HP Announces Sales Engagement Policies for Channel Partners

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 7, 2005, HP today announced policies that clarify its go-to-market approach with its 15,000 U.S. channel partners to grow sales while making it easier for them to do business with the company.

To achieve a more collaborative sales process with clear areas of responsibility, HP has refined its field engagement model and established rules to enable a more efficient interaction between the company and channel partners that resell its business-class products.

For sales of these products, which include PCs, industry-standard servers and select data storage products, HP will focus on a “named account” list, while channel partners will lead sales efforts with all other clients. In addition, channel partners will be able to contact HP with questions related to these clients.

“Today, we take another big step toward optimizing our partner sales engagement,” said John Thompson, vice president and general manager, Solution Partners Organization - Americas, HP. “Our channel partners have told us this is a high priority and we are committed to fueling opportunities for growth with them.”

Channel partners play a critical role in helping deliver HP technology to customers, especially the more than 20 million small- and mid-size businesses in the United States. In fact, HP has had seven consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth with channel partners in the Americas region (as of the company’s last reported fiscal third quarter).

In a number of specific “named accounts” within the corporate/enterprise and commercial segments, HP will collaborate with channel partners, which will then handle fulfillment of all customer orders. Compliance for the new go-to-market field engagement will be governed by a project office.

HP will continue to market and drive demand generation in the small to mid-size business market to help increase business with channel partners. A re-focused HP call center will take inbound customer orders only and a portion of the call center will be dedicated to supporting channel partners that serve as influencers in sales.

This initiative for business-class products follows steps taken over the past year with channel partners that resell HP enterprise products, such as high-end servers and storage. The earlier moves have resulted in a tighter alignment and better coordination between HP and channel partners that sell the company’s portfolio of enterprise products and services.

More information on the HP PartnerONE program and partner initiatives is available at http://www.hp.com/partners/us/partnerone.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2005, HP revenue totaled $85.2 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected development, performance or rankings of products or services; statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the development, performance and market acceptance of products and services and other risks that are described from time to time in HP’s Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2005, and other reports filed after HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

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