Bell Micro has won HP Software and Solutions’ Software Partner of the Year award for the UK and Ireland.

According to the Surrey-based division of the distributor, the award was presented at HP’s recent Software Universe Conference in Vienna. The distributor has delivered 20 per cent growth year on year in its HP account.

Award winners are determined via a review of partner submissions coupled with account delivery and sales results.

Colin McGregor, HP business director at Bell Micro, said resellers had helped the distributor to win.

“We have been successful working with partner organisations to support sales opportunities and our online marketing support tool – campaignWORKS – has enabled resellers to tailor product marketing messages to suit their customers,” he said.

Bell Micro now plans to re-examine the HP offering with resellers “in detail” alongside further customer support and training to achieve a portfolio of solutions that can deliver return on investment in 12 months.

Adam Featherstone, EMEA commercial channels director at HP Software and Solutions, said Bell Micro had continued to increase sales to its reseller customers while recruiting new partners.

“It is this proactive approach that really puts Bell Micro ahead of its competition,” Featherstone said.

Bell Micro last week announced a Secure the Deal programme to help resellers “routinely embed” security into their sales activities.

“The opportunity around IT security is everywhere and growing. Even in these tough economic conditions, customers are still talking about keeping their data, systems and networks secure,” said Steve Browell, security division general manager at Bell Micro.

“We believe that security is too often an afterthought. After completing a server, storage or infrastructure deal, the margin and solutions opportunity that security can bring is often overlooked,” he said.