HPE claims it has beaten its rivals to the punch by removing repricing terms on transactions of up to $1m.
As exclusively revealed by IT Channel Oxygen, HPE in February became the first major vendor to begin reserving the right to raise prices post-PO in a move that caused consternation among partners.
Now it claims to have stolen a march on competition by partially reversing the controversial policy.
The move applies to sub-$1m compute, storage and HPE GreenLake Flex deals from today onwards.
“What we’re doing is new”
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Charlie Tunley, UKIMEA Channel & Partner Ecosystem Director at HPE, claimed the change will increase predictability for partners and help them win more business.
“We are making things operationally easier for our partners and customers to navigate and work with HPE,” he said.
“I think we’re probably one of the first in the market to make the proactive change we’re making now.
“I haven’t seen any evidence or heard any feedback from the partners that I speak to that, ‘oh, you’re like the sixth person that’s done this already’. I think what we’re doing is new; I think it’s an exciting update.”
This is the second time HPE has partially unwound Ts and Cs changes brought in earlier this year in response to supply constraints and escalating costs caused by the AI boom.
In June, it returned to standard quote validity for new server, storage and GreenLake Flex quotes (raising it from 14 to 30 days).
The pricing and quoting overhauls brought in by the likes of HPE and Cisco in February ruffled feathers among UK partners, with one saying post-PO price hikes would often be “legally impossible” to pass on.
Tunley claimed partners had always been sympathetic of HPE’s motives, however.
“There was a general understanding from partners that this is a global issue, not an HPE issue per sae,” he said.
“Over the last few months, we’ve worked with a lot of our supplier partners to get better control of things like costs, so that we can pass a lot of that certainty onto the people that matter, which is our partners and customers.
“It was very difficult for a partner to get a quote from us, present it to their customer, get a purchase order, and then get it loaded on us all in the space of 14 days. So simplifying the partner experience is really important.”
In a LinkedIn post, Omdia Chief Analyst Alastair Edwards branded HPE’s latest Ts and Cs change a “smart move”.
“The benefit for HPE will be an immediate advantage over some key infrastructure competitors, whose pricing terms continue to cause significant chaos for the channel,” he wrote.
“Partners will hope this prompts other vendors to follow suit…”
