|
Advertisement  V Sukumar, Country Manager,Education Solutions, HP V Sukumar represents a division called Hewlett-Packard (HP) Personal Systems Group. It is one of the three divisions of HP, the other two being the Imaging and Printing Group and Technology Solutions Group. The PSG focuses on the personal systems group ranging from the desktops, laptops, iPods, work stations.. that are used for commercial and consumer purposes. PSG in India, as part of the strategic initiative for the coming years, has taken education as one of the key focus areas. V. Sukumar, Country Manager,Education Solutions, HP, says the new initiative will now focus on the company’s reach to the education institutions in the form of a solution, rather than merely offering products. |
How do you see your educational offerings transformed from products only to solutions?
We look at the requirements of the schools and then talk to them. Similarly, we list the requirements for the colleges. It took us almost 6-8 months to find out what they need, and more importantly, understand their challenges, if they feel the need to introduce technology in their system. The whole srategy fails when you introduce something for the sake of introducing, but it succeeds if it is introduced in an area where it will alleviate the pain.
Most of the teachers spend close to 30-40 % of the time on non-academic work, like charting, preparing question papers, declaration of results, marksheet preparation, correction of papers, activities in the school function, identifying children with dancing and music skills, etc. So in every academic aspect they spend 30 % of their time for doing non-academic activities. That eats into their time for academic preparation. When we talked to them, we identified a lot of needs and areas where we really feel that technology can make a difference. That is how we decided to identify solutions that will take care of these challenges. For instance, when we talk about teachers using technology, the first thing arises is the fear- will I be able to use technology, how can I be exposed in front of the children who are very good at computers