HP VP: New ProLiant Support Policy Will Ensure High-Quality Experience From Authorized Partners

Hewlett-Packard Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Technology Services and Support Scott Weller said a new firmware support policy for ProLiant servers that goes into effect Wednesday is aimed at providing high-quality and consistent customer service from authorized HP partners.

"For our partners, this helps them differentiate from unauthorized providers in the market who are not investing in the skills and access to our IP [intellectual property] to deliver a consistent, higher-quality customer experience," said Weller in an interview with CRN. "This is about getting that consistent and really high-quality experience. That is what the market wants and expects when they buy HP gear. That is our high standard."

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A host of unauthorized service providers with access to the firmware were, in fact, delivering a "substandard" service to HP ProLiant customers, said Weller.

"What we found is customers were really not getting the kind of service experience that we and our delivery certified channel partners expected and wanted to give to customers," he said. "What would happen is an unauthorized partner could represent to the customer an equivalent experience on the basis of having access to these firmware udpates and then come back and deliver a substandard experience."

Under the new policy, which was implemented on high-end storage systems and business-critical servers such as HP Superdome last year, HP will provide ProLiant firmware updates and Service Pack for ProLiant through the "HP Support Center only to customers with a valid warranty, Care Pack Service or support agreement." Safety and security firmware updates will continue to be available at no charge, according to HP, Palo Alto, Calif.

The new firmware policy affects ProLiant servers outside the manufacturer warranty, which runs up to three years on certain ProLiant servers. The Care Pack Service agreements to ensure continued firmware support generally run about several hundred dollars per server, per year.

Rick Malady, vice president of All Lines Technology , a fast-growing HP Platinum partner based in Pittsburgh, Pa., said he couldn't be happier about the ProLiant firmware policy change. "This is great news," he said. "We are an HP exclusive provider that has invested millions of dollars in our own demo center with $2.5 million in HP equipment and field engineers. It's a huge investment. All this does is reinforce the value we bring to the table and allows us to invest more in the partnership with HP."

Malady estimated that 80 percent of All Lines Technology's customers already are covered by existing ProLiant Care Pack or warranty support. The other 20 percent are receiving support from about a dozen nonauthorized HP partners, he said.

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All Lines Technology's Malady compared those non-HP-authorized partners to the equivalent of gray market server providers. "You wouldn't buy an HP server from Craigslist or eBay," he said. "You want to make sure the services you are buying are from someone that is fully committed to that product, is fully trained and has full access to the latest HP intellectual property."

Malady said he sees the HP ProLiant firmware policy change as a chance to have a discussion with those 20 percent of his customers not carrying the HP Care Pack Service agreement. Most customers are not aware of the policy change, he said. "We view it as part of our due diligence to let them know that the level of service they received in past that was reliant on HP intellectual property, such as firmware, is now going to be a challenge," he said.

Ultimately, Malady said, he sees the firmware policy change strengthening the HP brand. "The HP story is simple: it is to provide the best customer experience you can with the best qualified and trained partners that have access to HP intellectual property. The HP brand is stronger for it."

Chris Case, CEO of Sequel Data Systems, an Austin, Texas-based HP enterprise partner, said he has been in touch with all of his customers regarding the firmware policy change and 99 percent of them already have standard Care Pack Service agreements.

"With enterprise customers, it is a nonissue because they are already covered," he said. "We closely monitor and manage those customer support renewals." Enterprise customers are not put off by the several-hundred-dollar-a-year cost of the Care Pack Service agreements, said Case.

Another HP solution provider partner, who did not want to be identified, said about 50 percent of his customers do not maintain active support agreement for ProLiants. He said he will continue to recommend HP servers because they offer the best overall quality, but added that he was disappointed by the policy change.

Weller stressed that the policy change creates stronger alignment between HP's hardware and software service support service agreements. "Infrastructure today is more and more software," he said. "We are making sure things are consistent for hardware and software. We are going to ensure customers get the kind of experience they expect from HP and its authorized service partners."

For HP partners, the change ultimately will open the door to more business opportunities around "delivering more value and a better business experience," Weller said. "What it means for them is they are differentiated from the nonauthorized partners who do not invest in the training and the kind of experience and high standards that we expect from ourselves and our partners," he said.

PUBLISHED FEB. 19, 2014