Chris Weber (HPE)
The SMB market, increasing capabilities within its federal team, the natural resources sector and tighter internal alignment are all top of mind for HPE’s South Pacific vice president and managing director, Chris Weber.
Officially stepping into the role on 1 February, Weber sat down with ARN to indulge his plans within his newly minted role. He was promoted in January to the leadership role following Stephen Bovis' departure last year.
A key area of focus for Weber as he settles into his new remit, is gathering the various business units and brands into one team, creating one plan for the whole HPE unit in South Pacific and creating a single point of contact for partners.
“First and foremost is to help us better align ourselves to the market and address market opportunities,” Weber said. “We've got a whole bunch of initiatives around alignment on sales methodologies and other various policies as well, to make sure we’re more effective in the market.
“We've got a pretty tight alignment with our sales and delivery teams today but we can always do a little better just to make sure the overall customer experience from the initial time when we engage through to delivery is seamless.”
Investing in growth areas is another key initiative Weber is focusing on as it aims to place more capabilities into its federal team and natural resources sector.
The SMB market was also ripe with opportunity through its distribution and partner network, along with scoping out GreenLake market potential. HPE distributors include Ingram Micro, Dicker Data, Arrow and Lynx.
“We’re working our dedicated resources and the SMB market through distribution and our partner community to make sure we have the right resources aligned on both sides,” Weber said. “I spent my whole first month understanding our partners and distributors, what their challenges are and where they see opportunities in the market, particularly with GreenLake.
“We’re pumping a lot into education and training for our channel. Partnering is a team sport and we’re aiming for better alignment between our teams and our partners, aligning with our customers.”
Weber also touched on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) play in the market and how it is playing a much more central piece in customer engagements.
HPE itself has an asset recovery and upcycling initiative that takes back equipment, regardless of brand. In FY22, 82 per cent of the assets HPE took back were given new life through efforts like refurbishment, remarketing and upcycling, and the remaining 18 per cent were recycled.
“We can actually lean into the customer with more of a consultative-lead approach around ESG rather than an end solution to actually engage a lot earlier in their conversation around how their assets are not only recycled, but how they're managed as well, from a power efficiency perspective,” he added.
“ESG is a big part of customer agendas and we’re getting our partners on board to leverage ESG programs to differentiate themselves in the market."
