India's largest systems and printer vendor says it's the solutions approach that's kept it going strong. 'Solutions' is the vendor's big buzz...but HP does have three strengths here. One, its wide product portfolio, which spans consumer to enterprise, imaging to systems and servers, mobiles to desktops. Second, its services organization. And third, its integrated sales team, covering institutional buyers from SMB to government.

HIGHLIGHTS Good growth in systems (laptops, PCs, esp mid- to high-end servers) Services wins in banking, including BoB, BoI, SBI Wide product array: systems and peripherals backed by services and supplies Multiple channels and retail; wide and deep reach Overdistributed, especially printers; low channel margins Services, supplies markets get more aggressive l Start-up Year: 1989 l Products & Services: Printers, servers, workstations , PCs and services l Address: 24, Salarpuria Arena Adugodi, Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 030 l Telephone: 25633555 l Fax: 25633222 l Website:www.hp.com/in

You could argue that it spreads itself thin, such as with the PC business where no one but Dell seems to really get it. Rival IBM, while giving up topline leadership in India, is now left with three profitable focus areas-servers, software and services-after exiting the low margin PC area. But HP India is strong in two of those three areas, as also in network and telecom software. And its low-margin hardware is balanced by at least one more slice: the very healthy print supplies and media sales to its high installed base. And it's done all it can to shift new sales away from cheap printers to multifunction devices with better margins or at least with a very healthy appetite for inkjet supplies (thanks to copies and photo prints).

Desktop PC sales were good in 2004-05: though it could not match the price aggression of HCL. Some uncertainty in the channels during the Lenovo-to-IBM transition helped laptops sales. Server sales were strong in most categories, barring traditional Intel single-processor units where it lost out to IBM. HP helped Intel penetrate the mid- to high-end better with 700 Itanium systems and other Xeon multi-way servers shipped. Finance and telecom were big buyers. Banking was the big story for services-with the rollout of the Bank of India deal, and new wins including SBI (international branches). Workstations made up a surprise sales surge.

For consistency, we have now included revenue estimates for HP's India captive development centers (including HP GDIC, the erstwhile Digital) in the company total, as we do for IBM, Cisco and others. GDIC, which services HP worldwide and its customers, grew-over 63% headcount jump last year-and would by itself have bordered the Top 20. While this consolidation hasn't yet affected HP's #4 rank in the top five, it takes it very close to #3, making HP a likely candidate for that spot-next year.