Embracing the new normal: Seeking greater networking ROI
By Joseph Rice, WW SMB Marketing, HP Networking
In a previous blog, I wrote that I was enjoying the many benefits of owning a smart phone and high-definition digital camera. I continue to download apps to my smart phone and have taken thousands of pics and videos of my adorable preschoolers.
When I purchased these devices, they both shared critical characteristics that met both my strict financial and technical criteria:
- Easy to set up and use
- Great price
- Based on proven, non-proprietary standards
- Flexibility through integration of related key functions
- Low-cost support options
- Investment protection
I suggested that the important considerations that I used to purchase my hi-tech gadgets can also be used by technical decision-makers of midsize companies to drive your networking purchasing decisions, allowing you to achieve an overall lower total cost of ownership for your business network.
Challenging a competitor’s view
Recently, I came across a competitor’s blog that gives the impression that networking customers must choose between lower TCO and investment in innovation. The blog stated that “looking at acquisition and maintenance costs [TCO] ignores the increased productivity and the reduction in downtime that next-generation networks can provide.”
By “next generation,” I’m assuming the blogger is referring to the expensive, proprietary solutions his company offers as a means to “lock in” unsuspecting customers. However, with innovative products built on HP FlexNetwork Architecture—designed to be flexible and interoperable with all standards-based networking products and agile enough to support increasingly mobile, rich media needs—you don’t need to choose.
In fact, according to the IDC study, companies like yours are not just looking for cost savings. They “are [also] demanding more from their networks” in order to get the most value for their IT spend. To support this, customers who participated in the study cited the following return-on-investment drivers:
- Infrastructure cost reduction
- IT productivity
- User productivity
- Business benefits, including protection against downtime
Having learned a valuable lesson from the recent and painful recession, companies of all sizes are finely tuning their CAPEX and OPEX spending practices.
Showcasing an example of HP innovation, the companies surveyed believe that deploying standards-based HP Networking solutions with common “single-pane-of-glass” management allows them to satisfy both current and future functionality needs. The results of the study concluded that customers who deployed HP networking products were able to achieve a return on their investment of 466% and a payback period of only 8.4 months while also achieving a total cost savings of up to 66%.
Now, who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?
For more details on how you can achieve similar results, download the free IDC study entitled: ROI of a Complete Networking Portfolio: to Delivering Value from the Network Edge to the Core.
To get a quick idea of the types of cost savings you can obtain from deploying HP Networking solutions, check out the HP ROI Calculator. However, please note that you should contact your nearest HP networking reseller or sales representative in order to obtain a complete ROI analysis.
Let us know how these tools work for you—and please share other ways you are doing more with less.
Additional resources:
>> Blog: Where our customers win in today’s competitive networking arena
>> Blog: Who's got your back? Redefining investment protection.
>> Video: HP FlexNetwork - Launch News Summary
>> Before replacing existing Cisco switches & routers with more of the same Pause and consider this
>> Learn more about HP Networking products and solutions for the Instant-On Enterprise
