June 14, 2005

Do You Know the Health of Your PC Vendor

Did you know that everytime you spend money on technology you are also investing in the company that sold you the technology?

If you buy 15 Dell Computers, and 30 days later Dell goes out of business who is going to support your "investment" of computers. This goes for any technology product you buy. Buying technology through a tech consultant or reseller, in some ways, cushions your investment because you would work with your reseller for support and not the vendor directly. (almost 100 tech consultants signed up for "Marketing to Small Businesses for Technology Consultants and VARs")

HP is going through many changes (just recently a new CEO) but overall is a stable company - they are not going out of business. However, in reading today that their PC division is once again a separate unit from the printing business, after having been previously joined together, made me think about the importance of knowing about the strength of your key technology providers.

The New York Times writes The move is among the first major decisions by Hewlett-Packard's new chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, who took over in April after the February ouster of Carleton S. Fiorina. She had combined the PC business with the company's printing unit at the beginning of the year.

It also suggests there are no plans, at least in the short term, to spin off the slightly profitable PC business, something that some analysts and investors have long called for amid tough competition from Dell Inc.

"At this time we have no plans to spin off any parts of our business," a Hewlett-Packard spokesman, Michael Moeller, said.

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