TORONTO – HP is about a month away from becoming two separate entities in HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. And, the senior leadership team at the Canadian operation of HP Enterprise wants to let the market know that they are ready for action.
The new HP Enterprise Canada will be run by Charlie Atkinson and he told CDN before the start of its Road Show event that there will be no better time to be at HP than on November 1. Atkinson’s point to the market and to the channel community at large is not to expect the same old HP come November 1.
HP Enterprise, for example, will be charging after new trends such as the idea economy. “We call it the new style of business. This is transformational IT with security, versatility and reliability to help Canadian business not just survive but thrive,” he said.
And, some changes have already been witnessed by one channel partner.
John Witte, the president and CEO of Toronto solution provider Carbon 60 Networks Inc., said that he has seen a clear shift in focus specifically with HP Enterprise.
“I have been an HP channel partner for a long time and I’ve seen them change already with its go-to-market strategy. What they are doing now with us is something I don’t think they would do say five years ago,” Witte said.
He added that HP Enterprise and Carbon 60 are working together on a proof-of-concept solution to hopefully land a new customer. Witte said that through his discussions with HP Enterprise executives they are not so much concerned on who’s paper the transactions are on. Another thing HP Enterprise is doing with Carbon 60 is to investing their own dollars in the proof-of-concept solution.
“HP Enterprise today is demonstrating to us that they are our partner and I’m not sure they would be willing to do this a few years ago,” Witte said.
Related Stories
Into next month HP Enterprise will continue to run four main business units: Enterprise Group, HP Financial Services, Software, and Enterprise Services. However, the company’s approach will be different, according to Atkinson.
Look for HP Enterprise to focus on four areas. They are:
- Transformation to a hybrid infrastructure, which will be centered on cloud;
- Protection of digital enterprises, which will have a heavy focus on security;
- Empowering the data driven organization that will be the company’s big data and analytics play; and
- Enabling workplace productivity that will look to address mobility.
One aspect of HP Enterprise to note is that while the new company is embracing the business transformation trend it will continue to run a transaction business, but Daniel Dorr, the director of marketing at HP Enterprise, said the company is moving philosophically towards delivering solutions.
“You can buy a single scan of an app as a straight transaction. That is still available today and it’s not going away, but the movement is to get to that CIO/CEO level type of solutions,” Dorr said.
Bobby Patrick, chief marketing officer for HP Cloud, said a large portion of the cloud business is transactional and through channel partners. Cloud will not be labeled an individual business unit in the new HP Enterprise but will be a big part of all four transformational areas the company is focused on.
The other lingering question for the new HP Enterprise and its independence in the marketplace is what will be its relationship with the other side: HP Inc.?
Kevin Jones, senior vice president and GM of HP Enterprise Services in the Americas region, addressed that question by saying HP Enterprise has already formed a partnership with HP Inc. and the PSG arm of the organization. This partnership will see HP Enterprise use HP Inc. products in their solutions to address the four transformational areas. For example, HP Inc. is already embedded inside the workplace productivity area, which Jones is responsible for. “We are also providing services to HP Inc. and we are going to be very tight with them. They will be a strong strategic partner for our go-to-market plans,” Jones added.
Finally, expect to see a lot of HP Inc. and HP Enterprise in the marketplace as the two companies plan on launching a big marketing campaign on November 1.
CDN will be providing updates and deeper dives into HP Enterprise’s four main focus areas along with the new channel strategies for both HP Inc. and HP Enterprise in future editions of CDN Now.