News in the Channel - Issue #5

INTERVIEW

Innovation is in our DNA and the heartbeat at HP Neil MacDonald reflects on his introduction to his new role at HP, the successful integration of Poly, the resilience of the Channel and how innovation is at the forefront to driving success at HP.

When Neil MacDonald took on his new role as UK&I Channel Director at HP just over a year ago, he did it at a pivotal time in the recent history of the Channel – just as the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic were coming to an end and the world began to open again. The transition into this new landscape couldn’t have come at a more interesting, and perhaps challenging time. Post Pandemic Supply and Demand “As hard as it was to go into the Pandemic, it was equally as challenging coming out of the Pandemic in terms of the way we had to kind of pivot the business back into a focus around driving the performance of the business,” he says. We went from a world where we had very high demand and challenging supply to a world where demand has softened to some extent, but our supply engine is absolutely firing on all cylinders. This, says Neil, was part of our achievement, pivoting the business back into that mindset of growth focus and driving a positive outcome for our partners. “But I think to enable that, I did a lot of work around how we’re structured ourselves as a business,” he explains, “streamlining our management team and making us very much more focused around coverage and having

the right kind of focus on the right partners. That was one of the pieces that I was really impressed about, is the quality and capability of the team that I inherited.” Onboarding Poly Latterly HP have worked to onboard Poly, which is a massive significant milestone for HP as an organisation to have made that acquisition. “It really does strengthen our portfolio and proposition to the customer,” Neil claims “and that’s been a really interesting part of the journey.” We built a programme called Amplify, which is how we engage with the Channel. Probably the most pleasing part within Amplify is Amplify Impact, which is our sustainability element. Sustainability is part of the fundamentals, the non-negotiable if you like, of HP. It’s part of the DNA of the company says Neil. “Amplify Impact was an area where we are really focused and very motivated by supporting the Channel to underpin the sustainability credentials and we’ve worked really hard on that.” says Neil, “We’ve got over 80% of UK partners by revenue completely engaged in that programme and that’s actually driving an outcome in their businesses as well.” HP are working on the synergies across both the HP and Poly businesses. It’s a case

Neil Macdonald UK & Ireland channel director HP

Amplify Impact is our sustainability element. Sustainability is part of the “

fundamentals, the non-negotiable if you like, of HP. It’s part of the DNA of the company

”

CONTINUED