HP gets serious about networking

Staff incentives to plug ProCurve kit boost the vendor's standing in networking arena

Brick: We have the right coverage in terms of channel management

With HP sales staff being given incentives to push its products, HP ProCurve has capped a successful year with additions to its Open Network Ecosystem (ONE) alliance.

As of 1 November, HP salespeople have ProCurve products included in goals sheets and sales quotas, and are compensated for closing deals.

HP has also boosted its networking credentials with the planned acquisition of 3Com, which follows ProCurve’s buyout of wireless vendor Colubris last year.

ProCurve’s UK and Ireland country manager, Darryl Brick, said: “The significance of HP being serious about the networking business has been demonstrated by our intention to buy 3Com.”

Brick claimed he enjoyed autonomy and remained unaffected by the uncertainty surrounding the future of HP’s Solutions Partner Organisation (SPO).

“We have our own channel team, which is owned by the business unit,” he said. “I am in a fortunate state; there is no change and I do not have any dependency on SPO.

“We have the right coverage in terms of channel management and are trying to make it easy for partners to sell.”

Keith Humphreys, managing consultant for euroLAN, said: “The unifying of ProCurve into the bigger HP is happening quickly and salespeople are now not getting commission on Cisco. But many customers are still not aware HP does networking.”

ProCurve also recently added extra interoperability certifications to the ONE Alliance. A new security- focused services provider category was also created, with Traversa Solutions and StillSecure becoming the first members.

Brick said these partnerships were not implemented in Europe yet but would be in time.

“Through the alliance we reach more of the market and this drives more partner opportunity,” said Brick.