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24 Jan 2005
Up to 2,000 Hewlett-Packard (HP) Business Partners could be facing the axe as the vendor looks to clean up its UK channel.
The vendor said it will cut ties with all partners that are not sufficiently focused on HP, as it prepares to batten down the hatches in the battle against arch-rivals Dell and IBM.
Speaking to CRN at HP's Solution Partners Organisation (SPO) event in Amsterdam last week, Jos Brenkel, vice-president SPO EMEA at HP, said: "In the UK we have had a lot of issues [with the channel] and we have had our own issues as well.
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"We have only ourselves to blame, because we took our eye off the ball and lost our sense of loyalty to channel partners.
"We have changed management and want to fix things. We need partners that are motivated to sell our products, not those that are selling our products opportunistically.
"We have to be bold enough and say, 'leave us' to those partners we can no longer work with. We need to clean up our Business Partner programme. In the UK we have about 5,000 partners, but I guess we need only 3,000."
Brenkel revealed that the vendor, which also announced the merger of its Imaging and Printing Group with its Personal Systems Group last week, is rolling out a number of initiatives this year. This includes a crackdown on the grey market, a pay-per-use model, customised pricing for selected channel deals and more joint marketing funds.
Sue Richards, managing director of VAR EBM, welcomed HP's announcements. "We are investing a huge amount in HP training and it doesn't come cheap," she said.
"We are paying extra all the time. It's unfair that there are some resellers out there not making any investment at all, so it is right that they should no longer be partners.
"We have been let down dramatically by HP in the past, so this is fantastic news."
Mike Kontowtt, chief executive of distributor OpenPSL, said: "Vendors often have some partners that add more value than others. Some of the weaker resellers that are more into box-shifting need to be policed to ensure they deliver."
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