HP Partners Excited To See Scott Lannum As New Channel Chief At Critical Juncture

Lannum, a 12-year HP executive, is a ‘strong supporter of the channel,’ one solution provider executive told CRN.

Solution provider partners of HP Inc. are welcoming the recent appointment of company veteran Scott Lannum as North America channel chief, saying the move signals HP's continued commitment to the channel amid a major period of transition.

Lannum, who is HP's vice president and general manager for Americas commercial channel sales, has succeeded Stephanie Dismore, who has been promoted to serve as managing director of HP's newly created North America segment. Lannum began in the channel chief role on Nov. 1 with the launch of HP's new organizational structure, and reports to Dismore.

[Related: HP Partners: Executive Promotions 'All Positive' For Channel]

"Scott has been with HP for a long time and is a strong supporter of the channel. He is well known by partners," said Harry Zarek, president and CEO of Compugen, No. 57 on CRN's 2019 Solution Provider 500. "It’s great to see him in this leadership role and it emphasizes HP’s commitment to the channel ecosystem … We welcome him to his new role."

Lannum has spent 12 years with HP, most recently as vice president of U.S. distribution, where he had responsibility for HP's commercial distribution partners along with the public sector channel and SMB segments. Earlier, he served as vice president of U.S. SMB sales for print and personal systems at HP.

Juan Fernandez, vice president of managed IT services at ImageNet Consulting, said he is glad to see HP maintaining its emphasis on promoting from within for executive roles that impact the channel.

Lannum "comes from a very well-rounded background of the HP culture," Fernandez said. "I'm excited about him being in the channel role. It looks like he's coming from the right place, and that's encouraging to me as a reseller, to see somebody who cares about the channel in that role.”

Prior to arriving at HP, Lannum had spent nearly five years at Lexmark--including as vice president of finance--and he has more than 25 years of experience in sales, finance, supply chain and operations overall, according to HP.

Lannum's appointment to channel chief at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based PC and printer giant comes as the company looks to capture massive new opportunities with an increased focus on service-based models--such as managed print services and Device-as-a-Service--while pushing aggressively into emerging categories such as 3-D printing, as well.

HP’s Nov. 1 commercial re-organization has seen the company shifting from a three-region organizational structure to a set of 10 geographic markets, while the recently launched restructuring involves a staff reduction of as much as 16 percent by 2022.

Lannum has also assumed the channel chief role as HP is facing challenges in its traditional print business, particularly around declining supplies revenue, while also facing a takeover bid from Xerox that HP leadership has described as "hostile."

"It's of huge importance that we don't get bogged down in the FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] of everything that's happening with Xerox and HP, and that HP continues to focus on its initiatives around driving good products, good partnerships and alignment for both its partners and customers," said Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based Future Tech, No. 101 on CRN's 2019 Solution Provider 500. "HP has, under Stephanie's leadership, done a great job in working with the partner community. We have little channel conflict with the HPI organization, and I credit Stephanie's leadership and partnership for that."

With Lannum working directly under Dismore, Venero said his hope is that Lannum "continues the channel-first mantra that HPI has, and continues to communicate with the partner community--to ensure that the value proposition of HPI to its partner community and customers is prevalent."