By Alex Scroxton

31 October 2008

When your background at Hewlett-Packard is in PCs and storage, taking on the ProCurve networking division seems like a technological jump sideways.
 
For Darryl Brick – who was already well known to HP channel partners – there was only one way to deal with it; by focusing on the unit as a business instead of focusing on its technology.

Brick, HP ProCurve’s UK and Ireland country manager, explains: “I took on building a business with good technology and good people who had strong knowledge of it, which helped.

“Now I understand the technology better and it’s becoming clearer every day what it involves, so as I’ve got deeper in I’ve understood the importance of the networking piece and why it’s so relevant now.

“It’s also very clear to me why HP is putting such a focus on networking.”
It is sheer coincidence that Brick’s arrival at ProCurve came at the same time that HP ramped up the scale of its investment in the unit, and he has some ideas as to why HP realised it needed to take the network seriously.

“There was a phase around datacentre consolidation that spawned a period of growth for the IT industry and HP in particular; the objective was to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

“Now the spotlight has shifted to networking infrastructure. Suddenly it has become very important what it does and carries.”

Core investment

In Brick’s view the next wave of core investment will be the scrutiny of network security, performance and stability, and he already sees some large corporate customers asking questions around these issues, helping drive the network consolidation message. This, he believes, has been a wake-up call for HP.

“There are several proof points on why HP is taking ProCurve and networking seriously,” Brick says.

“HP has done a lot to take us mainstream. ProCurve’s finances have moved under HP’s financial control worldwide, HP has moved its logo in front of the ProCurve logo and we’re on Mark Hurd’s [HP’s CEO] quarterly business reviews.”

Brick also hints at a makeover for ProCurve’s partner programme, which is scheduled to happen within the coming months, with the aim of reinforcing this message.*

Outside the company, the most obvious signal of HP’s support came with the appointment of Marius Haas to the post of senior vice-president in June 2008. Analysts believe that the involvement of Haas, who can take credit among other things for steering the acquisition of EDS, means that HP is ready to dip into its war chest on ProCurve’s behalf.

When the acquisition of Colubris was announced, it merely confirmed that HP was going after new comms technology and product sets to bring something a bit different to ProCurve.

Brick stops short of naming future acquisition targets, but is in no doubt that having Haas at the top is a flashing neon signal of things to come, adding: “There may be other areas where HP chooses to acquire for our benefit.”

Brick, who is in charge of the integration of Colubris at the UK level, is excited by the opportunities the acquisition has opened up for ProCurve in the wireless industry and is already seeing high levels of interest in both channels.

He admits it is “inevitable” some Colubris dealers will not want to work with ProCurve, but has seen little evidence of anybody jumping ship to date.
“Channel partners are uncanny at siding with successful companies. There will be some short-term emotion but ProCurve is a solid firm and partners have already been coming to us and saying ‘Hallelujah – when can we get started?’,” he says.

“Our strategy for the last 12 months has been a strategic push alongside the channel, and I laid out a plan earlier in the year that we’ve been driving.”

Multi-faceted plan

The strategic plan is multi-faceted, but as far as resellers are concerned there are several key points. By Brick’s own admission some of ProCurve’s partners are not the largest or most skilled, and he aims to address this through accelerated development of an elite group of partners.

This will be achieved through investment in a technology-savvy sales force, the creation of demand among enterprises and more marketing funds. Similar tactics are being used in the SMB channel.

Additionally, Brick plans to target some of HP’s larger reseller partners. Leaning on contacts from his Enterprise Server and Storage (ESS) days, he is re-establishing relationships with several of HP’s key LARs, although he does not name names.

A further push will come around getting the ProCurve name in front of decision makers within the enterprise world.

“We’ll be working alongside consultants and people who have strong influence over customer decisions,” says Brick.

The Cisco relationship

Given the long-standing relationship between HP and Cisco, Brick told
MicroScope at the start of 2008 that ProCurve would be getting no special favours from its parent when it came up against Cisco.

However, given ProCurve’s excellent performance so far this year, the channel has begun to question whether or not HP will break off its dealings with Cisco to allow ProCurve free rein.

The future of that particular partnership is out of Brick’s hands; HP deals with Cisco on a global basis. However he acknowledges that the two firms are coming into contact with each other more and more frequently, especially in datacentres.

“We don’t actively monitor it [the HP Cisco relationship],” Brick says. “We don’t fear any competitor in a competitive situation, but we will always play to our strengths as ProCurve is looking to carve its own path. The building of a rock solid channel has been far more important to me.”

Challenging economy

Like many in his corner of the IT world, Brick is bullish on the challenging economy, taking the view that the recession will be an opportunity: “The minute a customer has to cut back and scrutinise his infrastructure costs it plays into my hands because we have a very compelling proposition around the Colubris acquisition,” he says.

“But nobody is yet saying they’ll stop investing in the network. Obviously customers are more cautious and there’s deeper analysis going on, which is causing a longer sales cycle, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

That is not to say some customers aren’t backing off, but Brick believes that by keeping focused on partners and the sales organisation he can remain competitive, unlike one competitor “who has chosen to go to the CEO of my customer and slag off HP, which is very unwise”.

He concludes: “Our industry will face tough times for sure, but we’re charging into the datacentre – that’s clearly the next wave – coupled with the acceleration of our open architecture play and our strengthened wireless solution.

“I’m trying to make that exciting for partners by delivering programmes that ensure they can enjoy growth and profitability.”

* Please note that since this interview was conducted at the start of October, Hewlett-Packard has moved ahead with its plans, incorporating ProCurve into the Technology Solutions Group (TSG) opening up the products to a raft of enterprise account managers that will be compensated for selling networking gear. Follow this link for the full story as revealed exclusively by MicroScope.