HPE to Lean More on Partners for Greenlake Services

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) is working toward making it simpler for channel partners to layer their services on top of the services the company already delivers as part of its managed GreenLake service.

The goal is to encourage more partners to resell the core GreenLake service beyond the current reach of HPE, says George Hope, newly-appointed head of worldwide partner sales for HPE.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic interest in having HPE and its partners manage IT environments on behalf of customers has risen mainly because IT teams are not traveling to local data centers or organizations want to treat IT more as an operational expense regardless of where applications are running, says Hope.

That shift has enabled HPE to better adjust to an overall decrease in capital spending on IT equipment in on-premises IT environments that resulted from the downturn in the global economy brought on by the pandemic, notes Hope.

In its most recent quarter, HPE recorded net revenue of $6.8 billion, down 6% from the same period a year ago. Net income was $2.1 billion, which HPE attributed in part to strong operational execution.

Relying more on channel and distribution partners is obviously a big part of that execution plan. Previously, HPE has been selling a managed GreenLake service that partners could resell, but there wasn’t much opportunity for partners to add value using their own intellectual property.

“We want partners to layer their services on top,” says Hope.

HPE plans to lean more on distribution partners to help partners by, for example, adding enablement initiatives and making available HPE GreenLake specialists.

In addition, HPE is making available “Storage Rangers” that are outcome-based solution selling experts that have deep technical skills in addition to providing HPE sales certification training via an interactive learning environment and will be expanding the number of solutions included in the HPE Demo Program.

HPE also plans to add a Small-to-Medium (SMB) FlexOffers program to make it easier to make products available on a built-to-order (BTO) basis. HPE is also committing to making more inventory available via distributors. Overall, 80% of HPE’s indirect sales are made via distribution partners.

Like most IT vendors in a downturn, HPE is clearly signaling it wants to work more closely with channel partners as it transitions to an IT-as-a-service model. The challenge will be finding the right mix of services that will enable partners to profitably come along on that journey with HPE.