HP Service Channel Executive Summary

HP Care Pack Services Solution

Today’s competitive climate is putting ever-increasing pressure on IT management to control costs. IT managers are seeking to consolidate resources, improve resource utilization, increase staff productivity, and improve return on IT (RoIT). Major IT expenses include hardware and software installations and updates; support issues that must be addressed evenings, nights, and/or weekends; and the cost of supporting an IT infrastructure internally. But the biggest expense is the cost of downtime. Enterprise applications cannot tolerate downtime without significant business loss. Even a single hour of downtime translates to lost productivity — whatever the size of the business. Proactive advice and assistance, reduced downtime, and an assured level of availability will not only control costs; they are necessary ingredients to the success of any business.

Solution highlights

HP Care Pack is a portfolio of packaged services for product and solutions that uplift standard warranties and provide additional support and levels of service for specified products and solutions. Usually, sold at the time of product sale and now available after the sale through NCSS and its Agents, these packaged services can satisfy the service needs of any size company, from small businesses to enterprises. The benefits and advantages of HP Care Pack services, sold and delivered both directly and through HP Service Partners, are significant, because basic warranties do not provide the level of service required in today’s always-on, 24x7 environment.

HP Care Pack is a simple service packaging strategy, providing many different levels of support for HP products — ranging from complete installation to proactive services that will correct problems before they impact a customer’s IT environment. HP Care Pack services make it easy for the customer to choose the appropriate level of services to guard against downtime. For example, there are HP Care Pack services through which a typical hardware or software warranty can be upgraded to next-business-day on-site response, to same-day on-site coverage, or to six-hour call-to-repair, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. HP Care Pack Services also provide operating system support, application software support, installation, and training options. HP Care Pack services provide customers with:

Peace of mind — support services that meet customer infrastructure needs and enable adaptability
A wide range of high-level, quality HP support services available globally
International service packages that protect customer-portable systems while they are traveling in most countries around the world

Value proposition

HP Care Pack Services are sold at the time of product or solution sale. The NCSS opportunity allows the Client post sales support and a review of services often overlooked in the initial sales process. It is therefore imperative that NCSS staff or Agents are aware of the product types and application of a suite of products to provide the appropriate level of coverage for the Client.

The coordination between product and services begins with the first sales call and progresses as described in the steps
below:

Step 1. Discuss the benefits of HP Care Pack services upon completion of a service or sales call and engage the customer in a conversation regarding his or her system availability requirements, current model for product and solution support, and support and training areas needing improvement. (Remember that the NCSS web site also offers a demonstration of our Policies & Procedures product called Safety Net.)

Step 2. Reach agreement with the customer on the best packaged services for the product they currently have and construct a Quotation either from on site with the assistance with the customer, email it to them and get his or her verbal commitment to purchase.

Step 3. Once the commitment to purchase has been made, the NCSS and Agent personnel MUST record the precise serial number and model number for EVERY product to be covered. Together with this information and the precise coverage required for each machine, the person responsible for registering the sale enters the details into the Care Pack sales system on the NCSS web site.

Step 4. Confirm with the client the total charge and complete the transaction via credit card.

Note: Care Pack coverage does not commence until NCSS has received payment so in the cases that the Client’s credit card does not have sufficient value, several transactions may cover the purchase. This could mean that several groups of equipment will need to be developed. This is done by referring to a quotation that will automatically generate a new quote that will be under the individual transaction value of the card. You may develop as many quotations as you like as these are not saved.

In circumstances where the Client’s card is restricted or they do not have a company card, the sale may be conducted under a invoice generated by NCSS under advice from the client. The Client sends the email back to NCSS with a company approved purchase order and NCSS send on an invoice in response. Remember, coverage offered by the Care Packs will not commence until payment is received!

Target client profile

The ideal HP Care Pack customers understand the importance of robust customer support services and system availability requirements — needs that are met through HP Care Pack services. There are instances when customer support needs are outside the scope of the HP Care Pack portfolio; for these customers, custom-quoted services should be pursued via NCSS. An example of a custom-quoted service is a situation where a customer requires support for a multi-technology IT environment.

Ideal customers for the proactive HP Care Pack services (i.e., Proactive 24 and Critical Service HP Care Pack) are IT organizations that cannot tolerate downtime without significant loss to the business. They view IT as an enabler to the business, and are interested in proactively improving IT service levels.

Customers typically purchasing HP Care Pack services:
Do not want to provide in-house support
Value the technical support their suppliers can provide
Require installation and startup
Require support and training services

Key customer contacts

CIO/IT Director – interested in reducing complexity, improving service levels, reducing support costs, keeping ahead of change in the complex, multi-technology environment
Procurement Manager / Purchasing Agent – interested in reducing complexity, managing the company’s IT spending cost envelope, understanding quantitative aspects such as RoIT and TCO (Note: Where possible, try to sell to the IT chain of command and not this audience, who focuses on price over value.)

Managing Director/CEO/ Operations Manager – interested in exploring IT solutions that can help with changing the playing field, delivering new streams of revenue, addressing customer loyalty and retention strategies, and reacting more quickly to changing business conditions

How do the Client and I win?

when…

We have an existing satisfied relationship with the customer.
The customer needs predictable costs and reduced decision cycles.
The customer needs the equipment up and running immediately (link to Installation package and improved cycle-time over contractual offering). 
The customer must have high availability with their IT infrastructure, and values IT reliability for business success.
The customer has a shortage of skilled IT staff in house.
We’re able to show why the customer needs uplifted support by proving lower customer TCO — and return on IT investment — via HP Care Pack services.
The customer has an international presence, and values global and consistent offerings.
The customer values an IT vendor who has established relationships and linkages with other technology providers, and who can ensure issue resolution with those partners in the customer environment.
The customer wants simplicity of ordering, pricing, and/or prepayment of services.
The customer needs “flexibility within a package.”
The issue of ending of warranty coverage is a focal point for introducing the client to considering Care Pack coverage, particularly when he is shown the cost of the call whilst still in warranty.

The opportunity is lost when…
The customer is looking for the lowest price in the market, as opposed to quality of service.
The customer has adequate in-house support and is not willing to consider HP’s support offering.
The customer views IT assets as a disposable commodity and has a short cycle for IT purchases and upgrades.
The customer has a perception that HP Care Pack services are only available in a low-end desktop offering.
The customer perceives that there is not enough flexibility with HP Care Pack services to meet their needs.

What are the client’s needs and how are they satisfied? 

The client has significant concern about potential loss of productive system uptime.

Care Pack Solution
HP Care Pack services can ensure the level of IT availability required by the business mission through a consistent level of service across all the equipment in the configuration/implementation. HP’s certified support engineers have the expertise and experience to support the widest breadth of product technology in the industry. HP’s simplified, comprehensive support portfolio includes packages for:

• Hardware support
• Software support
• Reactive hardware/software services
• Proactive hardware/software services
• Installation and startup services
• Education services

The client’s expanding business is supported by a complex IT environment. Time and internal resources for dealing with services’ proposal review and purchasing cycle are extremely limited.

Care Pack Solution

The burden on the client’s internal administrative processes can be relieved through high-value, fixed-cost, prepaid packaged services, which are easy to order. These services can be obtained via simplified administration processes for managing warranty products and contract services.

The client needs improved or high availability, but has a limited IT budget.

Care Pack Solution

The return on the client’s IT investment is maximized by providing different levels of prepaid, high-value, fixed-cost support services, as well as price protection.

The client is concerned that in-house IT staff are focused on existing technology and would have to be trained in new technologies.

Care Pack Solution

A total service solution is delivered by experienced, certified technical engineers, who are experts on HP servers as well as on multivendor IT components.

The client needs to reduce the downtime on application environments, to minimize business impact.

Care Pack Solution

Remote monitoring capabilities and proactive IT planning and management can help prevent unplanned downtime. When a problem does occur, a single point of contact for support ensures quick, efficient resolution of any problems.