HP’s small business matchmaking

HP has taken a PR beating lately, but don’t let the idiots in the boardroom distract you from the successes of the real HP workers. If you’re a small business interested in working with government agencies or large businesses, HP may be your best friend. The company’s “business matchmaking” meetings have arranged over 40,000 “speed dates” where small businesses talk one on one with procurement officials for large enterprises, both public sector and private. The Web site, SBA Business Matchmaking, includes partnerships with the SBA (Small Business Administration) and SCORE (Counselors to America’s Small Business).

I drove down to Houston the first week of October to visit with several of the SMB teams implementing HP strategies. Meeting in the northwest Houston college-sized campus originally built by Compaq, HP folks explained what they’re doing and showed me new products.

First up: business matchmaking. Started by HP along with the SBA back in 2002, these regional events resemble a trade show on one hand, and a giant “meet market” on the other. Ballrooms full of small tables, each manned by someone from a government agency or large enterprise, host thousands of small businesses trying to get contracts with those big companies. HP makes deals themselves there, as do companies such as American Airlines, Chevron, FedEx, and others (see the list online).

Over 40,000 meetings have been arranged. From those, HP has tracked over $700 million worth of awarded contracts. These are HP’s numbers, but they ring true. The trend for huge companies to outsource doesn’t always mean the business goes to Burma or New Delhi. Offshoring moves jobs overseas, but outsourcing often moves jobs across town, keeping and sometimes multiplying those jobs.

The business matchmaking event in Philadelphia last August, held in conjunction with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, highlights another passion for the HP small business groups: underserved Hispanic businesses. An estimated 2 million small businesses owned by Hispanics represent something like a $14 billion market for IT products and services.

HP, like many vendors, has an active Small and Medium Business Web site. But surveys tell HP the Hispanic businesses feel they are behind the technology curve and want friendly content about technology and general business topics. Enter the HP Small and Medium Business Web site in Spanish. Most of the information on the English site has been translated, and the eLearning modules rewritten in idiomatic Spanish. The company also has a toll free line answered by Spanish-speaking attendants. Since many American Hispanics switch back and forth from Spanish to English during conversations, the attendants must be ready to do the same.

I disagree with the way HP defines small and medium enterprises, but the company isn’t the only large company to follow the same guidelines. It considers companies with 1 to 99 employees small businesses, and those with 100 to 99 employees medium businesses. I believe lumping a company with 90 employees in the same group as one with nine misses too many distinctions, and that a company with 100 employees differs from one with 1,000 employees. But most vendors go with the 1-99 range for small businesses, although many call companies with 100 to 500 employees medium sized, and over 500 employees large enterprises.

HP has long been a leader in the reseller channel, many of whom focus on local small businesses. It also covers the retail outlets extremely well. Try and go to an Office Max, Office Depot, Circuit City, or Best Buy and not trip over a Compaq computer or HP printer. These outlets serve most of the estimated 20 million home-based businesses, whether those tiny businesses are full time or part time.

HP also has specific programs for the 1.3 million or more Real Estate agents. We’ll discuss that program soon. Small retailers also get special HP programs, with hardened PCs for cash registers and the like. Again, we’ll come back to Houston for that topic before long, and discuss financing and Total Care support packages.

Sure, HP ultimately wants to sell products to small businesses, as do all the other technology vendors. But who else is running a meet-and-greet conference, introducing you to potential customers so you can afford your new computers? Maybe if some other players in the market who claim to love small businesses would stop flapping lips and start pressing palms, the small business survival rate would improve.