HP promises to 'future-proof resellers' with initiative

Vendor's channel chief tells CRN of £35m market it has just opened up for resellers

HP has launched a customised-to-order (CTO) initiative for its education resellers as it claims it is trying to secure the future of its channel partners.

In partnership with distributor Westcoast Group, the programme will drive the delivery of customised desktop PCs to education institutions within 48 hours of order.

The vendor claims, based on IDC figures, that this will open-up a £35m-a-year market for the channel, with a "network of trusted resellers" being built to implement the initiative.

Neil Sawyer, channel director, HP UKI, told CRN the vendor was keen for an initiative which enabled resellers to differentiate their proposition to customers.

"The feedback we got from the channel was there was a gap in the market around the education space. That sector asks our education-focused resellers for customised-to-order products. That could range from a standard specification through to high-powered computing," he said

Sawyer said HP had traditionally offered that form of specification to large corporates, but the process did not scale down.

"We decided to speak with our distributor Westcoast and went about investing in a set of systems and infrastructure that will allow those schools, colleges, universities and small businesses to get the same experience as our large corporations.

"This helps education resellers as they can differentiate their proposition and it allows those resellers to deliver this service to customers the day after ordering. We simply have not offered that in the past."

Sawyer said the CTO initiative is part of a wider HP focus to further expand into the education sector alongside attempting to "future-proof resellers".

"We are looking towards the future, so have developed lots of technologies in ‘growth spaces', that means we future-proof our company and our channel partners for the next 10, 15 and 20 years," he said.

"We are responsible entirely for educating our resellers about what we see as important growth areas in technology as we are the ones investing in that technology portfolio."