Gilroy's short-term priorities include an overhaul of administrative operations supporting the channel, including a new PRM system to be introduced in the July/August time frame, and a task force charged with helping improve margins for both HP and its partners across hardware. He also plans to spend a lot of time with HP's enterprise partners for storage, Unix, Alpha and Itanium, among others. Actions Gilroy is considering include better sales alignment and vertical-market development activities.
"You can't just talk, you have to have action," Gilroy said. "You've got to get the pricing, you've got to get the intelligence, you've got to give them the guidance on what their standards are. You've got to give them access to high-level CIOs so they can map into that division's CIOs."
In closing her keynote, Fiorina said there are five reasons for partners to align themselves with HP: its scope and scale; its $4 billion annual investment in "focused innovation" in areas such as management, mobility and security; its ability to assemble compelling solutions and services offerings the channel can in turn sell to customers; its continued investment in programs, such as the $750 million it has dedicated to SMB initiatives; and its commitment to mutual profitability.
"I've never been more confident in the competitive position of this company," she said later in the CRN/VARBusiness interview. "Never."
CRAIG ZARLEY & JOSEPH F. KOVAR contributed to this story.
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