Exclusive: Kobi Elbaz at HP on how the memory shortage is an opportunity for their partners

Speaking to CRN Australia, the SVP and GM of global revenue operations discusses how the legacy vendor is tackling supply constraints.

As the memory shortage continues to impact partners across the globe, Kobi Elbaz, SVP and general manager of global revenue operations at HP says he sees it as an opportunity for the legacy brand.

Speaking to CRN Australia exclusively, Elbaz said, “We all see it as an opportunity to potentially strengthen our position together because customer will look for partners and vendors that can help them to navigate this."

Elbaz noted that partners and customers are concerned about the future, but he said that “we are all in this together”.

“HP has a long history with the channel, so we have managed a lot of different situations in the past.”

He explained why trust is so important during these seasons.

“For me, the key with our partner is about trust. Our partners trust us and because of the long standing relationship we have with them, and we are very consistent in the way we work with our channel partners. And this role comes into play during these times,” he added.

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HP implemented three actions for their partners to combat the current memory shortage, Elbaz explained. First is stability with pricing where they will provide a 30 day commitment to pricing.

“They got a price for us, it is valid for 30 days, so it's a positive for them,” he said.

Secondly, partners that bundle solutions together for their customers will be able to offset some price increases.

“If you are a customer that bought our PCs, but you don't own ours printer. We can go to a customer now and say, ‘if you improve the portfolio with us, we can basically mitigate some of the price increases’,” he stated.

Lastly, Elbaz highlighted the HP Work Experience Platform (WXP) that can help partners and their customers in their decision making.

“It's a massive opportunity for us and the partners using data in order to help customer to take the right decision,” he said.

“It can help the customer to use data to define what refresh each of the customer needs. So instead of just buying by type of product, they can really be very surgical.”

AI uptake in the channel

HP relaunched its Amplify program in November 2024. One of the new features is Amplify AI where it allows their partners to find all the resources and education about AI under one place.

"We created a resource where partners can learn about AI and understand different use cases. Depending on where you are, your finance, productivity, creative, what solution exists in the market,” he said.

“We are not only talking about devices, but we are also talking about software and ecosystem.”

In terms of the partner program, Elbaz explained they are in constant communication with their partners about Amplify.

"We have a dialogue with them, and based on the feedback and what we see in trend in the market, we continue to evolve that,” he said.

“The framework remain the same, you always need to say there is a performance elements, capabilities and collaboration element.

Looking at AI uptake in the channel, Elbaz said everyone is on a different learning curve. Some partners are ahead, and others are catching up.

“There is a good correlation between those that the head of the curve to those that took the Amplifier master class and using the Amplifier AI on a regular basis,” he noted.

“Not everybody is on the same level, so different level of partners.”

Elbaz has seen a difference between now and a half ago around AI adoption. He is noticing that more partners are wanting hybrid AI in their stack.

"There is an industry acknowledgement now to have hybrid AI for many different reasons, such as security, latency and performance and cost,” he said.

"Everybody now understands that to run AI on the cloud is super expensive. If you want to manage your cost and productivity, you must find a hybrid way.”

Message to partners

For Elbaz, he said this is the time to invest in curiosity around AI.

“Use this as an opportunity to drive better customer experience and help customer to navigate.

“It's our opportunity together to gain share in the market,” he ended.