Blockbuster Deal: HP Enters Into 'First-Of-Its-Kind' Global 3-D Manufacturing Print Alliance With Deloitte

HP Inc. Thursday stepped up its 3-D printing sales offensive with a blockbuster alliance with $37 billion global systems integration giant Deloitte.

The deal marks the first major global alliance since HP began taking orders for its Jet Fusion 3-D printing manufacturing product just over a year ago.

HP 3-D Printing Business President Stephen Nigro said the "first-of-its-kind" deal with a global systems integrator represents a turning point of sorts for propelling 3-D manufacturing printing into Fortune 100 accounts.

[Related: 7 Questions For HP's 3D Printing Boss Stephen Nigro On The HP-Deloitte Alliance]

"What this is going to do is allow HP and Deloitte to go into large enterprises together and help them transform how they design products and supply chain," said Nigro. "This is the first deal of this kind in 3-D printing."

Deloitte will provide high-level supply chain and manufacturing consulting focused around digital transformation with HP Jet Fusion 3-D manufacturing products and materials. In addition, Deloitte and HP will combine to offer managed print, Device-as-a-Service, commercial mobility and cybersecurity offerings.

Nigro said he believe the alliance will accelerate the adoption of 3-D manufacturing in Fortune 100 accounts. "This is exactly the type of engagement necessary to drive transformation," he said. "Without it, it will happen much slower. This is going to be a big accelerator for Fortune 100."

The alliance represents a major joint investment by HP and Deloitte -- No. 15 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500 -- to get major corporations to transform how they "think and design" products, said Nigro.

Deloitte, which counts 80 percent of the Fortune 500 as its clients, is "leaning into" what amounts to a $12 trillion opportunity to reshape how global manufacturing is done.

"Deloitte sees what a large opportunity it is and they don't want to miss it," Nigro said. "They are trying to get ahead and beat others to the punch."

Deloitte – which bills itself as a leader in digital supply chain transformations -- has a dedicated 3-D manufacturing team and is bringing the transformational opportunity to its major clients.

"Deloitte is leaning in, they have a practice and they are world-class on this," Nigro said.

Nigro said he sees the economic impact of the alliance as profound given Deloitte's consulting and digital transformation prowess.

Key to Deloitte's success is the systems integrator's ability to take a "top-down" approach targeting Fortune 500 CEOs, said Nigro. "If it is not top-down it is difficult to get transformational activities like this going," he said.

The alliance combines HP's 3-D printing expertise with Deloitte's digital transformation consulting as a "catalyst" to drive the adoption of 3-D printing in manufacturing and supply chain, said Doug Gish, a principal for Deloitte Consulting and the supply chain and manufacturing operations national service leader for the consulting giant. He said HP and Deloitte are providing customers a "complete set of capabilities" from consulting to execution in a bid to "move the needle" in the 3-D printing market.

"For 3-D printing to really take off the way that everybody believes it can it is going to require some critical mass," he said. "We believe that this alliance is going to be a catalyst for creating that critical mass… We see ourselves at the vanguard moving into this space in a large scale way."

At its heart the HP Deloitte partnership represents a major breakthrough in driving mass scale 3D manufacturing production, said Gish.

Up until now, there simply has not been a 3-D manufacturing partnership on the scale of HP-Deloitte with the "mindset, capabilities and the teams that it takes to truly transform businesses and make (3-D printing) core to mass scale production," he said.

Deloitte would not comment on the specific terms and conditions of the HP pact including the length of the deal or the size of the Deloitte investment.

The alliance, however, does not include a reseller pact under which Deloitte would resell HP's Jet Fusion 3-D printers and materials, said Gish.

"This is not a reselling model," he said. "It is a go-to-market alliance. So what we intend to do in the marketplace is jointly find clients that want to transform themselves, who are willing to go through that process. Of course, part of that will be strategy, part of it will be process change, people change, and technology change."