http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1590207/hp-culls-gold-partners
HP CUTS A THIRD OF IT’S GOLD PARTNERS
IN THE PAST MONTH
HP has cut a third of its top tier Gold partners in the past
month.
The drop in numbers came as
the vendor cut channel organisation costs in order to bolster its
balance sheet. With fewer Gold partners it needs to employ fewer people
to oversee these accounts. Other explanations include a rise in the
sales threshold required to achieve Gold partner status along with a
drop in sales suffered by many of its resellers due to the recent
economic climate.
According to a couple of industry insiders
interviewed by Microscope, the cut was seen as a good thing in order to
keep the HP old boys club as exclusive as possible. HP however says that
some resellers chose not to re-accredit, which would suggest that some
weren’t getting what they had hoped for out of HP’s partner programme.
Many vendors have similar programs that try and boost the marketing
ability and brand credibility of their resellers.The question for HP is
how many of those former channel partners who jumped ship or it pushed
overboard will realign themselves with other vendors’ sales programmes
and peddle their equipment preferentially.