me spend the next few minutes reviewing the programs that we
have put into motion in each of these areas.  I am really excited
about the step that we are taking and I hope you will agree that
our efforts are focused in the right direction.

The first step involves refining our sales organization structure
to better serve your needs.  Positive changes will be made to
improve our responsiveness for all of our customers - from the
largest to the smallest.

In fiscal year 1992, we enhanced the focus of the sales teams
that are dedicated to some of our largest Global and Major
Account customers.  This was a natural extension of the programs
we have had in place for years, and continues to be highly
successful.  Through this structure, we have been able to satisfy
the business needs of our largest customers and at the same time,
strengthen our expertise in applying IT solutions into certain
industries.

Beginning on November 1, we will expand on this notion by
organizing the sales force that covers all of our largest (or
named) accounts into industry aligned business units.  For
example, all sales teams across the U.S. that have account
responsibility in the Automotive Manufacturing industry will
report into a single executive.  By focusing nation-wide efforts
in this manner, we will be able to bring greater value to our
customers in each of our focus industry areas.

Customers and industry analysts are really enthusiastic about
this direction .  .  .  and we are too!

I believe that the next part of our plan represents one of the
most significant changes you will see next year.  That is, how we
are organizing our resources to better reach all of our other
customers - those highly valued customers, many of which are
members of our loyal installed base.

In FY92, we segmented our sales force covering these customers
into 2 parts, reporting into separate sales managers.  Depending
on sales volumes, geographic proximity to our sales offices, and
the type of sales assistance required, customers were assigned
either a Direct (face-to-face) Sales Rep or a TeleSales Rep.

Both Direct Sales Reps and TeleSales Reps can do a superb job of
meeting a particular customer's needs, but only if the customer
is made aware of who is calling on them and how best to utilize
that resource.

And, for some customers we didn't do a very good job of
communicating our sales strategy.  This accounts for some of the
frustration that you saw in the survey quotes earlier in my
presentation.


          Slide 6

          Integrated Sales Teams


Beginning on November 1, the sales force consisting of both
Direct Sales Reps and TeleSales Reps will be pulled together
under one roof.  These resources will function as an Integrated
Sales Team, reporting to a common manager.

I think you will see significant advantages to this new model.

-  Direct Sales Reps, who visit you at your business can take the
   time to understand complex problems and help devise solutions.
   But since they can only make a limited number of calls per
   day, and are away from the office most of the time, they
   sometimes have difficulty in resolving many small problems in
   a timely fashion.  Plus, they can effectively service a
   relatively small number of customers.

-  TeleSales Reps, on the other hand, spend most of their time in
   the Sales Center office.  This makes them much more accessible
   to you.  They can handle many inquiries and typically resolve
   small problems much more quickly than a Direct Sales Rep can.

The beauty about the Integrated Sales Team approach is that you
will no longer be faced with an "either/or" choice.  We will
determine a sales team strategy tailored to meet your needs,
drawing from a mix of telesales and direct selling resources, as
appropriate.

And further, we recognize that some customer needs are best met
by a Value-Added 3rd party sales force, due to unique solutions
or specific expertise that they can bring to the table.  In these
situations where you have chosen the VAB as the primary sales
contact, the HP Integrated Sales Team will play a supporting
role, as needed.

The key thing to remember is that with the new organization
model, customers will have well coordinated access to all the
necessary HP sales resources, including Direct and TeleSales.

While I'm on the subject of Telesales, let me take a moment to
share with you a letter that we received from Peter Evans, the
Director of Data Processing at Buie Corporation, in San Diego.

Like many customers, Mr. Evans was very concerned about becoming
a "Telesales account", thinking "How can a person that primarily
communicates to me over the telephone possibly understand my
needs as effectively as a direct Sales Rep?"

Well, here is the answer in his own words...

"For the past couple of years, I have been working with one
of your salesmen, John Goette.  I will not hesitate to tell
you that when I was first informed of this telesalesman
concept versus a direct salesman, I was unhappy.  In no
uncertain terms did I relay this information to John.  He
simply asked me to give  him a try and see how it worked.
To make a long story short, I did give it a try and have
been utterly shocked at how well it worked.  I have never
had a man work harder for my account than John has done.  He
has resolved many little picky things where other HP people
have dropped the ball.  In no instance has he failed me.  He
is directly responsible for accomplishing many of the tasks
that had to be executed for a smooth running of my data
centers.  For this I am truly grateful to him.  John is the
kind of employee that Hewlett-Packard is about."

Well, from this letter and many others like it, it appears as
though "telesales versus direct sales" is not the issue.  Good
old fashioned service is.  And, when we execute well, we can
provide high satisfaction, which is our overriding goal.

Many of you may be thinking to yourselves, "The changes that HP
is planning look good overall, but not if my primary HP sales
contact changes again as a result."

Well although I cant' guarantee that every sales rep to customer
assignment will remain unchanged, I can tell you that preserving
the consistency of the sales interface to you is the number one
"ground rule" as we move into implementation of our deployment
plans.

Now to round out the Integrated Sales Team concept, let me
briefly mention HP Direct.  HP Direct, for those of you who are
unfamiliar with it, refers to the HP Computer catalog and 800#
direct ordering program.

I have seen recent articles that stated that HP Direct has been
discontinued.  This is not true.  We have refocused HP Direct
towards computer system and workstation products.  In May, we
published the new Business Computer Systems Catalog which joined
the already popular HP Apollo Direct Workstation catalog.

HP Direct is alive and well and ready to serve you.  By dialing
one 800#, you have immediate access to literature, catalogs, up-
to-date pricing and availability status, and over the phone
ordering.  Technical support engineers are available to answer
your questions and make it simple to buy low cost and low
complexity products such as add-ons and upgrades, as well as
provide referrals to our host of Value Added Business partners..


          Slide 7

          HP Direct
          [phone]


And, HP Direct is an integral part of the integrated sales team
concept I have been talking about, so the same terms and pricing
discounts that you receive from your local HP sales office
applies to HP Direct orders.  And full compensation will go to
your Direct Sales Rep and Telesales rep for all orders placed
through HP Direct.  So, I encourage you to use this convenient
service.

While on the subject of service, I would like to help you
understand the ways in which our support team is organized to
better respond to your needs.  We have been ranked #1 in customer
support and our objective is to continue this position.  Our
support organization has been transitioning this last year to
better align its resources to serve you and as a result, you may
have experienced some disruption.

The Professional Services Organization provides upfront, sales
support, technical consulting, education services, and migration
to Open Systems.

The Systems Support Organization now provides the single point of
contact for all maintenance services for hardware, software, and
networks as well as an expanded range of site services including
cabling, disaster protection, and outsourcing.

The Response Center continues to be the backbone to provide
remote support and Helpdesk.

We have 2 major initiatives underway to enhance the Systems
Support Organization's ability to provide this single contact.

*  First, we are investing heavily in retraining our Customer
   Engineers to provide the full range of maintenance services at
   the level of expertise you expect, and second .  .  .

*  We are in the process of bringing Systems Engineers into this
   organization on a permanent basis to augment the Customer
   Engineer's experience.

Our support team is fully integrated and able to respond to your
needs with an expanded range of services and support offerings.
Be sure to visit our HP Support Booth and talk with the folks
there.

Now let me switch gears a bit.  I'd like to talk about Step 2 of
our action plan - Communication.

It's one thing to have a good sales strategy. . . it's another
thing to communicate it properly.  From what I have seen, we did
a relatively poor job last year in letting you know how we
intended to serve you.  For example, I know of some customers
that were not informed of a change in primary sales contact until
well into the year.  So for a few, it was not a matter of "giving
TeleSales a try", as much as it was "does HP even care about my
business anymore?".  I apologize for that.

This year, I want to ensure that we don't commit the same
mistake.  Thus, we will be sending a letter to our installed base
customers, which clearly articulates our strategy and informs you
who your integrated sales team members are.  By the way, I should
remind you to fill out a Customer Profile card at the desk in the
main registration area.  These profiles will greatly facilitate
the process of keeping you informed.

And finally, if you ever have a question and don't know exactly
where to turn to, simply call the HP Direct 800 number to reach
an HP person who can help answer it.  This 800 number is your
"one-stop" window into HP.

In addition to informing you of our sales strategy and team
players, our Customer Contact Plan for the coming year is
designed to help keep you better informed of our new
technologies, strategies, products, and key events.


                       Slide 8

                    Customer Contact Plan

          -  Strategy and product communication
          -  Technology Update Series
          -  Interex Advocacy Process
          -  Increased presence at local Interex Users Groups


Let me now talk about the various components of our Customer
Contact Plan, shown on the slide you now see.

Many of you currently receive HP Computer Update.  We will
continue to enhance this publication as a major communication
vehicle for our installed customers.  Computer Update is a
monthly snap-shot of HP products, promotions and events.  Based
on your feedback, we recently began including HP management
articles on our strategies as well.

We are investigating other ways to provide more value through our
marketing communications.  We have received positive feedback
from our use of audio-conferencing.  We believe this may be a
good format for sharing latest technology development, new
products and HP strategies.

We plan to develop a quarterly technology series to help you stay
abreast of the many changes that are occurring in our fast paced
industry.  We will discuss specific technologies and help guide
you on when to deploy the best alternative for your needs.

The Americas Marketing Center has been formed with the
responsibility to coordinate our various marketing activities.
Our goal is to communicate with you based on your particular
business focuses and needs.  Your specific customer profile
information will help ensure we do a good job at this.

For a prosperous business relationship, communication must flow
well in both directions.  So, besides talking about how HP will
communicate with you, I would like to talk about enhanced ways
for the Interex community to communicate it's needs to HP.

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting with Chuck Piercey and
Jane Copeland, Chairperson of the Interex Advocacy Committee.  I
encourage you all to avail yourselves of the Advocacy process
being put in place.  I will be at the Advocacy Forum on Thursday
and look forward to getting an even better understanding of your
current key issues.

Since the Advocacy process will help both customers and HP by
providing a clear channel in which to distill the most critical
problems,  we will be using the Advocacy Committee as a sounding
board to help fine tune our plans.

This Interex conference in New Orleans is an excellent way to
keep the communication channels open in both directions, and I am
really glad to be a part of it.  Since we are so interested in
what you have to say, we have set up an "HP Is Listening Booth".
I encourage you to stop by during the conference and let us know
your concerns and good ideas.

Finally, let me make a brief comment on the last bullet on the
Customer Contact Plan slide.  We will be increasing our presence
at all the Regional Users Group conferences next year.  This will
improve our ability to be responsive to more localized concerns,
as well as the strategic issues raised at conferences like New
Orleans.

Now, let me talk about Step 3 of our action plan:  the topic of
improving our business processes.


          Slide 9

          Improved Business Processes


As I had indicated at the beginning of my presentation, some of
HP's internal business processes have become inhibitors to doing
business effectively.  Things like producing timely
configurations, quotes, and invoices are not currently running as
smoothly as we would like.

As a result, quality improvement efforts to address these areas
have been launched at the executive level within Hewlett-Packard.

Let me briefly touch on the progress we are making in some of
these areas.  These process improvements will enhance the sales
interface to you by freeing up much of the sales rep's time from
the administrative follow-up currently required.

The sales team can then spend more time understanding your
business needs and proposing solutions.

-  In response to your feedback for simplified ordering of
   support contracts, HP has invested in an intelligent front-end
   bundler for maintenance support contracts.  Just introduced
   this month, this service provides one single contract,
   customized to each individual customer, that covers hardware,
   software, and network maintenance services.  It is called:  HP
   System Support.

-  To help simplify system ordering, an artificial intelligence
   based tool is under development that will greatly increase the
   speed of providing accurate budgetary quotes on all CSO
   products.  In addition, it will contain automated
   configuration features which will ensure that entire
   system configurations are correct and functional when they
   arrive on your site.  The first release of this tool is
   targeted for late summer of next year and is eagerly
   anticipated by our sales force.

-  Other aspects of order fulfillment are being addressed by a
   corporate-wide program named EAGLE, which places top level
   attention on the problem in a similar manner to our much
   renowned "10X" hardware quality program.  Noticeable process
   improvements are expected in 1993 and beyond as a result.

To summarize this morning, we have been listening to your inputs
and are acting upon them.


                 Slide 10

                 Summary

          -  Integrated Sales Teams
          -  Customer Contact Plan
          -  Improved Business Processes


I am particularly enthusiastic about our sales deployment plans
for next year, including the Integrated Sales Team concept.  I
think you will find the sales teams highly responsive and focused
on your needs.

In addition, things like the Technology Audioconferences and
focused mailings will help keep you better informed.

Finally, our dedication to listen to your concerns and needs,
communicate our plans and take appropriate action will mark the
way we want to do business together with you.

In closing, I would like to share a few more comments relating to
the quality of HP's sales interactions, as seen by our customers
responding to the Customer Satisfaction Survey...


          Slide 11

          "Most professional, helpful, courteous sales staff I
          deal with (and we have SUN, DEC, DG equipment).  Always
          follows through on what he says he'll do.



          Slide 12

          "He is the best HP Sales Rep I have had contact
          with in 20 years."


It is clear to me from these comments, that we clearly have the
skills to perform well for you, once we pull together the right
resources and execute well.




Closing:


          Slide 13

          "I couldn't ask for better service!"


My aim is to build a sales organization that can earn this kind
of reaction from all our customers.

Obviously, it won't happen overnight.  But I am convinced that if
we keep the communication channel open and continue to work hard
on the issues that you raise, we can do it.  That is my personal
commitment to you.

Thank you for your attention.  And thank you for your attendance
at this Interex conference.  I hope to talk to many of you during
the week as we continue to listen to your needs and work together
on solutions.