News release

HP Reaffirms Commitment to Partners at Americas Partner Conference

Company announces competitive displacement program, enhancements to PartnerONE and other programs to help partners grow

At the largest-ever annual HP Americas Partner Conference this week, HP reaffirmed its strong commitment to its channel partners and channel growth with a series of new programs and updates designed to benefit channel partners.

Among these are incentives to sell into competitors' accounts, enhancements to PartnerONE, HP's channel partner program, and new printer services opportunities.

"The Americas Partner Conference is a significant event every year for the HP channel partner organization. This year, the channel has seen the great strides HP is making to help partners," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Personal Systems Group, HP. "We are fully committed to staying the course and delivering the products, programs and services that will make our partners successful."

Bold strokes for growing new business

Focusing on business growth, HP is offering channel partners additional incentives for sales into competitors' installed-base accounts. The new offer features increased discounts on demo equipment for desktops, notebooks and workstations, as well as enhanced margins on the sale of desktops, notebooks, workstations and select HP Care Pack packaged service offerings.

Developed in response to channel partner feedback, enhancements to the HP PartnerONE program focus on increasing margin through services and software:

• HP Authorized Service Delivery Partners who qualify can grow their HP Care Pack services delivery business through the new "Partner Sell and Deliver for Printers" initiative. In addition, HP will enable Authorized Warranty Delivery Partners to not only sell, but also deliver warranty extensions for HP Care Pack services. This follows an announcement earlier this month of new wireless network HP Care Pack services that can be sold and delivered by authorized HP partners.



• For channel partners who provide management solutions for the Adaptive Enterprise, HP's strategy for customers to synchronize business and IT to capitalize on change, the PartnerONE OpenView Elite tool has been expanded to offer more incentives for those who want to increase their software expertise.



• In response to the feedback from channel partners and the recent success of the PartnerONE Portfolio Tool, HP is expanding the eligible product set to include HP Education Services, Business Continuity and Availability Services and HP AlphaServer systems.



• HP is expanding the resources available to the PartnerONE Linux Elite partners to assist them in driving revenue for Linux-based solutions.

"Our resolve and commitment to our channel partners is stronger than ever," said John Thompson, vice president and general manager, Americas Solution Partners Organization, HP. "We continue to accelerate the momentum by providing programs that will show channel partners real results."

HP also announced efforts to focus on the highest growth areas in the marketplace, such as blade servers. Leveraging the recently launched HP BladeSystem demand generation campaign, HP is offering channel partners an additional sales incentive on HP ProLiant server blades. HP also announced new ProLiant server blades that use AMD Opteron™ processors.

Complete collaboration

At the Americas Partner Conference, more than 1,000 account planning meetings are scheduled between HP sales leaders and HP partners. During these meetings, HP and channel partners are developing joint account sales strategies designed to have a significant impact on their businesses. This is the first year HP has made such a significant investment in joint planning meetings that will set the strategy for the coming year.

This year's event is also the first time HP's many independent software vendor, systems integrator and reseller channel partners will be in the same location at once, giving them the chance to network and strategize on the best solutions for customers. HP's relationship with these channel partners is an integral part of bringing solutions to market.

Real results

In addition, HP provided updates on several programs announced previously. HP's Enterprise Sales Engagement strategy, announced in November, is in full execution. HP is on target to get the accounts transferred to channel partners with many of the account planning meetings taking place at the Americas Partner Conference.

HP also provided an update on the HP Imaging and Printing Partner Value-Added Selling training, referred to as "Rolling Thunder." The program teaches HP channel partners to sell with a consultative and service-based approach. More than 300 channel partners have taken advantage of this initiative and anticipate sales to increases up to 33 percent following the training.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31, 2004, HP revenue totaled $79.9 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

AMD Opteron is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected development, performance or rankings of products or services; statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the development, performance and market acceptance of products and services and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.