HP's Trojan Horse?

Many Hewlett-Packard solution providers have long complained that their biggest competitors are other HP solution providers.

CRAIG ZARLEY Can be reached at (715) 282-6561 or via e-mail at czarley@cmp.com.

This refrain comes most often from the value side of the house, where technologies are more complex and sales cycles are longer. Solution providers say they sometimes spend months crafting a solution only to have another HP solution provider come in at the eleventh hour and snatch away the deal with a lowball price.

HP is well on its way to fixing that problem by taking a page from IBM’s playbook and better enforcing deal-registration programs. Now HP is set to embark on a new plan it hopes will help it grab a bigger chunk of a customer’s total IT spend by bringing additional HP solution providers into accounts already served by an HP partner. HP executives say the plan makes good sense. HP solution providers hope it isn’t a Trojan horse.

First mentioned last month by HP’s head of U.S. enterprise sales, David Booth, the plan calls for solution providers with different expertise than the incumbent partner to augment the sales effort in the specific account. Booth said he was trying to dispel the notion that a solution provider may own an account simply because, for example, it handles all of the industry-standard server business. He pointed out that in many accounts, industry-standard servers may represent only a small fraction of the total IT spend. Booth reasons that by bringing in a partner with business-critical server, SAN or OpenView skills, HP can grab a bigger piece of the pie without creating channel conflict. But solution providers urge caution.

The plan may well work in the 500 or so HP named accounts where the vendor can call in partners with needed skills to sell more HP solutions. But when it’s a partner-led sale, HP needs to tread lightly. A partner with OpenView skills may also sell industry-standard servers, storage and business-critical servers. What if a customer says, “Thanks for OpenView. How about selling me everything else so I can put it all on one invoice?”

And what if a traditional HP industry-standard server partner is moving up the food chain by investing in an OpenView practice only to find his efforts blunted by a no-longer-welcome OpenView partner. The plan sounds fine for named accounts. But it’s best to let solution providers plot partnering strategies for accounts they control.

What do you think of HP's new partnering plan? Let me know at (715) 282-6561 or via e-mail at czarley@cmp.com