In the wake of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) forming from the 2015 HPE split into two companies and the appointment of a new CEO, Antonio Neri, towards the end of last year, HPE is redirecting their focus on its channel through a combination of new strategies, platforms and engagement models.
Kena Setshogoe, MD of HPE South Africa, comments: “Across the board, we’re finding that the channel is facing a number of challenges in today’s tough economic climate. Though we have always been attuned to the needs of our channel, including Tier 1, Tier 2 and alliance partners, we want to increase our support to overcome these challenges. Part of this is to expand our support structure to offer more services and features to our Tier 2 channel partners, who make up a valuable part of our customer engagement model.”
He says that, among the challenges facing partners and resellers, particularly in South Africa, is a general hesitancy around cloud adoption due to a lack of in depth knowledge around migration requirements, a tendency for enterprises to sweat assets for longer which creates longer sales cycles, and an overlap – or convergence – of industries which increases the number of players within highly competitive environments.
According to Setshogoe, the upswing of this increased competition is that many end user corporations are realising that there is a financial impact to being brand agnostic, and that interoperability can pose an issue where too many products comprise a network or system. He foresees a return to brand loyalty, and an opportunity for HPE to establish itself, through its partners, as the brand of choice.
“Channel partners and resellers are having to redefine their business models to cater to a continually shifting market,” he adds. “Apart from possessing the skills to address customers at a C-level and no longer engaging solely with IT departments, channels partners – especially smaller entities – also find themselves needing to narrow their focus to more niche areas of expertise while leveraging strategic partnerships with other players to deliver holistic solutions.
“We aim to close the loop through skills development, networking events, easier access to information, and full sales and support backing from our experienced teams.”
Leon Erasmus, HPE country manager: channel and territory sales, says that HPE is focused on redefining its channel strategy to eradicate the aforementioned challenges, and part of this is to develop their partner program and offer more to Tier 2 partners. In so doing, HPE South Africa is embarking on a monthly channel breakfast which is aimed at educating them on HPE’s offering and the tools available to enable sales growth.
“We are undertaking a huge drive to make it easier for partners to do business with HPE,” says Erasmus. “Financially, we offer a very competitive rebate program, as well as price protection policies which not all of our Tier 2 partners are wholly familiar with. We also provide them with softer benefits such as full access to some of our process and presales tools, and sales support collateral, and assistance from our own resources to help close deals, plan solutions and build customer relationships.”
Part of HPE’s partner strategy and organisational structuring includes the exciting possibilities offered by HPE Next, a next generation initiative which commits to simplifying customer engagement, sales compensation and order processing.
“HPE is at the pinnacle of cutting edge technologies, and our investments are driving the hybrid world trend. Our three-pillared strategy involves catering to traditional on-premise environments, hybrid environments and helping customers build private clouds. Our partners have the opportunity to select whichever option works for their customers, helping them to derive the best value from their data no matter where it resides,” adds Erasmus.
“Our revitalised channel strategy will help our partners to get in front of the information available to them and enable them to use our tools, platforms and support structure to maximum advantage,” says Setshogoe. “Our partners are part of HPE’s DNA and we want to help them become sustainable, growing businesses by building an ecosystem of long-term relationships and alliances.”