“In FY12 the focus is to improve our partners profitability”

As HP has already
finished FY11. Now, what are your immediate plans for FY12?

We ended our last quarter
in the month of October on a very positive note. For HP, the FY12 has
already started. This year the major thrust area for HP commercial
business is to increase the profitability of our channel partners.
When we look at the present scenario, all vendors are struggling to
maintain their top lines, and the same challenges are being faced by
our partners also. Hence, to enable our partners to sustain in the
present situation, our core focus will be to improve their
profitability.

How HP is going to
achieve its partners' profitability?

We are trying to achieve
this by rolling out new partner programs. This year, we are putting
more emphasis on improving our mid- and high-end products mix. We see
there is a lot of scope to improve our product mix for our partners.
As these products bring healthy margins, it eventually help them to
improve their bottomline. Another focus area would be on our value
set of business, which basically consists of workstation, retail
solutions, and virtualization.

What are the new
programs in the pipeline?

HP is committed to its
channel partners and focuses on channel programs, which are
beneficial to them such as incentive programs, training sessions,
etc, and thus launched a series of initiatives and events to educate
these partners on HP India's new products and solutions recently.
The company is planning to take this campaign to smaller cities
across the country and will be doing so in a phased manner. Some of
the major programs are following:

• HP Speed Program:
  Under the 'Speed' express delivery program, SMB customers and partners
  enjoy the freedom to order notebooks through any HP business partner at
  special prices and get the product delivered within 7 days. The
  notebooks on offer are high-end and fast-moving, and come with a
  maximum warranty of 3 years.

• HP Reseller
  Compensation Program: This program has been designed to improve the
  performance of HP's business partners and to encourage resellers to
  focus on value portfolio and conduct cooperative marketing activities.
  The compensation to partners will be made on the basis of four
  components-sales performance, sales of accessory products,
  specialization based on achieving HP PSG certifications, etc, and
  market development based on their co-marketing plans.

• HP AchievePlus:
  It is a sales representative's incentive program to motivate members to
  increase sales of HP products and to drive focus on product selling.
  Members can earn points for each sales claim, on participating in HP
  program, which can be redeemed for a wide range of products.

• HP Partner
  Learning Portal: It is a repository of product information, partner
  learning materials, marketing information, news, events, channel
  reporting, partner program details, contract and compliance and pricing
  details.

What are the major
changes you have made in Mobile Moghuls program ?

The Mobile Moghuls program
was launched in the year 2007. In the last quarter, we reintroduced
the same for our partners. This time the focus of the program is to
encourage our partners to start pushing our mid- and high-end
products. Moreover, we have removed our entry-level products layer
from the program and it has been specially designed for the SMB
partners to focus on the commercial mobility range. It will help
partners with sales tools, product information and laptop positioning
kits. Under this program, partners are also rewarded for meeting the
targets. Moreover, partners can make margins between 2-4%. In
addition, we have also introduced HP Sales Odyssey Program. We have
started a special training program for our channel partners in
different cities. These sessions are interactive with role plays and
active discussions, with an aim to engage with channel partners and
address their issues. These sessions have taken place in cities like
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chandigarh,
and almost 400 partners have benefited from the program.