The Irish sales subsidiary of Hewlett Packard (HP) is set for 15 per cent revenue growth this year, writes John Collins.

HP Ireland's managing director, Martin Murphy, said it was the second year in a row that the local operation had grown revenues at 15 per cent, while the overall IT market has grown at 8-9 per cent.

HP's 2007 financial year closes at the end of October.

Mr Murphy says that HP now has about 22 per cent of the market for IT products and services, which analysts IDC value at €2.9 billion this year.

Irish Computer Channels has also ranked HP as the number one vendor of hardware and services for four years in a row.

Given that HP operates on an all-island basis rather than managing its Northern Ireland operations from the UK, Mr Murphy is already seeing benefits from the formation of the new powersharing executive in the North.

"What happened in May, I don't think people fully appreciated the opportunity," he said.

"From a business perspective, we are starting to see significant benefits."

HP is seeing growth in spending by government, telecoms firms and financial services customers, while it is making progress against rival Dell by selling "on value rather than price", he says.

According to Mr Murphy, HP Ireland is "one of the best-performing HP subsidiaries in Europe".

In fact, he says that all of the technology giant's five Irish entities - the sales operation; a print head manufacturing facility in Leixlip, Co Kildare; the headquarters of its Europe Middle East Asia (EMEA) financial services division; a European customer support operation in Dublin's Clonskeagh; and a software development centre in Galway - are "performing exceptionally well".

With HP having such significant investments locally, it is no surprise that Mr Murphy and his organisation are focused on the large economic issues related to Ireland Inc.

He points out that, five years ago, energy costs here were 30 per cent less than the European average; now they are 15 per cent above it.

He says that rather than simply trying to tackle issues such as cost base and competitiveness we should be looking at opportunities for the future of Ireland.

"There is a huge opportunity around the area of intellectual property," he says.

Mr Murphy points to the recent licensing deal HP completed with Galway medical device firm Crospon, which will use HP's inkjet printing technology in a drug delivery patch, as an example of the kind of innovation Irish firms should be engaging in.

"From a HP perspective, it's useful for trying to position Ireland as a place to invest by the corporation," he says.

"There's been an erosion of the older reasons to invest here, whether the tax rate or the skills base, but if the company sees a lot of peers doing research and development here, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."