HP, Inc. waded deeper into potentially controversial waters this week at its online Reinvent partner conference by challenging partners to place greater emphasis on racial and gender equality as part of a previously launched sustainable impact initiative focused on the way HP and its partners affect people, the planet and the overall community.
Positioned as a central component of an HP Amplify channel partner program that goes into effect on November 1st, HP is making available a partner assessment and training program to enable partners to identify potential gaps they can address to address these issues.
HP has set a goal to voluntarily enroll at least 50% of its global channel partners in this program by 2025, says Christoph Schell, chief commercial officer for HP. As an incentive for partners to participate in the program HP plans to publicly recognize partners with awards and certifications.
“This is a very big change that is long overdue,” says Schell.
It’s not clear to what degree channel partners might respond to any social responsibility initiative. Opinions concerning everything from climate change to Black Lives Matters protests span the political spectrum. It’s possible, for example, for the leadership of a channel partner to enthusiastically endorse one idea while abhorring another.
Regardless of the inherent challenges, however, it would appear that IT vendors are starting to call on channel partners to adhere to the policy initiatives they support. In the case of HP partners, they have four years to come to terms with the goals if they so choose.
In the meantime, HP this week also unveiled a bevy of PCs and printers it expects partners to either resell or make available via a desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) program that HP has previously launched. That program has now been updated to make it possible for partners to take the lead on selling services attached to a DaaS contract that usually lasts a year or more.
Selling PCs, especially notebooks, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly become easier as demand for devices to enable employees to work from home skyrocketed beginning last March.
Printer sales, in contrast, have become more challenging with employees tending to rely on output devices many of them already have at home.
Whether demand for PCs holds up past the initial wave of the pandemic remains to be seen. The economic downturn might give more organizations to either potentially reduce or pause IT spending. A recent survey of more than 1,000 IT decision makers in North America and Europe published this week by Spiceworks Ziff-Davis finds IT budgets are expected to decline slightly year-over-year in 2021. However, 80 percent of respondents said they expect IT spending to stay the same or increase, which suggests some vertical industries more adversely affected than others.
On the plus side, however, more organizations than ever are also reevaluating their entire approach to IT in the wake of the pandemic, an event that usually provides increased opportunities for channel partners.
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