HP To Roll Poly, Teradici And HyperX Into Amplify Partner Program This Fall

The PC and print giant also plans to offer higher compensation to eligible partners who sell a wider range of products, including those from Poly, and incentivize more partners to participate in the vendor’s sustainability-focused Amplify Impact initiative.

Kobi Elbaz, HP’s global channel chief

HP Inc. says it will open new growth opportunities for channel partners when its Amplify program expands this fall to include the acquisitions of video conferencing giant Poly, remote computing software provider Teradici and gaming accessory designer HyperX.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based PC and print giant announced at its 2023 Amplify Partner Conference on Wednesday that HP will integrate its Poly, Teradici and HyperX businesses into the Amplify program on Nov. 1, when the company’s 2024 fiscal year begins. That is when HP will also add distribution partners to Amplify, expanding program benefits and resources to distributors.

[Related: HP Partners Win Big In Europe, Africa And Australia In First Amplify Impact Awards]

For partners, the integration of HP’s recent acquisitions into Amplify means program benefits and resources will apply to a wider portfolio of products and services that previously existed under separate programs from Poly, Teradici and HyperX. This, in turn, will give partners more ways to work towards eligibility for Amplify’s Power and Power Services tier, which provide advanced benefits.

The expanded portfolio under Amplify will also open new opportunities for partners to increase sales and improve margins through a new benefit called “More for More.” The benefit, which becomes available in November, applies a rate multiplier for compensation to qualified partners who sell a wider range of products and services across HP’s expanded portfolio.

“As our portfolio expands, we want to make sure that we drive with our channel partners the best experience we can for our customers, and this means that we want to encourage our partners to work with us across the portfolio,” Kobi Elbaz, HP’s global channel chief since late 2021, told CRN.

The Amplify integration plans also mean that partners will no longer have to juggle multiple partner programs between HP and the company’s most recently acquisitions, like Poly. This, according to Elbaz, will make it simpler for partners selling multiple product lines to do business with HP.

“You have one process to do joint demand generation across the portfolio. You have one process [for] compensation,” among other resources and benefits, he said. “It will make the lives of our channel partners easier to [manage one program].”

Elbaz said the integration plans, along with new benefits announced this week, are part of Amplify’s continuing evolution, which has been driven by partner feedback, the company’s expanding portfolio of products and services as well as the changing economy since the partner program launched in late 2020.

“We continue to get feedback from our partners, and we take it into account—plus, of course, market dynamics and portfolio evolution—in order to make sure that we continue to make Amplify the best program in the industry,” he said.

Faster MDF Reimbursement Process Coming

Another new benefit HP plans to introduce is called “Fast Lane,” which the company said will dramatically improve the time it takes to reimburse partners for market development funds. This will be done through a new automatic process coming online for eligible partners in November.

Elbaz likened Fast Lane to the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck benefit, which allows air travelers to skip the line at security checkpoints in U.S. airports.

“This process will be very fast and very, very automated,” he said.

New Way To Work Toward Power, Power Services

One new benefit coming to HP’s Amplify program sooner is meant to incentivize more partners to join the sustainability-focused Amplify Impact initiative and support the vendor’s goal of becoming the most sustainable company on the planet.

Beginning in May, the new benefit will let partners who have three-star recognition or higher within Amplify Impact to gain a point toward eligibility for the Power and Power Services tiers, which open advanced benefits and resources across the overall Amplify program.

Elbaz said HP is hoping the incentive will help the company achieve its goal of having 50 percent of its partners pledging to partake in Amplify Impact by 2025.

“It’s another way for us to show our commitment to this and why it’s important for us to make sure that we encourage our partners to be part of the Amplify Impact journey,” he said.

For partners to become a three-star member of Amplify Impact, partners need to have 30 percent of their employees go through HP’s general sustainability training, have 30 percent of sales teams to go through sales training on the sustainability benefits of HP’s products and submit four HP business deals a year where sustainability was an important factor.

“We’re really trying to show the stability of Amplify and the flexibility to partners” with the new point benefit for Amplify Impact members, said Mary Beth Walker, the head of HP’s global channel strategy.

Partners See Growth Opportunities With HP-Poly Integration

Partners recently told CRN they see big growth opportunities with the video conferencing and collaboration technologies HP is gaining through its integration of Poly.

Harry Zarek, president of Ontario, Canada-based Compugen, said his company has “tremendous interest” in how HP enables partners with Poly’s products and views it as a “high-growth area.”

“That is one area that most customers, as they work out their return-to-office strategy, are committed to upgrading their meeting room technology, because it’s three years old-plus. Those were all implemented before,” he said.

“[Then Microsoft] Teams, [Cisco’s] WebEx and Zoom took over the world, so customers realize they need a [solution that is] much more modern, easily collaborative, both on-prem and remote,” he added.

Brett Bailey, vice president and partner at Saskatchewan, Canada-based WBM Technologies, said HP’s deeper expansion into video conferencing and collaboration technologies with Poly matches well with his company’s strategy of selling solutions around the “idea of a modern work experience.”

“Understanding the evolving experience possible, and having the technologies in place to deliver, is a huge opportunity,” he said.

Partners with deeper ties to Poly said they see bigger opportunities coming from the other side, with HP giving them the ability to sell a larger suite of solutions around hybrid work.

Brian Cuppett, senior vice president of modern communications at Greenville, South Carolina-based distributor ScanSource, said his company is “excited about the capabilities and reach a company like HP can bring” to its existing relationship with Poly “for joint growth and new opportunities” for its partners.

“I think with HP’s reach, Poly will be able to move into new areas and improve their technology to hopefully continue to bring new and innovative products to market faster,” he said. We are excited about the growth opportunities in the hybrid systems group and look forward to continuing to work and align with their new teams to bring great solutions to our collective channels.”

Ken Scaturro, president and chief operating officer of Yorktel, an Eatontown, New Jersey-based MSP focused on collaboration solutions, said the integration will help his company build upon its longstanding relationship with Poly and expand into new opportunities with HP. This includes endpoint management, which Scaturro views as Yorktel’s “biggest area of growth.”

“As the endpoint of collaboration is moved from something hanging on the wall to a desktop to an earpiece, that all has to be managed effectively from one environment. Using Intune and Autopilot and all those things from Microsoft and driving the endpoint management of the HP devices is a critical part of our growth,” he said.