HP and the Emerging Digital Content 'Ecosystem'

Today, HP is announcing a new push into the digital content market, repositioning its network and service provider business as HP CME (Communications, Media & Entertainment). HP has been serving the telecommunications and entertainment sectors and feels that it is in a unique position to work with these industries as they converge through the opportunity presented by digital content (please see my earlier article today, "HP at the 'Crossroads' Between Telecom and Entertainment.")
 
I wanted to get some insight into the drivers behind this new strategy, so I asked Joy King, worldwide marketing director for the newly constituted HP CME, to respond to some questions. Here are her responses in question-and-answer format.
 
 
1. Thanks for agreeing to respond to some questions, Joy. Maybe you could tell us in a nutshell what HP CME is and what the key drivers are behind its formation.    
 
HP's Communications, Media & Entertainment business is an organization in HP that delivers solutions and services to three customer segments -- service providers, equipment providers and media/entertainment companies. Total revenue of HP CME is about $9 billion, or roughly 10% of total HP revenue (includes sales of solutions specialized for CME industries -- as well as all HP products (servers, storage, PCs, services).
 
But the announcement we are making is really a strategy story -- it outlines the specific actions and investments (both financial and human resources) that we are taking to enable the growing opportunity represented by the explosion of digital content and its delivery/management across communications networks. 
 
 
2. HP's announcement mentions that telecom and entertainment companies have "mutual opportunities in a larger, converged 'ecosystem.'" Could you explain more what you mean by an "ecosystem"? What do you think that's going to look like as it emerges over the next several years?    
 
We truly see a converged industry rather than two independent industries trying to work together.  With the explosion of digital content, both remastered content from huge asset libraries like Time Warner and new digital content from emerging content creators like Dreamworks, the opportunity to deliver very personalized, very content rich services to consumers and professionals (or 'prosumers'!) across a variety of networks (fixed line/wireless, broadband, etc) to a huge variety of devices (digital TVs for home entertainment, PCs and notebooks for office/web, cell phones/handhelds for mobile, and gaming devices, etc) is really tremendous.   
 
HP's role in this newly converged industry will be one of enablement through technology -- technology that is both based on standards but also customized for the specific needs of these companies. For example, the HP Media Storage offering is based on core HP storage arrays for IT data centers, but is significantly enhanced to meet the special needs of the media and entertainment industry (i.e. rapid retrieval of enormous video files). Another example is HP servers for telecom network and service providers; they are standards-based, commercial technologies proven in the IT world -- but enhanced to carrier-grade standard to meet the special needs of the telecom industry.
 
 
3. What should communications service providers be doing right now to take advantage of the convergence trend?  
 
They should be taking several steps .... First, they should consider how to extend their OSS/BSS systems to enable service management, revenue assurance and billing for content based services. Second, they should be evolving their networks with service delivery platforms that can speed the creation and provisioning of these new services. 
 
 
4. What makes HP a logical provider and partner in this market space?   
 
HP has a very unique position here ... we have the technology and understanding of the digital content business to help content companies develop (HP workstations and HP imaging products) and distribute (HP Digital Media Solution and HP Digital Media Storage) their content, but we also have -- and this sets us apart from all other classic IT competitors -- a deep understanding of the very unique and demanding requirements of the telecoms industry.  With this dual, "crossover," experience, HP is the partner trusted by both industries to deliver technology at the convergence point. 
 
 
5. What are some of the products and solutions we can expect to see coming out of this new initiative?  
 
You should expect new editions of our Digital Media Solutions portfolio, plus enhancements to our Service Delivery Platform to enable more effective content rich services (through gateways and servers like the OpenCall Media Platform) as well as enhancements to our Integrated Service Management (OSS) and Convergent Charging/Billing solutions to make the management and billing of content rich services a more seamless process for our customers. 
 
 
6. What's the most exciting thing about the emerging convergence scenario and HP's position in it?  
 
From a personal point of view, I'm excited about the new services that will be coming to my digital home, my mobile devices and my office desktop! 
 
And from a professional perspective, I think this is an enormous growth opportunity for both content companies and communications companies to create new revenue streams. Of course, it's a growth opportunity for HP too, particularly for our specialized solutions and integration services for telecom and media/entertainment companies, but also for HP's across-the-board products such as high performance servers, middleware and software, personal devices and storage.
 
AB -- 5/31/06
 
 
 
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This page contains a single entry by published on May 31, 2006 2:00 AM.

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