Credit: HPE
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has moved to extend financial relief packages to Asian-based channel partners in response to Covid-19, with support now available via distribution.
The vendor’s original initiatives - which targeted North American and select European markets - centre around improved factoring terms for distributors, extending from 60 to days. This was backed by early pay discount terms alongside the designation of more than US$2 billion in customer financing.
HPE - undergoing a billion-dollar cost savings plan - has now expanded liquidity benefits to allow distributors in Asia Pacific to access extended payment terms and additional discount rates on invoices impacted by Covid-19, as well as revised payment terms and extended payment discounts.
Of the 23 additional countries revealed, new markets include Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, alongside Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Australia and New Zealand.
“In these uncertain times we find ourselves operating in, I’ve spent days, in fact weeks now, talking with our distribution partners across the world to understand first hand their challenges and discuss how HPE can help,” said George Hope, vice president of Worldwide Distribution at HPE.
“I can’t pretend the conversations have been easy, but no matter how deeply we’ve discussed the biggest partner concerns it quickly became apparent that we needed to lead with a whole new level of investment, support and collaboration for our channel community.”
Designed to “relieve financial pressure” on partners, the incentives include programmatic changes such as the suspension of revenue targets and status holds across hybrid IT and Aruba networking portfolios.
From 1 May until 31 July, distributors and service providers that do not participate in factoring programs can leverage extended early pay discount terms to improve working capital and cash positions. Within the same timeframe, HPE will also extend payment terms from 60 to 90 days for participants in existing enhanced factoring programs.
Other benefits include the “temporary suspension or significant reduction” of strategic development initiative (SDI) targets, providing a pay-out for distributors from $1 at or near the full percentage rebate target.
“All of this is positively impacting the solution provider partners working with our distributors across the globe - and particularly smaller partners,” Hope added. “This adds up on the key action we have taken to relieve financial pressure on solution providers.”
Earlier this month, Phil Davis was appointed as managing director of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), days after announcing his departure from HPE.
Davis - who is relocating to Melbourne to assume the role - is tasked with guiding the technology giant’s “direction and vision” across the region, leading a team of business and technical specialists in the process.
Spanning enterprise to start-ups, Davis will also oversee plans to increase customer cloud adoption in APJ alongside the vendor’s expanding ecosystem of channel partners.
