HP is continuing to build out its Just Right IT family of pre-configured solutions for SMBs, giving channel partners some new tools to reach high-impact opportunities with their small business customers.

Joining the ranks of “Just Right” solutions introduced last fall, including BYOD, unified communications, secure access, and collaboration, HP is now offering new bundles targeting virtualization, Microsoft Exchange, and SAP HANA, as well as a “My First Server” offering for smaller businesses.

Other than the My First Server offering, which is clearly targeted at smaller businesses just starting to grow their IT infrastructure, the bundles are built at three levels, dubbed by HP “starting out,” “building momentum,” and “expanding the business.”

The goal of the portfolio is provide bundles that address key SMB concerns, but to reduce the overwhelming number of choices SMB customers face.

“We’re trying to keep the sheer number down to a minimum. We aspire to hit on the key solutions that drive these customers’ solutions, but to keep it easy for them,” said Lisa Wolfe, worldwide SMB marketing and strategy leader for HP’s Enterprise Group. “And these are accompanied by a set of well thought-out enablement tools to help our partners market and drive revenues with these solutions.”

All of the Flex-bundles are built on HP’s ProLiant Gen8 servers, and include in many cases the server, storage, networking, and software appropriate for small businesses in each of those three stages of maturity. And the “My First Server” offering includes a “shoebox-sized” first server along with software and management tools for businesses just reaching the point of needing an on-site server.

“Even in a cloud services world, there’s a huge number of net new serves that will be purchased by small businesses in the next few years,” Wolfe said.

At the same time, the company is extending and simplifying its SMB-focused IT services offerings, branded ServiceIT under Just Right IT. John Flowers, technology services marketing lead in the HP solution partners organization, said that lineup includes technical, financial, and cloud services designed to help partners close deal and support customers.

“We understand our partners differentiate themselves with services in many cases, so our ServiceIT program is very flexible,” Flowers said.

Included in the lineup, a simplified lineup from its Technical Services division, which has consolidated 18 foundation services packages down to about five, a move that Flower said will both make the offerings more clear to SMB customers and easier for partners to understand their opportunities. As with most of HP’s technical services, and in particular those marketed at the SMB market, partners can either resell HP’s technical services bench, or deliver the HP-branded services themselves, if so authorized. Flowers said that adding such services to an infrastructure sale is “a great way” to build margins, and that as it becomes a more familiar part of their sales pitch, it becomes a more automatic sale.

“Many of our partners can make an incremental 20 per cent if they start exercising that muscle of attaching services to every solution,” he said. “That 20 per cent adds up over time. It’s a great opportunity to build [a solution provider’s] annuity business.

Also in the mix are financial services for SMB customer where “cash flow is king,” said Flowers. Financing offerings include pay-for-usage options that match consumption to billing and offer more flexibility to customers. “It’s a great way for our partners to deliver an on-premise cloud for their customers,” he said.

And for those looking for a more public cloud solution, a variety of HP’s public cloud offerings will be brought together under the ServiceIT mark and readied for small businesses.