CRN Interview: Jim Milton, HP

Jim Milton, managing director of the Americas at Hewlett-Packard and senior vice president of HP'S Enterprise Systems Group, recently spoke to Industry Editor Craig Zarley about the vendor's new PartnerOne channel strategy.

CRN: Does HP Services intend to do more services subcontracting to the channel as a result of the new PartnerOne channel program?

Milton: That's a fair request of the partner community in general. I think we are doing a reasonably good job there. We went so far on the premerger Compaq side to have this Carepaq concept, where it was not only Carepaq [packaged services sold, but Carepaq delivered services, especially in the SAN integration arena. [Certified partners can sell the HP-branded offering, make margin on the sale, and actually deliver it with their service people. They make margin on both ends of the transaction. The PartnerOne program generally embraces that concept. As you move up and to the right on the PartnerOne continuum, it maxes out on all of the different opportunities there. PartnerOne was fully developed with services as part of the architecture.

CRN: Why has it taken so long to design and implement PartnerOne?

Milton: We wanted to have a comprehensive partner program that encompasses all of the aspects of an $80 billion company. We wanted to make sure, for example, that HP Services was an integral part of the program. If we had just done an Enterprise Systems Group partner program, we could have done that in a lot less time. We wanted to bring the whole of HP behind this PartnerOne program.

The other part of the time to launch was we wanted to do a validation of our thinking prior to the launch, rather than launch, make a huge number of mistakes and then have to relaunch. We had a number of different [partner advisory councils and sounding boards. Our partners want to be successful and want us to be successful, and we had some incredible [partner thought leaders who were willing to give up their time to help us create this program.

CRN: What role will the channel play going forward as HP embarks on a more direct business model?

Milton: Our long-standing relationship with the partner community is a huge differentiator against companies like Dell. It will ultimately allow us to win the war. If you don't recognize [the spectrum of relationships solution partners have with SMB and corporate customers, you will miss a significant part of the market. I've known most of the principals at our partners for years and years, and there is an element of trust. How could a company like Dell come into this market after referring to solution providers in the most derogatory term,"middleman",and hope to win their trust?