“While we have adjusted our terms and conditions, we do not anticipate changes for most partners, and pricing changes will be rare,” said HPE Senior Vice President Simon Ewington in an email to CRN. “We also give partners and customers the flexibility to adjust or cancel orders should, in rare cases, we need to adjust pricing, which is fair. It’s a two-way street.”
HPE Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channel and Partner Ecosystem Simon Ewington told CRN that potential pricing changes under updated partner terms and conditions in response to soaring memory prices will be uncommon.
“While we have adjusted our terms and conditions, we do not anticipate changes for most partners, and pricing changes will be rare,” said Ewington in an email to CRN. “We also give partners and customers the flexibility to adjust or cancel orders should, in rare cases, we need to adjust pricing, which is fair. It’s a two-way street.”
Ewington’s email came after he wrote a letter to partners on Feb. 5 detailing changes HPE is making in “pricing and quote validity” in the wake of rising memory prices and supply constraints.
Specifically, HPE is shortening “the quote validity windows to 14 days (excluding public sector, B2B, OEM),” down from 30 days, and has “updated the contract terms and conditions for server and GreenLake orders to allow for price adjustments until the date of shipment.”
GreenLake orders accepted prior to Feb. 4 are not impacted by the new terms and conditions, HPE told CRN in a statement.
HPE declined to make Ewington available for an interview, citing the quiet period ahead of the release of its first fiscal quarter earnings.
Ewington stressed that HPE has gone to great lengths to ensure it is approaching the current crisis with a much more “clear structure” and “communication” than other vendors.
“Everyone in the industry is impacted by the commodity challenges, although different vendors are approaching it differently,” he said. “We know some vendors simply cancel orders or reprice with no clear structure or communication on how it will work, and we want to avoid this approach.”
HPE has “always been open, honest and transparent with partners, and this is true for how we want to help navigate the industrywide commodity challenges,” said Ewington.
“All vendors are working to navigate significant constraints on component availability worldwide,” Ewington said in a separate prepared statement. “We are committed to providing as much stability and flexibility as possible to partners in this environment, and to communicating transparently about impacts to pricing and quote validity. We have provided, and will continue to provide, new and clarifying information to partners and welcome their questions and feedback. This is a fluid environment, and we are working hard to respond to it while helping our valued customers and partners understand what to expect.”
Matt Zafirovski, CEO of Chicago-based Tusker, No. 134 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500, credited Ewington with being open and transparent about the financial pressures posed by the current market conditions.
“HPE is doing a good job communicating with the channel in the midst of a volatile pricing situation with so many constraints and so many unknowns,” said Zafirovski. “If at the time of the order the price is $100 and when it ships it goes to $120, then HPE can’t be expected to sell it at a $20 loss.”
The CEO of another top HPE partner, who did not want to be identified, said HPE is no different than all the other vendors grappling with soaring memory prices and supply constraints.
“All the OEM vendors and distributors are working with us as closely as possible to try to get ahead of these scenarios and, most of all, to resolve any open issues with customer purchase orders,” said the CEO. “Distribution and the OEMs are stepping up on this to help on pricing and what is the best way to avoid the price increases. This is an industrywide situation.”
