Arrow Summit Spotlights Channel Partnerships

Arrow Electronics widened the scope of the event, held at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, Calif., to include vendors beyond HP, including VMWare, Cisco Systems, CommVault, BEA Systems, Brocade Systems and Intel. The summit drew 165 attendees this year, including 47 soluton provider companies, up from 30 last year.

At the event, Arrow highlighted its recent moves and investments to broaden its support of solution providers, such as the formation of government- and software-focused business units and its recent acquisition of enterprise software distributor Alternative Technologies.

Michael Haley, vice president of the HP group for Arrow ECS, pointed out that in panels at the summit, HP executives noted that the vendor remains committed to helping partners grow their midmarket business through customer acquisitions and new business opportunities.

"[HP Vice President of U.S. Enterprise Sales] Bill Weaver's message was simple: There are no changes. The one thing we've been asking HP for for years is consistency," Haley said. "They still need partners in all areas of the pyramid: tier one, midmarket and SMB. I'm as bullish as I've ever been with HP."

Partners at the summit said the event set a good tone for channel relationships with HP in the coming year.

"We've been pretty excited about the prospects for 2007 for us for about a month or two now, and I think what the Alliance Summit did for us was affirm and validate that excitement. There are a lot of things moving in very positive directions with HP and within the channel at HP," said Simon Palmer, president of Systems Technology Associates, Tustin, Calif.

For Palmer and other solution provider attendees, it was their first chance to hear from HP about upcoming channel program changes, including its plan to move thousands of named direct accounts to the channel as part of a new sales engagement strategy.

"There's no secret about the turmoil in HP's channel model," Palmer said. "Now I think they've really put a model in place that's not going to be changing every two or three months. We're pleased about that. HP was really looking for input on what would make the channel better."

In addition, Palmer said he was enthused about HP's server message. "HP is the only company of all of the big server manufacturers that can offer a soup-to-nuts virtualization solution."

Arrow also is moving in a new direction, he added. "They seem to really have gotten their arms around an organized marketing program, which frankly, in the past, has been a weakness for them. They have put a cohesive and complete plan together that we're looking forward to participating in as well," he said.