The new HPE relationship also brings the D&H HERO program, which provides additional HPE-focused support, into Canada.
Roy Rivers, director of sales for advanced solutions, D&H Canada
D&H Canada has announced a new deal with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Canada to carry their storage and server product lines, as well as their Aruba networking products, including switches. The agreement complements one that D&H announced with HPE in the U.S. in June.
The HPE relationship in Canada falls within the purview of Roy Rivers, who joined D&H Canada as director of sales for advanced solutions about six weeks ago. He had previously spent five years with Avnet in Canada and had been at IBM for 30 years before that, the majority of that time spent in the channel. Rivers’ role is to strengthen D&H Canada’s relationship with their top vendors – initially Cisco, Lenovo and HP Inc. HP Enterprise becomes the fourth vendor within this grouping.
When HP split into two parts, the Enterprise-focused company wound up with several elements, like the MSA storage line, which were clearly focused on the lower parts of the market. From a product development perspective, it would have made little sense to split them off into HP Inc., even though the other HP was more appropriate for their market segmentation. Those elements are the focus for D&H Canada.
“We continue to look to expand the solutions that we can offer our VAR community,” Rivers said. “HP Enterprise doesn’t have a ‘one size fits all’ approach. They do have offerings that play well in the SMB space. There is a huge opportunity for us to support those SMB and midmarket solutions that HPE offers, and that is what we are coming to market with. They extend across servers, storage and networking. The VAR community has different needs and address different specific environments, and this broadening of the solutions that we offer can address that. We think that this can differentiate us.”
HPE Aruba is one example of this. It provides a networking option for HPE-focused resellers, to complement the Cisco-focused Cisco Meraki offering that D&H began to sell in Canada last month.
“By having Aruba for resellers that have an HPE base, as well as Meraki for those that have a Cisco base, we now provide a menu to cater to what the end customers want,” Rivers said.
D&H Canada will provide support and resources for the HPE solutions through their new HPE “HERO” [Heighten and Elevate Revenue Opportunity] partner program. HERO was launched in the U.S. in June in conjunction with the HPE announcement there.
“HERO is a D&H program, which we built out with HPE input,” Rivers said. “It is tied to HPE, and for the most part is around the HPE offerings, but there is access to complementary offerings to other programs as well. For instance, there are some HPE bundles that include Veeam, and there are some bundles we could offer around that. We could also offer free templates developed around other participating manufacturers working with HPE.”
A portal provides access to unique training opportunities created by both D&H and HPE, along with opportunities to get certified. The portal also offers technical and pre-sales support, dedicated D&H solutions specialists, marketing and demand generation materials, and tools like an automated “iQuote” web-based function which includes an HPE Financial Services calculator.
“Canada is an SMB marketplace, and we have a massive opportunity to build our SMB business with HERO,” Rivers said. “Like most programs, HERO will also evolve over time.”
Greg Tobin, general manager at D&H Canada, provided an update on D&H’s new Vancouver location, which he said is doing very well.
“We are getting some good traction, and the resellers there are appreciative of our increased service level in the region,” he said. “We have an open house there upcoming on September 21st.
