ProCurve Networking by HP has announced an extension of its go-to-market strategy with the introduction of an expanded channel program. The ProCurve Networking and Security (PNS) channel program now being rolled out across ProCurve’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, offers customers greater choice of ProCurve partners to meet a wide range of customer needs.
Like all of HP’s PartnerONE initiatives, the ProCurve Networking and Security channel program is designed to benefit HP and its partners, and ultimately, end-user customers. The program focuses on driving business growth, bolstering partner and customer loyalty, and increasing the number of trained networking specialist professionals, to better serve HP customers.
In developing this new program, ProCurve conducted extensive discussions with both customers and partners. Based on the feedback from those discussions, ProCurve has expanded the channel program to include new partner classifications.
The new structure introduces three distinct ‘tracks’, which include: ProCurve Professional; ProCurve Specialist; and ProCurve Elite partners. Each track defines a unique set of capabilities, offerings, expertise, and offered levels of support. Those factors determine the profile of a channel partner and therefore which track that partner belongs to. Partners are required to meet certain qualification criteria, as set out by ProCurve, and under the HP Business Partner Program, if they want to belong to a particular track.
Partners become eligible for the incentives and other benefits accorded to members of their track. ProCurve believes that this structure will ultimately benefit customers by ensuring they are dealing with a reseller that has qualifications most suitable to their network solution needs. It also ensures that partners gain the optimum benefit from their partnership with ProCurve, based on their profile.
“This restructured channel program is great news for our partners as it will enable them to benefit from advantages that are specifically tailored for each profile,” said Hazem M. Bazan, General Manager HP Solution Partner Organization and Personal Systems Group, HP Middle East. “But most importantly, the three new categories much better address the needs of different kinds of ProCurve end-user customers.”
Bazan added: “This program structure also enables us to address a much wider end-user customer base, while still maintaining high levels of expertise and support to those customers, but in a way that is more customised in terms of products, expertise and support. Ultimately it makes it easier for us to determine the most effective way to support partners in each track.”
“Listening to our customers and finding out how they wanted to buy networking products, and have them supported, was a key driver in developing the PNS channel program,” said Ivan Kraemer, Regional Sales & Marketing Director HP ProCurve Networking Business, Middle East, Africa, and Mediterranean. “We quickly realised that we have many very different customers, with significantly different networking requirements, so developing a channel program to reflect this is a crucial part of our overall strategy.
“This program will also enable us to consolidate the total number of active resellers we have in the EMEA region, which in turn will allow us to expand our business and help us to fuel our ongoing growth,” Kraemer added.
“For companies like ours, we believe that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to channel partner initiatives is no longer enough. We thrive on IT suppliers who offer customised channel programs that are tailored to our needs,” said Robert Derefeldt, business area manager for Kerfi, a ProCurve Networking Elite partner. “We are confident that the new ProCurve Networking and Security channel program will provide us with the necessary choice and access to the solutions and resources that we need to best service our customers.”
The expanded ProCurve Networking and Security channel program outlines the following three partner profiles:
ProCurve Networking Professional – Focused primarily on networking, this partner is proficient in the design of hardware solutions and has particular skills in examining business needs and providing pre-sales guidance to help customers choose the most appropriate product mix. Professional Partners rely primarily on the ProCurve support teams after the product-deployment stage.
ProCurve Networking Specialist – Also focused primarily on networking, this profile of partner is able to deliver a wide range of networking solutions including hardware, software and services. These partners will be more regionally-focused and will deliver services more on a project basis, with next-business-day replacement.
ProCurve Networking Elite – Again, focused primarily on networking, Elite partners deliver all those services of a Network Specialist, but are also able to provide a complete life cycle of networking products and services, from design to implementation and maintenance, often nation- or region-wide, offering 24/7, multi-service post-sales support and less-than-one business-day repair or replacement. In addition, Elite partners are able to manage customer networking installations across a full spectrum of security, mobility and convergence platforms.
Depending on the track they belong to and their profile, benefits for partners can include:
• Improved account management; branding investments and co-marketing opportunities; sales and marketing tools; and sales events
• Early and privileged information including information from and about: secure web site; a new, valuable online newsletter; training programs; and access to technical consultants
• Lead generation activities and partner locators for customers
• Benefits to help provide complete customer satisfaction, including: centres of expertise; design architectures and proof-of-concepts (live mock-ups); as well as access to specialist teams for pre- and post-sales questions; and a full product demo program
For customers, the main benefit is the ability to choose a network solution provider based on what they need. ProCurve believes the end-result of this new channel partner program will be improved customer satisfaction, better levels of support, and improved business opportunities for all current and future channel partners.
About ProCurve Networking by HP
The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP is a supplier of enterprise networking solutions comprising wired and wireless enterprise networking products, services and solutions - including WAN routers, Ethernet switches, routing switches, wireless access points and network-management applications - which allow customers to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability. Recognising the necessary migration of intelligence and functionality to the network edge, the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture gives companies a cost-effective, easy-to-manage strategy for achieving command from the centre with control to the edge. ProCurve was positioned in the challenger quadrant in research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.’s 2004 Magic Quadrant Report for Global Campus LANs.
Further information on ProCurve networking solutions and products is available at www.procurve.com.
About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2005, HP revenue totalled $83.3 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
About HP Middle East
HP is the largest technology and solutions provider in the Middle East with 670 employees and subsidiaries in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Cairo and Ramallah servicing the GCC, Egypt and the Levant. HP has been present in the Middle East since 1968, and opened its first regional office in 1994.HP Middle East is the market leader for Enterprise, Small and Medium Business and Consumer technology products, and offers a large portfolio of solutions and services in various business domains.
For more information about HP in the Middle East, please visit www.hp.com/me.
