When HP introduced the HP Amplify Partner Program a few years ago, several vocal office technology dealers objected to certain aspects of the program, particularly the sharing of customer data with HP. The primary concern was that HP might appropriate a dealer’s customers and sell directly to them. However, that was never the program’s intent, and those fears did not materialize.
Fast forward five years, and HP’s Amplify Partner Program continues to thrive, maintaining participation in the 90% range. What has evolved with the program are periodic enhancements, including several announced in March at HP’s annual partner conference. The Cannata Report had the opportunity to speak with Mary Beth Walker, VP and head of global partner experience, HP, about the strategic rationale and key details behind the recent program updates.
HP Amplify’s Mary Beth Walker
During the interview, Walker reinforced HP’s “future of work” strategy through the Amplify program, the company’s initiatives to drive increased portfolio sales by partners, its investment in partner training and enablement, especially around emerging technologies such AI, and improving partner productivity and ease of doing business.
The Amplify program is HP’s primary partner program, designed to drive increased sales and engagement across the company’s product and services portfolio. The new updates reflect a dual focus: expanding cross-portfolio selling and equipping partners with the tools and knowledge to lead conversations around AI. According to Walker, the latest enhancements are deeply tied to the company’s strategic vision.
“One is to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to reinforce our strategy around the future of work,” Walker said. “We see that the ability to have more of the portfolio put into the solutions that our resellers are proposing to the customers is bringing strength to our ability to create the outcomes that we want for customers.”
SuperPower Adds Cross-Portfolio Incentives
At the heart of the latest Amplify update is a new incentive structure called SuperPower, which expands on a previous initiative called More for More. While More for More, a rate multiplier that boosted sales and compensation for qualified partners and was focused largely on PCs and some peripherals like its Poly audio and video conferencing products, SuperPower casts a wider net. It uses a tiered rewards system that encourages commercial, distribution, and retail partners to sell across the HP portfolio, encompassing print, personal systems, peripherals, and services.
“The intent is for us to be able to entice and reward partners to sell across more of the portfolio,” Walker explained. “You get four targets: print, personal systems, peripherals, and services. If you reach any individual one, there’s an accelerator that will kick in, and if you reach three or four, there’s another multiplier that you get based on that, and it’s fairly substantial. If you get to all four, you could get as much as 40% more comp than you’re getting today.”
This initiative, rolling out on May 1, 2025, presently is targeted at commercial resellers, with plans to expand to retail and distribution later in the year. Early partner feedback has been strong, with interest from those already selling multiple categories and resellers exploring new areas of HP’s portfolio for the first time.
Amplify AI: Enabling Sales Teams for the Age of Artificial Intelligence
At its recent partner conference, HP unveiled upgrades to its HP Amplify AI program, including new customer use cases, instant access to AI experts, and personalized training pathways. A central component is the Amplify AI training hub—a dynamic, personalized learning environment that tracks progress, flags areas for improvement, and keeps resellers and distributors informed on training materials, product updates, and industry trends. It also tracks user progress and flags areas that may require a revisit. As Walker emphasized, “Their customers are going to expect them to really be the experts and to know what they don’t know . . . that’s a pretty big undertaking.”
To support this, HP offers certifications at various levels. “There’s the sales rep certification for kind of the basic training, but there’s also technical levels of certification,” said Walker. “We just announced a workstation technical consultant level program with NVIDIA. We’re looking at similar alliances that will allow us to offer multiple certifications.”
The training has seen strong adoption since its launch on November 1, 2024. “In the last six months, we had over 16,000 people take the course,” Walker noted. “We’d like to have at least 50% of the partners have their reps participate by the end of this fiscal year.”
Executive AI Education
Recognizing that executive-level conversations about AI differ significantly from those at the sales level, HP has also introduced a condensed training track tailored to partner executives. The training covers various AI-focused topics and features short video use cases highlighting AI’s tangible business benefits. According to HP, these concise and practical resources enable executives to make informed decisions and facilitate customer discussions that drive positive outcomes.
“We deal a lot with the CXO level of the companies, and they’re like, ‘Look, we’re not going to be able to take that six-hour class. And oh, by the way, even if I did, the conversations I’m having with customers are different in some cases than my reps,’” explained Walker. “So, we tailored a course specifically for them to ensure they can confidently go into executive-level conversations around AI and have that dialogue with their customers.”
The executive program repackages existing materials into strategic, high-level content. The first participants have already begun the program, and HP will continue refining the offering based on feedback.
AI for Productivity: Streamlining Partner Operations
Beyond AI for sales enablement, HP is exploring how AI can improve partner productivity. This includes automating support functions and simplifying common business processes such as MDF claims, pricing requests, and financial submissions.
“We are looking at ways we can drive down cost and increase productivity for the partners and how we do business together,” Walker said. She also noted that the company is enhancing its partner portal to make it more of a self-serve environment so that HP devote more of its resources to activities that help with sales.
Looking Ahead
The latest updates to HP’s Amplify Partner Program reflect a nuanced understanding of what its partners need: incentives to expand their portfolios, education to stay relevant in an AI-driven world, and streamlined processes that make doing business with HP easier.
Ultimately, the company is positioning itself and its partners for long-term success by investing in sales enablement and operational efficiency. With a steady stream of enhancements and a long-term view of partner success, HP is making it clear that Amplify isn’t static—it’s built to evolve.
Even as the newest enhancements are rolling out, HP is already planning for the future. A dedicated strategy team is exploring trends in distribution and digital commerce platforms, aiming to anticipate the evolving needs of resellers and customers.
“We have a group that just works on strategy specific to the program, and they’re always looking two or three years ahead,” said Walker. “Our program has to be the differentiator that keeps the partners happy, and we look at whether we are giving them the partner journey and creating the partner experience that makes them want to continue to do business with HP.”
