Separately, Redding said, HP started a program last year to migrate about 750 of its direct customers over to the channel for contracts worth more than $20 million. The company put out an RFP (request for proposal) and now is in the process of moving the customers over to 45 of its channel partners.

"With the legacy companies—Digital Equipment Corp. and Compaq—we had a lot of customers that had direct maintenance agreements with us," Redding said. "We thought those customers would have a better experience with our partners." The company is about halfway through the 14-month process of migrating those accounts over to partners.

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While many partners have asked whether HP will offer another such RFP soon, Redding said the company is very busy with this migration. Although she would not rule one out, she said if one is coming it probably won't be soon.

HP has launched pilot programs for its Services Elite partners, according to Redding.  About a half-dozen partners are participating in a managed services pilot to resell the company's custom business continuity and recovery services.  The program requires partners to have made an investment in that area themselves.

Another pilot program within the company's consulting and integration group is for partners to resell HP's custom offshore application development services for SAP integration.