HP 2012 Annual Report Download - page 15

appliance deployment models. Augmented by support and professional services, our software solutions
allow IT organizations to gain customer insight and optimize infrastructure, operations, application life
cycles, application quality, security, IT services and business processes. In addition, these solutions help
businesses proactively safeguard digital assets, comply with corporate and regulatory policies, and
control internal and external security risks.
HP Financial Services
HPFS supports and enhances our global product and service solutions, providing a broad range of
value-added financial life cycle management services. HPFS enables our worldwide customers to
acquire complete IT solutions, including hardware, software and services. HPFS offers leasing,
financing, utility programs and asset recovery services, as well as financial asset management services
for large global and enterprise customers. HPFS also provides an array of specialized financial services
to SMBs and educational and governmental entities. HPFS offers innovative, customized and flexible
alternatives to balance unique customer cash flow, technology obsolescence and capacity needs.
Corporate Investments
Corporate Investments includes business intelligence solutions, HP Labs, the webOS business and
certain business incubation projects. Business intelligence solutions enable businesses to standardize on
consistent data management schemes, connect and share data across the enterprise and apply analytics.
Sales, Marketing and Distribution
We manage our business and report our financial results based on the business segments described
above. Our customers are organized by consumer and commercial customer groups, and purchases of
HP products and services may be fulfilled directly by HP or indirectly through a variety of partners,
including:
• retailers that sell our products to the public through their own physical or Internet stores;
• resellers that sell our products and services, frequently with their own value-added products or
services, to targeted customer groups;
• distribution partners that supply our solutions to smaller resellers;
• original equipment manufacturers (‘‘OEMs’’) that integrate our products with their own
hardware or software and sell the integrated products;
• independent software vendors (‘‘ISVs’’) that provide their clients with specialized software
products, and often assist us in selling our products and services to clients purchasing their
products;
• systems integrators that provide various levels and kinds of expertise in designing and
implementing custom IT solutions and often partner with our services business to extend their
expertise or influence the sale of our products and services; and
• advisory firms that provide various levels of management and IT consulting, including some
systems integration work, and that typically partner with our services business on client solutions
that require our unique products and services.
The mix of HP’s business by channel or direct sales differs substantially by business and region. We
believe that customer buying patterns and different regional market conditions require us to tailor our
sales, marketing and distribution efforts accordingly. HP is focused on driving the depth and breadth of
its coverage in addition to efficiencies and productivity gains in both its direct and indirect businesses.
So, while each HP business segment manages the execution of its own go-to-market and distribution
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