HP Rolls Out New Incentives To Perk Up Partners
The incentives include new front-end discounts for solution providers that sell HP 9000 servers, plus extra dollars for distributors to entice solution providers to sell HP 9000s, said Dan Vertrees, HP's vice president and general manager of enterprise partners for the Americas.
SLEW OF OFFERS FROM HP:
In effect for HP's fiscal 4Q
>> HP 9000 SERVERS
%95 Extra 4 percent discount
>> HP STORAGE
%95 Demo equipment rebates of up to $100,000 for VARs that exceed growth goals
%95 New-account registration rebates for XP series enterprise storage array sales
%95 6 percent rebate on storage sales for HP Enterprise Storage Elite VARs
>> BETTER TOGETHER PROGRAM
%95 Offers 3 percent extra rebate when HP storage sales account for at least 45 percent of quarterly partner sales
HP also is offering four new incentives to stimulate enterprise storage sales. They include a new-account registration rebate for XP series arrays, incentives for tape-library sales, demo rebates tied to growing storage sales and, for Enterprise Storage Elite partners, a 50 percent boost in back-end rebates on storage sales, Vertrees said. An extra rebate for certain HP 9000 servers with storage combinations also is available, he said.
The incentives count for sales during HP's fiscal fourth quarter, which ends Oct. 31. HP has about 500 enterprise storage authorized solution providers and 46 Enterprise Storage Elite partners, Vertrees said.
Geoffrey Lilien, president of Lilien Systems, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based HP solution provider, called the incentives great news. "These very aggressive rebates will help us close business in the fourth quarter," he said. "October is usually one of our best months."
Lilien said he liked the fact that the rebates are being offered via the channel,not directly to the street,and that HP is giving partners ample opportunity to qualify for them. "Often, they don't give us enough time to take advantage of them," he said.
The rebates could affect the channel sales pattern, Lilien added. "We have a lot of orders for year-end, but we will now take another look at how to tackle [that business]," he said.
The new incentives show HP's commitment to using the channel as a way to increase market share, said Rich Baldwin, president and CEO of Nth Generation Computing, a San Diego-based HP solution provider specializing in enterprise storage. "They really want to push those numbers," he said.