HP retools for continued growth 26 February, 2008 By Steve Wexler

PromoPipeline Exclusive Channel Promotions Find Out How You Can Make Money Today! ENROLL FREE! >> Factory Direct Should Not be Cheaper William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Cloud Ecosystem II: A Candid Conversation with Oracle Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Cloud Ecosystem: A Candid Conversation with Rackspace Hosting Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Channel Manager Compensation William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Financial Expertise William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels

"It's a journey," said Jones. "We didn't really get on to simplicity until about a year ago." He said the company has focused on making it easier to do business with HP, including reducing the number of channel programs from 140 down to 40 in 2007. A couple of the changes to the PartnerOne channel program are intended to further HP's efforts, including the Storage Select Authorization and new upfront benefits.

Designed to provide more partners with more growth opportunities, HP Storage Select is a new authorization that enables eligible partners to resell select storage solutions in the midmarket space. The simplified authorization enables partners to sell the new HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 4400 (EVA4400) and the entry-level EVA4X00 series products, software, services and options.

HP is also announcing two new compensation offers that will reward partners with upfront benefits when they sell qualifying business-critical systems, enterprise storage and services from HP to net new customers or in sales into the commercial customer segment. The New Business Opportunity (NBO) benefit gives partners greater visibility to applicable pricing and benefits during the negotiation and decision-making stages of new business deals and eliminates the need for backend claims for the offer. The Commercial Target benefit provides new upfront benefits for sales into the commercial segment.

For greater simplification, when partners use the new Technology Solutions Group Value Big Deal website, all requests for TSG products are submitted using a New Deal Registration Tool that combines NBO and Value Big Deals into one, streamlined process. The Growth Accelerator offer first introduced last March has been expanded with new HP Services Growth Accelerator and DataCenter Growth Accelerator offers. The HP Services Growth Accelerator offer rewards partners with additional financial benefits when they meet and exceed services sales goals, while the DataCenter Growth Accelerator increases rebate payments for partners who carry multiple Elite designations.

Finally, HP has introduced the Green Expressway, a new set of "green" resources intended to helps partner grow their businesses while helping end-user customers implement environmentally sound technology solutions. The Green Expressway on the HP Partner Portal provides partners with information specific to HP's energy-efficiency programs, the latest environmental news, industry research and more.

On the product front, the company has introduced the HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400), an easy-to-manage virtual storage disk array that increases performance and availability to enable midsize businesses to drive revenue and reduce costs. According to HP the new array rounds out its entry-level solutions and gives channel partners new business opportunities with a virtual array designed specifically for the midmarket.

While the changes to PartnerOne are important, they are just one element of an overall commitment to simplifying working with HP, said Jones. "We are committed to making changes. This is the highest goal," and it runs from Hurd all the way down through the organization. "We want to make it very easy for partners to get out to market," said Jones. "That's the mission we're on, and it's not going to happen overnight."