HP Channel Chief: $6B In Growth Flowed Through Channel Partner Program

‘If you think about that number, just the growth we deliver with our channel partners is bigger than half of the Fortune 500 companies,’ says HP channel chief Kobi Elbaz of the company’s growth over the past four quarters.

HP channel chief Kobi Elbaz (Photo by Shane Snider)

HP Inc. is expanding and improving Amplify, its global channel program.

Kobi Elbaz, HP’s senior vice president and general manager of its global channel operation (pictured), kicked off the company’s Amplify Executive Forum in Palo Alto, Calif., last week, unveiling several enhancements and improvements to the company’s signature channel program.

HP Amplify Impact will soon be offered to more partners around the globe, adding to its footprint of 43 countries and 10,000-plus partners, Elbaz said. The program will also enhance its data insight to help partners monetize, giving them the opportunity to “drive advanced analytics in order to give a better recommendation to our customers.” And HP will launch a new channel engagement platform called HP Curiocity that will provide training, new product information, rewards and recognition, and access to HP executives.

Elbaz came to the event with a simple message: HP remains a channel-first company and has the receipts to prove it. In a presentation to media and analysts, Elbaz pointed out the past four quarters brought $6 billion in growth that flowed directly through the company’s channel partner program. “If you think about that number, just the growth we deliver with our channel partners is bigger than half of the Fortune 500 companies.”

The HP veteran has held many roles within the company and was tapped last year to become the global channel chief, reporting directly to acting Chief Commercial Officer Luciana Broggi. The company has flourished during the pandemic years with unprecedented growth due to the explosion of remote and hybrid work.

“For HP, the channel is part of our DNA,” Elbaz said. “We are a channel-driven company and historically we always worked through the channel. And we are very happy to see that our channel business continues to grow.”

Elbaz said the world will be forever changed after the pandemic, with hybrid and remote office work being a lasting professional norm. “We all understand that we are not going back to the pre-pandemic days,” he said. “And this means that together with our channel partner community, we need to make sure that we deliver the right solutions for our customers to support them during this journey.”

But channel partners can find opportunities not just in the way people work, but how they play as gaming becomes a top priority for HP. “If you look at the gaming industry, today there are more than 3 billion gamers,” he said. “Think about the change of demographic in gaming.”

Elbaz also talked about the use of data analytics to strengthen the channel program. “When we designed Amplify several years ago, we wanted to make sure that we brought to the channel a program that tried to capture the key trends we saw in the industry … we saw a sharp rise in the use of data analytics. This means that we needed to create a program that will allow us to better collaborate with our channel partners on the data that we’re sharing. This will require us to develop an omni-channel strategy as part of our program.”

Elbaz and other executives throughout the forum discussed the company’s continued efforts around increased sustainability. HP has pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2030. “Sustainability and ESG [environmental, social, and governance] have become more important for companies,” he said. “And it started to be a clear requirement for many companies to decide when they engage. The good news is that we saw the strength [of our sustainability efforts] even accelerated in the last two years. And we are very happy that we have the building blocks to capture that strength.”

Rene LaVigne, president and CEO of Iron Bow Technologies in Upper Marlboro, Md., said the company’s overall message seemed positive after watching the presentations. “I really enjoyed the event,” LaVigne said. “I thought the executives leaned forward in a way that I really hadn’t seen HP lean forward in the past. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the data aspects that they shared—that growth is staggering and that means there’s a tremendous opportunity for all of us.”

[Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Kobi Elbaz’s first name.]