HP CEO Meg Whitman went all out to assure partners she "gets the channel" at the HP Global Partners Conference 2012, insisting the company will not turn into the software- and services-led firm Léo Apotheker wanted.
"I get what you do and appreciate the importance of what we do together," Whitman said, before describing HP's 200000-strong global channel partners as a "competitive advantage."
Channel partners have plenty of reason to be wary of HP-- during his reign at the company, Apotheker preferred to focus HP efforts away from hardware and towards enterprise services and software. Whitman does agree on the importance of software, but core printing, PC and infrastructure markets still generate 70% of HP sales.
One of the first decisions Whitman took upon becoming CEO on September 2011 was to reverse plans to sell off the $40BN PSG group in a Great Garage Sale.
HP is also offering Converged Infrastructure resellers bonuses of up to $50000 for bringing software opportunities to the network. Partners are also getting Interchange, a social collaboration tool to help acquire the skills required for large deals.
When it comes to a smartphone strategy, HP is silent as the now open source webOS remains swept aside in favour of the new-- HP wants to restart HP Labs investment instead.
