LAS VEGAS – Before the last general keynote of its last Global Partner Conference as Hewlett-Packard Co., HP gave its soon to be separate partner programs new names – and announced it was leaving Las Vegas.
The current partner program name, Partner One, obviously wouldn’t work for two separate companies with their own programs and names – HP will split into HP Inc. and HP Enterprise in Nov. 1. Lynn Anderson, senior-vice president of demand generation and channel marketing at HP, told partners HP Inc.’s partner program will be called HP Partner First, and HP Enterprise’s program will be HP Enterprise Partner Ready.
“While they will have new names, at their core they will be the partner programs you have come to expect from HP,” said Anderson. “They will be predictable, and they will be profitable.”
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And the Partner One name won’t be disappearing. Partner One Alliance will be the program that will encourage and incent partners to do business with both new HP companies. It will also be the umbrella under which next year’s Global Partner Conference will run as a joint event for both companies and their respective partners.
Speaking of the Global Partner Conference, Anderson also announced next year’s conference is leaving Las Vegas. GPC 2016 is heading East, and will be held in September in Boston. The six-month delay should give the two HPs plenty of time to work out any kinks form the split.
For HP Enterprise Partner Ready partners, the vendor has outlined a partner vision based on solution selling (see: Embracing the services model for the new style of IT).
On the HP Partner First side, Vincent Brissot, vice-president of channel marketing for HP PartnerOne Alliance, said they’re pretty happy with the program as it is today and want to continue on the same trajectory, but with some changes.
“We want to make sure we’re able to attract partners that might be smaller, and today we’re hearing our program may be too heavily relate towards revenue growth and may not be the best for newer partners,” said Brissot. “As we move to transactional (from contractual) we need to make changes to entry criteria and partner benefits.”
The answer will be enabling partners to come in to the program through four different and complementary tracks: revenue, value, alliance and OEM.
“The value track enables resellers focused on a specific solution like managed print to join and climb up the tiers, and skills and competencies will be the criteria you use to achieve up to platinum level,” said Brissot. “If you’re a transactional partner, dollars is what we’ll measure.”
HP is also making an increased push around mobility with a dedicated mobility certification for partners, and programs to help partners move beyond selling point products to instead talk about the business outcomes that mobility can enable.