I walked into the Hotel Intercontinental’s business lounge wondering how I would identify Franz Scherz. That became all too apparent when I saw someone working away on an HP laptop and chatting away on an HP smart phone.

A typical courteous Austrian, Mr Scherz immediately puts you at ease. He does not talk the IT high-tech lingo, but explains everything in a down to earth layman’s terms manner. He explained that HP has three business groups. The first is dedicated to the consumer market and mainly involves the sale of printers, cameras and personal computers. “This year, we are offering some very attractive notebook computers which are affordable, below the EUR1,000 tag actually,” he said.

The second business group is Personal Systems Group. This area of business deals with smart phones. “We have a new model of phone that should be on the market in the next few weeks. It is a cross over between a notebook and a phone. However, we have gone back to the classic mobile phone look with this one,” he said.

Mr Scherz explained further: “These phones are intended for people who work on the go. They can be wherever they like and still send emails and browse the news on their mobile.”

He said that this segment of HP was relevant to Maltese small and medium enterprises that employ up to about 50 people. “In fact, sponsorships to up the IT capabilities of SMEs have been provided funding through government applying on a European level,” he said.

Mr Scherz said that HP had in fact entered into agreements with the IT Ministry, headed by Austin Gatt, to provide knowledge at 10 training centres in Malta. “We are currently finishing the last one and we are also working hard with our local partners to sell related solutions to those who need them,” he said.

I asked Mr Scherz what advice he would give to SMEs in the IT world. “First of all you must look for a good local partner who can furnish you with the solutions you would need. Another common mistake is for businesses to get too technical when seeking IT solutions,” he said.

“SMEs should not discuss the technology at all. Rather, they should get in touch with a local partner, as I have said, and provide them with their business needs. That way, the IT partner can look exactly at what the needs are and project a long term IT plan that will grow as the business grows,” he said.

He gave a practical example by saying that a person might buy a PC with a 100 gigabyte hard disk, only to find that he or she might have run out of space in less than a year, meaning the purchase of more storage space.

“You do not only need the hardware. That is the easy bit. You need knowledge of how to use that hardware, which is far more important. There is a trend in Europe which everyone seems to be adopting and that is provision of knowledge based services,” he said.

Mr Scherz pointed out that a modern printer, for example, could be used for a multitude of things. “Sometimes people don’t realise that printers have a much larger function than simply printing invoices. With the knowledge of how to use it, one might print posters, brochures, banners, disk sleeves…anything is possible nowadays and that saves money,” he said.

The third business group, Enterprise and Technology, deals with corporate clients. This group, he explained, consists of tailor made servers, data storage and software solutions. “The importance here is making sure that anything can be integrated with the mainline system to progress. They are all tailormade solutions to very specific problems which large corporate clients might come across,” he said.

Conversation turned to the IT support infrastructure in Malta. I asked how it fared in comparison to what he had seen in other countries. “Malta has a good infrastructure, better than others in fact. However, Malta has its particular circumstances which relate to space,” he said. “For example, other European countries are closer to mainland Europe and have better access, so trade there is more related to manufacturing. So, there could be good opportunities for internet based trade here,” he said.

He also said that there were many IT based opportunities for Malta in the form of call centres. “Although they are relatively small here, they are very efficient,” he said. Mr Scherz drew a parallel with Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria saying: “It’s not very productive to have a call centre complement of 1,000 and in turn needing some 1,000 IT technicians to make it run properly,” he said.

I also asked Mr Scherz what he though of the familiarity of Maltese people with IT and computers. “I spoke to the taxi driver who brought me to my hotel from the airport and he showed me his laptop. He is using it for various jobs and I think that just goes to show how far Malta has come in the last five to ten years in the field of IT,” he said.

I also asked what HP buys he would recommend for both the normal Joe Public in the street and to corporate clients.

“As I mentioned earlier, notebook computers are revolutionising the world of IT. It changes your lifestyle and also changes the way you look at computing. We tend to find that when people get a laptop, they get wi-fi and they then leave their desktop PCs for more mundane use,” he said. He said that a notebook PC can also be connected to a television set to view pictures, movies and the like.

Going slightly off subject, Mr Scherz said the future was also demanding a new breed of PC that interacts fully, or is actually part of the television set itself. “That’s the next step, media TV. It is a need that we project for society in the near future and many companies are already working on the development of them,” he said.

He also said that there was a growing market for home data servers, and that this was pertinent both to home users and SMEs.

“As for enterprise, rather than suggest products, I suggest they go for methodologies. Every corporate entity should ensure that they change their mindset so as to allow for fully integrated systems. Think of it this way, what use is it to buy a massive expensive server that will not be able to integrate with new systems, say two years down the line. It would be a waste of money,” he said.

He said that the money saved in this way would allow a company to expand in other fields: “Perhaps buy a fancy printer, learn how to use it and make even more cost savings,” he joked. But it all does make perfect sense. For too long, electronics manufacturers have dictated the terms of what is released on the market and how much it is going to cost and what can be integrated with it. Finally, after hearing what Mr Scherz had to say, it seems that companies are realising that if they help us buy good quality, affordable and long-lasting equipment (which can be integrated and upgraded), we all stand to win.

More information on HP Malta is available on website www.hp.com/mt