HP has kicked off a new certification for its printing partners to help them combat the economic downturn.
Called the Office Printing Specialist (OPS) program, the qualification aims to give partners a holistic grounding in managing print environments.
“HP has been very successful in the server area with putting together certifications for resellers,” business manager laser jet enterprise solutions, Max Kaye, told ARN. “We’ve seen a fairly strong correlation in our business between partners that are skilling up in the server and storage area, and image and print. Because they are coming to look at how they are handling information and documents and looking to move documents into an archived or electronic format. That has got a really strong correlation with server and storage.”
HP began the program with a soft launch in January and is recruiting partners and holding information sessions. The certification is open to all partners.
“The idea behind that really is it gives partners the ability talk not only in terms of whether a client has the right number of devices and where are they deployed, but also how they are managing information in the workplace and if they need to do all the printing they do,” Kaye said.
“There is a certification and an investment in partners by HP. We are offering those partners additional margin in the form of rebate, so we are investing in their capability and investing in additional revenue streams so they are comfortable in the investment in time and skills they have acquired.”
