D&H will continue with its SMB-focused BTO services, but is looking to help partners move further upmarket with the new offerings.
Chris Ralston, Executive Director of Vendor Management at D&H
Distributor D&H Canada has enhanced their relationship with Hewlett Packard Enterprise [HPE], in order to increase the amount of enterprise business they do with them. They have added a new Configure to Order [CTO] capability through HPE. They have also been authorized to sell the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, which provides more than 50 cloud services for enterprise customers, and can run on-premises, at the edge, in a colocation facility, or in the public cloud.
“We started our relationship with HPE some years ago, and at that time we had a focus on the SMB,” said Chris Ralston, Executive Director of Vendor Management at D&H. “As a result, we focused on BTO [Build to Order]. Now with the additional focus on CTO and GreenLake, we will be able to service mid size and larger enterprises.”
The CTO systems are based on a wide range of HPE’s software and equipment such as servers, storage, and networking hardware. HPE will factory-assemble solutions based on the end-user’s requirements and ship them to customers on behalf of D&H’s partners.
“This will enable midmarket VARs to sell more sophisticated solutions,” Ralston said. “BTO has never covered all of the solutions. CTO will allow partners to sell to larger solution needs, and opens up the entire solution portfolio for the customer base. This coincides with everything we are doing around the cloud marketplace. VARs today need to sell up the stack, and ideally become a MSP.”
D&H Canada is also now authorized to sell the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, which utilizes the XaaS-based consumption model. It is not something that D&H partners will be selling extensively today, because it is an enterprise offering. Nonetheless, Ralston said that it makes sense for D&H to add it to their line card at this particular time.
“This is where the market is going, and vendors are trying to figure out exactly how it will roll out,” he stated. “HPE has made significant investments in this, and MSPS are building out solid markets. Right now, GreenLake is targeted at larger enterprises. But it’s good for us to have this on our line card, to help partners change their traditional sell model. Customers at some point are going to want to buy based on consumption usage.
“We want to service existing MSPS selling to large customers, and we want to train our partners to become MSPs,” Ralston said. “HPE will help them here because it has unique tools bult in around capacity on demand, where a purchase is only made once you turn it on.”
One part of the GreenLake puzzle has still not been cracked
“The finance piece is still a tricky piece, and we haven’t figured that out, as far as how we move beyond the traditional lease process,” Ralston stated.
Both the HPE GreenLake and new CTO capabilities fall under D&H’s Modern Infrastructure unit, a new organization which began at the start of this fiscal year, and which offers a team of certified sales and technical specialists to support partners. It is led by Jason Bystrak out of the U.S.
June 1 was the official start date for the new programs.
