Credit: HPE
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has unveiled new financial relief measures to help partners cope with the coronavirus crisis, but appears to have excluded Asia Pacific from the majority of these.
The vendor said it will suspend revenue thresholds for HPE Partner Ready Program and the Aruba Partner Ready for Networking Program in Australia and New Zealand.
However, other measures such as extending payment terms from 60 to 90 days for those in certain factoring programs will only be open to North American and European partners.
HPE has also temporarily suspended or significantly reduced strategic development initiative (SDI) targets, which would offer a pay-out for distributors from $1 at or near the full percentage rebate target.
However, again this measure will only be open to partners in North America, Europe and India.
At the time of writing HPE was unavailable for further clarification regarding the apparent exclusion of the APAC market in relation to these measures.
Regardless, the decision by HPE to suspend revenue targets will come as some relief to partners by taking the pressure off maintaining their status at a time of lower technology spending.
Instead, HPE said it will concentrate on “enabling partners and helping them meet training and certification goals” for the rest of 2020.
To do this, it will introduce its Sales Pro Learning Centre in May, a virtual tool to help partners sell consumption propositions and solutions.
The vendor also claimed that virtual demonstrations and proofs of concept will now be possible via its free portal, which includes pre-recorded lab demos for partners and customers and virtual tours of the HPE Briefing Centres.
The measures come as part of HPE's broader US$2 billion global stimulus package aimed at helping customers overcome cash flow and liquidity challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Delivered through the vendor’s financial services division -- HPE Financial Services -- the relief will allow customers to acquire new technology and pay one per cent of the total contract value each month for the first eight months, deferring over 90 per cent of the cost until 2021.
