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HP has added 200 additional services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to its portfolio.
The expansion, which includes secure virtual private cloud, desktop and workplace services, was said to be an effort to help SMEs compete for public sector contracts, and have been added as part of the UK Government’s latest G-Cloud 5 framework.
The government’s G-Cloud initiative is designed to accelerate the UK adoption of the cloud by making it easier for public sector bodies to utilise commodity IT services without having to run a full tender or competition procurement process.
The initiative has led to the creation of the UK Government CloudStore, which allows public sector organisations to access 13,000 services from more than 700 suppliers – 80 per cent of which are SMEs.
“HP’s new G-Cloud 5 offerings provide SMEs with a low-cost entry point into the secure IT services market,” said Stuart Bladen, regional VP of HP’s UK public sector division.
“Through our SMEngage program, HP gives SMEs the opportunity to be involved in public sector projects. Around a third of the companies in our UK supply chain – nearly 600 individual businesses – are SMEs.
“As well as competitively priced pay-per-use cloud services, HP now offers desktop services with messaging and communications options through G-Cloud 5.
“New HP workplace services will further simplify the procurement process for G-Cloud users as well as SMEs, helping them grow their businesses in the public sector.”
