HPE Partner Ready Program Homes In on As-a-Service, SMB Market

The HPE Partner Ready Program for fiscal year 2021 focuses on the partner experience, as-a-service and SMB opportunities. Core program requirements remain unchanged to provide business consistency through the pandemic.

The new program, which runs Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021, is very much in keeping with the themes at the HPE Virtual Distribution Partner Conference, held in September. At that time, HPE discussed how partners can grow with as-a-service opportunities in the SMB market in particular.

HPE’s George Hope

“Each year we design our Partner Ready program using partner feedback, thus providing our channel with an unmatched combination of sales and field enablement, and financial incentives and rewards, to help them drive joint success with HPE,” said George Hope, worldwide head of partner sales. “HPE’s as-a-service strategy is establishing incredible traction through our channel, and so it remains critical to bolster our partners with the strongest program framework and breadth of opportunities to optimize their experience, help them establish differentiation and grow their expertise.”

Almost 70% of HPE revenue transacts through its channel ecosystem.

Program Highlights

To bolster the partner experience, HPE outlines four initiatives. First, the vendor is streamlining processes with AI-powered proposals and robotic process automation (RPA). In particular, partners can leverage the Primary Storage Opportunity Engine (PSOE). Here, partners can develop proposals containing an approved quote, sizing and performance data, associated Infosight intelligence and more. This simplifies the deal cycle by reducing the number of meetings involved in the sales cycle by an average of five meetings. Partners also benefit from the speed of RPA to cut the time required for deal registration approvals.

HPE FlexOffers improves the buying experience by allowing partners to create customized built-to-order (BTO) product configurations at bundled-discount pricing, dispatched from distribution inventory. This new capability will roll out to distributors worldwide beginning this month. It will be built into HPE iQuote, a streamlined quoting tool which presents pre-approved discounts and promotional prices in real time.

More Partner Experience Enhancements

Also aiming to improve the partner experience, HPE sales certifications in its new fiscal year will provide a modern, intuitive, mobile-friendly and interactive experience to help partners align with HPE strategies and reduce out-of-office time. “Learning checks” placed within modules and an assessment at the end allow partners to demonstrate content mastery and complete their certification within HPE Sales Pro Learning Center.

Finally, HPE has extended its demo program with new options. For example, there’s easier access to the HPE portfolio. Partners can buy their own demo equipment at steep discounts. Partners can also access new interactive demos on the HPE Demo Portal. The portal offers clickable, simulator-based environments that enable users to “interact” with HPE solutions with zero risk of failing. Partners continue to benefit from remote live or recorded demos and proofs of concept, as well as from live or virtual tours of any HPE Customer Innovation Centers.

As a Service

Putting a spotlight on as-a-service, HPE is extending partner enablement related to HPE GreenLake. There’s a new workshop — the HPE GreenLake Introduction and Business Planning Workshop. It aims to help partners assess their as-a-service strategies and become proficient in selling HPE GreenLake. The workshop consists of consultative sessions with HPE GreenLake transformation experts. These experts advise partners on opportunities for growth and the integration of HPE GreenLake into their service portfolios.

Additionally, the HPE service compensation models reward partners with three to five times higher compensation for sales on strategic HPE business, such as HPE GreenLake, the HPE Ezmeral Software Portfolio and the HPE Storage Portfolio.

SMB Opportunity

Homing in on the SMB market, HPE has three initiatives. The first is HPE support focused on “new logo” deals with options for upfront benefits and price protection. Another is promotions and rewards. HPE will expand SMB and midmarket opportunities for partners by offering promotions and rewarding partners through geography-specific incentives and bonuses via the loyalty and incentive program HPE Engage & Grow and HPE Financial Services.

And, lastly, HPE is expanding co-selling opportunities between solution providers and service providers. These new offers are available via the Cloud28+ platform and community.