Hewlett-Packard: Transformation of HP's Business Model through Advanced Analytics and Operations Research
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is the world's largest provider of information technology infrastructure, software, services and solutions, to individuals and organizations. Advancements in Internet and mobile technology in the past decade, and consumers' desire to shop "anytime, anywhere" have seen worldwide eCommerce grow three-fold from $160 billion to $481 billion in the 2004-2009 period. Several operations research solutions were developed to address a variety of problems that manifest along the eCommerce value chain. Time series forecasting and regression modeling techniques were applied to help identify and quantify the impact of key drivers of online traffic. Bayesian modeling, Markov analysis and Linear Discriminant analysis methods are used to develop a holistic customer targeting engine that doubles purchase conversion rates and increases order sizes up to 30%. Since 2009, the integration of these solutions into the financial and marketing planning and warehouse operations processes has helped deliver $117 million in sales for HPDirect.com, thereby helping HP establish an effective alternate route to market.