'We're seeing heightened demand in the UK' - HP execs on getting PCs to customers

MD George Brasher and channel boss Neil Sawyer open up to CRN on coping with demand for devices, its new partner programme and Brexit

HP is seeing the same level of increased demand for devices from the UK market as it is globally, senior UK execs told CRN.

Last week HP CEO Enrique Lores told investors during a Q4 earnings call that the backlog of demand for PCs was at its "highest ever".

HP UK channel boss Neil Sawyer told CRN that the UK is reflective of this global trend for the vendor.

"There has been a heightened level of demand across the globe and the UK is no different," he explained.

"But what we've been doing right from the start of the COVID-19 period earlier this year is working with the partners - particularly our distribution partners who've done a fantastic job in making sure that they handle and manage the supply chain into our channel partners as effectively as possible.

"The other aspect to all of this is that there's been a lot of public services and critical infrastructure that have been deployed in this time as well and we've been working with our partners very closely to make sure that we support them and their end customers."

Today saw the first vaccinations against COVID-19 take place in the UK which may cause further issues as transporting the vaccines will take priority in air freight over IT kit, a prospect HP CFO Marie Myers warned of in the vendor's most recent earnings call last month. This concern was echoed by Dell in its own recent earnings call.

HP UK MD George Brasher, however, said that he was "confident" of the organisation's ability to deliver products to its customers in the UK and Ireland because of its global supply chain.

He is also confident that HP and its partners can weather the impact of the UK's looming formal departure from the EU - which still has not had a deal agreed upon - and that the vendor's new Amplify partner programme was formulated to take advantage of these "long term trends".

"We've had a global team working on Brexit for the last two and a half years; we've had multiple conversations, seminars and webinars with our partners and lots of one-on-one conversations," he elaborated.

"I feel comfortable with our preparations, regardless of what the eventuality is. We want to obviously keep working with partners and, at least for the next year, they've got to keep their eye on the long-term ball. We created Amplify to be able to take advantage of those longer-term trends and I think that's what we'll need to work with our partners on."

Amplify was announced earlier this year at HP ReInvent and aims to support partners in both their own digital transformations and those of their customers. It also has a branch called Amplify Impact, focused on sustainability and which will be rolled out in the UK in the first half of 2021.

"There are definitely some developments that we thought were very relevant, particularly for a lot of the macroeconomic changes that we're seeing," stated Sawyer.

"Amplify is there to simplify the way in which we work with our partners in the future. It's there to recognise the speciality that those partners have, particularly around areas like solutions delivery for key markets and as services.

"There are two other key areas, as well. One is making sure that HP and our partners in the UK and Ireland embrace digital transformation - there's a big thread focusing our Amplify programme around that and that makes our partners future-ready. The final area is what we can do in terms of sustainable impact and communities."

The vendor expects to have 50 per cent of its partners signed up to Amplify Impact by 2025, a lofty goal for a programme that it remains tight-lipped on. The UK execs said that more information about the sustainability programme will be released in early 2021.

"It is vitally important for the globe, but it also carries a lot of increasing importance to end customers and, our partners," Sawyer added.

"If it matters to everybody and it impacts everybody, we've got to make sure our partners are ready for that."