**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of August’s important channel-program changes you should know.**

HPE GLOBAL PARTNER CONFERENCE — Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on Monday, at the start of the company’s first Global Partner Conference (GPC) since the company split from its printer and personal systems division, HP Inc., announced changes to its Partner Ready program that include the integration of competencies, a new and fully integrated Partner Ready Networking Program, a revamped Partner Ready Service Provider (PRSP) program, and an updated suite of partner marketing resources.

Held this week in Boston, GPC 2016 is a combined event for HP Inc. and HPE partners. HPE’s partner ecosystem is key to the company’s success, with 70 percent of HPE business driven through the channel.

Partner Ready is HPE’s umbrella global channel-partner program that provides incentives, enablement and resources, as well as partner investment. Multiple programs are being combined under Partner Ready. They include: HPE Partner Ready for Networking Program; HPE Partner Ready for Service Providers Program; HPE Partner Ready for Technology Partners Program; HPE Partner Ready Marketing Tools; and HPE Partner Ready IT Investment Online Tools.

“The program will support multiple partner-business models. So if a partner wants to resell, integrate, host, manage or develop, it will be easy for them to navigate,” said Jesse Chavez, vice president worldwide indirect strategy and operations at HPE.

The channel executive noted some enhancements to the existing program, such as more predictability on core compensation, a common worldwide deal-registration system with more robust benefits, and a simplified reporting system.{ad}

HPE also added several new components to Partner Ready. The most significant is distinguishing partners by competencies or the ability to deliver HPE solutions that align with the vendor’s transformation areas to customers.

At GPC, HPE announced the first six of 11 competencies to roll out over the next 12 months: Application Development and Transformation; IT Automation and Orchestration; Incident Recovery/Data Backup and Recovery; Data Management Infrastructure and Architecture; Digital Collaboration; and Intelligent Workspace. The first six competencies will be available by Nov. 1.

The additional five competencies include: Risk Management and Secure Design; Threat Detection and Response; Data Discovery and Assessment; Data Analytics and Business Insight; and, Campus Mobility.

HPE will offer solution sets under each competency as well as best practices.

“Our program tended to be more product-centric so what we’ve done is …

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… added a solutions component, or competencies, to it. We want to identify partners that have these skill sets and the competency to sell solutions,” Chavez explained.

Competency partners will be considered preferred go-to partners with the HPE sales team and customers and will also be listed on the company’s global partner locator guide.

HPE will provide enablement resources such as reference architectures, tools and customer use cases to partners holding competencies.

Partners who have the skills for a particular competency will have to register their competency area with HPE. Validation of those skills will be based on customer references. For partners who don’t have the skill sets but want to hold a competency, HPE will offer presales and sales training.{ad}

Chavez noted that partners who want to specialize in the competency areas would be those who are self-motivated to do so.

“Specializations for our partner program tier levels are mandatory. The competencies are opt-in,” he said.

Taking a closer look at the new or enhanced programs under the Partner Ready umbrella:

The HPE Partner Ready for Network Program brings Aruba’s PartnerEdge program and HPE Networking channel programs together.

The HPE Partner Ready for Service Providers Program is an enhanced track with improvements that include seamless alignment across the channel hardware/software portfolio, and new IT consumption options.

Under the new program, HPE will provide service providers with market development funds (MDF), simplify the onboarding process, provide marketing exposure on the company’s global partner locator, offer hosted services solutions sets, marketing campaigns, and a flex capacity, pay-as-you-go model, to build out their infrastructures.

“In many parts of the world we treated our service providers as customers; now we’re going to treat them as partners and go to market with them,” said Chavez. “HP recognizes that it doesn’t have a public cloud offering, like Azure or AWS, so we’re going to add them to our ecosystem of partners,” he added.

HPE Partner Ready for Technology Partner Program now includes HPE Alliance One partners, consolidating the separate Alliance One program under the Partner Ready umbrella.

HPE announced a number of new marketing initiatives.

“The reason we’re making these changes is to …

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… help partners better align with the changes that we’re seeing in the buyer’s journey,” said Chris Ogburn, vice president worldwide channel marketing at HP Inc.

HPE  Partner Ready Marketing Tools includes a new social-media center, marketing concierge service, content syndication tools, marketing training tools and webinars.

The social-media center will include value-added assets such as images, thought leadership, YouTube videos and whitepapers for partners to use in their social media feeds. Partners can also schedule their postings as well as customize the content, such as pointing it to their own landing page, for example.

The concierge service is designed to help partners find content and materials, and will be available 24 hours per day during the business work week, supports 22 languages, and will be available through email or chat.{ad}

HPE is also enhancing its content syndication with additional functionality such as hotspots, rollovers, pop-up videos, and mini sites, for example.

Finally, HPE Partner Ready IT Investment Online Tools, announced by HPE Financial Services, offers the Partner Connection API, an interface that integrates directly into a partner’s online portal environment to help their customers choose how they want to acquire, pay for and consume technology, according to the company.