HP investing record £4m into its education programme

Neil Sawyer tells CRN how the initiative gives partners a differentiation when speaking with schools, and discusses the rationale behind AMD partnership

HP is putting £4m into its HP for Education scheme, representing a record investment for the initiative, according to Neil Sawyer, education business director at HP.

Speaking to CRN at the annual Bett edtech event, Sawyer explained that the programme is "100 per cent" orientated around HP's education resellers in the UK&I.

Partners listed on the scheme undertook a training and certification programme with the vendor last year.

When they sell HP technology to schools, the schools receive credits via that reseller to allow them to invest in more technology, software licences and other ICT.

He added that these credits don't necessarily have to be used only on HP-branded products; schools can use them to buy other vendors' products and services.

"Sometimes a school is faced with the problem of having to choose between annually renewing the licences that it has to pay for with its remaining budget, or forgoing that and investing in new technology," Sawyer explained.

"This programme allows it to do both - it can buy the hardware and use the credits to renew licences, teaching software, etc.

"We appreciate it's not just HP technology that drives this; there's a lot of other software and teaching solutions that schools need."

HP currently works with 6,000 schools through the scheme, which is in its third year. Sawyer hopes that the vendor's key partners can snap up more customers from the 24,000 schools across the UK&I.

"The £4m investment is based on increments of our growth in the market," he said.

"Our market share is improving in schools and colleges across the UK, particularly in England and Wales where all that business is done through the channel.

"We've put a lot of investment into growing our presence in education and that comes with people, process and training our channel partners and making sure that they have programmes that allow them to differentiate with our brand, so they lead with our brand when talking to a school."

AMD partnership

The vendor used the Bett show to unveil the newest Chromebook for its education users, which is powered by an AMD processor.

This partnership came about due to HP's enthusiasm to move into new areas with new partners, according to Sawyer.

"We see AMD's presence in the market growing and we want to be a part of that," he said.

"Google and HP have been very successful within the education space in the US. We see that as a global trend, and we see AMD and Intel being an integral part of that."

Sawyer added that he is keen to promote the relationship between HP, Google and AMD within the channel, and that the new Chromebook gives partners something new to offer customers.

"The Chromebook infrastructure has many benefits to schools," he said.

"It has a less complicated infrastructure from an on-premise perspective, and the end-point technology for students is a bit more affordable per device.

"It's a great way for any reseller out there who wants to spark up a different conversation with a school or college."