First thing to get straight: HP Inc. and HPE are not the same company. They split in 2015. HP Inc. makes the laptops, desktops, and printers; Hewlett Packard Enterprise sells servers and enterprise infrastructure. They run separate procurement and separate diversity programs. Plenty of owners register on the wrong portal and wonder why nobody calls. If you sell to the company behind the printer on your desk, you want HP Inc.
HP Inc. buys at the scale you'd expect from a company doing tens of billions in revenue: components, logistics, marketing services, facilities, IT, professional services, packaging. Some of that is locked up in long-term contracts with incumbents. A real share of it turns over, and HP runs a dedicated program to bring smaller and diverse-owned firms into that supply base.
Here's how the door actually opens.
The program is called HP Inclusive SourcingHP's supplier diversity effort runs under the name HP Inclusive Sourcing. It grew out of what HP previously called its Global Supplier Diversity Program, and the branding has shifted over the years, so you'll still see both names in older documents. The current public-facing page lives under HP's sustainable impact section on HP.com.
The goal HP states for it is straightforward: get small, minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, and other under-represented businesses an equal shot at HP's spend. The way they operationalize that is a registration database that procurement buyers search when a need comes up.
A note on timing. Several large corporations revised the language around their diversity programs in 2025 as the legal and political climate shifted. If you find HP's wording has changed by the time you read this, the mechanics below still hold: the registration form, the certifications, and the buyer-search model are the structural pieces, regardless of what the page is titled that week. Verify the current program name on HP.com before you cite it anywhere.
Who HP counts as a diverse supplierHP recognizes a diverse supplier as a business that is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by people in one of these groups:
- Minority (NMSDC-certified MBE)
- Women (WBENC-certified WBE)
- Veteran and service-disabled veteran (NVBDC-certified)
- LGBTQ+ (NGLCC-certified LGBTBE)
- People with disabilities (Disability:IN-certified DOBE)
HP also looks at small-business designations tied to SBA programs, including HUBZone-located firms. The 51% threshold is the line every one of these certifications draws, and HP relies on the certifying body to verify it so HP doesn't have to.
You do not have to be diverse-certified to sell to HP. The Inclusive Sourcing track is specifically for certified diverse firms; HP also onboards suppliers through its standard procurement process. But if you qualify for a diversity certification, getting it first changes how your registration is routed and who sees it.
The actual first step: the Emerging Supplier Registration FormMost people overthink this. The entry point is a single online form HP calls the Emerging Supplier Registration Form, hosted at enable.hp.com/SupplierDiversityRegistrationForm. Completing it is what HP means when it says "register to do business with us."
The form asks for the predictable details:
- Legal company name, address, website
- Ownership and business structure, including which diverse category applies
- Year established, employee count, and industry sector
- Which certifications you hold and which body issued them
- Primary and backup contacts
- Any prior relationship with HP
It also collects a DUNS number, so have that ready. And HP is explicit about one thing: completing the form is no guarantee HP will use your company. It puts you in the database. It does not put you under contract.
That distinction matters for how you treat the next 90 days. Registration is not the finish line. It's the part everyone does and then stops, which is exactly why doing the parts after it puts you ahead.
What happens after you registerYour information gets stored and routed to procurement contacts in the categories you match. If a buyer has a need your firm fits, they reach out. If they don't, you wait. HP says directly that an opportunity "may not yet have occurred" or that HP may currently have no need for what you sell.
That's an honest description of how nearly every corporate supplier diversity program works, and it's why registration alone rarely produces a contract. The buyers are searching for capabilities against active needs. Your job is to be the obvious match when the need shows up.
Three things move you from "in the database" to "on the call":
- Tight category and capability data. Register against the NAICS codes and product or service categories that describe exactly what you sell, not a wide net. Buyers filter narrow.
- A real capability statement. When a buyer pulls your record, they should see a one-page document that reads like a serious vendor: what you do, who you've delivered for, your certifications, your differentiators.
- A second touch. Find the supplier diversity team's contact through HP's program page or at an industry event and introduce yourself directly. A registration is passive. A short, specific email about the category you serve is not.
Two parts of HP Inclusive Sourcing matter once you're actually in the supply base.
Early payment through C2FO. HP runs an early-payment program for diverse suppliers in partnership with C2FO, the working-capital platform. It announced and later expanded the program in 2021, covering women-owned, veteran-owned, small disadvantaged, minority-owned, and HUBZone businesses. The idea is to let a diverse supplier get paid on an invoice ahead of standard terms without the heavy onboarding most factoring arrangements demand. For a small firm carrying HP-sized invoices, getting paid in days instead of net-60 is the difference between taking the next order and turning it down.
Tier 2 reporting. HP runs a Tier 2 initiative where its larger Tier 1 suppliers report what they spend with diverse-owned subcontractors on HP work. If you're too small to win a direct HP contract today, becoming a diverse subcontractor to one of HP's existing Tier 1 suppliers is a real on-ramp, and that spend gets counted toward HP's diversity numbers. It's often the faster path in.
HP has also run a Supplier Diversity Summit, with the inaugural event in 2023, to connect diverse entrepreneurs with its buyers. Watch the program page for the next one.
Get certified before you register, not afterHere's the sequencing most owners get backwards. They register with HP first, then think about certification later. Flip it. A certification from NMSDC, WBENC, NGLCC, NVBDC, or Disability:IN is what lets HP route you into the Inclusive Sourcing track at all, and the cert number is a field on the form. Walking in certified means your record is complete and searchable from day one.
If you haven't sorted out which certification you qualify for, CertifyAll maps your ownership and business details to the certifications you're eligible for and handles the filing, so you arrive at HP's form with the credential already in hand instead of registering twice.
The realistic on-rampBe honest about the timeline. Landing HP Inc. as a customer is a multi-quarter effort for most small firms, not a multi-week one. The registration takes an afternoon. Getting a buyer to engage depends on HP having a need in your category and on you being the cleanest match when they look. Tier 2 subcontracting to an existing HP supplier is usually the quicker route to first revenue than a direct award.
Do these in order:
- Get diverse-certified with the body that fits your ownership.
- Complete the Emerging Supplier Registration Form on HP.com with tight category data.
- Build a capability statement a buyer can act on.
- Introduce yourself to the supplier diversity team directly, and target HP's Tier 1 suppliers for subcontracting.
- Enroll in the C2FO early-payment program once you're transacting.
HP is one corporation. The same playbook (certify, register, get found, follow up) works across the Fortune 500 programs that spend billions on diverse suppliers every year. Browse the corporate supplier diversity directory to find the other companies that buy what you sell, list your business in our supplier directory so buyers can find you, and read our deeper guide on how to get into corporate supplier diversity programs for the parts that apply everywhere.
