HP Calling On Channel To Deliver Adaptive Enterprise

"The channel plays a huge role," said Nora Denzel, senior vice president and general manager of the Software Global Business Unit at HP.

In HP's Adaptive Enterprise vision, management software is the "critical" link between IT infrastructure and the business processes it supports, enabling customers to dynamically allocate IT resources as needed.

"Some of the advanced customers, the larger enterprises, are ready for that," said Alex Ryals, solutions architect at Pepperweed Consulting, a solution provider in Indianapolis.

Solution providers account for more than 60 percent of the revenue from HP's OpenView management software, Denzel said.

In addition, HP is close to attaining its goal of coupling 70 percent of its OpenView implementations with services provided by partners, with the remaining 30 percent including HP's own professional services offerings, she said.

HP is currently solidifying its channel strategy around Adaptive Enterprise and plans over time to introduce multiple levels of channel certifications for the strategy, Denzel said.

"This is not for the faint of heart," said Edward Rudolph, vice president of HP's Americas Software Business unit. "If you're trying to implement Adaptive Enterprise, you've got to be pretty deep into the technology and the business side as well," he said.

HP is developing a Web site with white papers, best practices, sales tools and other resources to aid partners as they sell IT service management solutions, Rudolph said. The site should be ready by October, he said.

Rudolph said he expects dozens of nonproductive U.S. partners to drop from HP's ranks over the next several months once it becomes clear they are not meeting the requirements of HP's Partner One program.

That will enable HP to divert more resources to channel partners interested in the Adaptive Enterprise initiative, he said.

"Our program will become more full and robust because of it," he said. "If you've certified a single person on [OpenView] Network Node Manager and you've hardly sold anything, there's probably not a lot of value you're delivering to me or the customer base," he said.