The VAR Guy

Hewlett-Packard is launching HP Strategic IT Advisory Services, a C-level advisory offering that, to The VAR Guy, sounds like a competitive service to HP’s partners. Since so many vendors including HP have been relentless in their beating of the “trusted adviser” drum with their channel partners, HP’s latest offering seems to undercut that message. Read on for The VAR Guy’s perspective …

In case there was any doubt about what HP’s intentions are with the new service, the company offers a very clear explanation:

HP Strategic IT Advisory Services designed to help chief information officers (CIOs) use IT as a key driver of innovation, growth and profitability.

Hmm, The VAR Guy thinks that sounds a lot like what HP’s channel partners should be doing. HP highlighted a few of the services offered by HP Strategic IT Advisory Services:

• Build an IT strategy – HP will chat about business goals to meet customers needs.
• Innovate business services – HP will help create custom-tailored solutions, including cloud computing, enterprise architecture or service management.
• Enterprise architecture – HP will help clients develop and establish a roadmap for growth.
• Business value of IT – HP will help clients understand what hardware and technology they can justify buying to help improve operations.
• Cloud business readiness – HP will guide clients to establishing best practices for implementing clouds, public and private.

The VAR Guy thinks all of the aforementioned services sound exactly like what channel partners for HP, or any other vendor, could be doing to help out an enterprise. So our resident blogger asks, Why is HP butting in?

Apparently, it’s all because of Gartner-based research that says enterprise goals are directly related to CIO effectiveness, and HP wants to help CIOs be as effective as possible. “The success of CIOs is increasingly being evaluated against enterprise objectives,” according to HP.

HP Strategic IT Advisory Services are part HP’s Technology Consulting, which is part of HP’s Instant-On Enterprise. The VAR Guy sees this as HP’s way of providing a turnkey solution to meet enterprise demands, but also sees it as a direct challenge to channel strategy.

The VAR Guy reached out to HP VP of Channel Strategy Meaghan Kelly for comment but received the following response from Liz Roche, strategist, Worldwide Portfolio Management at HP Technology Consulting :

HP’s channel partners are a key component of how we add value to our clients – so as HP Strategic IT Advisory Services grow and mature, we expect to develop channel-centered services which can be delivered as part of an overall HP solution. The new services announced yesterday are not in direct competition with our channel partners as HP is focused on a very strategic approach that includes a full range of consulting capabilities, not just infrastructure services. HP offers a hybrid between traditional or business consulting firms and IT consulting.

So while HP may be denying its new services offering competes with its channel partners, The VAR Guy is hard-pressed to see a difference — at least for now. The fact that HP has ideas on including the channel in the future is akin to eating a steak in front of a rottweiler and promising it the bone later on (just don’t turn your back on the rottweiler).

If you’ve been paying attention, The VAR Guy hasn’t yet fully answered his own question. Perhaps, sadly, the real answer is the all-important dollar sign. The VAR Guy believes HP is likely looking to pick up more revenue while appealing to those CIOs who may not care to look to the channel for a solution.

So what’s a channel partner to do? Differentiate and specialize are always at the top of the list, but more importantly, partners may want to add stickiness or solidify their existing customer relationships, lest they be ousted by HP.

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow The VAR Guy via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Follow experts at VARtweet. Read The VAR Guy’s editorial disclosures here.

Read More About This Topic

• HP Adds Marketing Depot Features to PartnerONE Program
• HP Expands ServiceONE Program to Networking Specialists
• Avnet Adds HP ServiceONE Program to Services Stable
• Solera DeepSee Security Software Goes Deep with Big Data
• Earth Day: Promoting Sustainability in the IT Space