HP adds to weapons in its war on grey-market
Vendor launches initiatives to help resellers in its fight against grey-market products
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has vowed to continue its grey-market crackdown and has launched a number of initiatives to help resellers join the battle.
As revealed by CRN last week, the vendor has also agreed an out of court settlement with VAR eXpansys for allegedly importing grey-market goods into the European Economic Area (CRN Online, 31 October).
The settlement, for an undisclosed sum, also saw eXpansys become an authorised UK HP channel partner and agree to help HP in its future anti-grey-market efforts.
Earlier this year, HP launched its serial number tracking campaign, which requires distributors and resellers to track product serial numbers on all sales and delivery documentation (CRN, 30 May).
David Poskett, director of HP’s Solutions Partner Organisation UK and Ireland, said HP is implementing other measures to stop the grey market, such as end-user verification and checking that units are in line with order-processing guidelines (OPGs).
“We have recently introduced additional fraud detection tools to identify potential grey-market deals, such as asking resellers to provide us with end-user invoices,” he said.
However he said that HP’s crackdown is having an effect.
“I genuinely believe the amount of activity has decreased and that people are more aware,” he said. “This is because of the tough stance we have taken and the amount of time inves-ted in trying to drive out this activity. It is not only of interest to HP, but it is of interest to partners and our industry as a whole.”
Poskett said HP’s desire to stamp out the grey market is a “top company priority”.
Dan Hitchen, HP business manager at VAR Basilica, said: “The tracking system is starting to work. However, the one thing that HP has failed to acknowledge is that the grey market is also down to its own fault for not controlling trade embargoes across different trading regions better.”
Hitchin added that in terms of day-to-day business Basilica is not coming up against as many competitive quotes as it used to. “This used to be an easily recognisable sign of grey market activity, but it has definitely decreased this year,” he said. C
>> Further reading: