There are a lot of materials available to customers and partners around the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the major players in the blade market. Lots of claims, lots of counter-claims, YouTube videos, podcasts, press releases, full-page ads, web banners, reports and the list goes on and on and on. If you listened to what Dell and IBM say about HP BladeSystem, you'd think we haven't sold one. In fact, I think they talk more about HP than their own solutions.
Taking a step back, do customers make their decision based on this kind of marketing?
It may get a mention or a thought during the evaluation process but there are usually 3 or 4 bigger factors that influence a sale: the relationship between the customer and an account manager, one who can listen to their needs and then deliver the right solution at the right price, supported by a proven service and support structure. These are just a few.
Wow, so all the competitive attacks in the world won’t change their minds? That's right, customers aren’t stupid. In fact, they are quite savvy with regard to competitive claims.
The numbers don’t lie.
Blades Unit Market Share; IDC server tracker Q1 2008 
The latest IDC report shows that HP is the clear market leader and sold twice as many blades as IBM and over 5 times as many as Dell. The businesses buying HP BladeSystems probably saw the right solution rather than just another box with check marks on features.
Here's a thought: maybe our technology isn't just 2x or 5x better, maybe our sales people are twice as good as IBM and 5 times better then Dell, and as for our service and support perhaps we can claim to instill that level of confidence over our competitors?
It may be a stretch but whatever way you look at it, there is no doubt it’s a great time to choose the HP BladeSystem...despite all the noise surrounding the blades market.
Posted
08-08-2008 10:00 PM
by
robert.cashman@hp.com