HP Unveils Partner One Alliance For PC-Printing-Enterprise Partners

Hewlett-Packard Monday launched a "frequent flyer" type program with big benefits for partners who do business with both companies once HP splits in two.

HP is promising that the new Partner One Alliance will ensure more leads and deal opportunities and increased MDF for solution providers that do business with both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. HP said it has designed the new program to ensure that it not only benefits its top 600 Platinum partners, but also its 25,000 Gold and Silver partners, said Vincent Brissot, vice president of worldwide channel marketing for HP's Printing and Personal Systems business, in an interview with CRN.

"As a partner, your business opportunities and business life becomes better when you deal with HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise," said Brissot.

[Related: HP Launches Program To Help Partners Navigate Split]

The network partners who do business with both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. will see leads that cross both product and service sets, said Brissot. "There is a much higher ranking and algorithm that says partners working with the two companies are the ones being prioritized," he said.

If HP runs a demand generation program around mobility and the customer is also interested in enterprise security sale, the lead will go to a network partner that plays in both of those areas, said Brissot. "If you are raising your competency and skill set, our filtering process is built to assure that you receive that lead," he said.

The two companies will continue to run joint campaigns and partners also will likely benefit from those lead generation programs, said Brissot. "You will continue to see joint investment and MDF around megatrends that will be to the benefits of network partners," he said.

HP, in fact, is building into MDF spending guidelines plans that encompass both HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, said Brissot.

Kelly Ireland, founder and CEO of CB Technologies, a Kirkland, Wash.-based HP Platinum partner, said she sees a lot of synergies selling both Printing and Personal Systems (PPS) and Enterprise products. "We are excited about being both PPS and [Enterprise Group] partners," she said. "What we are finding is when you sell a printer or mobile device on the PPS side, it gets you in the door to starting having the conversation to move up the stack and vice versa. We see customers embracing the innovation and quality of the HP product lines from both sides of HP.’

CB Technologies, one of HP's top enterprise partners, started focusing on the PC business a year ago and expects its PC and printing business to triple from $1 million to $4 million this year. What's more, Ireland said she expects CB Technologies' HP enterprise business, which grew 31 percent last year, to achieve the same level of growth this year.

HP also is making sure partners will not incur higher costs by dealing with both publicly held companies. For example, HP is going to have a single Global Partner Conference for both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. next year with preferred days for each of the separate businesses.

"We want to make sure that we are not making partners consume more travel and bandwidth," said Brissot. "Our two teams are working very closely together to make sure we don't multiply the number of channel events. That means partners will not have to spend more money and time out of the office on channel events."

Patrick Eitenbichler, director of marketing for Partner One Strategy at HP, stressed that partners will benefit from investments made to achieve Gold, Silver and Platinum certifications.

"If partners make an investment today with HP, they are guaranteed to see the rewards next year even though the company is splitting in two," he said. "We are not taking away anything. Partners can confidently invest in HP as we make the transition."

PUBLISHED MARCH 16, 2015