HPE’s unified partner program excites APAC partners

“We are going to be the only technology provider that will have the full suite of the critical elements of IT across compute, storage, networking and software. It will really position us well to help the partners drive business growth together,” says Heng Huey Lih, General Manager, Channel and Partner Ecosystem at HPE APAC.

With HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks completed, the focus now shifts towards the integration of solutions between the two vendors. Given HPE’s previous acquisition exercises, the entire exercise should be seamless experience for both customers and partners.

While customers will be looking forward to seeing how they can better solutions post-acquisition, partners would be seeking more details on how they can expand their portfolios with newer offerings.

About a month ago, HPE announced a single, unified partner program consolidating existing programs to enhance partner experiences across the entire HPE portfolio. This new unified partner program will see all programs combine under HPE Partner Ready Vantage, including HPE Partner Ready and HPE Partner Ready for Networking, to offer simplified enrolment, flexible participation, and comprehensive support through various program tracks. The unified program will roll out in phases, beginning with an initial launch on November 1.

According to HPE the design of HPE Partner Ready Vantage reflects partner input and the best practices of HPE’s award-winning programs, equipping partners to build their expertise as deep or as broad as they need while delivering exceptional customer outcomes.

However, it still yet to be seen how Juniper’s partner program will be integrated into the new portfolio. To understand more about how this new program will impact partners in the Asia Pacific region, CRN Asia caught up with Heng Huey Lih, General Manager, Channel & Partner Ecosystem, HPE APAC

What are partners most excited about when it comes to working with HPE?

HPE is a partner-first company and for us, all the partners, especially the ones in Asia Pacific, are very much a part of our family. The partnership is very much a part of our DNA especially since about 85% of our business is done through channel partners in this region.

In some countries in APAC, it can go up to as high as 100%. For the HPE Aruba Networking business, around 97% of our business is our total.

How did partners in this region react to new partner program announcements?

The mood has been overwhelmingly positive. With all the announcements that were made for partners, they were very excited and positive about the announcements. Coincidentally, the Juniper acquisition also closed right after the summit.

However, during the summit, all the focus was on AI hybrid cloud as well as networking, and the partners were very positive about it. Personally, I am really very excited because this is the most exciting time ever in my 25 plus years in HP, before the spit and now with the excitement coming from partners and customers alike.

We are going to be the only technology provider that will have the full suite of the critical elements of IT across compute, storage, networking and software. It will really position us well to help the partners drive business growth together. And this was prior to the announcement of the closing of the acquisition.

HPE will have further communications on what the next steps are and all that. At this point in time, from the HPE channel's perspective, we listen to our partners a lot.

In November of last year, we integrated the HPE Global Sales Channels Organization with the HPE Aruba Networking Channels team. This is something partners have been asking for a while now, and we finally did it. And the response to this integration has been fantastic.

Because it really makes the experience for the partners working with HPE a lot better. They can now fully leverage the HPE portfolio. And then in May, we also integrated the Zerto Channels team. So, all these things are put together as one, now with the one channel team approach.

It really positions HPE to drive and help the partners leverage and unlock all the value that is in the industry megatrends today.

At the recent HPE Summit, there were several announcements on innovation in hybrid cloud and AI. What does this mean for partners in the region?

AI, hybrid cloud and networking are the three key overarching strategic pillars for HPE. As one of the biggest market opportunities today, AI is definitely on the top of mind of both our customers and partners alike.

The APAC region is seeing a surge in demand in GenAI and with 84% of our partners citing that they are receiving proof of concepts or POCs. While we talk to partners, we realize that not everyone actually understands how to take advantage of the AI productivity gain. And let alone how to embark on these tangible steps or what are the tangible steps that they can take to actually unlock the value.

And this is where I feel that HPE is here to help the partners unlock the AI opportunity and turn that into reality.

Looking at hybrid cloud, AI and network, what are the areas you're seeing most growth in this region right now?

The three key pillars are all intertwined, and they're all linked. But again, AI is at the top of mind for all the partners and customers right now. And underpinning it is the hybrid cloud, which is the key enabler to deploy AI. And then the core foundation of it is networking.

And we also focus on the AI enablement portion of it to help our partners. This is where our partner program comes in because it provides the guidance needed for partners, especially as they all come together in one program.

The new unified HPE Partner Ready Vantage program is a unified partner program that consolidates all our existing partner programs into, including our award-winning HPE Partner Ready, as well as HPE Partner Ready networking together to provide, to create a simple, single, simple and flexible unified program for our partners.

In fact, it actually unifies and consolidates 11 of our existing partner programs into one. And through this new unified program, we will enhance our partners' experience but also enable the partners to leverage the full portfolio that we have right now.

How does this program really work for partners?

So, this program is not only simple, but it's also flexible. So, there are the three tracks - the build, the sell, as well as the services track.

If I were to go into the sell track, now, when I say that it is flexible, because within the sell track itself, we have combined compute, storage, networking, services, etc. And partners can now easily resell the entire portfolio of products and services across the operational expenditure, which is the OPEX and as well as the capital expenditure, which is the CAPEX, through one program membership.

So that is simple now. And with that, the partners can then choose where they want to focus and then effectively drive the growth in the discrete areas like compute, storage, networking, and each having, because each of them has actually a dedicated center within the sell track. So, it's flexible and the partners can actually choose where they want to focus.

The program is going to be launched in phases with an initial phase, the initial launch on 1st of November.

Lastly, how do you foresee the future for HPE and partners in the region?

The overarching strategy for HPE as a whole is AI, hybrid cloud, and networking. And this is really reshaping the channel ecosystem with HPE, especially positioning ourselves very well as the partner of choice to address all these mega trends.

As I mentioned earlier, we are going to be the only technology provider that will have all these critical elements of IT, all together in one HPE portfolio, compute, storage, networking and software. And we are driving a channel first approach, which is amplified by a lot of the enablement. We want to work alongside, together with our partners, to drive all these mega trends.

We continue to invest, especially in our partner enablement. With all these mega trends that are evolving, we are confident that HPE will be there to walk alongside our partners.