Chief Sales Officer Phil Davis: HPE Is 'Rock Of Gibraltar' With A Winning Portfolio For Partners

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is standing tall as the "rock of Gibraltar" for partners with a winning product and services portfolio in a market filled with turmoil from competitors, said HPE Chief Sales Officer Phil Davis.

"We always have been and always will be committed to the channel," said Davis, the hard-charging worldwide sales chief who has ratcheted up the competitive fire in the belly of the HPE and partner sales forces. "That's a big, big statement with all the churn and turmoil going on in the market. Partners love that Rock of Gibraltar stability."

Davis has not been shy about pointing out the stark contrast between HPE and its competitors with regard to partnering commitment and product/services portfolio clarity. Most recently, Davis pointed to Dell EMC's storage product road map "rationalization" versus the "clarity" of the HPE "intelligent storage portfolio" with "predictive, cloud-ready and timeless solutions."

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That kind of sales leadership has brought high praise from partners happy to see HPE's more aggressive sales charge.

"It's great to see Phil Davis calling on customers to compare the HPE storage road map to the Dell road map," said Raymond Tuchman, CEO of Experis Technology Group, a fast-growing Potomac, Md.-based HPE private cloud powerhouse. "Davis has good reason to make that comparison. HPE has the best product portfolio in the business right now."

HPE has, indeed, picked up the pace on its innovation charge in the past several months with a major Nimble all-flash product refresh with a storage efficiency guarantee, advances in SimpliVity, and the recent acquisition of software-defined networking fabric provider Plexxi.

That product and services portfolio combined with HPE's 70-year legacy of partner commitment and profitability is driving double-digit sales growth for HPE and its partners.

"HPE is winning out in the marketplace," said Davis. "That's important because the partners want to be with the companies that are growing and going in the right direction."

HPE's year-over-year storage sales, powered by its 100 percent channel Nimble all-flash portfolio, were up 24 percent in the most recent quarter. In addition, HPE's intelligent edge sales, which includes its Aruba wireless networking business, were up 17 percent. Davis, who has been meeting with partners around the globe, said the HPE "momentum" in the channel is palpable.

"Partners like stability, predictability and to know how they make money and fit into the strategy," he said. "HPE is viewed as the best company in IT to partner with. There is a lot of excitement from partners who want to do more with us."

HPE's next-generation software-defined composable infrastructure strategy and GreenLake Flex Capacity model are resonating with the company's partners and with customers.

"When you have got the hardware, software and services that people want, it sure is a lot easier to be in sales than to be explaining why you don't have this or why that doesn't work or why you are cutting your portfolio," Davis said.

HPE's portfolio with Nimble, SimpliVity, Synergy, OneView and OneSphere is flat out driving the ability for partners to make more money than with competitive offerings, said Davis.

"Partner Ready is consistently voted the best partner program in the industry," he said. "That is critical. This all has to start with how we continue to help partners be profitable with our portfolio."

Davis pledged that HPE is committed to continuing to make it "easier and more lucrative" for partners to participate in fast-growth opportunities.

"As we continue to move forward this year and next year, we will continue to be doubling down on compensation for our partners around some of the growth parts of the portfolio," he said.

Davis said that he is a firm believer in compensation that is aligned with customer benefits, with software-defined being a prime example.

"Software-defined is good for customers and good for HPE so we are going to make sure it is good for our partners as well," he said.

HPE's compensation commitment to partners is front and center with the breakthrough GreenLake Flex Capacity pay-per-use consumption model, said Davis.

"We view the channel as a critical expansion of our own internal services capability," he said.