Teething troubles hit Hewlett Packard’s (HP’s) latest online VAR resource last week, after its much-hyped launch to the channel.

The vendor’s Smart Portal, designed to give additional sales and marketing material to resellers, went down and was inaccessible soon after launching. HP resorted to sending an email to partners explaining the glitch, which it attributed to an “unprecedented demand” for the site.

Dave Poskett, director of Solutions Partner Organisation at HP, said: “We had more than double the typical usage we get online in the first day and this caused a few problems. We still have a bit of work to do on it and we are trying to fix it.”

However, he claimed the portal has received a positive response from the channel on the whole. “The concept of Smart Portal is to have an improved partner interface and make it easier to see pricing and availability through our distribution partners,” he said.

Dan Hitchen, partner manager at VAR Basilica, said: “The portal will speed up the ordering process and show resellers what’s in stock across distribution. It will also give partners a better view of special bid pricing.

“The teething problems with the site could be that the launch was too successful. We personally did not have any problems, but apparently the site received 20 times the expected amount of hits on the first day.”

However, Sue Richards, managing director at VAR EBM, said: “Hopefully Smart Portal is going to be as good as HP’s other portal, but I can’t say until I can get into it.”

Kate Hembury, vendor sales director at WStore, admitted she had also had problems with the site.

“We have had some teething problems and the site is not working at the moment, but it hasn’t stopped us submitting orders,” she said.

HP intends to launch a PC-build portal SmartChoice next month.

sara_yirrell@vnu.co.uk