HPE-Juniper Integration Is Number One Issue For Partners: North America Advisory Council Chief Pat O’Dell
‘Everyone is interested in what the sales playbook is for HPE-Juniper around sales processes and certifications,’ says HPE Partner Advisory Council Chief Pat O’Dell. ‘We all see a big opportunity here to drive sales growth.’
Pat O’Dell, the head of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s North America Partner Advisory Council, said the latest poll from the advisory group’s elite membership shows that the HPE-Juniper integration is the number one issue for the organization’s 25 elite partners.
“Partners want to get up and running with HPE-Juniper as fast as possible,” said O’Dell, the managing partner at HPE stalwart partner CPP Associates, Clinton, N.J. “Everyone is interested in what the sales playbook is for HPE-Juniper around sales processes and certifications. We all see a big opportunity here to drive sales growth.”
O’Dell said HPE partners see an opportunity to grow their HPE networking business substantially in the wake of HPE’s $13.4 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, which closed in July. He said the CPP sales team feels it can grow the HPE networking business at least 50 percent over the next 12 to 18 months.
HPE CEO Antonio Neri has said the Juniper acquisition more than triples HPE’s TAM from approximately $35 to $40 to $135 billion with the combined networking business below 20 percent networking market share.
All signs are that HPE and Juniper are moving quickly to mount a united sales charge working hand in hand with partners to grab share from Cisco, said partners.
Neri told analysts on September 3 in the first combined HPE-Juniper quarterly earnings call that HPE is incenting the Aruba and Juniper Networks sales teams to sell both networking portfolios in a bid to drive sales momentum.
“We are already incentivizing both sales forces to sell both [vendors’] products,” said HPE CEO Antonio Neri in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, marking the first time HPE has reported combined HPE-Juniper results. “And I can tell you the channel community is super excited to be able to sell both products because the combination of both products allows them to cover every vertical, every use case, in every geography.”
O’Dell, for his part, said he is confident that new HPE senior vice president of North America networking sales, Jeff Dolce, and North America Channel Chief Jeremiah Jenson are driving a compensation and sales engagement model that is going to pay off for partners.
“Jeff and Jeremiah are tightly integrated and are working on all the details to make this effective for the channel,” said O’Dell. “They have a long history working together. That is very encouraging.”
O’Dell said he sees the strong leadership of Dolce and Jenson ensuring that partners and the HPE and Juniper sales reps are all “rowing” in the same direction with no sales or channel conflict.
“For me, it’s all about doing what is best for customers,” said O’Dell. “I see a tremendous investment and commitment from HPE to get the HPE-Juniper integration right. I have been excited for a while about HPE’s investment in having the best overall infrastructure portfolio. This is just another major piece of the puzzle.
O’Dell said the data center networking prowess, AI capabilities and new security offerings like Juniper firewalls are a big boost to HPE and its partners. “These are very important additions to HPE and the partner community,” he said.
CPP is beefing up its networking talent in a bid to grab share from Cisco with HPE Juniper. “We just added a Juniper networking technical specialist to our team in preparation for doing more HPE Networking business,” he said.
The robust data center networking and security offerings from Juniper is going to provide a formidable weapon for partners to now win deals going head-to-head against Cisco, said O’Dell.
In fact, he said, the full networking stack portfolio HPE is bringing to market means Cisco can no longer leverage higher profit margins where HPE was unable to effectively compete to win deals.
“Now HPE can compete in every segment of the networking business making it much more difficult for Cisco to bundle or package out HPE from winning business,” said O’Dell. “Now we can compete on all fronts.”
Mike Vencel, president of Comport Consulting, Ramsey, N.J., a top HPE enterprise partner, said he is hoping to double Comport’s sales in the networking business in the wake of the HPE acquisition of Juniper.
“We’re not looking at 20 or 30 percent growth” he said. “We’re looking to double that business. There are plenty of networking customers that we have won, but we are at the juncture now with this deal where we could go and get the whole networking stack. That is how I get to the calculus of how I can double my networking business.”
Vencel said his sales team is ready out of the gate to sell the full HPE-Juniper networking portfolio.
Vencel said he also sees the close relationship between HPE’s dynamic duo of Jensen and Dolce working on a joint go-to-market plan as a competitive differentiator for partners.
“In the past, Aruba was always off to the side a bit, running independently,” said Vencel. “Now it has been made very clear to the partner advisory board leaders how HPE is making sure we are all going to do go to market together to win business. This is a win for everybody. We are all thrilled after hearing Jeremiah and Jeff talk about the plan.”
Vencel said Dolce, who took the helm of the HPE Networking business last month, said the 16-year HPE Aruba sales veteran brings a customer focus that will be critical to driving HPE-Juniper success in the sale trenches. “Jeff is super-smart and experienced,” said Vencel. “That’s definitely a win for HPE and its partners.”
Key to the success of the HPE-Juniper combination is the ability to provide security across the networking stack, said Vencel. “That has to be key along with the ability to manage the network more easily,” he said. “If HPE gets all those pieces right they will be in a great spot, particularly in their existing installed base, to take share.”
The HPE-Juniper combination sets HPE up for an epic battle for networking share against Cisco – “the 800-pound gorilla” in the contest – and Arista, a network up-and-comer, said Vencel.
“That’s the battlefield right now,” he said. “Ultimately it’s going to boil down to where partners think they can win. At the end of the day as a leader I want the best, most innovative and most dependable products that allow me to win in the marketplace to support my clients. If you have that, the money will follow.”