HPE DISCOVER AND PARTNER GROWTH SUMMIT — Customers increasingly are demanding a new consumption approach to their digital transformation. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has recently pivoted to enable customers to consume its core business as a service to better support their business goals.

In this spirit, before the official kickoff of HPE Discover 2022 in Las Vegas, the company has announced a new partner program. HPE Partner Ready Vantage builds upon the HPE Partner Ready program. To help partners weather and flourish in today’s fluctuating market, HPE Partner Ready Vantage steps in. The program focuses on partners with as-a-service practices and aims to help them adapt and grow their businesses wherever they are on their journey. 

Adapting Partner Models

In the last few years, HPE has switched its partner focus from transactional to subscription. This is no small thing, as it changes the whole makeup of the channel. As a result, it changes the definition of a successful partner, and what partners and vendors choose to invest in. Dell and Microsoft have also done this, begging the question, how has/will that strategy paid/pay off? It has everything to do with the technical requirements of partners.

HPE’s George Hope

“We’re focused on finding new ways to put partners first,” said George Hope, worldwide head of partner sales, HPE. “This means providing the choice, flexibility, the opportunity to adapt and grow at the partners’ pace. I think that it’s critical to understand that everyone operates at a different pace. And we want to accommodate the different phases. We’re going to continue to create significant resources, investments, tools and programs to meet the needs of today’s (and tomorrow’s) partner. This, of course, means supporting all of the business models, and creating a framework that that’s welcoming to all. We want to make it easier for partners to grow their business within us. So we need to be in keeping with the evolution of our as-a-service portfolio, our own transformation as a company, with our strategy.”

In tandem with the program, HPE also announced several updates and enhancements. These include the HPE Pro Series, Partner Connect, and a refresh to the HPE partner portal.

The Road to Digital Transformation

The aforementioned shifts in the market are causing partners to shift their thinking. It is no longer enough to simply supply specific components of infrastructure. Customers are now more or less demanding that partners understand their business. With that comes tailoring, delivering and managing full solutions that help them solve specific challenges. It’s not just about jumping over hurdles anymore; it’s about ways to achieve key business outcomes with measurable results. This is most certainly one of the key components to digital transformation. 

So, instead of capital expenditure (capex)-focused approaches, customers now expect operating expenditure (opex) arrangements. Most importantly, this is where partners provide simple as-a-service solutions that allow them to pay only for what they need. 

The demand is indeed high for full-service partners that deliver comprehensive, ongoing support that is “made to order.” For instance, according to IDC, 76% of business-to-business customers want partners to take more day-to-day administrative and operational responsibility for infrastructure so internal IT staff can focus more on business outcomes.

Addressing Market Upheaval

The aim of HPE Partner Ready Vantage is to …

… address these market changes head-on. Partners will now have the choices they need to meet their customers’ evolving digital transformation requirements. 

“We value our partner ecosystem and are committed to investing in their success. We believe in the power of collaboration to deliver the best solutions and services that help our partners unlock their full potential,” said Hope. “As partners evolve their business models to meet the demands of customers today, they need a flexible program that is designed to help them deliver no matter how their customers are choosing to buy or what their priorities are. HPE Partner Ready Vantage enables partners to participate more fully across the entire customer life cycle and is optimized for our partners’ evolving business needs to accelerate their growth and enable their success.”

HPE’s Jesse Chavez

“In recognizing that our partners play many roles and want to be recognized for their various areas of expertise, HPE Partner Ready Vantage delivers a complete 360 approach,” said Jesse Chavez, worldwide vice president partner programs and operations, HPE. “[This addresses] partner business models while nurturing, promoting and elevating partners based on their capabilities and expertise.”

Program Breakdown

HPE organized the new program into three tracks (build, sell, and service). Folded up underneath are focused COEs, offering tailored enablement, training, go-to-market initiatives and sales tools.

Aruba’s Donna Grothjan

“We created the services COEs to help partners excel in an as-a-service world,” said Donna Grothjan, vice president of worldwide channels for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “We’ve taken a personal approach as we’ve developed all of the components of this new program. We were deliberate in including mentorship alongside a wealth of vital training and workshops for our partners. We’ve relied on global best practices as we’ve built out the program elements — all in an effort to help our partners extend and expand their practices, have faster time to activation, reduce churn, and achieve higher than average renewal rates for customers.”

Product Updates

The latest enhancements to the HPE Pro Series are among updates the company will discuss at Discover and Partner Growth Summit. They provide a personalized enablement experience for partners’ sales, technical and marketing professionals. Partners can utilize virtual forums to connect with experts and specialists. They can also access outcome-based and workload-centric training, and advance their digital marketing effectiveness. 

There are also self-profiling enhancements to Partner Connect, the digital platform that aids customer-to-partner and partner-to-partner connections. It accelerates the ability to find the right solutions and skills to meet business needs. Partner Connect provides locator capabilities connecting users to thousands of HPE partners. The new self-profiling improvements allow partners to showcase their HPE products and services with more of a grip on how they highlight and promote their solutions.

Furthermore, changes to he design of the HPE Partner Ready portal focus on easier navigation and site integration. The redesigned homepage features a “what’s new” section for news, events, promotions and webinars. The consolidated menu links provide quick access to business tools and relevant content.