10 Reasons Why HP Revenues Hit $100 Billion

6. Focused on reducing direct versus indirect conflicts. You can have rules of engagement, well-crafted channel programs and named direct accounts, but it's all a charade unless compensation plans back them up. Hurd's given his sales people quotas that are impossible to meet without strong collaboration from solution providers that add sales coverage and expertise not available inside HP.

7. Made HP products profitable for solution providers to sell. Of course product margins aren't anything to shout about, but at least HP is trying. They've come up with the Attach Plus program that allows solution providers to gain more margin by bundling more HP products into a solution. Competitors simply don't have the product portfolio to offer anything comparable. In an informal online CMP poll this week, for example, 45 percent of the respondents said they make the most money partnering with HP compared to 15 percent for IBM and 13 percent for Dell.

8. Makes products that don't burst into flames. HP by and large dodged the burning laptop adventures earlier this year. The company actually spends money on R & D with the intent of building better products and solutions. In 2007, HP's research budget topped $3.6 billion. Dell's R & D budget, by contrast, seems to consist of gaining technical expertise by buying up hot companies.

9. Buying hot companies. Okay, so HP does it too. Mercury Interactive was the big one this year, which gave HP a much needed boost in its software business. HP in fact closed 10 acquisitions during its last fiscal year. The key here is that HP has a balance between R & D and acquisition that many of competitors seem to lack.

10. Markets the channel to enduser customers. IBM, for example, too often treats business partners as the crazy uncle no one wants to talk about. Rarely if ever do they mention business partners on analyst or earnings calls, despite the channel contributing more than a third of IBM's product sales. Not so with HP. Hurd, for one, often tells midmarket CIOs that the channel is HP's face to the SMB. If you've got a weapon as powerful as the channel, why not shout it to the world, as Hurd did Monday after the vendor passed the $100 billion revenue mark. "This is as much their [the channel's] victory as it is HP's," he said.