HP adds Amplify Data Insights platform to bolster channel effectiveness

When HP launched its Amplify channel programme last autumn, it made it clear that data would be what made it different from other offerings.

The vendor wanted to get an idea of what customers were doing and how they were being supported by customers, and then provide the right products, marketing and training support to ensure the best outcome.

In that spirit, the firm has used its partner conference to herald the arrival of Amplify Data Insights, a platform that will see the vendor share its own, partner and third-party market intelligence.

“We said [when we launched Amplify] that it was the first of its kind,” said Luciana Broggi, global head of global routes to market at HP. “Why did we say that? Because we were moving out of a model that was more backward-looking, which was kind of standard in the industry, which is all the programme is based on the performance and size of the partners, and that’s what drives the compensation, the level of relationship and collaboration. To a model that was more future-led and more focusing on what is the experience we want to give to our customers today and in the future.”

Broggi said that meant HP needed to establish what the capabilities were in the channel and what levels of support were required from the vendor.

Data was seen as key to making that process effective and Broggi said the company respected data privacy but was keen to exploit the insights it could get from information.

“Data is the currency of the future and we have been talking about that for a long time and we talk about that in every industry,” she said. “Statistics say that by 2025, 175 zettabytes will be the quantity of data used by companies to drive investments, programmes, initiatives and actions in the industry. We want to be part of that ecosystem and we want our channel partners, together with us, to be part of that ecosystem and we want to make sure that we become a very data-driven, end-to-end capability.”

Broggi said partners would be able to respond to RFP with much more thought and customer-specific intelligence.

“So that we can offer to our customers the right product, the right programmes and the right solutions that they are looking for and we support them in delivering their business outcomes,” she added.

Partners tuning in for the event were also given the chance to watch Christoph Schwell, chief commercial officer at HP, in a video give his perspective on the Amplify Data Insights plans, with it clear that the firm is expecting its channel to benefit from getting more tailored customer information.

“I have spoken at length about the ‘segment of one’, I’m referring to the ability, aided by data insights for businesses to deliver hyper-targeted and unique value propositions to any customers, provided they opt in,” he said.

“We are always looking at aggressively shifting to an outcome-based go-to-market model. Our customer relationships may begin at the point of purchase, but they can’t end there. We must also evolve our go-to-market strategy and move away from a model based on transactions towards one that is based on engagements, outcomes and annuities.”

Schwell said research had shown that those businesses that used data insights were 58% more likely to beat their revenue goals than non-data-driven companies.

HP’s plan is to generate a “heat map” around customers to identify where they are looking to invest and their activities, with HP looking to third-party firms for some of that data.

Mary Beth Walker, head of global channel strategy at HP, said: “What we have available from searches are anything that is collected by marketing firms that are available to us, which would be anything their customers have said... so it’s all things that we purchase from that perspective.

“What we do is we marry that data with information that we have about when different products are up for renewals when warranties are up and put those things together to suggest what predictable next steps we might want to talk to the customer about and what products they might be interested in, based on that collective information.”