In his new post, Baulch is eager to focus on helping HP partners build their sales. “HP is already a leading name in the SMB market and we see more potential for partners to grow. Workstations are one very strong area of opportunity at the moment, as more users seek out powerful desktop and mobile devices.
“We are also seeing high levels of interest in TaaS (Technology as a Service) among HP resellers. A lot of businesses want to invest in a trusted brand like HP and wit TaaS, they can do that and spread the cost, which makes it easier for them to commit and easier for resellers to sell.”
Another area of potential over the next few months will be the build-up to the January 2020 end-of-support date on Windows 7. Microsoft will no longer provide security updates for Windows 7 after 14 January 2020, which is now only 16 months away. According to Microsoft’s own estimates, more than 184 million commercial devices are still running on this version, 64 per cent of which are more than five years old.
“There is an obvious potential here and we’ll be looking to work with HP resellers to seed and develop upgrade business over the next few months. It’s going to be a major opportunity in 2019”, said Baulch.