HP Launches .Net Solutions Partner Program

The initiative, which is part of HP's PartnerOne and will be targeted at ISVs and software solution providers, is aimed at expanding the portfolio of integrated, certified .Net solutions available out-of-the-box to speed implementation, deployment and time-to-market for customers, HP executives said.

To date, 26 partners have signed up, including Bindview, Citrix, J.D. Edwards, Net IQ and Siebel. ISV participants must be Microsoft Gold Certified Partners and members of HP's PartnerOne program certified through its Developer and Solution Partner Program.

"They can't deploy a full solution on their own. We'll take their solutions out to customers," said Lane Nonnenberg, vice president and general manager of HP Services Alliances, Palo Alto, Calif. "We won't have to go through the process of cobbling these solutions together for the fist time."

HP was appointed a prime contractor for .Net last September. Since then, the vendor has snapped up a number of major deals with Microsoft customers, including a 10-year, $3 billion outsourcing deal with Proctor & Gamble.

Microsoft executives acknowledged that the software company's relationship with HP Services is getting cozier but noted that Microsoft continues to work with 17 systems integrators.

This week at Momentum, Microsoft named HP Services and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as its global systems integrators of the year.

"Different partners make different levels of investment," said Jared Wheeler, general manager of Microsoft's Global Services and Technology Partners. Microsoft has not steered any enterprise deals away from other systems integrators and in HP Services' direction, he said, adding, "We haven't done that, and we don't do that."