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TCS+ | Yesh Surjoodeen unpacks HP’s Amplify Partner Program
HP, long been a leader in the technology space, launched the Amplify Partner Program in 2021. The programme has since gone from strength to strength. Through its dynamic nature, it stands out as one of the most powerful partner programmes in the technology space. In this episode of the TechCentral’s TCS+ series, HP Southern Africa MD Yesh Surjoodeen discusses Amplify in more detail, and explains how it is taking HP partners across the globe to new heights. Surjoodeen unpacks the origin of the programme along with the latest updates announced in Las Vegas earlier this year at HP’s Amplify Partner Conference. Additionally, he explains how the programme is helping partners drive AI readiness and technology adoption among customers, alongside empowering partners to make a positive impact in sustainability and environmental awareness. HP has set itself apart in the way it supports the channel and end-user customers. Watch or listen to the interview with Surjoodeen to learn more about HP’s Amplify Partner Program.
- Duration:
- 37m
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- aac
(upbeat music) - Okay, good day and welcome to today's episode of the TCS Plus podcast series. Today's podcast is brought to you by HP. And we're gonna be unpacking some of the updates to HP's world-class partner program called Amplify. I'm your host, Brandon Haskins. And it's unpacked today's topic. I have with me in the studio today, Yesh, as Sergio Dean, who's the managing director of HP. Welcome Yesh. - Thank you. - Thanks for joining us. - Pleasure. - Yesh, I don't think you need too much introduction to anyone watching from the technology industry. I think you've been with HP in a few different versions of the company for many years. And you've been at the helm of HP for almost two years now. Can you tell us a little bit about the role that you carry now and the roles that you've had along the way? - Yeah, so I absolutely thank you very much. And I've been with HP. I'm gonna say collectively with broken service around about 20 plus years. So yeah, really enjoying my career at HP. I facilitated many roles during my journey at HP from both the enterprise side to the end user computing to be able to cover from the product side, the channel sales retail, and more importantly end user sales in addition as being the other tangent. But really happy and proud to be part of leading the HP family going forward. Today I'm responsible for HP Southern Africa and West Africa. So that means the countries of South Africa and all operations for HP in terms of what we're doing on PC print supplies, but expanding that into territory such as the static areas Angola and until recently Nigeria and the West Africa or say Central Africa cluster as well. Okay, fantastic. So yeah, I mean, clearly you've got a passion for the business. What is it about HP that's just kept you so interested and involved for all these years? - I think it's really just about the groundbreaking innovation that we bring into it. I mean, we look at that from a product side of things. It's really important. We really bring high quality product into the market. We're innovative in terms of the solutions that we have and generally wanna be one step ahead of what technologies we can bring and more importantly solutions and the ecosystem that plays, that's super important. We understand that we play a big part not just in the IT side of things, but also in the downstream responsibilities such as the services and the capabilities. And when you look at what we've done on the print side in terms of the new technologies on our A3 and A4 in our managed and subscription based modeling when we look at what we're doing on our PC in terms of our workstations and our retail industry solutions or sets. I think we have a really good handle in terms of what that means from an end user experience. And I think that's really good because we're innovative on a technology point. We're innovative on a partner ecosystem, but we're also innovative in our programs and our programs are a core component of stitching that together, taking that messaging to our customers that use our products. - Absolutely. Look, I think through my career I've always been a massive supporter of HP and in my opinion honestly it's some of the best technology available in the market. But I think for me what's been the most impressive just from my perspective with HP is I've always seen that they've had a massive support for the channel and the channel partner has always been very much the focus from an HP perspective. Tell me your view from inside HP, why is the partner so critical in this ecosystem? - The partner is really critical because it's on multiple levels. The first one is that the partner are an extension of HP. I mean right now today you would find that HP's presence and ability to cover is really actually driven by the strength of the channel. The channel adds not just the ability to cover, but also adds a lot of value add into an ecosystem. We cannot assume that one company can provide all services to our customers. So our partner ecosystem is highly important in terms of executing the full package to our customers. What's the other important part of it is our partners are really a good sounding board when it comes to what our customers need. And in most cases when our partners talk about their experiences, they talk about the challenges they're facing, it feeds a really good feedback loop into what we as a tech company need to do and be better and to understand what partners need to diversify and what they need to improve and how they go forward. And ultimately what that does do is raise the economy of any country, right? Because partnering with partners and being able to provide services and create opportunities for them to grow is certainly the way that I think all companies need to be responsible in the countries that they operate in. - Absolutely, I fully agree. And Yokudos on continuing to support the partner ecosystem like you do. So we here today to actually talk about one of the partner programs. And so it's called Amplify, from what I understand. I don't think it's a very new program. Can you give me a little bit of a history on the program? I know we're gonna talk about some of the latest things that have come up, but when did it start? - So that started in around November 2020. We'll talk about the pre-pandemic, post-pandemic era. And I think it really just put a lot of pressure into us understanding, hey, what are we doing here? And we had to rethink and look introspectively, what are we offering our partners, partners, in terms of a program that helps grow and develop them? So since it started, it's evolved. And I think one of the key things about HP Amplify program is it's not a static and it's not a linear type program, right? It doesn't just address the aspect of performance. It talks about performance, but it also has a huge index in terms of collaboration, right? And more importantly, capabilities. What capabilities do our partners need for tomorrow? So it's the first of its kind in the world and it's an interesting leading one because it's very dynamic. It talks about what do partners need to develop and how we can grow together to serve a changing and a very dynamic environment, by the way, because we've seen that in terms of the businesses and the way they need to operate. So that in concept is really what's important is that it's driven around the partner capabilities and not just purely on a linear fashion and rewards only focused. The key things about it is that we really as also that the way customers are buying has been changing. So a lot of partner programs may have been limited to just understanding that all business is transactional. But we're seeing this huge change, right? We're seeing this huge change in terms of having more contractual sales happening. And we needed a partner program that also addresses a contractual side of it. But more importantly, the hybrid models and where customers want to work in their different ways, we needed that program to also serve to that. So it's quite an innovative, it's industry leading, it's very different in terms of the way we approach it. But it's really honed on making the end user experience consistent through the capabilities of each partner where they stack rank and what their core focuses are so that we can best harness their performance and capability in that environment. And that's really, really important because it may very well be that all businesses are driven around revenue, but Amplify as a program also just doesn't cover the performance of saying let's do a good sale. I think it's all about doing good business. And then we have different tangents or let's say different pillars within Amplify that talk about Amplify Impact, which talks about the sustainability side of our business. And that's important because each partner has a responsibility to good corporate businesses we do. And we need to be a more sustainable company and so do they need to be in their processes and the solutions they offer. Then we also have Amplify Online, which really talks about the way customers are purchasing and all transacting with product. And that may tangently do different areas, the commercial or let's say the commercial online business, but also then the retail online business. And so the program encompasses all of those different criteria. And that's what's great about it. It gives you the ability for everyone and a customer on their digitization journey, as well as the partners to better serve to the needs and to be able to transact in those different models. But the biggest nugget of that is really the insights. And that's what Amplify really segments itself overall. It's not just a structural way. It's looking at data insights, a really core component of all the actions driven around Amplify. I think in today's world, we have to agree that data and insight into what we need to do is that core component to tell us how to do things better, more efficiently, and also be ahead of the curve to create differentiation for our partners when they're competing in their quadrant. And so, insights and data is really core at our Amplify program, giving partners information and giving them guidance as to where to go, where to sell, and perhaps what are the things we didn't know out of the standard transactional static kind of model. - That's really brilliant. So, yeah, I think that everyone says that the new goal is actually data. So, the results of the products that move around is probably far less important as to how, and how customers actually want to consume and need to consume. And I agree, I think preparing partners for their change in how business transactions are happening no longer is business conducted as a transaction, is conducted as a relationship. And that relationship has to extend all the way from the vendor into the end customers' hands and everywhere in between. - Okay, then maybe let's jump quickly into the Amplify program itself. I think we've really covered a fair amount from a high level point of view. So, I think we might even have got through my first question of the program. Maybe then let's talk a little bit around the conference that happened to begin this year. So, the program's been in place now for a couple of years. And I know there was a conference in Vegas early this year, and there were some announcements. So, what was shared by HP at the conference for the channel? - Yeah, a lot. I'm gonna say it was really, really important event because we not only understand that, hey, there's a lot of solutions that our partners need to send, but I think what the conference also does, it brings people of similar minds and some ideas to talk together and be able to explore ideas and opportunities. So, I think that that's one part of the conference I would personally wanna bring into it to say that it's a great time to connect and understand where markets are going, but not just in the regions we support, right? But also to look at other regions. We realize very quickly we're in a globalized environment. And some challenges that we experienced in Europe are perhaps, challenges we've had in Africa and vice versa. And so that's the important part of it. So, the partner conference brought about a couple of new things to the table. One of the most exciting ones is our AI masterclass in our Amplify partner program. Masterclass is perhaps the most interesting and the most exciting one, largely because today we're living in an AI world. And so, we felt the need that we needed to take partners on that journey. We have an AI masterclass that's driven with an Amplify that tells a partner the ability and gives them the opportunity, the training, the plays and more importantly the education they need to become more familiar with AI, whether that's from a basic point of understanding AI to going right into a data scientist kind of mode. And that's really crucial because education and knowledge in terms of knowing what to sell, how to sell it and understanding customer problems is key to success for our partners. So, we've got to make that investment, right? We always understand that knowing more about something is perhaps better than not having an idea and just responding to our problems. I think that was really the key big takeaway. We've partnered with HP University and NVIDIA to bring in some really good content when it comes to AI. And of course, we'll reach with other alliances and try and bring more information as we go along because we think it's evolutionary. And I think that's Amplify's signature movies that it's an evolutionary program. So, perhaps also the information and stuff we need to be always updating and bring that into context. So, that I think was one of the key big takeaways I took out of the conference. - Let's talk around the dynamic nature of this program as well. So, I mean, this is a massive advance in technology and HP and our right behind it and supporting partners get to grips with it. - Correct, correct, correct. And so, we've also introduced what we call sales plays. And sales plays are really important for our partners to understand, well, if I'm going into the services arena, I'm going into a particular environment where I want to sell managed services. What are those sales plays that allow me to understand what I could be selling? But today, what we're seeing is AI is creating new revenue or opportunities, new opportunity streams in terms of work and services. So, we talk about video collaboration. You talk about print services and you also talk about, let's think about the other one. It's like the services portion when we talk about active care services. And we call that active care services because there is a huge demand for doing the right services infrastructure for a customer post purchasing a product. And so, we have those sales plays that help partners encourage and drive to hone in and be more surgical in terms of where they need to be. The third thing that we brought around in Amplify Partner Conference was simplifying the structure. So, that's a beauty of Amplify. It's not a complicated program. It's driven around this baby two tracks, right? It's got two tracks. We call our partners can apply to be a synergy partner or to be a power partner. What we did at Amplify was we took the power segment of it and broke that out into power elite partners and global power elite partners sets. Which means it's now feeling like the partners have more of a base and an ownership and identity in that program, which means today if you're a global partner, you have the ability to be treated and rewarded and incentivized, but more importantly, brought into this ecosystem of what a global partner challenges are, which may be very different than a synergy partner. And that's an important part of that. And then the fourth thing that was perhaps big at Amplify Partner Conference is really the fact that sustainability is core to our design and our strategy. And so, we've had Amplify Impact Partner Program for our partners. We've now introduced Amplify Impact for distributors. So, today, distributors may have the opportunity to assess their sustainability measures within the organization, what they're doing, how they can effectively use sustainability and their efforts in creating a just and a more responsible world, either in the ecosystem they work in, or in fact, in the solutions they bring for the society. They can help and use their sustainability charter to be able to differentiate themselves. Because I think ultimately, companies want to work with responsible companies and companies that are making an impact to society and environment. And I think distributors play a massive role of us in the aggregation of these kinds of programs and of your interest as a technology business and how those are brought to market. So, I mean, I'll just start of interest. I mean, up there on a global stage and you've got all these different countries in the room, in your view, how are we doing from a South African perspective in our readiness from a partner perspective, how are we doing our partners for programs like this, and also to take this journey towards sustainability. Where do you see us? - Well, firstly, I think we hold a very strong vector when it comes to what the global world wants to see from South Africa. And I think we represent South Africa to an extent, but also Africa and what we would call a growing economy. So, I think it's seen in a very positive light. It definitely is something that's we become more attentive towards our global and our worldwide partners to say, we understand that there's a lot of things we can learn from the continent of Africa. Sustainability is core. I mean, we look at some of the key indices, right? We're a very resource-driven country, right? We depend on our natural resources. We have a lot of challenges when it comes to infrastructure. We've got the waste problem that we need to take care of. We want to be responsible in the way we design, develop and create product that, you know, uses less of a carbon, let's say footprint in our environment. So, we need to be strong with those kind of programs. And our partners like that, because it's not just about being environmentally responsible, it's also about being socially responsible. And today when you look at kind of the, let's say, the design or the challenges within South Africa, I think there's a lot we can do in terms of creating better employment, creating skills and developing a youth and a very young generation. So, off the bat, the partners are super excited about sustainability because it helps build on different levels. And so, oddly enough that you ask when we had the conference last year, we had interest at one of our local partners that actually ended up getting a award at a global stage. So, we can very quickly make a difference and be quite comparable and competitive on a global level. And that's really good, because when we talk about what a local partner that can do purely not looking for an award, but actually doing what's right and just be gets alerted on a global environment, it's really, really, reassuring to see that. There's a lot of programs in our Amplify Impact features. Let's put it that way. We've got the Doing Good Community project. And because Amplify is driven around collaboration, what happens is a lot of the partners on Amplify Impact have the ability to also collaborate with each other. So, it's a sharing and a meshing of ideas. The Doing Good Global Community project allows partners to communicate, understand what they can do in terms of volunteering, what they can do in terms of donations, talking to NGOs and using ideas from other partners as well. It also provides a platform for them to share their stories and to talk about what they're doing so they can be inspirational, but also allow other people to see how different things are in different environments. So, that's important. We've also got the HB Finder Reseller portion of Amplify. I think it's important because we want to make the right decisions. It's not just about alphabetical choices in terms of choosing a partner, it's about those that you want to attach your identity with and so that gives us an opportunity for our partners to also showcase their capabilities and solutions. And of course, then, you know, drive that sustainable message. And I think that overall we've got a bigger responsibility because we need to do responsible recycling. We need to create and extend the life cycle of our devices. So, we equip the partners with the tools, the capability, the training and the methodology in terms of addressing these really hard pressed socio-economic problems. - I think that's a really critical piece that a lot of partners probably just don't know even where to start. We also go through a program like this with a support of a company that's got a global initiative. I think that's really something that probably can make a difference. And also, I absolutely agree. I think there's a lot of buying power that people might want to drive to a partner that is actually making the right choices and really trying to make a difference and not just win a deal because that's really fantastic. - Are there any sort of South African contextualized examples? Outside of interest, which I think is an amazing example of one of our partners getting up on the global stage. Do you have any other examples of where this program, in its dynamic abilities has been applied into a partner? And we've seen some actual transformation happening in the local world. - Absolutely. Yeah, so let's talk about that. It's not just limited to amplify partners. When we talk about sustainability and the doing right, we extend that to our entire ecosystem. So let me take an example of one of our services partners who services and does service delivery for us as a whole. They're a part in completing that HP journey for our customers. They recognize that we needed to maybe do something outside the central portion of Johannesburg. And so we looked at the province in Limpopo. And we understood that there was a lot of talent in that community, but highly under index in terms of resources, capability, infrastructure. And so we took the opportunity and met with the TVET colleges there. We set up a computer lab and that's where we brought one of our sustainability projects under the guise of digital equity and human rights was looking at HP Life. HP Life is a free platform, both available on mobile and on the internet. And we need to create that infrastructure to be able to take this message forward. That's 32 courses that talks to about how an individual, whether you're of a university degree or not, whether you're for a high school qualification or not, but the ability to get free training in terms of how to run your business. So it's really on the ground entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurs that say, if I have an opportunity today, I can actually then learn something because I know now how to position a product and how to sell it and how to market it and then how to create a business my own. And it's done and there's a lot of appetite for that. We realize that there's a lot of hunger in it. So together with our partner, we go into that environment. And I think there's a lot of success stories bringing to be talking about that one. I remember we had perhaps last year an individual that was the work that attended this courses and did all of these courses, got out there and said, hey, I just really want to try and do it, but of a transport company. And this individual sets up a transport company and started purchasing more vehicles just within that year. And now markets that transport company to tourists that are happy to come and see the limbo of the environment. So it's really such a good on the ground seedling story that tells you that if you have the energy and you have the enthusiasm, the platforms are there. And we want to encourage that. We want to encourage the ability of people to touch on and get access to this type of learning. So entrepreneurship is super high on that, HP Life project. So HP Life, I've made a note. I think that's something that can make a massive difference. And it's something that's needed. There's too many scenarios where people don't have access to this. It's great that you can give that back. And it's a really great example. Tell me just speaking about people. I know there was also a piece of work recently released by HP where they've gone and done a work relationship index as part of this amplifier program. Can you tell me a little bit about what was done in that index and how that's been used by HP? The work relationship index is really an important survey that we've done, trying to understand where's this new world going and what's the relationship more importantly between workers and their work environment. So we look at that because post-pandemic, a lot's changed in terms of the way we're operating. We've got hybrid models and uncertain structures of how people work, but there's fatigue and frustration. And then there's career changing that's going on. So there's a lot of frustration in that mix. So the work relationship index really looks at that relationship between the employee and employee and how that's matching in. And hopefully give us insight. So it's an insight into what we as tech companies need to do because we believe as tech companies, we're an enabler into a better working environment. And hybrid being a part of that is something we need to address. Now, there was a couple of important things that come out of that survey and the insightful data. Firstly, you'll find that there's very different behaviours in emerging and mature markets, right? Because infrastructure plays a part, access to technology, et cetera, does it. And what we actually found, which is kind of interesting, was that in developing markets, people actually had a better relationship with their work environments. And that was quite, quite important. The second part of that survey was also honed in on the fact that you've got a lot of technology options available. But at the same point, that experience could be better. That experience could be better. And when we talk about that experience, the question then comes out in AI as an example. So can AI enable or is it just seen as a chapter that nobody wants to walk into because they're afraid that AI will displace jobs? And the survey shows that while there's a fair percentage of people that believe AI may replace their job, there's equitably of perhaps even more of them that are saying, actually, think this is going to make my job easier. And if it makes it easier, then you could improve the working relationship index. And I think then what that tells us is that we as the tech industry need to be able to promote and educate more on AI, because I think that's really, really, really key to that journey of making that a better environment. What the survey did tell, which was something that was really interesting as well, is that outside just a healthy work environment and understanding how you want to work, the aspects of trust and empathy really need to be engaged in any company strategy. And what that means is that a lot of people said we would forego financial gain for working in a company that gives us the empathy and the understanding, the emotional intelligence behind the equation, but also with the fact that I want to work with the company that I can trust. So when we look at that, we say that's a dimension of where that has to be about what a company offers and how you bring it. So hopefully it's not just an insight into what we as tech companies need to provide to our new customers, but also an insight for companies on what they need to take in consideration on their strategies for understanding what is that better relationship that an employee and an employer can have. Empathy, I think, is the key element then. We have to, as we engage with these technologies more and more, that becomes a massive part of any work environment. So I absolutely agree that organizations need to be prepared for these changes and making sure that they really put their workforce at the very core of the organization. And ARS yet to stay, and I think it's important that it's embraced, but it was embraced in a way that's supportive of our employee. So let's start with a little bit into AR and the innovations in the HP universe. I don't think HP is always an associated brand with when it comes to two ARS, not the first company you think of, but I'd love to hear about what HP is doing in this space and what was, I know there was some big AR analysis at the conference as well. Can you take us through some of that? - Super exciting times. I mean, and you asked me earlier on what keeps me at HP and what keeps me at HP and what keeps me going. And I think that was the one part that I think is absolutely what's so necessary for our environment is that we're so innovative when it comes to product. So we've released not only the largest range of AI-based PCs, we've also gone a couple of steps forward in that. And now I'll take you through some of that. I think that's really important is that we understand that AI on the edge has a different part to play when we talk about AI on the cloud. And so we needed to make that investment innovation and what's reassuring is that we've really taken that by the horns and run with this opportunity. So not only do we have the largest range on there, but we also understand that we need to create this ecosystem. So when we look at the AI creation lab and studio that we've created, it allows us to be able to better attach our products and the ecosystem around not just having a piece of hardware, but what does it bring for AI development? What does it bring for AI organizations or industries that are created out of the environment? The workstation range has been refreshed. We'll have refreshed the workstation range in terms of having a lot more capabilities facilities for AI because we understand that AI takes a high computing requirement at the edge. And so our workstations are very well suited to address the AI environment. We've partnered with NVIDIA to also look at the AI libraries that we're trying to that. So the NGC kind of libraries having these preset solution, let's say, modules that allow AI development to happen on the fly on these workstations. That's really important. So we're not just looking at the hardware side of it, but we're saying, what is that ecosystem working on a GPU for that matter or an NPU design for our devices. So I think that ecosystem needs to be better formulated and presented not just as a hardware side, but the entire solution set for AI development. And we can definitely lead in that environment. The other side of it is that we understand that AI also brings a lot of security risk. So on our business PCs, what we did was we brought about firmware and AI-based protection on our devices themselves to prevent and when we have the first PC that actually has now built-in security against quantum hacking. And that's really important because we understand that while AI grows, there's also a risk that comes with it. And so we needed to make that investment in here. The other side of it is that the experiences of collaboration in the AI-based environment. So we work together with Poly and bring in some AI-based solutions on our camera systems that allows to have better in-room conferencing capabilities here. And so those are some of the nuggets on what we did on our product side. But if we shift on the product side and we look at what else we have on AI, is we talk about the work-relationship indexing, right? Like, how do people work in that environment? We've also released and launched our HPX, which is Workforce Employee Experience Platform. And what that is is this first AI-enabled digital management system in terms of an environment. So an IT manager or partner, understanding better how to relate. How do you manage the devices in your organization? How do you keep track of them? How do you manage better hardware experiences? What analytics you have? And more importantly, how you're managing contractual devices versus transactional devices in a mixed environment of multi-OSs and then also spending to print was really important. But what's great about works also is that it's now being adapted with AI, giving you what we will call AI personas that allow you to understand this is the working styles of individuals, and also look at sentiment tracking on your users. And that informs you beyond just the hardware and the capabilities of what you need to do. But talks more about what's that user experience like? And how can we actually better that user experience for an environment? Because we do have that responsibility to make a better working experience for people. So WAX is really one of the greatest, let's say, solutions sets we brought to offer on the table. On the last side of things that perhaps I can hone in on is to talk about digital services. I think that's really important. We understand that the way people are buying today is not just, again, transactional and print this. There's management services, so we've done some announcements in here. But the last benefit was also, how do we bring better technology from an enterprise grade into an SMB? We know that a lot of companies, and there's a huge SMB opportunities. A lot of companies are smaller, and we're not seeing necessarily printing just in large corporates, but we're also seeing a huge amount of growth in printing in smaller SMB environments. So what we then did was brought the TeraJIT technology from our large enterprise environment into an SMB printer, the LaserJIT 300 series. And what that does is allows an SMB now to have access to the same type of quality. High performance, more importantly in speed, having great quality in terms of vivid colors. And then the last one, of course, is the energy usage right in the eco-friendliness, because that's an important part in terms of what SMBs and perhaps all customers are looking for. Yeah, from a sustainability perspective. From a sustainability perspective as well. Yeah, so it's technology, but time to sustainability. And if you look at it overall on AI environment, it can also inform us better how to work in those environments. Tell me a little bit more about WEX. So I think there's a really interesting concept. How do partners and how do the customers get access to that? Is it purely through the HP technology, or is it, how is it brought to market? Yeah, so WEX will be released in the coming months. We're busy working on the plan now. It was announced at the annual partner conference. And we have a stage roadmap in terms of where we make those available in the countries as we roll them out. But what it really is, is to talk to partners about saying, we have an ability for you now to maybe diversify your revenue streams under the Amplify Impact Program. So if you're a services partner, power services partner, your interest and your expectations as well, your customers may be asking you for things that you serve today. But what if you gave them things that they didn't know and be able to give them more insight, and you could better manage the environment. Now we have a very mixed environment. Everyone's in one office area. And everyone's in one corporate environment. So there must be better tools. Better tools for them to better manage different estates in different areas and to manage this environment. And so there was definitely a need for partners to say, well, if I could perhaps have better control in how I manage my environments, what could HP bring to the table? And remember that it's not limited to HP, right? Because it's a multi OS and multi vendor kind of platform. So we're bringing more solutions so that these partners cannot diversify their revenue streams and be able to reduce risk and improve efficiencies in the way they translate with our customers. How do the partners access this program? So I mean, is it limited on any specific partners? Is it a strategy? Yeah. So partners, when we're in our Amplifier Partner Conference, we also simplify the architecture. Let me just take your step back on that one. We simplify the architecture in terms of having the synergy, like we said, and there's a power set of things. There's a power services quadrant, which means if a partner's driven around and its core focus is on doing services, then yes, they would be in that genre, in that clustering to say, well, services is my core focus. This is what I'm built at as an Amplifier Partner HP, Certified Power Services Partner, and I have the ability to access that one that comes in. So yes, those partners will be encouraged, will have development plans, will do roadmaps with them, will bring them onto the journey of their training, certification, and ability to take those to the market. So yes, that's how we'll reach it in. And at what point is a partner then considered Amplifier? Or is it a continuous evolution? Is it a continuous evolution? I think that, more importantly, Amplifier doesn't necessarily distinguish too much in terms of saying, hey, listen, you need to do X amount of revenue to get onto a program, right? It's not, I think there's the program that encompasses different partners for what they do. And SMB is as important in a partner as is a global corporate for that matter, a partner, that serves that. So when a partner approaches Amplifier program, they can request to be a part of our program. They can go through a couple of training modules, they can go through understanding the product, the solution sets, and effectively get their capability out of the equation done. And of course, after that, as we go from capability, we go to collaboration. And then they understand based on their skill sets, how do we match their priorities, HP priorities, into where they want to feature sets, and how can we encourage driving their business forward? Because it's almost today difficult to find a partner that can do everything. And we know that customers are asking for specific niche areas where partners hone in, go in deeper, and we take them through their journey. And it is evolutionary. It really is important because the Amplifier program has one important aspect on it. We take the partner's feedback as well into designing and adjusting and enriching the program as it goes along. So since 2020, every year you see new enrichment coming out in the program in terms of the model of certification and the way they can access and work with it. - Fantastic. Well, it's clearly something that's very important to you and to HP. I mean, for HP to actually have you really as what RC is, the ambassador for this program. I think that's obviously going to be key to its success and well done for taking around. How much of your focus at the moment in your day-to-day goes into this program? - I would say that it's equitably as important as managing up and around the business. So I think that in today's position, we spend a lot of time looking ahead, right? We spend half our time looking ahead because we need that insight and looking ahead is really about getting those indications from Amplify. So I don't think that we'd spend a lot of time worrying about or focusing on managing the Amplify program. It's a very easy to understand, manage program through our channel organization. What we really look at Amplify outside of it is that it's also giving a lot of self-help capability to our partners. So our partners that feed into it would give us indications and we'll take that into it. I would say probably half of the time we're looking for that insight coming out of Amplify. It's really rich in terms of data insight. So which means today, even if we need to make an informed decision as to where we're going in strategy, we're using Amplify as a benchmark to feed us the information. This is where we need to go. This is what we're hearing. This is a feedback, this is the experience where we're going forward. If you want to create an opportunity to say, we want to go and look at our re-install base. We want to look at our next level upgrade install base, Amplify as a core component of it. So it's not that I spend a lot of time managing Amplify. I think I use a lot of Amplify every day in that process of giving informed decisions in terms of solidifying our strategy going forward. That's it. And how well has it been received in the market so far? Absolutely well. I have to say that overall, it's fun. It's innovative, right? The fact that it's not just a linear program of getting from point A to B and it's continuously evolving is what keeps the excitement, the energy and the creativity and innovation they expect. So today we get a lot of interest on Amplify. Of course, don't get me wrong. There's a lot of work to be done in terms of rolling. All the programs in all countries and being available in all markets. But the good news is that Amplify is always ahead of the game in that sense. And there's a platform for everyone to land on. So I think people find their identity, they find their core skills, and they find their capabilities so that their customers better with the Amplify program. So so far, we're really proud of it and we think it's an awesome program for our customers and our partners to enjoy with. Great, well, thanks so much, yes, thanks for joining us and sharing all this information today about the program. I'm really excited to see how well this program goes with HP in the future. And thanks for joining us and all the best. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you very much, Ben. [BLANK_AUDIO]