HP Rolls Out New PartnerOne Elite Programs

The new designations for HP business partners with leading practices in specific product and service categories are Virtualization Elite, Data Center Elite and Store Solutions Elite, with the last representing a new emphasis at Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP on its point-of-sale hardware, software and services offerings.

Some existing PartnerOne Elite designations such as Blade Elite will be rolled into the new Virtualization Elite program, said Tom LaRocca, vice president of marketing in HP's Solution Partners Organization - Americas.

HP also has added some Web-based tools for its channel, including a publishing tool called HP Solutions Showcase that helps partners add HP-generated content to their own Web sites, and HP Event Designer, an online content resource and planner that partners can use to develop Webinars and customer presentations.

LaRocca said HP has settled on a metric called a Penetration Rate Index (PRI) for measuring PartnerOne members' services attach rates. The PRI will become the primary measurement for partners with an HP Services Elite designation, he said.

On the benefits side, HP also has introduced new rebate rewards for partners demonstrating year-over-year sales growth, and training courses for HP's Enterprise Server and Storage authorization and Elite status can now be paid for with PartnerOne market development funds, LaRocca said.