News release

HP Instant Support Offering Helps Save Customers Time and Money Through Web-based Technical Support

HP today introduced a Web-based technical support offering that automatically identifies, diagnoses and resolves computing problems within an enterprise customer's distributed desktop computing and printing environment. Targeted at corporate IT help desk support teams and their end-users, HP Instant Support Corporate Edition (ISCE) can help drive down information technology support costs by 10-30 percent while providing fast, accurate and consistent user support.

HP ISCE is the latest addition to the HP Instant Support portfolio, which now provides a complete e-support experience on everything from personal digital assistants (PDAs) to high-availability servers and storage systems. HP Instant Support helps companies realize the benefits of becoming an Adaptive Enterprise by aiding their efforts to cut costs and increase responsiveness to change.

Building on HP's expertise in multivendor IT environments, ISCE delivers "just-in-time" support for diverse desktop computing, printing and Pocket PC products in heterogeneous environments and helps manage complex IT infrastructures.

"Companies looking to leverage technology to drive business operations and growth understand that traditional IT help desk support systems can't always keep up with the demand or adapt to the changing needs of end-users," said Dan Socci, vice president customer support and channels marketing, HP Services. "We built HP's Instant Support suite of services to provide companies with the complete remote support solution they need to keep systems up and running by identifying problems quickly and fixing them the first time."

The HP Instant Support suite of offerings provides customers the flexibility to implement what they need now while easily adding additional services as desired. A key distinction of HP Instant Support services from competing offerings is HP's "zero footprint" technology. This brings the benefit of rapid, non-disruptive deployment - installation and updates happen only once, on the server, with no client updates or software downloads required. No footprint is left on the end-user's computing device when tasks are completed, keeping corporate images intact.

"Instant Support has been a wonderful help for us, and the teachers. We can remotely troubleshoot and often fix a problem without the student leaving or missing class. We can easily keep track of students we've helped and document what we've done," said Steve Eisenberg, director of technology, Episcopal High School, Houston, Texas. "In a school environment where fixing problems quickly is a top priority and the help desk staff is small, anything that gives us an edge is greatly appreciated."

Featuring a natural-language interface that facilitates end-user troubleshooting, the HP ISCE offering includes:

• Augmented Knowledge Search - user-refined searches using keywords for customer-specific computing devices that obtain precise, targeted results



• PC Driver and BIOS Support - to automatically gather configuration information and deliver downloadable drivers and BIOS updates as needed



• Printing Diagnostics - to allow end-users to launch simple, automated configuration tests and obtain solutions to recognizable problems



• PC Hardware/Driver Software Diagnostics - to quickly test all software drivers and offer automated fixes



• Active Phone and Active Chat Help Desk - seamlessly transmits hardware information and customer history data so end-users can troubleshoot efficiently via phone or Web chat

More information on HP Instant Support offerings is available at http://www.hp.com/hps/hardware/hw_instant.html.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the last four fiscal quarters, HP revenue totaled $74.7 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended Jan. 31, 2004, and HP's other Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.