HP steps up UK grey market assault

Vendor claims ramp-up in UK enforcement activity has seen preventative activity rise sevenfold over past two years

HP's new UK enterprise channel boss, John Ansell, has made stamping out grey activity in the channel one of his key priorities.

Talking to CRN ahead of HP's partner conference in Twickenham next week, Ansell said the amount of UK kit HP had stopped from going grey as a result of preventative activity has risen sevenfold over the past two years.

HP's recovery of misused compensation has risen tenfold over the same period, Ansell added, while the number of legal proceedings it has taken against offenders which may go to court is up by threefold.

This is as a result of measures HP introduced over the past year to combat grey activity, said Ansell, who took the reins from predecessor Kevin Matthews in May.

"One of the themes of the conference will be around profitable growth and one of the things that influences our collective profitability is grey. It's a huge issue," Ansell said.

"We've really ramped up in terms of the teams that are focused on brand protection and in terms of taking genuine actions on partners that do it."

Ansell emphasised that "99.9 per cent" of the channel are "doing exactly what they should be doing",

"But you've got that 0.1 per cent of people who are there to unscrupulously make a buck who are screwing it for the honest people trying to build up a genuine business. If you're thinking of dabbling in this, our message is, we'll jump all over you," he warned.

"The message we will give to partners on Tuesday is that we need their help. If they suspect there is a broker out there doing this, come and tell us and let's work together and shop them."

Ansell's comments come as HP today launched its biggest brand advertising campaign for 10 years under the "Make it Matter" strapline. The campaign, which will run across a range of media including TV channels ITV and Sky Sports, cinemas and newspapers, will run for two months and focus on promoting HP's mobility, cloud, big data and security prowess to business decision makers and consumers.

With HP's share price riding high at $37 (£22.67) and the company recently posting its first quarterly growth in three years, Ansell claimed the feel-good factor had returned to HP's offices following a tough few years.

"From a UK standpoint, we are just flying, and have had four really good consecutive quarters," he said. "There's great momentum and energy now and people are returning to the offices. When Mark Hurd came in and did all the cost cutting, he said if staff aren't seeing a customer, they should work from home. Meg [Whitman] came in and said that if we are going to turn this company around we have to act as a team and you can't do that if you're sitting at home. We are slowly getting the City office full again and, for EG [Enterprise Group], we started off having no one in Wood Street to having a full floor. The passion and energy has returned."

Partners should expect no major changes in channel strategy, Ansell said, although the goal is to ensure its salesforce continues to move towards treating resellers as accounts in their own right, rather than box shifters.

"Kelway is a half-billion-pound business and they're more of a hybrid organisation than a traditional reseller model," Ansell said. "The nirvana is to look at them not in terms of how many boxes they are going to buy, but what is their EBITDA, what is their strategy and how can we help them grow and take a disproportionate share of their business."