HP: Partners won't be demoted when we split

HP's EMEA channel boss claims his firm has proved onlookers wrong with smooth separation process

A senior HP channel exec has insisted the imminent company split will not cause any partners to be demoted on the new partner programmes, insisting there will be even more ways to achieve top-level status.

As part of the current Partner One programme for the whole of HP, channel partners must meet certain revenue thresholds and training requirements to achieve its levels: top-tier Platinum, Gold, Silver and Business partner.

Partners achieve the statuses according to various technology areas, according to Gilles Thiebaut, HP's vice president for EMEA Enterprise Group indirect sales, who said this will ensure partners will not get a nasty surprise and find themselves demoted on 1 November, when the split goes ahead.

"There's not going to be any changes in the requirements on becoming Silver, Gold or Platinum partners," he said. "Most of our partners today are at different levels on different product areas - Platinum on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Gold on PPS, [for example] - and they will keep [those levels]. So at the end of the day, most of the Platinum partners we have today are Platinum on both sides, or Gold on both sides. So we expect this to be a very smooth transition really."

He said it is in the interest of both sections of HP to keep the channel on side in the future.

"We re-pivoted the company around the channel four years ago as part of the HP transformation," he said. "The channel is absolutely critical for HPE and we've got no plans at all to increase our direct mix. Channel is really critical for our success so don't expect less focus on the channel than today.

"Everybody was expecting us to be defocused over the last few months while we were doing the separation, but we've been able to prove we've got a 100 per cent focus on customers and partners. There's no disruption on our side, it is just 100 per cent business."

Last week, HP unveiled certain details about the new partner programmes which will come into force on 1 November. HP Inc will get a scheme named Partner First, while HPE's channel programme will be called Partner Ready.

Thiebaut said under HPE, there will be even more opportunities for partners to reach top-level Platinum status. If partners pursue the "new style of IT", they will be rewarded, he said.

"First of all, we give extra compensation to [cloud] service providers which are participating in our programme, and if you're a cloud builder, you get extra compensation," he said. "But the new thing is that you can now become a hybrid IT Platinum partner, which is a Specialisation which is a good fit for partners which want to build cloud solutions for their customers and at the same time move towards a managed services model. So if you do both... you can become Platinum partners of HP Enterprise and obviously there are special incentives for this."

When the split happens, there will be around 6,000 partners on Partner Ready in EMEA. Thiebaut said the main thing partners were asking for when consulted about how the new programme will look was consistency.

"We're keeping the basic principles of Partner One in Partner Ready with the simplicity [and] the compensation principle - which is all about being simple, predictable and profitable - this is not changing," he said. "What we're doing is putting more emphasis on making it fit for the future. It enables us to partner for what we call the 'new style' of business. This programme enables partners to address these new consumption models.

"We are ready to go, quite frankly. We are really excited."