HP PartnerOne Chief: Expect Changes Aimed At Helping HP VARs Sell Against Cisco

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HP PartnerOne Chief Tom LaRocca, who oversees HP's robust PartnerOne channel program, spoke with CRN Editor News Steven Burke and Senior Editor Joseph F. Kovar about PartnerOne incentives aimed at providing more up front margin on HP products including HP's popular ProCurve line.

LaRocca, vice president, marketing and strategy, Solution Partners Organization, Americas, was at Everything Channel's XChange Solution Provider conference urging partners to sell more of the HP product portfolio. At the same time, HP is poised to close its $2.7 billion acquisition of networking product provider 3Com.

HP's ProCurve push combined with the 3Com acquisition is part of a no holds push to take market share from networking leader Cisco.

Here are excerpts from the question and answer session with LaRocca.

What are we going to see from PartnerOne to help HP partners be more successful selling networking products like ProCurve against Cisco?

ProCurve was one of the first groups that came to us and wanted to take some of their back end (rebate dollars) and put it in the front end. They wanted to be very, very focused on the resellers in the marketplace and the reseller reps to capture their mind share.

So they were one of the first ones that actually helped build out the strategy for us on how we were going to go to market with front end benefits on the (HP ProCurve) deal registration program.

You are going to hear more and more from us about ProCurve. Obviously I can't talk about the whole 3Com (acquisition) because it is not a closed deal yet. But that is huge in the marketplace. That is going to be a big impact for us in the networking environment. That is going to bring a level of products and solutions that are going to be new to the ProCurve guys.

So are we going to see a lot of help and investment from HP PartnerOne for VARs that want to sell against Cisco up and down the networking stack

Absolutely.

How big a priority is that for you?

It's a big priority for us. Absolutely.

What ultimate impact is it going to have on VAR's profitability that sell HP networking (products) versus Cisco?

Well I think if you talk to our ProCurve networking guys out there they will tell you they like the program. They are very much in favor of the direction that we are going. They like the fact they are getting their money up front in some of these deal registration benefits. Their growth tools are on the back end. They like the investments. I think they like the direction we are going with ProCurve.

Talk about what specific changes are you making to make sure partners are rewarded for selling the full portfolio?

Obviously, PartnerOne has many different facets to it that work in their favor if they want to make investments with us across the portfolio. So if you're a partner selling today desktops and notebooks and you want to get into the server market which is sort of a logical progression for them there are investments there. There are deal registration investments. There are training investments. There are programmatic investments. There are growth tools.

Let's say you are an Elite in our blade category and you are not really selling our notebooks; You are selling someone else's desktop and notebooks. If you are Elite with us in blades you automatically get into the PSG (Personal Systems Group) growth programs. So you are going to get investments with us at the beginning of your sales cycle with the PSG products.

You are going to get entry into the growth tools. You don't have to hit any revenue bars for PSG. You simply gain entrance because you are a valued partner in a different part of our product solution set. That is one good example of how we take partners who have a core competency in one area and work with them to build one out in another area.

When did you start doing that?

We've been doing that for six months.

Are you doing the same thing with IPG (Imaging & Printing Group)?

Yes. If you gain entrance into an Elite program with HP and that was your entry into PartnerOne you now can take advantage of the other growth tool programs that are in there from the other business units.

How many elite partners do you have across the product lines?

There are several hundred Elites when you stack them up altogether across all the product groups.

Those are the ones we are most invested with. Those are the ones who are very invested with HP and we are highly invested with them.

Have you had partners that have changed their product mix based on the PartnerOne incentives?

I wouldn't call it changing their mix. I would call it increasing the breadth of their offering. So they have added another core competency or another solution to their expertise so to speak with the end users. They may have been very storage and server centric and going to market with that core competency and now they are offering a wider breadth of our products in different areas because of the investment we have made with these folks.

Next: LaRocca Talks About The Push To Get Partners To Sell More Of The HP Portfolio

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