Modern workplaces for secure remote work need of the hour: HP CEO

As large enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India and elsewhere hit the refresh button in the pandemic times, the onus is on tech companies to keep their customers secure and provide them modern devices that make their lives easy as they work from home, HP President and CEO Enrique Lores said on Thursday.

Responding to an IANS question, Lores stressed on the fact that digital transformation has entered top gear as organisations realise the importance or remote learning with modern workplaces that can be set up right at home premises.

"I think the conversation we're having with most of our clients is about acceleration and transformation. The digital transformation we have seen during the last few months is something we saw happening in the timeframe of two to three years in the pre-COVID era," Lores told IANS during the virtual ‘HP Innovation Summit 2020'.

He said that the adoption to digital technologies is something not limited to large corporations only as more and more SMBs are on the path to realise their digital dreams and embrace state-of-the-art, secure workplaces.

"We tell our customers how they can work remotely in a secure way, to use the technology in ways that were not possible before. HP Inc is leading the digital transformation journey for enterprises of all sizes," Lores emphasised.

SMBs account for 97 percent of all businesses in Asia-Pacific and employ over half of the workforce.

"We are witnessing the dawn of a new age, where our cyber and physical worlds converge to create amazing new opportunities," Lores said at the company's ‘Reinvent 2020' virtual conference last month.

"This is a defining moment for each of us, our companies and our industry," he told partners.

The COVID-19 pandemic "has accelerated trends such as workforce mobility, digital education and the rise of the subscription economy. Even in our core PC and print businesses, people expect more personalized solutions," Lores said.

To prepare enterprises of all sizes for the new normal, HP recently announced a slew of new innovations designed to meet the needs of businesses with hybrid workplaces and distributed workforces for making remote employees as productive, connected and secure as possible, while seeking cost-effective ways to buy and manage IT.

The company launched a number of new innovations of PC, printer, and services to support companies and SMBs continue to adapt and stay productive in the changing working landscape.