HP grants partners access to high-end services

Vendor aims to move partner services play beyond product-attach with launch of packaged datacentre services

HP is launching a range of packaged, mission-critical services designed to enrich the services conversations that partners can have with their customers.

Until now, HP's channel services play has centred on its Care Pack product-attached services.

But through a range of services packages including Critical Advantage (CA), HP is aiming to bring the high-end datacentre services capabilities that it gained through its acquisition of EDS to a level partners can resell.

Aimed predominantly at ISS (industry standard server), blade and virtualised environments, CA encompasses mission-critical services such as firmware management, patch management, server sprawl and version control.

Paul Early, HP channel manager HP Technology Services, stressed the vendor is "not expecting to sell millions of pounds" of these services tomorrow. But he said HP and its partners needed to prepare for an era when break-fix services are less relevant.

"This gives the partner the ability to have a richer conversation about services than they have ever had before around the ISS, storage and the virtualised world," he explained.

Early said the packaged services would have a foundational level featuring services such as hardware break-fix and proactive support. This would be delivered in conjunction with the partners so "HP is not cutting across them".

Above this, there will be a "Chinese menu" of services such as health checks on storage and server and consultancy, where the partner picks and chooses what they can deliver themselves and what they back off to HP.

Early said that HP's distributors have been briefed on the launch and that the vendor is currently in the process of educating its partners.