The HP Channel: What's Hurd's Next Move?

HP's channel renaissance is one of the big reasons the onetime troubled company is now the No. 1 supplier of IT products and services at $104 billion. That's pretty amazing given where HP was when Hurd took the helm only three short years ago. At that point, some were questioning whether Hurd and HP had bitten off more than they could chew given its many separate IT businesses and products. Hurd took a long, hard look at the businesses and then bet big on the channel.

STEVEN BURKE

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Can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Hurd's channel march came as more than a few industry giants simply fell off the channel map. To put it bluntly, some CEOs decided not to do the hard work necessary to bring in a bumper channel crop. Hurd was busy planting, cultivating and reseeding. To say that Hurd brought Dell CEO Michael Dell to the channel table is no overstatement.

The myriad questions Hurd and HP's top channel brass, including Channel Chief Adrian Jones, face this week are: How is HP going to fix the holes in the channel boat like the sales-data-out systems issue? How is it going to simplify the compensation metrics to further drive partner loyalty? How is it going to beef up the storage hardware and software product offering to go against Dell's EMC and EqualLogic product set? And, finally, how is HP going to respond to Dell's managed service offensive? Big questions all.

HP faces no small challenge ahead in Dell. Remember, Dell has long had a big channel presence. It has just never invested in cultivating it. And although Dell does not want to get into a serious discussion of partner margins and profit-ability, it does want to discuss what it sees as the complexity in HP's partner offerings. Dell's message to its partners: We cut out all the complexity and make it simple for you.

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HP vs. Dell is shaping up as an epic channel battle. Hurd's biggest challenge may be giving Jones and his team the political muscle and capital to quickly make channel moves that put the hammer down on Dell. One heartening sign for HP is Hurd's channel and operational smarts. As HP last week raised its annual sales target to an amazing $114 billion, Hurd made sure he hammered home the message that he will leave no channel stone unturned. That's bad news for Dell and good news for HP partners.

What questions do you have for HP? Post your questions below.