HP vows to share with smaller IT contractors

Hewlett Packard has committed to sharing more of its public sector IT work with small companies, in the shape of sub-contracting targets in place until 2013.

Speaking yesterday in London, the government’s largest IT contractor said the number of SMEs in its supply chain would increase from 10 to 15 per cent of total spend by the end of next year.

That means that, over the next 23 months, an additional 150 tech companies will join the 600 smaller businesses already in HP’s UK sub-contracting chain, potentially at the expense of larger suppliers.

Nick Wilson, managing director of HP UK, even said the IT giant would “redirect” existing spending if required in order to meet the target, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Having done its bit to open up state projects to SMEs, the government welcomed the commitment, hailed by HP as ‘the first UK SME initiative by a large systems integrator.’

Both the firm and the state cited the same motivation: to help smaller firms bring growth to the UK economy, though Mr Wilson acknowledged HP’s clients could also gain new innovations under its move.

An SME ‘champion’ will be appointed to oversee the initiative, HP said, with an accompanying online registration site for new subcontractors to apply to become approved HP suppliers.

The company also reaffirmed its commitment to the government’s Prompt Payment Code, where signatories vow to honour payment terms in their supplier contracts which, at HP, are 30 days on state contracts.