HP AMPLIFY — HP has apologized and thanked partners for staying with the company during a turbulent couple of years.

HP chief commercial officer Dave McQuarrie addressed partners at the HP Amplify Partner Conference 2023 in Chicago this week. He said that HP hasn’t given partnerseverything they need, particularly in times of supply chain disruption.

“Thank you for all that you have gone through, and all that you go through with us — for your patience, for being here, and for your commitment to the company. We know it has not been easy,” he said.

“I thank you for your commitment when your warehouses were empty and you were screaming at us to get you more product. And I thank you for the times when your warehouses are full as you’re waiting on some components to fulfil an order for a customer. Or as we work together to clear down the inventory. You were understanding, you supported us we’ve weathered the challenges together.

“If you take away one thing from this week, it is that we are listening and we are committed to improving and taking action,” said McQuarrie (pictured above on stage).

McQuarrie said the firm was making progress on the concerns that partners are raising.

“[But] not fast enough, I know from the conversations over the last two days. But we are making progress,” he said.

As an example, he said in December, HP shifted a number of decisions that sat centrally at HP’s Palo Alto headquarters out to individual markets and countries. That means local management are empowered to make “decisions that are right for the time, for the market at the right time, rather than having to come and ask permission.”

At the event, HP CEP Enrique Lores outlined how HP was seeking to become faster and more aggressive.

“My message to the sales organization has been to ask forgiveness, not permission,” said McQuarrie. “We are doing these things to move faster to serve you. We have more empowerment to do, but we have begun to better serve you and outperform our competitors. And we will continue to do this until we are across the board, better than them.”

Improvements In Quoting, Onboarding Customers, Delivery Times

The exec also cited improvements elsewhere in the business. He said HP’s configure price quote (CPQ) tool has improved quoting time.

“It now is five times faster to create a configuration than it used to be a few months ago,” he said. “We are now generating SKUs in minutes instead of months, and we are far faster in allowing [you] to then respond to your customer.

“We have a tool for instant quoting that allows for a quote to be provided for a particular opportunity. Indeed, 50% of the deals now go through that. We have a goal to get to 70% by the summer.”

McQuarrie said HP is also working on reducing the time it takes to set up new customers.

“What used to take five days now takes less than a day. Our objective by next year is that it takes minutes. But again, progress,” he said.

He also noted the vendor has cut delivery times. HP’s core PC business is down from 59 days to 17 days. Its consumer print business is down from 32 days to 19.

“I’ve committed [to that] over the course of the next remainder of this year. We’ll get that down to two weeks across the majority of the portfolio. So, there is consistent improvement,” he said.

HP has also “dramatically” reduced its SKU count, to now have 40% fewer SKUs than it did.

“We still have too many … but we are taking seriously your feedback that it’s complex and that we need to reduce them. It’s just [one example] of where we’ve sharpened our execution and where we’re moving quickly. And we’re hearing what you said and putting it into action,” he told partners.