Hewlett-Packard Canada Ltd. was looking to be more predictable in the channel when it announced it was amalgamating more than 20 channel program under one umbrella program called PartnerOne.ca.
“We want to be more predictable than in the past and grow new business with partners,”
said Derek Smith, vice president of channel sales and marketing for HP Canada of Mississauga, Ont.
PartnerOne is a global program, but all subsidiaries will be able to customize the program for its specific region, according to Smith.
“Every country will be able to implement the program differently. In Canada, it is called Partnerone.ca so they know the distinction. Three elements of that will be the same: marketing funds accrued on sales, demand generation funds to be reimbursed in local markets, and the level of training and certification called HP Certified Professional Program,” Smith said.
HP also launched a key element of PartnerOne, its worldwide Developer and Solution Partner program, specifically designed to deliver services for its 6,000-plus systems integrators, independent software vendors and other developers around the globe.
This program is currently not available in Canada, but Smith said it will only be a matter of time before it is in Canada.
“That one is being developed as we speak and we are considering that program for Canada. Our goal is to leverage programs and this one does make sense,” he said.
The HP Certified Professional program is aimed not just at partners but HP customers and employees. With this program, HP wants to ensure that whomever is delivering HP technology, services and solutions worldwide will be certified and technically competent.
Smith added that demand generation will be an important part of PartnerOne.ca. “If you have a partner who wants to put on an event for storage and creates an end user seminar we will help them out on that,” he said.
Smith addressed recent reseller concerns that the company wanted to take more business direct.
He said that PartnerOne is a funding program and that PartnerOne.ca in Canada is “funding neutral” from the pre merger HP/Compaq.
“We are not looking to save any money by taking it away from the resellers. Our preferred method to go to market is to go through VARs. We have laid out a set of rules on how our sales force deals with partners that is very predictable,” he said.
He added that the amount of money offered before the merger and today is not down.
“PartnerOne makes it easier for partners to deal with us and we wanted to put this together as soon as possible so they can understand where they can earn money with HP,” Smith said.
