HP Software is taking its global managed service provider programme back to the drawing board after admitting that it is unworkable at a country level.

The plan is to rework the scheme for launch on 1 November, the start of HP's fiscal 2013, said Paul Toffis, manager for channel and alliances at the vendor.

"The current programme is global and doesn't work very well at a country level. It's cumbersome and difficult to execute; we are trying to refine it," he told The Register.

Toffis said interest in the programme, which enabled resellers to deliver HP software as a managed service, was muted. He said the main stumbling blocks centred on the type of licence included in the contract.

"We put an uplift on price to a point," he said. "[We] wanted to give flexibility to use that licensing in a multi-tenant environment, but if a partner wants to provide a licence to support a client in one location, why pay the uplift?"

He would not comment on potential changes to pricing, stating that HP is still working on that element. "We want to get partners interested and then we can drive it through."

Toffis said another bone of contention is that the programme was inflexible when the managed services contract neared its end of life.

"At the end a customer may want to [renew the service] or move the licence in-house, but we had to review every contract – which was cumbersome and tedious. So it's about automating contracts and licence usage," he said. ®