HP rebuilds for 'new style' of IT

After a few bumps and stumbles, Hewlett-Packard Co. is committed to getting back on track. Exhibit A of that commitment: Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman has dubbed 2013 the “fix and rebuild” year with a focus on partnering with, rather than just serving, customers.

“As a part of our turnaround strategy, HP’s entire Enterprise Services group is currently in the midst of revitalization efforts that offer a ‘new style’ of [information technology] and a portfolio of products unmatched by any other company,” said Marilyn Crouther, senior vice president and general manager of HP Enterprise Services, U.S. Public Sector. “We see this new style as a deeper integration of a variety of IT solutions to meet the challenges of an evolving workplace environment, which are influenced by cloud, big data, mobility and security.”

Exhibit B is more tangible: contract wins. In fiscal 2012, the company earned $4.3 billion in prime contracts, earning it the No. 7 spot on the 2013 Top 100 list.

The company also won a major recompete in June of this year when it captured the Navy Next Generation Enterprise Network, the follow-on to the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet contract, the company has held since 2000. NGEN is worth $3.5 billion over five years.

A trend appears in HP’s contract wins: health IT. Last June, the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center tapped HP to provide technology services to federal agencies under the Chief Information Officer - Solutions and Partners 3 contract, an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity governmentwide acquisition contract with a $20 billion ceiling across all awardees over the next 10 years.

Earlier, HP and the North Carolina Health and Human Services Department announced a $122 million agreement under which the company continues providing Medicaid and mental health fiscal agent services for up to two years. In September, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded the company a $43 million task order to continue to provide assistance with electronic health records.

Besides health IT, Crouther considers cybersecurity, big data, cloud computing, applications modernization and mobility to be growth areas.

For instance, in September, new HP Security for Public Sector offerings came out to help government agencies manage enterprise threats, contain costs resulting from identity fraud and application vulnerabilities, and drive efficiencies while supporting compliance requirements, she said.

Additionally, HP Enterprise Cloud Services - Virtual Private Cloud for U.S. Public Sector is designed to help agencies implement Cloud First strategies while also providing economic, security and reliability benefits.

“Agencies are looking for more cost-effective ways to achieve their mission objectives, and they are finding it with cloud, big data, cybersecurity and mobile technology innovations,” Crouther said, especially during sequestration. “New innovations are giving clients an opportunity to purchase services on an ‘as-needed’ basis, allowing them to align resources with demand and only pay for the services that they need.”

A need for speed is a by-product of the government’s push for technology in emerging areas such as mobility and modernization, Crouther said. HP’s innovation has to happen fast.

“As a result of these trends, both customer-based and industry-wide, HP has set specific priorities for the remainder of 2013,” she said. They include:

Investing in and delivering solutions that meet clients’ missions.

Focusing on enterprise services such as cloud, cyberecurity and big data.

Attracting and retaining the right employees.

Those objectives tie into the overall makeover plan, too, by putting the customer at the heart of every move. “This is a very interesting and exciting time for government IT,” Crouther said. “Our success is defined by our ability to help our clients achieve their mission and by delivering best practices and best-in-class IT.”