Antonio Neri’s 5 Boldest Statements On HPE’s Partner Commitment

HPE CEO Antonio Neri told partners at the Global Partner Summit that HPE “has been, is and will continue to be a partner led company” – unlike some of HPE’s competitors who are partner led one day and “the next day they are direct.”

An 82 Year Legacy Of Partner Commitment

HPE CEO Antonio Neri told partners at HPE Discover's Partner Summit that HPE’s commitment to partners is unparalleled in the industry.

“We have built this company for 82 years together with you our partners,” said Neri, a 25-year HPE veteran who stressed that he has maintained an unwavering commitment to partners in every role he has had at HPE. “We know the power of that ecosystem is second to none. It is about reach. It is about choice. It is about trusted advisors. Our role is to enable you to become that trusted advisor and to allow us to reach the farthest part of the world and use your expertise to really solve the big business challenges customers are going through and ultimately deliver against those with business outcomes.”

Neri – who took the helm of HPE 16 months ago- said that when he became CEO he established three key priorities: partners and customers, innovation and the culture of the company. “We have made progress on each of them,” he said. “As a company we have done very well and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Driving 13 percent (channel) growth is simply remarkable.”

An Extension Of HPE’s 66,000 Employees

I always say I consider you nothing more than an extension of our sales force. What I do for our own sales people even our direct salesforce is exactly the same thing I do for you whether it is training, certification, sales enablement. All of the tools we make available to our own internal people we are making available to you. If I do that in a very cost-effective way it is all about building confidence with your salesforce. When you are confident telling the story and you have the swagger and you are up on the front lines telling the story in a way that I don’t think anybody else can we actually have a bigger chance to win together. That is why I think about you as nothing more than an extension of the 66,000 employees in our company.

A Bigger Opportunity Working Together

We know when we work together with our partners we have a bigger opportunity in terms of meeting customer’s needs or exceeding customer’s needs in ways that your expertise and our expertise comes to bear. We know that this transition to a solution oriented as a service model will require both of us to work in concert together to deliver that user experience and that solutions set approach. I don’t believe there is any other way (we can do this) than working with our partners.

Joint Sales Force Confidence

When you walk through the (HPE Discover) show floor you will be amazed. The problem we have here is how much of that innovation can we really digest and put together in a simple set of words we can go tell to our customers. I believe we are going to win or lose on the opportunity we have on our ability to tell the story in a very simple way and create that confidence in our joint sales forces to go and take an offensive approach. There is a ton of innovation here. It is very easy to get lost. How we turn that innovation into outcomes for our customers is key. That is where the sales enablement becomes so fundamental to everything we do. That is why we are making a big investment in it.

Innovation Culture - Best Portfolio Ever

What I am really proud about is the innovation and the culture. I hope you will see here in the next couple of days the amount of sheer innovation we are bringing to market to accelerate the customer journeys we see and experience every single day, to help customers deliver business outcomes much faster. I think we have the best portfolio we have ever had in the history of the company. I am really, really proud and optimistic about the future of that innovation.

We think the enterprise of future is going to be edge centric, cloud enabled and data driven. In that context – both organic and inorganic and through our partnerships – is all about accelerating that vision into the future.

I think we have demonstrated our vision is ahead of the market. That we have a clear vision for the future and our innovation road map- which you will see here on the show floor tomorrow- is all geared to accelerate outcomes for our customers.

HPE Has Been, Is And Will Continue To Be Partner-Led

Let me reemphasize a couple of things that I have been very consistent about not just as CEO, but in my previous roles. This company has been, is and will continue to be a partner led company. Period. End of story. There should be no confusion like some of our competitors who say one day they are partner led, the next day they are direct. We have built this company for 82 years together with you our partners. We know the power of that ecosystem is second to none. It is about reach. It is about choice. It is about trusted advisors.Our role is to enable you to become that trusted advisor and to allow us to reach the farthest part of the world and use your expertise to really solve the big business challenges customers are going through and ultimately deliver against those with business outcomes.