HP to streamline its claim settlement processes

Hewlett Packard India is all set to overhaul its entire claim settlement process. It will automate all incentive related practices by the end of this year.



While HP's business associates for consumer products were already availing of the online claim settlement processes, now even commercial channel partners will be eligible for obtaining their incentive faster due to the automated process. Concurrently, the incentive disbursement cycle will also be shortened to 130 days from the date of ending of the scheme program. 



Sameer Mathur, Head-Solutions Partner Organization, HP India explained, “Claims settlement always remain a very cumbersome exercise and it blows out of proportion for us since HP deals in plethora of product categories. Additionally, delaying claim settlement doesn't help the cause of business growth. Under our new initiative, we will try to make all our claim proceedings free of invoices and incentives would be paid as per the database of partners available with the distributors which would work as the fundamental bible for releasing partner payments.”



However, Mathur maintained that HP is making an effort to settle down all past partner claims at the earliest. He also informed that dead on arrival (DoA) issues will also be given due consideration, as partners treat this as a priority area. 



Currently HP's currently has 3,000 partners in its network. Of these, 1,450 partners are registered with the vendor for its consumer and commercial divisions, while the remainder 1,550 work with it on an ad hoc basis.



Other initiatives that HP is contemplating for year are training for the partner's sales personnel and devising incentivizing schemes for them. Mathur stated, “We at Hp are fueling a lot of fund for strengthening our partners sales people. We have been rolling out partner's sales team incentive programs and will continue the momentum in the coming months.” Recently, as part of HP's partner sales people incentive program, six people qualified for a Maruti Alto car, while several others won cash vouchers and other prizes.



Mathur emphasized on the need of re-tailoring sales and product training programs for partners in B- and C-class towns, as the training sessions conducted in upcountry towns in its current avatar is not meeting dealer expectations. He explained, “Our training programs in their current format sometimes miss out the technicality of products to upcountry city partners. Hence, from now onwards, we will restructure our training programs in regional flavors. We will also install incremental resources for these partners in the form of deploying dedicated partners to interact with them constantly.” 



Mathur also stressed upon the value of the accessories business and how partners could earn extra bucks by selling them. He described HP and its accessories business akin to that of McDonald's wherein the latter is making more money out of associated products like french fries and vanilla ice cream than from its burgers.