HP Software partners receive $4.5m cash injection
Channel benefits as vendor revamps reseller programme
Hewlett-Packard (HP) Software is giving its channel a $4.5m cash injection as it looks to clarify its strategy and revamp its reseller programme.
The vendor will invest the money in three areas, according to Borel Setten, OpenView EMEA channel and partner director at HP.
“We are re-engineering our channel programme and will focus on three core elements: demand creation, enablement and investment in partners,” he said.
Setten said that the vendor will look to drive asset management, configuration management and infrastructure optimisation as part of its demand-generation programme.
“Some resellers were worried about the cost and complexity of the software, so we have put together a starter pack, including the software modules,” Setton said.
He added that HP is helping resellers to train and become certified under a formal programme and move up the value chain.
“This will help partners to sell more complex solutions,” he said. “We are also enabling them with sales and solutions training.”
The vendor will also provide investment in terms of co-funded staff working at the VAR, more account managers and partner recruitment.
“There hasn’t been as much clarity around our software strategy as there could have been, and not as much demand generation, so this gave us the opportunity to re-tune our strategy,” Setton said.
Steve Rigby, European general manager at SCC, told CRN: “HP is making a big investment. This market has a long sales cycle, so it can be expensive to operate in. Although there are chunky deals out there, this investment will also help. It has been disjointed, mostly due to the number of acquisitions and product releases that HP has made in the past year.”
Paul Cash, managing director of Partners in IT, said: “All indications are that this is the right thing for HP to do. In the past few years it has been a bit unclear, but HP has really ramped up its investment lately.”
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