In mid-September HP mailed its first catalog since the Compaq Computer/Hewlett-Packard merger. The book went to 2 million businesses gleaned from both firms’ databases.

This week, HP mailed its first catalog since the Compaq Computer Corp.– Hewlett-Packard merger to 2 million businesses, gleaned from both companies’ databases.

“This is the first major effort we’ve had talking to the small and medium business set about the full range of products, services and solutions available to them from the new HP,” said Leslie Adams, vice president of marketing services for HP Personal Systems Group in Houston.

Half of the recipients are business customers who are not necessarily paying customers, but who opted in by mail, telephone or via the Web to receive a catalog before the May 7 merger.

“It’s the customers we’ve identified as our most loyal and those interested in buying through the catalog,” Adams said.

The other half are HP resellers — an important resource for small businesses who sometimes buy directly from HP, but for products for which they need advice or installation, buy from resellers.

The 32-page book features 20 different product and service categories. The offerings show an emphasis on services to help the small businessperson with technology, providing assistance with, say, setting up a wireless network. “They want to focus on running their business, not on technology,” Adams said.

All the products can also be found on a Web site, publicized throughout the catalog, at http://www.hp.com/solutions/smbguide2.

The Web site is a special landing page associated with the new catalog.

Called the Small and Medium Business Solutions Guide, the new book is expected to create awareness of HP’s range of offerings. “It’s seasoning the marketplace, so when they receive promotional offers from us they will be ready to respond,” said Adams.

What are expectations about sales from the catalog? “There’s no reason to think that it won’t perform at an industry average,” she said.

HP reported revenue of $16.5 billion for the third quarter ended July 31, a decrease of 9% from last year’s same quarter. The company said that it was on track for fiscal year 2003 and 2004. The merger was finalized on May 3.