Winner: Hewlett-Packard
Hewlet-Packard took home the overall gold in the Notebooks category, beating out rivals in partnership and support, but losing to Lenovo in product innovation.
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HP scored especially high in the presales support and ease of doing business criteria, an achievement Matt Smith, director of Americas Channel Marketing at HP, attributed to the PC maker's commitment to streamlining partner communication.
"We have worked hard to simplify our internal structure such that partners now have a single point of contact for channel support and questions," Smith said. "That change also will help partners spend their time where it matters most: with customers."
Smith said HP also strives to ensure its partners' profitability in the ultracompetitive notebook business through its PartnerOne program. "We're very focused on developing best-in-class products and solutions that will drive profitability for our partners," Smith said. "PartnerOne is also focused on creating offers, and support tools and resources that help set our partners up for success. We offer things like New Business Opportunity (NBO), which are stackable with other benefits to help generate the largest payout for our partners--usually 6 to 12 percent."
John Convery, executive vice president of Vendor Relations and Marketing at Denali Advanced Integration, a Redmond, Wash.-based solution provider and HP partner, said the sheer quality of HP's products make it an ideal partner in the notebook space.
"Our customers, and Denali, believe deep down that HP offers the best value and return on investment for all their notebook products and services," Convery said.
HP is gearing up to launch a number of new ultrabooks and convertible PCs based on Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8. Convery, for one, is confident in the PC maker's continued success: "I have seen the road maps, and if you think their products and services are the best of the best [now] … just wait."
