COMDEXvirtual: HP Partners That Go 'All In' Reap Big Rewards

Hewlett-Packard solution providers that are going "all in" with an end-to-end HP product portfolio experienced nearly three times the sales growth in 2010 of other HP partners.

That sales growth rate seen by those end-to-end HP partners outpaced not only the sales growth of other HP solution providers but also the growth rate of the U.S. IT market, said Meaghan Kelley, HP Vice President Channel Strategy & SMB of Americas Solution Partner Organization (SPO).

Kelley spoke spoke during a session Tuesday at COMDEXvirtual, the online conference hosted by CRN parent company Everything Channel. The show takes place November 16 - 17, and sessions are available on-demand until May 17, 2011.

Solution providers embracing the full HP "franchise" product portfolio enjoyed sales growth of 18.1 percent in 2010, compared with 6.5 percent of other HP partners, said Kelly. That 18.1 percent growth rate was nearly six times the growth rate of the U.S. IT market and nearly nine times the growth rate of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), said Kelly.

HP Franchise partners are defined as those that derive more than 70 percent of their annual sales from HP products by selling across HP's multiple business units from PCs in the Personal Systems Group to converged network infrastructure in the Enterprise Business unit to managed print services in the Imaging & Printing Group.

HP paid out $500 million in financial benefits in the U.S. in 2009 to about 25,000 partners from its lucrative HP PartnerOne channel program, said Kelly. She said she expects that figure to be even "richer" this year and next given the enhancements HP made to the PartnerOne program effective Nov. 1, the start of HP's new fiscal year.

"The empirical data shows that partners going all in with HP are growing faster and earning more," said Kelly."We look forward to finding more ways for them to do that in the future."

John Convery, executive vice president of vendor relations and marketing for Denali Advanced Integration, one of HP's top franchise partners headquartered in Redmond, Wash., said he has not seen a more robust partner program than HP's PartnerOne in his 30 years in the IT business.

Denali's HP business is up more than 10 percent in 2010 and its HP Networking business is up more than 100 percent in 2010, said Convery. But it's not only sales growth; the profits that come from Denali's PartnerOne investment are ten times more than other vendor programs, said Convery.

"HP is the only vendor that has an end-to-end complete IT solution from a handheld device to the data center to managed print services," Convery said. "Because Denali is one of the few solution providers that sell that full portfolionwe get the profit benefit, which includes backend escalator rebates for bringing a complete end-to-end HP solution to the table for a customer."

"The bottom line is the customer gets a great experience and the channel makes more money with HP than any other vendor in the business," said Convery.

NEXT: HP's PartnerOne Benefits Are Resonating With Partners

Kelly said the HP franchise financial benefits are resonating with partners. "Partners understand the portfolio and that they can earn (PartnerOne) more by selling across that portfolio," she said. "They are realizing this is the key advantage to partnering with HP. They realize that no other vendor can do that for them. It's helping their business move forward along with ours."

Some of the biggest benefits from the HP PartnerOne program center around HP Networking and HP Managed Print Services, said Kelly. HP Networking, for example, recently announced a major SPIF program driving additional financial rewards for both channel sales and technical professionals.

Selling the full HP portfolio makes it simpler for the customer and the partner, said Kelly. "When you sell across the portfolio you can deliver a complete solution," she said. "It is simplicity when you have fewer brands to sell."

HP's $125 billion size and $4 billion-plus annual research and development budget gives it a competitive advantage, said Kelly. She said acquisitions like the company's purchases of Palm, 3Par, 3Com and EDS are giving partners even more products and services to add to their arsenal.

"With all these acquisitions we continue to look at different ways to bolster our product line so that we can continue to bring the broadest portfolio of products and the best technologies in the industry [to partners]," she said. "We are excited about all the acquisitions we have done over the past few years, and we will continue to integrate those acquisitions into our PartnerOne program to bring you the right support and services and portfolio that you need to be successful."

In the future, Kelly said to expect additional PartnerOne enhancements around managed services and cloud computing. "You are going to see some pretty exciting announcements in the portfolio around managed services, both hardware and software," she said. "It's an area we're definitely working with partners on to enhance in 2010 and 2011."

"We like to say we are channel zealots," said Kelly. "We are making sure that we continue to put the right programs in place to make partners successful. We love our channel!"

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