Hewlett-Packard Ramps Up SMB Partner Program
"The SMB market is now a high-growth area for HP," said Meaghan Kelly, vice president of SMB channel sales development strategy, HP Solutions Partners Organization - Americas. "This is a $68 billion opportunity in the U.S., with 6.3 million customers and growing at 4 percent to 7 percent. HP plans a significant channel push to capture this market."
For SMB channel partners, HP has upgraded its Partner One program, offering solution providers tools and funding to facilitate SMB sales.
HP said it is adding an SMB Elite designation to the Partner One Elite program, adding partner resources and marketing support. New offerings include "Elite" branding, SMB sales support and marketing funds for demand generation activities. Partners will have access to funds for demand generation and access to co-marketing opportunities, customer leads, enhanced partner locator support and promotions.
HP's SMB Elite Partners also will be able to offer customers consulting from HP SMB experts. "SMB Elite is intended for high-growth partners who've demonstrated the ability to sell to SMBs," Kelly said. "For end users who can't afford more spending on IT, this designation tells them where they can go for support. These partners can be the trusted advisers for the SMB customers."
HP's SMB Elite will be available beginning May 1. Partner One Elite categories include areas of expertise such as enterprise storage, virtualization, and SAP solutions.
HP is also offering deal registration benefits to its more than 25,000 partners, providing SMB-focused partners with access to the same deal registration tools available to larger partners.
Partners can use HP's catalog of deal registration tools, including New Business Opportunity, Commercial Target, TSG Value Big Deal, and Business Class Consultant.
For SMB partner services, the company introduced HP Insight Remote Support, a free program that allows partners to offer customers continuous, automated, and secure monitoring and fault detection services. The offering also generates services dispatches for partners for hardware issues on HP servers and storage without involvement of customer staff or support phone calls.
HP unveiled an agreement with hosting company USA.NET to allow VARs to give SMBs access to critical applications on a subscription basis. Partners can offer customers a suite of private-label messaging and collaboration solutions, including Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, commercial messaging services, mobile messaging and e-mail archiving.
"What we are trying to do here is to create an environment where SMBs can access critical IT when cash is tough to come by," said Lisa Wolfe, worldwide midmarket strategy and marketing leader for HP's Technology Solutions Group. "We are trying to enable channel partners to offer an end-to-end portfolio of services."
For products, HP unveiled low-cost printers and scanners.
The company introduced HP Officejet Pro 8500 All-in-One series, priced starting at $299; HP Officejet Pro 8000 Printer series, priced from $149; HP Officejet 6500 All-in-One series, priced starting at $149; an HP Scanjet 5000 document scanner, $799; HP Scanjet N6350 networked flatbed document scanner, $899; and HP Scanjet 7000 sheet-feed document scanner.
Some HP SMB partners welcomed the initiative and said it will help with sales. Chris Gerhardt, president of Denali Advanced Integration, a Seattle-based solution provider with about $90 million in revenue in 2008, said HP's initiative will give VARs more ammunition when they talk with SMB customers.
"Everybody pays lip service to the value of SMBs, but they are a tough nut to crack," Gerhardt said. "HP is the real deal. SMB is truly part of their strategy."
Gerhardt said Denali Advanced Integration is already an HP partner, but will take advantage of the vendor's new SMB programs. "If you're dealing with SMBs, it's better to come in under the HP brand," he said. "You get instant credibility."
Rick Chernick, president of Green Bay, Wis.-based Camera Corner/Connecting Point, a solution provider with almost $40 million in revenue in 2008, said HP is essentially taking many services reserved for partners serving the larger class of companies and extending them to the SMB market. As a result, many SMBs will be receptive.
"Customers would say, 'You only want to work with the big guys.' I say, 'Are you kidding? I don't care how big you are.' Being associated with HP's name will help. HP is a differentiator from the competition down the street which may not be an "Elite" HP partner."
HP's SMB deal registration programs will also help, he said. "You have to protect the reseller who does all the work," he said. "I'm doing all the work and I need to be protected."