5 Things To Know About HP's New Displays And Accessories Incentives

New Incentives For Partners

HP Inc. is aiming to accelerate its displays and accessories business in 2019 with the help of channel partners—and the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is looking to make partners more profitable in the process. HP is announcing a new set of incentives for partners to sell displays and accessories that will represent a "partner profitability enhancement," said Gary Simms, head of Americas channel programs and enablement HP, in an interview with CRN. The incentives take effect Feb. 1, and will cover displays and accessories for use with desktops, notebooks, detachable and workstations, HP announced.

What follows are five key things for partners to know about HP Inc.'s new displays and accessories incentives.

A Hot Market

HP is looking to work with the channel to capitalize on growing demand for displays and accessories, Simms told CRN. That demand is being driven by increased mobility in the workplace, including a rising number of workers who are using devices on-the-go (requiring new types of accessories) and who are working from home (adding a new source of demand for both displays and accessories), Simms said. "Mobility is the key trend that's driving this opportunity," he said.

HP Partner First

The new incentives are being offered to partners in the Platinum and Gold tiers of HP's partner program, HP Partner First. Notably, HP is actually breaking with its typical cycle of announcing partner incentives twice a year—on Nov. 1 and May 1—in order to roll out the new displays and accessories incentives on Feb. 1, Simms said. "The financial benefits are significant enough to channel partners, that we felt it was worth of breaking with tradition a little bit here to do an off-cycle announcement," Simms said.

Incentives

The new incentives will take the form of rebates that are provided to channel partners that surpass a certain base level of sales in displays and/or accessories, according to HP. The incentives are substantial, HP said: the company announced that it will be doubling the rebates available to partners that hit certain sales levels. HP is not disclosing specifics on what the sales levels are or what the new rebates will be, Simms said. While product margins are not specifically increasing with the new incentives rollout, "the rebates do go to the bottom line of a company, so it would in fact have an impact relative to partner profitability," Simms said. "It absolutely does have an impact to the bottom line."

Accessories

HP said the accessory rebate enhancement for partners will cover all commercial desktop accessories, commercial notebook accessories, detachable accessories and workstation accessories. Among HP's recently launched commercial notebook accessories is the HP Thunderbolt Dock G2 with Audio Module, which allows users to get access to a range of ports—including USB-A, USB-C, DisplayPort, VGA and Ethernet—by connecting a single USB-C cable to their notebook. The dock works with both HP and non-HP notebooks, and can include an optional audio module that attaches to the top of the dock for enhanced audio conferencing.

Displays

Meanwhile, for displays, HP said partners will be able to get enhanced rebates on sales of commercial displays and workstation displays. Among the displays available in HP's Elite commercial line is the 27-inch EliteDisplay E273m, which the company describes as a "conferencing monitor" thanks to its pop-up HD webcam, Bang & Olufsen speakers, collaboration keys (for launching calls and managing audio) and Skype for Business certification. And this month, HP is launching the EliteDisplay E243p Sure View Monitor (pictured) as the first 23.8-inch monitor with HP Sure View—a display technology that enhances privacy by reducing almost all visible light when the screen is viewed at an angle.