Neil MacDonald, HP’s channel director for the UK and Ireland, believes this is an exciting time for the industry, with plenty of opportunities for sales for the print channel thanks to several factors.
After the success of the recent HP Amplify Partner Conference 2024 in Las Vegas, where HP launched a raft of new products, including printers, Neil MacDonald, HP channel director for the UK and Ireland, is confident about the prospects for the channel and the print sector within it.
“We remain as focused on the channel now as we did then,” he says. “We are a leading vendor in terms of working with the channel community, which is where the majority of our business is operated through. I’m very optimistic about what opportunities the market presents for us in the next couple of years. You couldn’t wish to be in a better industry right now.”
Neil’s optimism is reflected in the wider channel, where positivity about the market is at levels not seen since before COVID. “Everybody knows how people had to procure products through COVID, but now we’re coming to a point where those products need to be refreshed and updated or needs to have more collaborative usability or better security,” he says.
There are plenty of opportunities in the print channel, he adds. HP has recently launched a new range, which seeks to capitalise on the ongoing return to office for many employees – be that on a full-time or hybrid basis.
“We have a great printer lineup at the moment with more A4 devices coming into the market now,” says Neil. “It’s a great time for us at HP as we have the most modern product portfolio at a time when the market is poised for phenomenal growth.
“There’s certainly a return to office, which is becoming more prevalent in people’s considerations, and it has become a more noticeable trend in the past couple of months with our channel partners and customers alike. We are also starting to see more interest in the print part of our business; not just with an increase in print volumes, but more around the refresh of existing fleets in the field today; customers want to optimise their print operations from a productivity, document management and security standpoint. We’re definitely seeing that starting to trend in our business.
With printers, it isn’t just about refreshing the fleet, but upgrading it too. “Customers need more energy-efficient and secure devices in their offices,” says Neil. “As they come to market, we’ve got a very compelling proposition that we can capitalise on with our long-standing relationships with our channel partners.”
Message to channel partners
With such optimism, Neil wants as many businesses as possible in the channel to work with HP and take advantage of all the opportunities that are available.
“My message to our channel partners is to work with us and collaborate with us as much as possible,” he says. “We will work with you and invest in you as you are immensely important to HP. As I said at the beginning, the majority of our business is operated through the channel community, so they’re the most important partnerships that we have.
“At HP we want to work very closely in collaboration with our partners, making sure that we put the right marketing investments behind the right initiatives with them. HP can help with what we offer with our Amplify Partner Programme, there is an immense amount of data that we can pull from Amplify that can be used, and [HP has] the broadest product portfolio in the market. It’s a very exciting time.”
A longer version of this feature appeared in News in the Channel issue 17 – click here to read that.
