HP's UK channel boss moves to reassure partners after Apogee deal
Neil Sawyer says Apogee will be run from outside HP's UK operation 'for good reason'
HP Inc's UK channel boss Neil Sawyer has assured partners that Apogee will not receive any preferential treatment after the vendor announced plans to acquire the managed print giant.
At the start of the month HP announced that it would acquire the Maidstone-based partner, continuing a trend of print vendors acquiring in their channel ecosystem.
HP print president Enrique Lores denied that Apogee would see preferential treatment from the vendor, and Sawyer (pictured) has now confirmed that Apogee will not be run by the UK HP team.
"The key thing for me is that Apogee will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of HP and the reporting line for that business will sit outside the HP UK and Ireland operation for good reason," he said.
"None of our partners receive preferential treatment and in the same way that we manage all our partners regardless of product type, we have the same commercial relationships as any other partner and they will have the same access to tools and partner programmes that are offered today.
"It's business as usual for all our partners. We have been speaking to a number of our managed print and IT reseller partners over the last couple of weeks and the feedback is positive.
"There is no change in terms of how we work together [with Apogee] on a day-to-day basis. They are independent and in terms of partner management they are an extremely important partner because they are Europe's largest independent [print] reseller partner."
At the time the deal was announced Lores said that he expected Apogee to eventually focus solely on HP's hardware.
Sawyer did not disclose any more information on how this transition will look, but said that HP will continue to take the same approach as it does with its other partners.
The channel boss also stressed that HP remains committed to working with other partners, adding that HP UK currently sees 85 per cent of its business come via partners.
"From our point of view, as with every partner, we want them to sell as many HP-branded devices as possible," he said. "That is our objective; we have a long-term goal to make sure that we capitalise on our heritage and success in the print market.
"What comes with that is partnerships that have lasted the test of time. We have invested in many partners to work together and grow our business jointly.
"The objective with Apogee and all our other partners is to make sure that we are competitive and compelling with their end customers so that they choose our brand overall."
HP has made its as-a-service offerings a focal point of its strategy over recent months, both with its printer and PC businesses.
Sawyer said he expects this to become a greater emphasis for the channel in the future.
"The managed print market, as well as the managed personal computing market, are areas that all our resellers are looking at thoroughly, and we are making the right technology to fit those purchasing methods," he said.
"Some of the other things we can bring to the market, with all our MPS partners and specifically our IT partners as well, are new initiatives such as device-as-a-service which complement a lot of the traditional contractual-led sales that many of our partners are used to, particularly in the print world."