Partners: HP Going Soft On Hard Deck

HP confirmed last week that business desktops and notebooks will not be part of its Hard Deck channel strategy as of Aug. 1.

Instead, those products are going to be part of what HP is calling a "customer choice model," under which clients can choose to buy either direct from HP or from solution providers.

HP said it is leaning toward not including Intel-based servers, including four- and eight-way servers, in Hard Deck. HP will make a final decision on those products this week, said Kevin Gilroy, HP vice president and general manager of North America commercial channel sales.

"We are going to have compelling, profound channel programs, and to be quite candid, we are going to have pretty compelling direct machinery," Gilroy said.

The original Hard Deck program mandated that HP's sales force would target 870 named accounts on a direct basis, leaving everything else as the exclusive domain of the channel.

Hard Deck will remain in effect in the Enterprise Systems Group, Gilroy said. The number of accounts HP will target direct for these products has not been finalized, he added.

HP is driving forward with a strategy to build out "vertical practices," Gilroy said.

But solution providers said HP is making a big mistake that will lead them to switch customers to white-box PCs.

HP's move is "a stab in the back," said Mike Reuben, owner of solution provider L.A. Computer Works, Culver City, Calif.

"This might increase HP's sales in the short term, but they're shooting themselves in the foot for the long term," he said. "Solution providers are a lot more knowledgeable than telemarketers. We don't have to read a script because we know the product."

Reuben said he plans to increase his sales of white-box and Micron solutions.

"It's going to get worse for the tier-one vendors. They should look at the past five to 10 years to see how their [own sales have declined and white-box sales have increased. Why would anyone want to sell their competitors' product?" said Luis Alvarez, president of Alvarez Technology Group, Salinas, Calif.

HP can't possibly provide the service-rich and increasingly complex solutions today's small businesses need, said James Scherber, CEO of Tech-Pacifica, a small-business solution provider in Novato, Calif.

"It's absurd. . . . I don't think there is a lot of confusion going on within HP [in the wake of the merger. I just think the company wants to take as much business direct as possible," Scherber said.

"I used to like HP as a company and believed what they stood for: integrity. They used to work well with partners. But that's gone forever," he said. "The founders of the company would be rolling over in their graves if they found out what's going on at the new HP."