HPE announces new investments in the channel with its new 'Pro' Series

At HPE Global Partner Summit 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced further investment in the channel, and a new strategic milestone as the company expands and evolves collaboration opportunities for their partners. With a uniquely partner-driven and holistic approach, HPE is introducing the ‘Pro’ series to deliver channel partners the solutions, skills and programs to further develop their teams, transform customer experiences and drive business growth together.

The new HPE Sales Pro Community and the enhanced and extended HPE Tech Pro Community and HPE Marketing Pro Academy offer uniform partner tools, training, resources and support mechanisms – as well as the opportunity to access the same learning and collaboration opportunities as HPE employees, and work as one team.

HPE continues to lead with the ‘Partner First’ philosophy through a clear strategy of collaboration, specialist development and industry leading innovation. Today’s announcements demonstrate the close global connection between the partner community and HPE as alignment and consistency is enhanced across technical, marketing and sales teams at HPE and in the channel. The updates include -

· HPE Sales Pro Community is a new global approach to driving sales excellence for HPE and partner sellers through effective sales communications and sales enablement initiatives.

· HPE Tech Pro Community, the recently announced initiative for solution architects, is introducing a new reward and recognition program as well as two new industry leading certifications and a full suite of continuous learning paths for technical expertise.

· HPE Marketing Pro Academy is expanding its offerings through a new online Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center, and new Accreditation Program.

By focusing on global consistency in three areas (Connect, Learn, and Grow), the ‘Pro’ series expand opportunities for partners to work with HPE teams, gain visibility, enhance their skills, grow profitably and enjoy an increased ease of doing business – ultimately, differentiate and outperform the competition

“Every professional within our channel partner community plays an integral role in selling the right solution to a customer,” said Joybrata Mukherjee, Director - Channel, SI, Alliances and Service Providers, HPE India. “HPE is demonstrating a new level of commitment and investment in our partners by extending access to the right tools and resources via the ‘Pro’ series which will improve the ease of doing business with us and drive their continued growth and success.”

* HPE Sales Pro Community has announced as a new global approach to driving sales excellence for HPE and partner sellers through effective sales communications and sales enablement initiatives. HPE Sales Pro Community provides a way for us to collaborate with channel partners, a simplified and easy to understand view of training assets, and a single reward program bringing together previous regional programs.

*  HPE Sales Pro Community will offer an interactive and collaborative space for HPE and partner sales to communicate, and successfully cascade prioritized news and product updates direct to sales professionals. Partners will also have seamless access to experts to support deals and secure business.

* In alignment with the continuous learning paths also established in HPE Tech Pro Community, HPE Sales Pro Community will now be utilizing modules from multiple existing and new sources including HPE Partner Ready sales certification, HPE’s internal sales accreditation program, License to Drive – Value, New Product Introductions, and other virtual sources to create a globally consistent, ongoing role-based learning experience for HPE and partner sales professionals.

* HPE and partner sales teams will have identical access to enablement materials, enhancing the ability to sell and grow together. HPE Sales Pro Community will deliver industry recognized certificates and digital badges in a single globally standard reward program. Simplified and harmonized global pricing and deal registration processes will ensure partners benefit from an improved user experience and usage of a new global pricing tool. Furthermore, alignment of HPE Partner Demo Program across all geographies will provide partners discounts that are more competitive.

HPE is enhancing HPE Tech Pro Community to help partners and HPE technical professionals to develop and deepen their solution architecture and design skills to enable business outcomes for their customers based on the HPE portfolio. These enhancements include -

· Introduction of two new Hybrid IT Architect certifications with training that enable solution architects to deliver industry leading business outcome driven solutions. HPE Tech Pro Community is launching a new ASE Hybrid IT Architect certification and Master certification. These unique, industry leading certifications enable IT Architects to develop and validate their skills to architect and deploy an optimized hybrid IT infrastructure for key industry solution workloads aligned to the HPE Partner Ready Competencies. The new Master ASE certification will be available on November 1, 2019.

· A suite of concise continuous learning paths that help keep technical professionals on the cutting edge of HPE and industry innovation. Effective immediately HPE is offering a full suite of continuous learning paths which provide job role-based learning on the latest HPE and industry technologies. Solution architects will have access to concise and powerful collections of learning activities with prioritized and curated technical content – everything they need to stay up to date with HPE’s entire portfolio to quickly configure and quote HPE solutions. On November 1 HPE will launch continuous learning digital badges to recognize completion of each learning path.

· A reward and recognition program that incentivizes solution architects to engage and grow with HPE. The new reward and recognition program for HPE Tech Pro Community members will provide additional benefits, higher recognition, and deeper levels of access to content and resources based on their investment in enablement with HPE. The program will launch on November 1, 2019.

As part of HPE Marketing Pro Academy, HPE channel partners will have access to the new HPE Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center and Accreditation Program beginning in November 2019. Today, HPE is announcing a pilot, with selected partners, of the new online Learning Center that provides partners with access to educational videos and resources on digital marketing topics. To support the success of HPE partners, the center will help enhance their skills and capabilities in digital marketing and developing more impactful, cost-effective digital marketing campaigns to win more business.

HPE is also announcing the launch of the HPE Digital Marketing Partner Accreditation Program. The program, set to be available to partners beginning November 1, recognizes and acknowledges the successful completion of a structured digital marketing curriculum. The HPE Digital Marketing Accreditation will be awarded following the completion of a curriculum of online learning courses published within the HPE Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center, plus the completion of the HPE Digital Marketing Maturity Assessment. Partner marketers will earn an accreditation badge that validates their proficiency in digital marketing.

Following the launch in June 2018, more than 750 HPE channel partners have completed the HPE Digital Marketing Maturity Assessment and had the opportunity to assess - at zero cost and in a quantitative way - their digital marketing capabilities. Today, HPE is announcing further enhancements including more personalization of the recommendations provided in the assessment reports.

HPE Social Media Center is being enhanced to make it even easier for partners to access and share impactful content across their social channels. HPE is aggregating influencers and curating their most relevant content for partners to quickly and easily share to their Twitter and LinkedIn channels. HPE is developing a pilot program with a group of key partners to give them access to a new and unique opportunity to license and share Enterprise.nx thought leadership content, without charge.

The announcements at HPE Global Partner Summit and Discover 2019 demonstrate that HPE is fully focused on delivering channel partners the solutions, skills and programs to transform customer experiences and deliver business outcomes together.