HP Exits Its Partner Conference With Positive Momentum In The Channel

Given the audience, I'm always a bit skeptical about the message being delivered onstage by executives trying to impress attendees with their dedication to the channel. But I'm fresh out of Hewlett-Packard's Americas Partner Conference held last week in Las Vegas, and the climate was certainly different from what I've experienced for the past several years.

ROBERT FALETRA

I wasn't stopped once in the hallway by a solution provider looking to voice his or her frustration with the company. For years, my event schedule has been filled with side conversations with solution providers confused and often angry over their relationship with HP. But I didn't hear much of that this time around. Most importantly, the enterprise-level VARs I talked to felt very positive about their engagement with the company.

The message from the stage this year was more positive as well. In the past, when ex-CEO Carly Fiorina was the keynoter, the message was always that the company would embrace the channel with the caveat that it would also continue to aggressively pursue a direct-sales effort.

None of the executives who took the stage this year—including Mike Winkler, executive vice president of the HP Customer Solutions Group, who stepped up to keynote in the wake of Fiorina's departure—said direct sales were being abandoned. But you could feel and hear a clear shift on the part of the management team toward doubling up efforts through the channel at the expense of the direct effort.

Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Personal Systems Group, more commonly known as V.J., gave a passionate speech about his desire to leverage the channel to tie imaging and PC products together in more solution sales and was interrupted by applause several times.

HP's U.S. channel chief, John Thompson, wasn't shy about pointing out that HP sells more product through the channel than IBM, Dell, Sun and EMC combined. He went on to say that the services market represents a $300 billion opportunity, and the company is looking for solution providers to lead its efforts there. Even Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group, said the company is looking to push more HP-branded services through the channel.

When you sit back and compare HP to IBM on this front, you come to an interesting realization: HP is a product company that happens to have services, while IBM has become a services company that happens to have products. With IBM Global Services now hovering at around 50 percent of IBM's total sales before the divestiture of the $12 billion PC division, the company has clearly become a services-oriented company.

V.J. was adamant that PCs are strategic to HP. During his speech and in an interview later, he was just as adamant that this is not the case with IBM.

My general takeaway from the conference is that HP will push harder through the channel now than it has over the past several years. This isn't something Wall Street wants to hear, of course, and this isn't to say that HP is doing everything right.

The next critical juncture for HP's channel will come later this year when a new CEO is named. To me, a solid choice and one the channel should be rooting for is V.J. His understanding of the market and HP is clear. Moreover, his passion for what HP needs to do is infectious both inside and outside the organization.

At least until the new CEO is named, HP appears to have positive momentum in the channel on its side. Now it needs to capitalize on that.

Make something happen. I can be reached at (516) 562-7812 or via e-mail at rfaletra@cmp.com.