In this new chapter of the Power of Loyalty blog series, we look at how HP transformed its partner programme into a broader strategy for commercial growth, capability building and long-term B2B loyalty.
In B2B, loyalty is rarely as simple as offering a reward for a purchase. Business partners have more complex needs than individual consumers. They want to grow their margins, win new customers, develop their expertise and build businesses that can adapt to changing markets. A loyalty programme that recognises these ambitions can become much more than an incentive scheme. It can become a strategic tool for growth.
HP Amplify, the global partner programme from technology company HP Inc., is an interesting example of this approach. The Partner Programme is a global channel initiative designed to drive partner growth, efficiency, and digital transformation in the AI era. Rather than focusing exclusively on sales volumes, the programme brings together commercial performance, partner capabilities and collaboration to help HP and its partners succeed together.
But what does make the programme stand out, how has it evolved, and what could other B2B businesses learn from its successes and challenges?
From traditional channel incentives to a broader partner proposition
Launched in November 2020, HP Amplify was designed to modernise HP's global partner engagement model. At its heart was a recognition that the technology market was changing, along with the way customers researched, purchased and used products and services.
Traditional channel programmes often relied heavily on sales performance and product volumes. These measures remain important, but they do not necessarily reflect the full contribution a partner makes to a brand's success. A reseller might invest in technical training, improve its online shopping experience, provide specialist support or help customers adopt new technologies. These activities can create significant value without always translating immediately into a higher sales figure.
HP Amplify was developed to recognise a broader range of partner contributions. Its original framework centred on three pillars: performance, capabilities and collaboration.
- Performance considers the commercial contribution a partner makes.
- Capabilities recognise the skills, services and operational strengths needed to meet customer expectations.
- Collaboration focuses on how HP and its partners work together, including the use of data and shared insights.
This broader approach reflects an important principle of B2B loyalty: the most valuable partners are not necessarily those who simply buy the most today, but those who are equipped and motivated to build a stronger business relationship over time.
What is HP Amplify trying to achieve?
HP Amplify has several connected objectives, all of which offer useful lessons for organisations looking to improve their own B2B loyalty strategies. Furthermore, the loyalty programme has two distinct tracks. It not only rewards partners for performance, collaboration, and capabilities but, crucially, it capitalises on insight-driven data and collaboration tools to accelerate digital transformation. If you are a regular reader of the Power of Loyalty blog series, you’ll know this is a theme close to the heart of Stream Loyalty’s own approach.
Let's take a closer look at HP Amplify’s objectives.
1. Encourage profitable, sustainable commercial growth
The programme is designed to help partners grow their businesses while supporting HP's wider commercial objectives. Incentives, partner benefits and growth opportunities encourage participants to develop their HP business and explore more of the company's portfolio.
This is particularly relevant in technology, where customers increasingly expect complete solutions rather than standalone products. A partner that can combine devices, services, support and specialist expertise may be better placed to deliver customer value and build longer-term revenue streams.
In March 2025, HP announced further enhancements to its programme, including the Amplify SuperPower Booster, designed to reward broader portfolio sales and support more flexible technology solutions.
The loyalty lesson is clear: incentives can be more effective when they encourage commercially valuable behaviours, rather than simply rewarding transactions that would have happened anyway.
2. Develop partner capabilities
A successful partner relationship depends on more than the products a business sells. Partners also need the knowledge, skills and resources to advise customers confidently, implement solutions and respond to emerging market opportunities.
HP Amplify places considerable emphasis on training, certification and enablement. Its AI-focused initiatives are a good example. The HP Amplify AI programme, launched in November 2024, introduced role-based training, certification opportunities and practical resources to help partners advise customers on AI-enabled products and solutions.
This approach recognises that partner development can benefit both sides of the relationship. Partners gain skills that can differentiate their businesses, while HP benefits from a channel better equipped to explain its products and deliver customer outcomes.
For B2B loyalty programmes, this is an important distinction.
Benefits do not always need to take the form of discounts or financial rewards. Education, specialist support and access to expertise can be powerful ways to demonstrate a brand's commitment to its partners' success.
3. Strengthen collaboration through better insight
Another important objective is to encourage closer collaboration between HP and its partners.
The original Amplify framework placed data sharing and collaboration alongside performance and capabilities. The intention was to help HP and its partners gain a better understanding of customers, identify opportunities and improve the overall buying experience.
For a B2B loyalty programme, this can create a more valuable relationship than a straightforward exchange of purchases for rewards. Better insight can help a brand understand where partners need support, which products are gaining traction and where new commercial opportunities may exist. However, collaboration depends on trust. Partners need to understand what information they are sharing, how it will be used and what value they receive in return.
A programme can only encourage meaningful participation when its expectations and benefits are clear.
What has HP Amplify achieved?
Assessing the success of a B2B loyalty programme requires more than looking at participation figures or the number of benefits available. It means considering whether the programme supports stronger relationships, develops partner capabilities and contributes to meaningful commercial outcomes.
HP Amplify provides several encouraging examples.
A programme that continues to evolve
One of the clearest indicators of the programme's development is its ongoing evolution since launch. HP has expanded the original framework with initiatives including Amplify Data Insights, Amplify Online and Amplify Impact, alongside additional training and commercial growth opportunities.
This evolution suggests a programme designed to respond to changing partner needs and market conditions rather than remain fixed around its original proposition.
In 2024, HP introduced a simplified membership structure centred on Synergy and Power, with additional distinctions for its largest and most capable partners. The change followed feedback about the complexity of the previous structure.
This is an important lesson in programme management. Launching a loyalty programme is only the beginning. Maintaining its relevance requires listening to participants, identifying friction and being prepared to make changes when the experience is not as straightforward as it should be.
Building expertise for new commercial opportunities
HP's investment in AI training demonstrates how partner loyalty can support longer-term commercial development.
As customers explore AI-enabled technology, partners need to understand not only the products themselves but also their practical applications and potential business benefits. Training and certification help partners build the confidence and knowledge needed to support these conversations.
For HP, this creates an opportunity to strengthen its position in an evolving market. For partners, it provides a way to develop expertise, support customers more effectively and pursue new revenue opportunities.
This is a stronger foundation for loyalty than a reward alone. The partner gains a capability that can contribute to its business beyond a single transaction.
Extending value beyond immediate sales
HP Amplify Impact is another example of the programme's broader ambitions. The initiative supports partner education and action around sustainability, including climate action, human rights and digital equity.
In March 2024, HP reported that more than 40% of Amplify partners had been equipped with knowledge and tools through the initiative. HP also announced its expansion to distribution partners and nearly 50 additional countries.
In March 2025, HP reported that it had exceeded its Amplify Impact targets and doubled sustainable request-for-proposal wins.
These are company-reported figures, but they illustrate how a partner programme can connect commercial relationships with wider business priorities. By providing education, tools and opportunities to engage with sustainability, HP gives partners another reason to participate in its ecosystem.
For B2B loyalty, this matters because long-term relationships are often strengthened by shared ambitions, not just shared commercial interests.
Encouraging continued participation
Industry reporting published in April 2025 described HP Amplify participation as remaining in the 90% range. This suggests that the programme has maintained substantial engagement despite changes to its structure and proposition.
Participation alone does not prove loyalty, profitability or satisfaction. Nevertheless, sustained involvement can be a useful indicator when considered alongside partner feedback, commercial performance and capability development.
Taken together, these developments show a programme that has continued to invest in its partner proposition, respond to market changes and extend its focus beyond transactional incentives.
Where could HP Amplify improve?
No loyalty programme is ever a finished article. Even well-established programmes must continue to evolve, to be creative and to balance commercial objectives with the needs, expectations and practical realities of its participants.
HP Amplify offers several opportunities for further development. It should be noted that these are strategic observations based on the programme's publicly available information, design and reported evolution. We want to be clear that we are not claiming that HP has failed to address them internally.
1. Make the value proposition clearer for every partner
The simplification of HP Amplify's membership structure in 2024 is a positive example of responding to complexity. However, a global partner ecosystem includes businesses of very different sizes, specialisms and commercial priorities.
A large technology reseller with a substantial services operation will not necessarily value the same benefits as a smaller retailer focused on product sales. Equally, a specialist partner investing heavily in AI expertise may need a different development pathway from a business concentrating on printing or managed services.
The opportunity is to make the value proposition feel increasingly relevant to each partner. Clear explanations of eligibility, benefits, earning potential and the practical steps needed to progress can help partners understand not only what the programme offers, but what it means for their business.
The simpler the journey, the easier it is for partners to engage with confidence.
2. Balance commercial performance with the quality of the relationship
Performance is an essential part of any commercial partner programme, but an overreliance on sales measures can risk overlooking the behaviours that create future growth.
Training, customer satisfaction, service quality, retention and collaboration can all contribute to long-term success. Their value may not always be immediately visible in a quarterly sales report, yet they can help build stronger and more resilient partnerships.
HP Amplify already recognises capabilities and collaboration within its framework. The opportunity for programmes of this kind is to continue demonstrating how these activities contribute to tangible partner outcomes, while ensuring that measurement remains practical and proportionate.
The goal is not to add more metrics for the sake of it. It is to understand which behaviours genuinely make the relationship more valuable.
3. Make personalisation meaningful
A programme can offer a broad range of benefits and still feel generic to the individual partner receiving them.
Data and insight create an opportunity to tailor communications, training, incentives and growth recommendations to each partner's circumstances. A retailer developing its online proposition might benefit from digital commerce support, while a partner investing in AI capabilities could value specialist training and relevant commercial incentives.
The challenge is to turn information into useful action. Partners should receive support that reflects their priorities, not simply a greater volume of communications or offers.
Personalisation also needs to be transparent and respectful of data-sharing expectations. Trust is essential if partners are to see shared information as a source of mutual value.
4. Demonstrate the return on participation
A programme's benefits need to be visible in the partner's day-to-day business.
Financial incentives are relatively straightforward to communicate, but the value of training, data insights, marketing support and new capabilities can be harder to quantify. Partners may understand that these benefits are useful without being able to identify precisely what they have gained from participating.
A stronger focus on demonstrating outcomes could help close this gap. Examples might include showing how training contributed to new sales opportunities, how improved customer insight supported conversion, or how investment in services helped generate additional revenue.
Where reliable data is available, clear reporting can help partners understand their progress and identify the next steps that could deliver the greatest benefit.
This also gives the programme owner a better understanding of which benefits are working, where engagement is strongest and where investment could be improved.
5. Keep reducing the effort required to participate
Even attractive benefits can lose their appeal when the process of accessing them becomes complicated.
Partners operate under commercial pressures and have limited time. They need programme requirements, training pathways, incentive rules and administrative processes to be easy to understand and manage.
HP's decision to simplify its membership structure demonstrates awareness of this issue. Continued attention to the overall partner experience could build on that progress.
The principle applies to every B2B loyalty programme: participation should feel like an opportunity to grow, not another administrative burden.
HP Amplify: A powerful global partner programme designed for the customer-driven digital age.
Stream Loyalty’s Commercial Director, Mark Maclure underlines the impact and value of the programme: “What I find particularly interesting about HP Amplify is that it recognises something we've believed at Stream for a long time: B2B loyalty is about much more than rewarding sales. It's about helping your partners build stronger, more successful businesses.
HP has taken a broader approach by bringing together commercial performance, training, collaboration and shared insight. For me, that's where the real value of loyalty lies. When you invest in your partners' success, you're not just encouraging them to buy more today, you're giving them reasons to keep working with you tomorrow.”
What can other B2B loyalty programmes learn from HP Amplify?
HP Amplify demonstrates that B2B loyalty can be built around a broader understanding of partner success. Its approach combines commercial incentives with capability development, collaboration, insight and shared business priorities.
For organisations designing or reviewing their own programmes, five lessons stand out:
- Start with partner needs. Understand what partners need to grow, operate effectively and serve their customers before deciding which benefits to offer.
- Reward the right behaviours. Look beyond purchase volume to identify the activities that support sustainable commercial growth.
- Invest in capability. Training, certification and specialist support can create lasting value for partners and the brand.
- Make participation easy. A clear structure, relevant communications and accessible benefits reduce friction and encourage engagement.
- Measure outcomes, not just activity. Participation and transactions matter, but so do profitability, retention, capability development and the strength of the relationship.
Above all, loyalty should be viewed as an ongoing relationship rather than a mechanism for distributing rewards. The strongest programmes give partners a clear reason to participate, a compelling reason to stay and practical support to help them succeed.
The lesson underneath it all
Mark Maclure believes there's an important lesson in how the HP Amplify programme has evolved. “No loyalty programme should stand still. The needs of your partners will change, your commercial priorities will change, and your programme needs to be able to respond. That's what turns a good incentive scheme into a genuinely valuable long-term business strategy.”
Whether your programme is still a set of ideas on a whiteboard, an established scheme that has quietly stopped evolving, or one that has drifted into being mostly about points and discounts, the chances are there is more potential already sitting inside your business than you realise.
At Stream, our expert team helps B2B companies keep what is working, fix what is not, and build loyalty experiences that give partners a genuine reason to stay, engage and grow with you. If your programme could use a fresh pair of eyes, a sharper strategy, or simply a bit more life, get in touch with Stream Loyalty and let's talk about what your next chapter could look like.
Sources
The following sources support the programme background, reported results and improvement opportunities discussed above.