HP going Back to Basics
Hewlett-Packard to invest £3m in its latest storage channel initiative
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is going Back to Basics and is pumping £3m into its latest storage channel initiative.
The scheme is aimed at driving up mid-market reseller storage skills, according to Andrew Manners, director UK HP Storage. He said the vendor has been discussing the Back to Basics scheme with channel partners since November and it will launch on 1 May.
“We could see there was a great relationship between mid-market end-users and their resellers,” Manners said. “However, there was not a deep knowledge of storage and this could leave end-users open to compliance issues and missed opportunities for resellers. There is a storage skills drought in the partner community.
“Through Back to Basics, if we have partners who want to go after the storage market we have a curriculum.”
Manners said he currently has a hitlist of 25 resellers.
“The criteria is that they have an ongoing HP server business of around £500,000,” he said. “We are investing £3m in the UK and hope to drive £25m of incremental revenue through the scheme.”
Manners said HP would also help fund an HP storage specialist within the resellers for pre and post sales.
Alex Tatham, director of commercial products at distributor Bell Micro, which is helping HP with the scheme, said: “Storage, virtualisation, recovery and compliance are areas where resellers can add significant value as regulations tighten. The key to all of this is what makes the reseller money – it is all very well training up in storage skills, but unless this investment can be translated into profitable business, then any vendor is going to struggle.”
However, he added: “I am not a fan of Back to Basics – aside from this having dire connotations of John Major’s stint as prime minister – as I believe that many resellers already have the basics. Where I think the channel is lacking is in the level of sophistication to their customer set. HP will drive extra revenue, but not extra skill.”