While many of the solution providers interviewed reported overall strong growth in their HP business, many said the Attach Plus rebate program is broken. Jones noted, without giving specific numbers, that HP's spending on partner rebates has increased in double-digit figures over last year's spending. HP partners, however, said they've voiced their concerns to HP without finding a resolution to the problem. If the data is not matching, I will take that up as an action item with my operations team. "But it should not-and has not affected-partner progress reports. He added that HP, Palo Alto, Calif., has undergone significant consolidation in its data centers over the past two years, going from 85 down to three. "I haven't heard directly from exclusive partners that they have an issue understanding their goal sheets or progress reports that we send out on a monthly basis," he said. "I can't predict the future because nobody at HP can tell me what my sell-through is."Īdrian Jones, HP's vice president and general manager, Americas Solution Partners Organization, said he was not aware of the problems in reporting sales-out numbers. "The first rule of business is knowing your costs," Duval said. That totals $313,276 in HP Product."ĭuval, whose $800,000 a year company has been an HP partner for 10 years, says he still hasn't received a response from HP regarding the discrepancy in sales-out data. According to my accounting system we sold $87,000 in DesignJet products, $166,991 in new computer and laptops and $59,276 from your remarket program. 26, 2007 stating that D and B Technologies did not sell $50,000 in HP Product nor did we sell $10,000 in services sales. ![]() HP said in the letter, "Our records indicated that your company did not meet both the $50,000 annual product sales volume and $10,000 in Eligible HP Services sales."ĭuval responded to HP with a letter that said in part, "I received a registered letter Dec. Bert Duval, president of D and B Technologies, an Ashland, Va.-based HP solution provider, said he received a letter from HP notifying him he faced de-authorization from its Authorized Warranty Delivery Partner Program. The problem is widespread, even touching smaller HP partners. ![]() When a point to a point and a half of gross margin is riding on the numbers, this is serious money." Not only don't the numbers match, but we're not sure what HP is basing the numbers on. what HP tells us our sales out are has always been a problem," he said. It's problems like this that have led me to become a NetApp partner."Īnother exclusive HP Gold partner expressed similar frustrations. We have all of this money tied up in rebate programs, but there are so many links in the chain that if any one fails, the whole chain fails. We'll upload sales data and it won't show up on HP's systems, and if they don't get sales numbers right, you're screwed. "They have a huge problem tracking sales data. "They've made it so complicated and convoluted that it doesn't pay predictably," said another HP Gold partner, who asked not to be identified. ![]() Solution providers say Attach Plus matrices are so complex, and the difficulties they experience trying to obtain and verify realtime sales-out data mean they can't track or predict rebate payments. You should have access to more HP people and resources and act more as an off-payroll type of HP employee. "If you are exclusive to a vendor, the benefits should be different. "As an HP exclusive partner, there is no benefit financial or otherwise at this stage of the game to being exclusive," said one HP Gold partner, who asked to remain anonymous. What's more, five Gold partners that consider themselves HP-only told CRN that problems with rebates and HP storage are forcing them to consider abandoning an HP-only model and explore partnerships with Network Appliance Inc., EMC Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. The problem seems most pronounced among HP's Gold and Platinum partners, the vendor's largest and most loyal, and those that should have the most to win with Attach Plus. And despite what they consider to be a significant commitment on their part to HP, they say they are seeing few leads from HP's direct sales force. But in addition to the data glitches, HP partners say they are losing out on sales and rebate opportunities because of gaps in the vendor's storage lineup.
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