HPE marks a year of the Tech Pro Community

HPE’s channel boss has highlighted the firm’s progress in increasing support for the technical side of its partner community as it celebrates a year of its Tech Pro Community.

The vendor would have been speaking to partners over the next couple of days at its Technology and Solutions (TSS) summit in Paris, but thanks to coronavirus, the event, like so many others, has become virtual.

But that has not stopped HPE sharing the announcements with the channel that would have been discussed on stage and in sessions at the conference, with a number of updates coming over the next day or two.

Paul Hunter, HPE head of worldwide partner sales, started the ball rolling by issuing a blog post that largely focused on the activities the firm has made with its Tech Pro Community.

The vendor cut the ribbon on the Community this time last year, introducing a programme that rewards partners’ investments in developing their technical capabilities.  Designed for HPE Accredited Solutions Expert (ASE) and Master ASE certified partners, Tech Pro comprises a technical community, certification and learning based on its Partner Ready competencies, and rewards for partners’ achievements in the scheme.

“In the year since we rolled out HPE Tech Pro Community, we’ve seen the programme experience a 61% average QoQ growth since inception,” wrote Hunter. “It is now a fully-fledged 360-degree community with a global, online and face-to-face presence providing our technical partners with support, recognition and real-time collaboration.”

Tech Pro members get access to a “collaborative meeting place” where they can build relationships with partner and HPE solution architects online, as well as attending technical events and making local engagements.

“We’ve successfully given the community easier access to all the relevant assessment tools, sizers, configurators, TCO tools, product and solution information tools, and reference architectures they need to win,” Hunter added.

He said the organisation had made sure it was addressing the career skills and certifications that those technical staff wanted, as well as providing “rewards and recognition for technical achievement and community leadership”.

Hunter added that HPE continued to invest in the programme and was open to feedback from channel partners about suggested enhancements.

“We are also driving initiatives to reward and differentiate partners for their investments,” he said. “Most recently, we’ve invested in new recognition for learning; rewarding ‘more for more’ as partners climb in membership levels to receive more benefits.”

The new reward and recognition programme gives partners the chance to earn digital badges and gain access to tools, information and HPE field and engineering experts. There are also special incentives and giveaways on offer for those that add to their skills.

“We’ll continue to invest and commit to further our partner enablement programmes and initiatives prioritising continued differentiation for our partners,” said Hunter.

Over the next couple of days, HPE will be reaching out to 3,000 technical partners and the virtual event will also include a chance to hear a keynote from HPE CEO Antonio Neri.