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HP Details Its Post-Breakup Channel Strategies

Gearing up for the historic split of Hewlett-Packard, company officials announced the realignment of its channel programs around the Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. entities that will formally come into existence on Nov. 1. All told, HP has about 200,000 partners that will be affected by the changes, with some 90,000 of those partners […]

Written By

Michael Vizard

Oct 7, 2015

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Gearing up for the historic split of Hewlett-Packard, company officials announced the realignment of its channel programs around the Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. entities that will formally come into existence on Nov. 1.

All told, HP has about 200,000 partners that will be affected by the changes, with some 90,000 of those partners involved with products and services offered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Changes to the existing HP enterprise channel program in the short run are fairly minimal, but HPE is promising that there will be several notable additions in 2016.

HP Inc., on the other hand, is revamping its channel program to put more emphasis on services. The channel program for HP Inc., now known as Partner First, consists of three major programs that are built around a Volume track designed to drive revenue in the PC, print and supplies categories; a Solution track through which HP will reward partners for targeting specific areas, such as mobile computing and managed services; and a Systems Integrator track for partners that primarily lead with selling services that pull through HP products.

Vincent Brissot, currently vice president of worldwide channel marketing for HP, said these changes reflect an ongoing evolution in how HP is addressing the PC and printer markets and that, once independent, HP Inc. will continue to add specializations within its Solution track over the next two years.

An Ongoing Evolution

HP Inc. is also launching a Partner First Services, an effort to accelerate the sale of HP services around what will primarily be a portfolio consisting of commodity products aimed at both consumers and corporate customers.

“We’re making an effort to embed more services in our product sales,” said Brissot. “We wanted to create a program that would better reward partners that actually go to market with HP.”

At present, HP Inc. is trying to address what is a total market valued at $415 billion, with another $155 billion being driven by expansion into mobile computing and copiers in the short term and, longer term, 3D printing and immersive computing opportunities representing a $10 billion to $30 billion market.

To make it easier to generate sales in those categories, HP Inc. today also unveiled HP Sales Central, a portal through which partner sales representatives will be able to access new marketing and sales collateral needed to make and close a sale.

Minimizing Disruptions

Patrick Eitenbichler, currently director of marketing for the HP PartnerOne strategy, said Hewlett Packard Enterprise is trying to minimize any disruptions to a channel program that will now be known as HP Ready. The four areas that HPE will focus on as part of that program will be transforming to a hybrid infrastructure, protecting the digital enterprise, empowering the data-driven organization and enabling workplace productivity—all of which function as a superset of multiple products in the HP Enterprise product and services portfolio.

Michael Vizard

Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a writer for publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight, Channel Insider and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

HP Details Its Post-Breakup Channel Strategies

An Ongoing Evolution

Minimizing Disruptions

Michael Vizard

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