HP pushes solution printing to VARs

HP has accredited 46 partners in the UK to its Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) office specialisation suite, unveiled in November.

Under the scheme, resellers can qualify in two areas ­ the office printing specialisation or the office printing Solutions specialisation ­ both of which aim to capitalise on the complete IPG product range, and contract and solutions sales.
Neil Sawyer, HP’s IPG enterprise marketing manager for the UK and Ireland, said: “The objective is to encourage HP’s partners to pro-actively sell HP’s products, services and solutions around print and to equip them to add value to customers who have previously overlooked this area of their IT infrastructure,”
The vendor wants to encourage its resellers to make the transition from just selling hardware to selling managed print services.
“There is a difference between saying you are no longer a box shifter and making the transition to sell solutions,” said Sawyer. “Some of our partners have already made the transition, but we want to work with others to help them switch.”
James Kight, managing director of VAR Printerland, said: “Over the last 18 months we have switched from being a box shifter to offering solutions. It does take time for resellers to make the transition, but it is the way forward.”
Research by YouGov on behalf on Fujitsu Siemens revealed that the average UK office worker prints 22 pages a day, a figure that equals 120 billion sheets a year.
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