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HPE unifies channel team to improve experiences
Vendor brings channel staff under one umbrella in response to partner feedback
HPE has united its channel operations in a step designed to improve the experience for those that work with the vendor.
The combination of the two partner organisations, HPE and Aruba Networking, will become official from 1 November, but the vendor wanted to get the message out to its channel ahead of that date to explain the motivation for the move.
Simon Ewington, senior vice-president of worldwide channel and partner ecosystem at HPE, and Alain Carpentier, senior vice-president of worldwide sales for HPE Aruba Networking, penned a joint blog post to outline the changes.
“This unification will strengthen our partner strategy as we leverage our similarities, enable HPE to deliver a seamless experience to all its channel partners, and simplify the engagement experience across our broad edge-to-cloud portfolio without losing the specialised focus on networking,” they stated.
“This integration takes into consideration HPE’s broader go-to-market strategy that includes having true ropes to the ground for our specialist sellers while maintaining multi-BU, solution-focused conversations with partners and customers. We need both specialisation and solution-selling skills to win in the market.
“This integration provides a great opportunity for our channel partners to have an improved experience working with HPE,” they continued. “Customers today expect to be connected anywhere and everywhere – our partners demand the same when working with HPE.
“As we bring together these teams and provide a single interface for partner engagement, partners will benefit from access to our broad portfolio of solutions.”
Simplified engagement
HPE acquired Aruba Networks back in 2015, and had been taking a dual-team approach before increasing calls from partners to make life simpler.
“Partners have requested a simplified engagement process to create more efficiency when working with customers on their infrastructure needs,” the blog stated. “The time is right to leverage our collective synergies to ensure that customers around the world know that their technology partners are delivering the best edge-to-cloud solutions.”
The vendor already has a unified partner programme. The Partner Ready Vantage offering launched late last year with 2,000 participating members, but has followed that with the combination of channel teams into a single entity run in HPE Global Sales.
“Fully launched in November 2023, the programme features tracks for HPE and HPE Aruba Networking based on a common blueprint designed to drive a consistent partner experience with the flexibility to address differences across our portfolio,” Ewington and Carpentier wrote.
“Similar to this unified programme, following the combined interface we will remain the customer-first, partner-centric company that delivers best-in-class edge-to-cloud solutions to enable continued growth for partners when they work with us,” they added.
The firm indicated that the team would also be in place to help integrate channel partners that come on board as a result of future acquisitions. “The future of networking requires the kind of optimised performance made possible by a suite of networking and network management solutions that are security-first and AI-powered,” the channel chiefs stated on the blog. “We are doubling down on networking through our continued investment in this area and our planned acquisition of Juniper Networks.
“Ultimately, we will be better positioned to deliver new industry-leading solutions, win against competitors and attract new flagship customers – which will create greater opportunities for all our stakeholders,” they concluded.
