10 New Hot Money-Making Plays For HP Partners

HP Struts Its Stuff At Discover

HP used its Discover conference to demonstrate its stepped-up pace of innovation, fueled by the company's nearly $4 billion annual R&D investment. Here are 10 new money-making plays that showcase the breadth and depth of the HP's products and services.

All-Flash HP 3Par StoreServ 7450

HP's 3Par storage portfolio, already a big money-maker for partners, is going to be putting even more storage profits into the pockets of partners with the release of the new solid-state-optimized all-flash HP 3Par StoreServ 7450. The new system delivers more than "550,000 input/output operations per second with less than 0.7 millisecond response time," according to HP, all while leveraging the 3Par technology to reduce storage capacity by up to 50 percent.

HP said that unlike competitive offerings, the 7450 provides "persistent technologies" that ensure business continuity even with a local hardware failure or multisite disaster.

StoreOnce Virtual Storage Appliance/Information Protection

HP said its new StoreOnce Virtual Storage Appliance cuts the cost of small site backup by up to 65 percent. The new HP StoreOnce VSA, available July 22, is priced at $3,500 for 10 TB of storage capacity. Partners can get an even bigger profit punch by pairing StoreOnce with the new HP StoreOnce VSA software-defined storage solution for information protection. HP said the software is the ideal solution for MSPs offering data protection services to small and medium businesses.

HP Relate For Salesforce.com

More time selling and less time spent on document creation. That's the premise behind HP's Relate cloud-based software that puts the power of high-volume custom document creation and production into the exploding Salesforce.com customer base. "We are essentially simplifying the creation of sophisticated, interactive documents from anywhere within the Salesforce.com environment," said Pradeep Jotwani (pictured), senior vice president of LaserJet Enterprise Solutions at HP, of the new software, which is an extension of HP's Exstream product. That's a big deal for millions of Salesforce.com customers that can now spend more time selling and growing their business with personalized communications including sales quotes and proposals. HP Relate will be available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange later this summer.

HP EliteOne 800 G1

With the All-In-One market growing by 20 percent annually, HP introduced a sleek HP EliteOne 800 G1 with a 23 percent thinner design, priced starting at $899. The multimedia-rich EliteOne G1 systems, which are being embraced in health-care and education markets, also feature HD Webcam, DTS studio sound and a 23-inch height-adjustable diagonal display with VESA mounting options. "There is just a lot of innovation that we are packing into those All-In-Ones," said Derek Everett, director of desktop product management for HP. "That's what makes it exciting."

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Business PCs

All-In-One systems are hot. But don't count out the business desktop PC, especially with the makeover HP has given the EliteDesk line with a new ultraslim desktop, a small-form-factor model and a sleeker tower. The new EliteDesk 800 G1 line with either Windows 7 or Windows 8 is priced starting at $815 and an HP ProDesk 600 GI series is priced starting at $760. HP remains No. 1 in the worldwide commercial desktop market, which has remained stable for the past three years with about 90 million units shipped even with the explosion of tablets and smartphones, said HP's Everett. Among the reasons for the continuing appeal of the desktop: "Low total cost of ownership with the lowest price and longest lifespan of all devices," he said. Besides, he added, you can't lose a desktop in a cab.

An ElitePad Retail Jacket

HP provided a retail market makeover to its ElitePad with a retail jacket that transforms the ElitePad 900 tablet into a POS device. The retail jacket is a seamless sleeve that outfits the ElitePad with a 1-D/2-D imaging barcode scanner, a three-track bi-directional magnetic strip reader, a USB port and an optional secondary battery that combined provides 20 hour battery life for the product. Rick Chernick, CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point, Green Bay, Wis., said he sees the ElitePad gaining marketplace momentum. "My guys are raving about it," he said.

HP Managed Print Specialist Program

The HP Managed Print Specialist Resell Program, which allows partners to "hold the paper," already is winning raves from solution providers who see it as a new competitive weapon to drive double-digit services margins. The new program opens the door for partners for the first time to own the customer contract, maintaining account control and earning precious top-line revenue. "We believe this is a game-changer," said Bill Avey, vice president, partner managed services for HP.

HP Flow CM Professional Now LaserJet-Compatible

One of the unheralded benefits of the HP Autonomy acquisition, HP Flow CM document management software for the cloud is helping drive big share gains for HP in the multifunction printer market. New updates just released provide the HP Flow CM Professional capabilities for millions of HP LaserJet Pro and OfficeJet pro devices with touch-screen displays. HP also beefed up security on Flow CM Professional with the addition of an encryption-at-rest feature aimed at ensuring "sensitive business content remains secure and encrypted" when user names/passwords fail. "Now SMBs get access to the same level of security that supports the leading banks and stock exchanges in the world," said HP's Jotwani.

HP ePrint Enterprise BYOD Management

HP already has 46 million ePrint-enabled printers and that number is growing daily, as every new printer the company ships is ePrint-enabled. Now HP is adding to its ePrint prowess by partnering with Good Technology, one of the leaders in the device management market. HP has updated its ePrint Enterprise 2.2 server offering to support integrated mobile device management from Good Technology. The ePrint update gives users the ability to securely print from Good for Enterprise and the Good suite of secure mobile apps. HP ePrint Enterprise 2.2 also provides new time-saving features for partners and IT administrators looking to add users or provision guests by allowing them to leverage existing profiles of users or groups.

Goodbye, XP. Hello, HP

HP is making big investments to capitalize on Microsoft's decision to end Windows XP support effective April 8, 2014, with a massive program including channel incentives aimed at upgrading the astronomical installed base of Windows XP. "This creates a great opportunity for HP to lead and help customers go through that transition," said Enrique Lores (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of the Printing and Personal Systems Group. He said HP's new Windows 7-class products bring significant value with lower total cost of ownership and improved security. "You are going to be seeing from us significant advertising campaigns driving this change and programs both for the user and the channel partners to drive that change," said Lores.