ProCurve partners insist sales agreement with giant integrator will provide them with healthy competition

HP ProCurve’s UK partners appear to be unfazed by the switching vendor’s sales alliance with systems integration giant Siemens.

The partnership, which will see Siemens hawk ProCurve’s switches alongside its own voice over IP technology, will take immediate effect in Germany and ProCurve has indicated it should be introduced in the UK in February. It will also be rolled out in Austria and Spain in the coming weeks.

The deal signals the fruition of a long courtship. ProCurve claimed a year ago that it was close to signing up a system integrator partner and John McHugh, vice president of ProCurve Worldwide, indicated that negotiations with Siemens have been ongoing for the last 18 months.

He said: "Siemens has a very broad reach. We have already done about $4m worth of business in Germany, so we know this model is robust for when we relocate it to the UK. This is an evolutionary step for ProCurve.”

Ashley Snelling, managing director of ADA Networks, one of just two top-level Elite partners for ProCurve in the UK, said: "I am surprised this deal did not happen sooner. ProCurve is a major player and I know that this particular deal has been in the offing for some time.

“We are well established as ProCurve's largest UK partner and that is why we are not worried. We see this as an opportunity and, personally, I would expect us to achieve more than Siemens this coming financial year."

Mike Gammie, IT services development manager of ProCurve partner Misco, said: “I have seen ProCurve's aggressive marketing campaign and I know that it has very big plans. Somebody like Siemens will be able to help it achieve those plans. As far as we are concerned, healthy competition is good.”

Darryl Brick, UK and Ireland country manager for ProCurve, said: "Our current partners should not be concerned. We need the VARs’ routes to market to address smaller customers I think Siemens fits in naturally into the enterprise space. I do not think there will be any cross pollination.”