70% of HP's Revenue Flows through Channel

Hewlett-Packard recently hosted partners at its annual Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas where it deliberated on the future roadmap but, above all, insisted on the contribution by channel partners in its overall growth. One major takeaway of the conference was that the entire HP group put up one unified face-unlike the previous years where it used to behave like multiple companies with diverse goals. Although it still operates with three major groups in its overall structure-Printing and Personal Systems (PPS), Enterprise Group (EG) and Software and Technology Services-it seems that the company has learned to manifest togetherness in front of the customers.

At the conference, the company tried to pass on the strategy to its partners in the best possible way. The biggest role in integrating the entire HP group into one thread has been played with its dynamic Chief Executive Officer-Meg Whitman. She rewrote the business strategy for the company and made it extremely simple for channel partners to do business with the group. Whitman allowed the channel partners to do business without any target sales. Perhaps this is the reason that the company has emerged again and has been able to look at multiple business avenues. "We'd like to thank our channel partners who have helped us win customer confidence. As a result HP is a zero debt company," she announced while addressing the channel partners at Global Partner Conference.

Dataquest sought more insights into HP's overall business growth and how it plans to re-energize its business in an era where its traditional businesses such as PC and printers are witnessing a great shift. "The company is experimenting with different products and services in different markets. While in India, the company has launched its range of voice tablets, we are witnessing a great demand in the European market," said Jos Brenkel, Senior Vice President, World Wide Sales, HP Group.

The mood of channel partners was alight. With many of them had interesting stories to share. They were overwhelmed when Meg Whitman, HP CEO, had personally given them a call to invite them for the GPC at Las Vegas. The conference also focused on coordination between various channel partners for most of its products and services. On the role of channel in the entire HP group, Brenkel further said, "More than 70% of its business flows through channel. It is our constant effort to enhance our reach through partners in different markets. All our groups are working in the direction to present one HP."

During the conference, HP also awarded some of its key partners to recognize their contribution in the growth of the company. Partners who won awards of excellence include: Westcoast Ltd.(2014 PartnerOne Distributor of the Year, HP Printing and Personal Systems Group), Arrow Electronics Inc (2014 PartnerOne Distributor of the Year, HP Enterprise Group), SHI International Corp.(2014 PartnerOne Reseller of the Year), Deloitte (2014 PartnerOne Alliance Partner of the Year), CDW (2014 PartnerOne Financial Services Partner of the Year) and SCC (2014 PartnerOne New Style of IT Partner of the Year).

 

(The author was hosted by HP at Las Vegas)