HP to turn software business towards channel

Vendor looks to ramp up percentage of indirect revenue as it tells VARs to claim their piece of a potential $10bn pie

HP wants to make big increases in the percentage of software revenues it funnels through the channel and has urged hardware partners to get on board with a $10bn (£6.5bn) opportunity.

On day two of the vendor's Global Partner Conference taking place in Las Vegas this week, HP discussed the key technologies it believes will be big sellers for the channel in the coming year. George Kadifa, executive vice president of HP Software, told assembled hardware and services partners that "we would like to see HP software being the third arrow in your quiver".

He claimed that HP Software is effectively the globe's sixth-largest software vendor, adding that it has 5,000 partners, 50,000 customers and works with 94 Fortune 100 companies. Kadifa explained that HP's presence in the software space revolves around three key areas: IT management and cloud; security; and big data.

In the IT management and cloud space the vendor wants to quickly accelerate its percentage of indirect sales from 60 to 70 per cent. In the security arena it hopes to move the channel centricity figure from 35 to 50 per cent. In big data, HP wants to more or less double the portion of sales it generates indirectly, with the near-term target being to move from 26 to 50 per cent of sales accrued indirectly.

Progress was made in 2012, said Kadifa, claiming that 4,885 software certifications were awarded to partner staff during the year, representing almost double the number handed out during 2011. He told the assembly of more than 1,500 resellers that the HP channel worldwide could potentially sell $10bn worth of software in 2013.

"For people who have been in the hardware space, we want you to become a software partner with us," he said. "We want to help you differentiate in the marketplace and we want to simplify how you do business with HP."