HP Offers New Licensing Options For Channel Partners

HP also said it's launching a program to provide syndicated marketing content and tools that resellers can use to assemble and run marketing campaigns.

The new partner licensing options apply to the HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software, including its Operations Manager IT management product, and the vendor's HP Information Management software, said Ammar Sakkal, global partner program director in HP Software and Solutions.

"This helps our partners expand into the continually growing IT services market," Sakkal said in an interview. He said the new licensing options also provide channel partners with more financial flexibility and reduced financial risk when purchasing HP software for their customers.

The new multitenant licensing plan lets solution providers offer hosted HP software to multiple customers using a single configuration of the product, rather than buying a separate license for each customer. Another option is the "dedicated perpetual" plan under which HP software resellers purchase a perpetual license for a software product to provide services to a single, dedicated customer. HP said that plan helps channel partners more easily capitalize the software purchase and reduce administration costs.

Under the new "utility and subscription" licensing model, solution providers can make payments incrementally for HP software to match the revenue streams generated by the services the channel partners are providing to their customers.

And the new term-based licensing makes it easier for HP channel partners to acquire BTO software licenses for short-term projects, such as when a solution provider needs HP's LoadRunner application performance testing tool for a three-month development project.

HP has been piloting the new licensing program with 20 to 30 of its software resellers for several months, Sakkal said. After positive feedback, the vendor is making it available to its more than 1,000 software channel partners.

"We expect to see an immediate competitive advantage and unlock new market opportunities with our affordable, fixed-price plan for customers seeking project-based access to performance engineering services," Dan Delano, director of services delivery at Visionary Integration Professionals, a Folsom, Calif.-based solution provider and HP partner, said in a statement about HP's project-based licensing.

Under the HP Campaign Syndication Program, channel partners will have access to content for assembling and executing marketing campaigns, including marketing materials such as product literature and white papers, and tools such as sales-lead reporting applications.

"A lot of our partners have limited resources, so this gives them 'marketing in a box,'" said Brad Schlagenhauf, worldwide channel and alliance marketing manager for HP Software and Solutions. "It's really extending the reach of our marketing content to our channel partners' Web sites."

"We can focus less on creation and more on execution," said Debbie Jolicoeur, marketing vice president at International Integrated Solutions, an HP platinum partner, in a statement. "The enhanced reporting that comes with the service enables us to quickly know which programs are most effective."