HP guarantees Unix margins

Resellers get the agreed margin even if kit is discounted.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has launched a guarantee programme to safeguard margins for mid-market Unix resellers. The scheme, which will launch in the UK today, is open to any reseller which can fulfil the required criteria.

To qualify, a reseller must have a business model based around HP kit, it must register the deal with HP and at least half of the value of the deal must be made up of software and services.

HP will then guarantee resellers a certain margin, even if the reseller has to discount the sale in order to win the deal.

"We are trying to encourage our partners to sell solutions, not just boxes," said John Young, UK reseller business manager at HP. "We want to spend our money helping those partners which create opportunity and are investing in HP."

He added that, as long as the scheme was "policed" carefully, and clear guidelines were set out for the resellers, the programme was "really worth doing".

The scheme is being run in conjunction with HP value-added distributor PSL. Managing director Mike Kontowtt explained that most HP Unix resellers purchase equipment through PSL, and the company will offer the programme to resellers on an individual basis.

"We are trying to protect the genuine value-added resellers from those resellers who just slash prices,"he said.