Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is steering its partners toward new opportunities in hybrid IT, data and analytics, and edge computing, following a round of changes to its channel program.
Designed to encourage partner adoption of the HPE's latest technology offerings, the changes introduce new certifications and resources across the vendor's portfolio and “Intelligent Edge” solutions.
The vendor said the pre-packaged solutions will “help partners deliver new technologies faster and with reduced cost for customers.”
In September 2017, new certifications will be available including rapid provisioning, enterprise private and hybrid cloud and private cloud express; data management and analytics with SAP HANA; and Mobile First Campus.
To support partners in the sales and support of these competencies, HPE said it will offer an expanded set of partner enablement assets, including reference architectures, solution guides, customer presentations, and quick reference cards.
The data centre gets some sparkle
In addition to these new segments, HPE is giving its data centre partners some love with the introduction of a new silver data centre specialisation, designed to reduce partner training time from nine days down to five days, while allowing sales teams to better sell across the wider portfolio, which includes Arista, SimpliVity and Nimble Storage.
Under the new tier, knowledge credit simplification will now be based on the same curriculum used for the company’s internal employee enablement.
HPE said this is to ensure partners are focused on content tied to business priorities and will result in fewer administrative inefficiencies and more business outcomes.
The elephant in the room gets some attention
Marketing Development Funds (MDF) have long been a point of contention between vendors and partners, but HPE is tackling the issue with a new digital marketing program.
According to the vendor, the move aims to provides a suite of channel marketing offerings including resources, tools, content, campaigns, and education, designed to increase digital marketing proficiency among partners.
HPE said its new program unifies all its digital marketing assets for partners, making it "easier and faster" for its channel to consume, access and leverage those assets to drive growth.
"Every day I meet with partners to hear their feedback and perspective on how we can continue to drive the value, resources and expertise they and our joint customers have come to trust and expect from our company,” HPE south pacific director of partner sales Chris Trevitt said.
"The latest updates to our industry-leading Partner Ready program and the new digital marketing program reflect our continued commitment to deliver the solutions that speak to the needs of our partners and set them up for success.”
Trevitt said the new system will allow its channel to leverage HPE resources or marketing agencies to facilitate marketing planning and execution.
Furthermore, partners stand to benefit from access to partner marketing managers, marketing services agencies, market development funds (MDF) and events.
Partners enrolled in the program will be able to improve digital marketing proficiency with educational resources and training such as workshops, on-demand content recordings and thought-leadership content and guides on the latest digital marketing trends.
According to Trevitt, the channel can also accelerate digital marketing execution by leveraging HPE tools and co-marketing campaign content, launching digital marketing through new marketing channels.
Services get the point
The vendor has also addressed its services partners with new features of its HPE Pointnext, program released in March.
The company said its service partner division is developing new services purpose-built for scale and delivery by the channel, as well as systems integrator and advisory partners, and sharing more intellectual property with partners on key solutions.
As part of this push, HPE introduced a mid-market solution for its channel to enable capacity monitoring and procurement support for HPE ProLiant Gen10 systems.
Specifically, it combines usage tracking, capacity monitoring, and quarterly consultations to “take the guesswork out of capacity management and get customers closer to cloud-like utilisation levels” which HPE claims lowers total cost of ownership.
Rolling in the acquisitions
Following the company’s recent spending spree which resulted in the acquisitions of Nimble Storage and Simplivity, partners can now get the chance to try the new solutions.
As HPE adds new products to the portfolio, it is “creating growth opportunities for partners by augmenting its software-defined infrastructure with pre-integrated, tested and supported software from leaders in fast-growth categories like containers, hybrid cloud and big data”.
In short, the combination creates services opportunities for channel partners and integrators alike, taking advantage of new or enhanced integrations and offerings recently announced with Docker, Mesosphere and other software partners.
The company also teased an expanded partnership with Wipro Technologies which is said to include new go-to-market agreement that combines Wipro’s infrastructure-as-a-service offerings with HPE’s Flexible Capacity.
"HPE’s expanded partnerships with ISVs and industry-specific alliances is creating new opportunities for channel partners and system integrators to drive customers’ digital transformation services around applications and data as well as edge-to-core network integration,” HPE global industries and strategic alliances VP Olivier Suinat added.
"The Partner Ready program is the broadest and richest program providing joint marketing, enablement and joint business growth for this expanded ecosystem."
