Whereas it used to be that every conference & exhibition for North America had to be held in Lost Vagueness [Las Vegas], these days every European major event worth its salt has to be held in Barcelona. So this ChannelEye hack found himself in the Catalan capital listening to HP wax lyrical about the importance of the channel for its future business. And given that today sees the start of its ETSS (ExpertOne Technology & Solutions Summit) conference, there were some heavy duty HP personnel in attendance. They’re all keen to stress how the channel can not only grow HP’s own revenues but its own revenues as well in the process.
One of the key speakers at the Press event was Alessandra Brambilla, HP’s vp for EMEA Enterprise Group channels, she was keen to explain the benefits of HP Unison.
What came across very clearly from all of the presentations was HP’s firm belief that the IT landscape has changed beyound recognition.
We are now in an era of ‘SmartIT’. But no cause for panic because the four key customer demands with SmartIT are built on modules which the channel already knows throughly, namely: – Client/Server; Legacy systems; and Pcs.
Today, however, clients are asking for solutions based on mobility; social networking; cloud storage; and Big Data. But not to worry because HP is keen to share its knowledge with its channel partners.
In fact, it will achieve this objective by sharing the same kind of training it gives its own internal pre-sales workforce with employees of selected partners.
But HP promises more. Brambilla listed the key engagement points with Unison today: –
- Partner portal
- Ease of use and quick access to customized information
- Faster, more competitive quotes
- The right support to empower partners to win more deals
- Demand generation
- Automated and personalised co-marketing asset
- Market development funds (MDF)
Thhis will apparently lead to an Increase in marketing ROI with a simpler, more-efficient MDF process. Ok?
One thing was blantantly obvious – behind the hype and marketing speak, HP is keen not to lose the advantage it presently enjoys thanks to a broad channel partnership programme. SmartIT or no SmartIT.
Left to right: – Matt Latter, Logicalls; Alesandra Brambilla; Andres Miramontes Miras, Taisa Syvalue
