When I read the title of Carter Lusher's (director of the HP's Corporate Analyst Relations team) Monday blog post, I wished I'd come up with it myself: "How serious is HP about software?" Then I actually read the post, and it did a better job of making my case than I ever could. Check this excerpt:

In a recent meeting, while discussing HP's financial strength with a major customer's IT executives, I got a question/comment from the CIO. He stopped me, pointed to the thin slice of the earnings pie that is HP Software and asked "How serious is HP about software? That seems like an awfully small piece of your business." Yep, the slice that is HP Software (capital S) in our Q3 earnings is relatively tiny, 2 percent, but it only reflects the tip of the HP software (lowercase s) efforts.

So what you’re saying, Carter, is what we’ve been thinking for years: software isn’t important at HP. Maybe it’s by choice. Maybe software just isn’t one of your core competencies. Either way, I’d like to offer you this tidbit. If you’re a multi-billion dollar computer company, and software only accounts for 2% of your business (yes, I saw your “accounting issue” spin, good times), then what you really need is the proper visual to demonstrate your company’s commitment to software when speaking to analysts and members of the press. In the interest of coop-tition, here are some royalty-free graphics you can use in your next presentation:

Wow. Making 2 percent appear as visually important as Carter made it sound with his smooth fingers was harder than I thought. Still, I think these will spice up HP’s next earnings call and really hammer the message home, don’t you?

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