HP plays the cloudy dating game with Helion Marketplace

HP GPC 2015 HP is to showcase a new dating service for its reseller partners looking to sell cloud services with Service Providers looking for a route to market.

Helion Partner Marketplace is to be launched, a similar initiative to one from IBM, that allows resellers to sell, provision and bill services to customers delivered by Service Providers (SPs).

The scheme is up and running in the US with 15 SP’s including AT&T, NTT and Verizon, but launches in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Japan are due at the end of this calendar year.

These SPs pay HP a commission to float their services on the marketplace, the vendor confirmed.

“This is an eco system to match services providers and resellers, but the reseller maintains some control of the customer sale,” said Sue Barsamian, senior veep of indirect channel sales for HP’s Enterprise Group.

She said a “lot of thought” has gone into the terms of the title, liabilities and legal issues should a contract go wrong but didn’t elaborate further.

A survey from management consultants McKinsey & Company showed customers spend 80 per cent of their private cloudy tech budget with channel partners, versus 60 per cent for traditional IT.

“Intuitively, it makes sense, it (cloud) is harder for customers [to navigate], they need more help,” said Barsamian, in a point previously made by UK mid-market supplier Sofcat.

“The sweet spot for partners is to bridge traditional IT with this new style of IT. Building that hybrid cloud environment that allows partners to integrate on-premise with off-premise private cloud but also public cloud”.

Barsamian said resellers need to build service catalogues for customers while keeping the traditional business spinning.

According to the research from McKinsey, 100 per cent of channel organisations surveyed say cloud will impact the industry - no shit - but while some see it as an opportunity and a threat, 57 per cent do not have an “active plan” to grow cloud services.

Those that decided against distributing cloud services will find their business marginalised over time, HP said. ®