Las Vegas – In the closing keynote at the Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM)SMB Alliance event, held here, Kirk Robinson, vice president and general manager, commercial markets division for the distributor reiterated that “SMB is big business” to the crowd of more than 500 solution providers.
In his keynote, Robinson said that SMB will remain the sweet spot for sales and that vendors are still trying to move into the SMB and figure out how to properly price it.
He added that Ingram will be doubling down on the SMB with many new programs on marketing, training, financing and education to help vendors get into the SMB with the right pricing and to help the solution provider as well.
One vendor who took advantage of this SMB Alliance conference opportunity was HP, who was having its own conference (Discover) across the street on the Las Vegas strip.
At the show HP announced five promotions for channel partners highlighted by a Canadian special. HP Canada has priced its ProBook with Intel Core I3 chip at $599 which will include a free HP 90W slim AC adapter, which is priced at $109, when a solution provider purchases a select HP ProBook 4530s notebook.
HP also wants to give solution providers a taste of New York City. The promo, called Win The Ultimate Taste of the Big Apple! gives away a trip to the City that Never Sleeps.
The promotion ends July 31st of this year and will give away a round trip airfare for two to Manhattan with a four night hotel stay, tickets to a professional sporting event, tickets to a broadway show, VIP dinner at the restaurant Craft, a helicopter tour of city landmarks, an NBC studio tour and to top it off $1,000 in spending money.
The New York trip experience worth $12,200 and to qualify for it a solution provider must be part of the Blue Carpet program and sell just one HP Smart Buy Core sku. For this sale the solution provider will get one ballot towards the promotion per eligible core sku claimed. The solution provider can also receive one additional bonus ballot for each eligible option product sold on the same claim, up to a maximum of two. The deadline for claims is Aug. 31 of this year.
HP’s next promo is called the Hot List and it features dramatic discounts on HP LaserJet P4014n and Colour LaserJet CP4525n printers. The P4014 has a $500 savings from $1,179 down to $679. The colour CP4525n has a $400 discount from $1,689 down to $1,289. Act fast because this promo ends on June 30, 2011.
For those interested in workstations, HP is offering up seven models through Ingram all with discounts starting at $100 and reaching $400. The Z210 workstation series are available in mini-tower or small form factor and resellers will get these discounts up until July 31, 2011.
Finally, HP is offering instant rebates of $150 on its business notebooks for show attendees, while supplies last ending July 31, 2011.
