HP has announced that it will begin offering Australian resellers the opportunity to sell packaged HP education services Care Packs, following the opening of a new education facility in Sydney.
Care Packs are services that HP resellers can sell to customers alongside the sale of HP products.
The services are generally fulfilled by HP’s services division, however there are plans in place to allow some of these services to be jointly fulfilled by HP services and channel partners in the future.
Typically, Care Packs have been sold for traditional maintenance services such as warranty or help desk support – but now HP wants to sell a range of education Care Packs. These Care Packs can be likened to a voucher for educational courses based around the technology being sold.
“The best part about these Care Packs is that selling them ties up no working capital,” worldwide vice-president for HP education services, Brian Brouillette, said.
“It is a new source of margin with only incremental effort required on the part of the reseller,” he said.
Brouillette said that the Care Pack marketing collateral and systems had been designed to be a “one-minute sell”.
“It also helps to keep the conversation alive with the customer,” he said. “If they are not ready to upgrade their infrastructure right now, you can still ask if there are any new staff or any new systems in place that may require training.”
The announcement comes off the back of HP’s opening of a new multi-million dollar education centre in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes.
Complimenting existing centres in Brisbane, Melbourne and Auckland, the facility includes 10 training rooms and will be used for everything from small administration courses for particular products to 50-day courses involving three of four certifications for HP’s high-end platforms.
Brouillette said many resellers would use the centre in order to gain HP certified professional status.
“That is the badge a reseller can use to distinguish themselves as competent resellers and supporters of HP technology,” he said.
