HP hunts 'new breed' of partner
HP says new Value Track will allow smaller, more focused partners to rise through the ranks on PC and printer side of business
HP is on the lookout for a "new breed" of smaller, more specialised partners, according to Vincent Brissot, vice president for worldwide channel marketing for printing and personal systems.
Brissot said HP is hunting for partners that can provide value and are more focused, and the vendor has adapted its partner programme to recruit them by trying to shake its "volume-biased" reputation.
HP has altered its programme to include four tracks to help partners move up the accreditation ladder: Volume Track, for "partners to drive transaction business for the PC, print and supplies portfolio"; Value Track, for resellers to deliver value around managed print services and IT-as-a-service; Alliance Track, for systems integrators and ISVs to develop solutions that go on top of the products; and an OEM track.
"Many of our partners fall into this transactional Volume Track, where the main criteria for you to climb the membership ladder tends to be around the volume you do. We still want the big guys, like Computacenter, we definitely do, and we want them to be recognised based on the volume they sell," Brissot said.
"But there is a different breed of partner which might not have been attracted to HP because our partner programme was too focused on revenue bars to climb up from Silver to Gold to Platinum. But with the Value Track we are saying if you are a smaller partner but you are ultra-competent, that will give you the pass to rise to the Platinum status."
Brissot said the Value Track has emerged out of its specialisation criteria which it announced last year, but he said there was still revenue criteria around it so now it has been adapted to fit the new profile of partner and is less revenue-centric and more about competencies and skills.
The updates with the new tracks will come into effect on 1 November and will be for HP Inc partners.
"If you are big and driving a lot of volume, we want you, if you are small and competent, we definitely want you and if you are in the apps world, I think we can work with you," Brissot said.
"It is us going out to partners who might not have considered HP as a vendor of choice because of this volume-biased approach, but what we are saying is, if you start from the ground up and you are ultra-competent, there is a place for you to climb up the partner programme."
Brissot would not give a definitive number of how many of these "new breed" of partners HP is looking to recruit.
Yesterday HP also announced an update to its partner programme to help partners in their transition with the upcoming divide, expected at the start of November.