Which reseller has become an HPE Platinum partner?

Public sector reseller joins top tier of HPE partners

XMA has become a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Platinum partner after seeing its business with the vendor jump 34 per cent over the last year.

The St Albans-based reseller has long been an HPE partner but has stepped up to the vendor's highest tier, in a move which it said is driven by demand from customers for premium services.

Lee Hemani, managing director at XMA, said: "HPE is a key part of our technology stack and without Platinum Partner status we would not be able to provide to the service levels demanded by our client base.

"The relationship fostered with HPE has been one of our success stories for 2017. I [would like to] thank HPE for their investment in XMA and acknowledge the hard work put in by our team to set up further commercial achievements with HPE across 2018."

On joining XMA earlier this year, commercial director Andy Wright said the reseller would be sharpening its focus on particular vendor partners, highlighting HPE in particular.

Wright added that XMA expects to bring in more business as a result of the new status, both from pitching to new customers and as a result of being in an elite pool of HPE partners.

XMA joins roughly 10 other Platinum partners in the UK, according to Wright, including SCC, Softcat and Computacenter.

"It's a lot of investment in terms of the number of people who need training and the level they need training to, it's not 'go and watch an hour on a webinar and tick some multiple choice questions', it's serious certification - particularly around the techies," he said.

"With HPE you're managed by a different part of the organisation; you're still under Mark Armstrong's organisation, but you move into being managed with the rest of the platinum partners so it's more investment, time and resources from HPE. I expect it to help us ring more business.

"I don't expect people to ring up and say 'you're an HPE platinum partner, I want to do more business with you', but when you're pitching, the customer can have the confidence that HPE have looked at our capabilities."

Mark Armstrong, UK and Ireland channel boss, added: "I am very excited about XMA's future with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and their dedication in becoming an HPE Platinum Partner.

"Our channel plays a very important role in the success of HPE and it is critical that we recognise our partners that invest with us for our joint success."