HP ANZ’s new managing director Brad Pulford has laid out the need for partners to shift the nature of their conversations with customers as budgets tighten and hybrid work needs evolve.
Pulford touched down in Sydney recently to take up his new role after his previous position as HP’s vice president and managing director for its Africa region.
He spoke to CRN Australia ahead of the HP Amplify Partner Conference 2023 in Chicago next week, discussing how HP partners can keep providing value around PCs and printing.
“We've got a great PC landscape, we've got a phenomenal print landscape. But how do you continue to create value around those opportunities?” Pulford asked. “It's no doubt hybrid plays a critical role.”
“If I look at our own internal set-up, everything that we are doing in terms of manufacturing of equipment all the way through to the acquisitions that we've made over the last couple of years have translated to how do we enable a work experience driven by a hybrid model for the future?” he said.
“All the customers we're engaging with are saying to us, 'How do we leverage some of that advancement?”
Staffing is also a topic of these conversations. “We find that when we engage in with the Gen Z community, or anybody that's interested in making a shift into the organisation, hybrid work is now becoming part of the conversation,” Pulford said.
“Many customers are saying, ‘We've lost some staff. But more importantly, the staff that we're trying to attract – it needs to be a meaningful kind of engagement and experience for them. So how can you help us with that journey as well?’”
“Then you start thinking about the adjacencies,” he said. “What does it mean from a security point of view? And how can he help us so that when these people are mobile and moving around, that there is no compromise from a network point of view?”
“What does that mean around services if I've got somebody working from home and I don't have a technician on site to go and support them?”
Pulford noted a need for partners to shift from transactional conversations to broader discussions. “How do we take the discussion from a laptop or a print conversation into a workspace experience discussion?” Pulford asked.
He sees those conversations encompassing many issues well-known to IT partners – from the balancing of home and office technology, to the need for more dynamic workspaces while on the move, and the need to have conversations continue seamlessly from offices to taxis and other locations without disruption.
“Essentially, the expectancy around how people want to operate in the future is to be very physically mobile while not compromising on quality,” Pulford said.
Pulford also noted that “Poly is enormously important on the basis of creating that seamless journey and experience”. HP acquired video and audio communications company Poly in August 2022, a move Pulford described as a “huge acquisition”.
Security is also an "immense discussion that [HP is] having and an immense trend that we're seeing at the moment,” he said.
“All the contact points or threats are device centric or connected to a network so we, as vendors and multinationals, have the responsibility to make sure that we protect our partners and protect our customers through that journey,” he noted.
Pulford pointed to HP Wolf, introduced in 2021, as an “ indicator of how we looking at hardware enforced security as well as software enforced security as an option for our customers.”
“This is not a device-only set up and it's not only geared towards the PC. It's a security platform that allows you to be protected with no compromise – everything from the print all the way to PC. At any network point on any HP device you'll be protected working remotely.”
Pulford also touted care pack offerings that allows the company to provide services for customers remotely as well as on-site.
Additionally, he flagged HP’s Proactive Insights analytics tool, which is marketed as a way to “foresee hardware and application issues and measure user sentiment.”
“These are the kinds of things that we're doing from an acquisition from a manufacturing and development and innovation point of view, to ensure that that hybrid experience is completely well covered.”
Sustainability appearing on RFQs
Pulford said sustainability remained high on HP’s agenda and not a “tick box exercise”.
“Previously, it was seen as part of a KPI and it's something that you must do, whereas at the moment, when it becomes one of the key elements as a reference check for your responses to RFQs and RFIs, it becomes really meaningful because, as a vendor, you can either win and lose on that basis,” Pulford said.
“So, the sincerity and the meaningfulness around how you've geared up in that environment becomes very, very important.”
Amplify program
Pulford also acknowledged the importance of HP’s partners and "making sure that we have an amplified partner program that is that is well covered, that is well accepted, and creates value for our partners.”
HP introduced its Amplify Data Insights program in March 2022, combining protected partner data with third-party market intelligence and internal data in one platform.
“99 per cent of our revenue generating partners with HP have accepted and are on the Amplify program,” Pulford said.
“Roughly 98 per cent of those partners are providing data back into HP from an insights point of view for us to continue our journey around creating value.”
Last week, three ANZ partners, Truis, Virtu and Imagetext, were announced as winners of HP’s inaugural 2022 Amplify Impact awards.
In November 2022, HP also hosted its Australian HP Annual Partner Awards Night in Sydney, recognising top HP partners including Dicker Data, Ingram Micro, Data#3 and Somerville.
In September 2022, HP introduced its Curiocity training program, which aimed to adapt training and upskilling to a younger demographic, using gamification to improve engagement, and enabled work with other HP partners in the region.
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