HP head looking to put VARs in the driving seat

EMEA vice president will invest more in the channel and increase vendor's focus on growth

Antoine Barre: I want to drive the channel even faster and increase small business focus

HP’s European channel business has grown 16 per cent in the last quarter and the firm is confident of further growth, according to its new EMEA channel head.

Antoine Barre, who replaced Jos Brenkel as EMEA vice president, Solution Partners Organisation at HP earlier this year (CRN, 21 March), said the vendor will have invested $170m (£85.5m) in its global channel by the end of its financial year.

“Since I took the role, our indirect strategy remains unchanged, but I want to put more fuel in the [channel] engine to drive it even faster,” Barre said. “The channel is a big part of HP’s business and we want to focus on programmes that deliver. HP’s commitment to partners is as strong as ever.”

Barre said the vendor’s ‘Rising Star’ programme will get more focus, ensuring smaller VARs that fall below Preferred Partner status receive all the necessary marketing support and sales incentives from distributors.

“We will also increase our focus on small business, which is a pure channel play,” he said. “We see the chance to gain more business, both PC based and in printers and volume servers.”
Barre also defended the controversial decision to axe HP’s Smart Choice sales tool (CRN, 2 July) this summer.

“The return that Smart Choice would bring HP and its partners was not as high as anticipated,” he said.

Joe Hemani, chairman of distributor Westcoast, said: “There have been a lot of changes in the previous two years at HP and Antoine has held the fort pretty well. He understands the channel. He is also driving the internal HP team faster and is a safe pair of hands as far as I’m concerned.”

Loay Lawrence, commercial director at VAR Vohkus, said: “HP has the best supply chain programme in the channel. There is always room for improvement, but we are seeing our HP sales increase phenomenally.”