HP is reinvigorating its channel push in a bid to drive sales and make it easier for partners to deal with it, as it progresses along its multi-year turnaround strategy.
In the 2013 financial year, HP will invest an additional $1.5 billion in its worldwide channel programmes and IT initiatives. It is also supporting the channel by providing a targeted product portfolio and investing in partners' lead generation and marketing activity.
In May, HP initiated a multi-year restructuring designed to realign its cost structure and create investment capacity to drive innovation against its strategic priorities, strengthen market leadership, and rebuild its balance sheet while returning capital to shareholders.
Adele Oosthuizen, HP's local printing and personal service specialisation channel and retail manager, says HP's new channel push will be done in a phased approach, which will expand next year as value-add offerings will be included. She notes HP is implementing new tools and streamlining the process of dealing with it, and expects the new programme to gain momentum by the end of 2014.
Oosthuizen says HP is on a turnaround journey, with last year spent understanding its challenges and strengths, and laying the foundation for growth.
This year, HP will rebuild and next year the group expects to be characterised by recovery, while 2015 should see real progress and growth, says Oosthuizen.
Simpler
Oosthuizen says there was a joke in the channel that to deal with HP, one needed an MBA. However, it is now offering simplified business tools, allowing its partners to predict returns and generate leads to drive business.
HP has 180 channel partners locally, which not only sell its products, but provide services. Oosthuizen explains that the strategy is focused on the commercial sector as HP needs its partners. "HP is not big enough to service the entire market."
Oosthuizen explains that HP has always been channel-centric, but feedback from its partners has been that it has not focused as much as possible on the channel. In recent years, HP has seen several changes at headquarter level, including a reversed decision to spin off its PC unit, and a change in leadership as Meg Whitman took over as CEO.
At the beginning of the year, the group held a partner conference and reiterated its commitment to the channel, while making it easier for partners to deal with it, says Oosthuizen. She explains that, while previously, partners would only earn after reaching certain targets, and had a cap on earnings, now - in some areas - they can earn from the first dollar of a sale.
While there are still goals, partners will now earn extra if these are reached, says Oosthuizen. She adds that the more partners specialise in areas such as managed printing, the more they will earn. "In many circumstances, our partners are the face of HP."
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