COVER STORY
Moving Faster For Partners When Michael Affeldt and his team at Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based ACP CreativIT started working on an eight-figure PC deal with a major financial services firm in September 2021, he didn’t think it would take so long to complete that the devices would end up shipping nearly a year later. The financial services firm wanted to get the best price possible and pushed for ACP to make a bid with Dell Technologies. But instead of acquiescing, Affeldt, senior vice president of com- mercial sales at ACP, said he told the customer his team would make a bid with its current provider, HP.A primary motivation for Affeldt was HP’s reputation for having a big commitment to partners. “They weren’t happy about it” is how Affeldt remembers the customer’s response. But those bad feelings eventually melted away asACP’s enter- prise account manager at HP worked with Affeldt’s team on a
new opportunities for solution providers with the integration of recent acquisitions like Poly and through other new initiatives. “Everything we’re going to do looking forward is using the foundation of Amplify because it’s a point-based system.You get points based on how much you do collaboration, how much you [develop] capabilities, how much you [perform], and based on that we rank you,” said Elbaz, who became general manager of HP’s global channel organization in late 2021. To make the program more appealing to partners, Amplify is extending points and other traditional benefits to HP’s expanded portfolio. It also will introduce a new incentive program, called More for More, that will apply a rate multiplier for compensation to partners that sell a wider range of products and services when it launches this November with the 2024 fiscal year. “As our portfolio expands, we want to make sure that we drive with our channel partners the best experience we can for our customers, and this means that we want to encourage our partners to work with us across the portfolio,” Elbaz said. This November is also when Amplify will give partners another new benefit, called Fast Lane, which will simplify re- imbursements for market development funds. This will be done through a new automated process for partners to make claims and payments, which is expected to dramatically improve the time it takes for them to get reimbursed. With HP’s goal of becoming the most sustainable company by 2030, the vendor wants to get more partners involved with the sustainability-focused Amplify Impact program too. Start- ing in May, the company plans to do this by letting qualified participants in the program—which helps them pursue busi- ness opportunities around issues like climate change and social justice—gain a point toward eligibility for Amplify’s Power and Power Services tiers, which unlock advanced incentives. Elbaz said HP hopes this new benefit will help the vendor achieve its goal of getting 50 percent of partners to pledge to participate in Amplify Impact by 2025. “It’s another way for us to show our commitment to this and why it’s important for us to make sure that we encourage our partners to be part of the Amplify Impact journey,” Elbaz said. Beyond these enhancements to the Amplify program, Lores said HP is “investing in other systems and tools to make it much more efficient to do business” with the company. “Whether it is new [products in the] portfolio, new tools, new programs, we really are fully committed to make Amplify the best program in the industry and to continue to evolve it to meet the needs of our partners,” Lores said.
“daily basis to make sure that the price was compet- itive,” even as the scope of the project changed mul- tiple times.
‘As our portfolio expands, we want to make sure that we drive with our channel partners the best experience we can for our customers, and this means that we want to encourage our partners to work with us across the portfolio.’ — Kobi Elbaz, Global Channel Chief, HP
Affeldt said what helped seal the deal with the financial services firm was HP Wolf Security— the hardware-enforced endpoint security soft- ware that HP introduced earlier in 2021—especially since many of the customer’s employ- ees were still working from home at the time. But it was ultimately the competitive pricing, enabled by the responsiveness of HP’s local representative, that brought the deal to the finish line. “HP was really willing to work not only with [the customer] but also with ACP to make all parties feel like they won. That was a huge thing for us because when you get to deals of this size, a point here or there matters significantly,” saidAffeldt, who previously led HP’s Midwest channel business. Affeldt said experiences like this with HP are why he’s heart- ened to hear that the vendor’s new chief commercial officer, Dave McQuarrie, is moving more decision-making to local roles. “I think it’s a great move to give some autonomy and, ulti- mately, some quick responsiveness from a pricing standpoint back to the field,” Affeldt said. For McQuarrie, who moved to HP’s top sales role last fall after serving as general manager for the personal systems business, giving more autonomy to local markets is about remaining competitive. “We’re in a position where every customer and every partner and every opportunity is a fight, and we need to win every fight, and the way you do that is you operate quickly and make deci- sions closer to the market,” he said.
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