August 2008 - Dell Channel Blog

This week Dell added two new desktops and two new laptops to its Vostro business line. What makes this announcement unique is that the new Vostro models have been designed to meet the needs of small businesses and public organizations in the world’s high-growth economies. So what does this mean for you as a Dell Channel Partner? You can now offer what many of your customers in the emerging economies are looking for – affordable, reliable basic office computing. Check out the press release and information on the new models, as well as a great VLOG on the Vostro line.

You might be asking yourself, are these models just some sort of scaled-down versions of other models? Actually the opposite is true. Dell is able to make these systems affordable by providing all the functionality needed for basic business computing, and eliminating any components that are not used yet drive costs up. Check out the product information for essential laptops A840 and A860, and the entry-level desktops A180 and A100.

MSP's blogger, Joe Panettieri, interview Greg Davis yesterday to get the latest information on PartnerDirect's progress and future momentum. Listen to the podcast and feel free to comment here on on the MSPmentor blog.

This afternoon in Beijing I'm taking part in a global Webcast to announce two new Vostro laptops and two desktops designed especially to meet the needs of small businesses, government and educational institutions in the world’s emerging economies.

The two new Vostro laptops  (the Vostro A860 15.6 inch and A840 14.1 inch) and two desktop models (the Vostro A180 and A180 mini towers) are being introduced in countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America over the next several weeks.

These new products will primarily be sold through our channel partners in emerging countries—a first for Dell.

These systems:

• are easy to manage and deploy, offering Ubuntu or Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic operating software;
• are designed to deliver world-class quality and reliability;
• come with support to meet unique customer needs; and
• provide affordable access to today’s higher level of basic computing needs.

Today’s announcement also builds on Dell’s leading momentum in mobile computing:  introduction of our Studio laptops in June; the new Latitude E-family products, launched two weeks ago, which offer freedom from business as usual; and more new mobile products to come. With today’s products we’re bringing great, new mobile technology to customers in the world’s emerging countries.

Those customers tell us that the cost of technology, especially mobile technology, is too high. They want affordable systems that are high-quality and highly reliable. They want technology that’s easy to deploy and maintain. They want great service, and support that’s easy to get and pay for. 

We’ve designed these new Vostro products to meet those needs.  At Lionel's post on Direct2Dell, Kirk Schell, who leads our global product-development center in Shanghai, describes the design concepts behind these products. We’ve posted more images on our Flickr account. Also, here is a recorded version of today’s launch event.

There are more than 72 million small businesses worldwide.  And hundreds of millions more that will be started over the next few years. We’ve seen how technology is often the key element in why smaller companies succeed—or fail.  This is particularly true in high-growth economies.  Technology makes it easier to market, sell and support products and services.

Those benefits of technology mean opportunity for customers and, in turn, opportunity for Dell and its partners, for you.  Today is another illustration of our intention to together lead the industry in providing great technology to high-growth and emerging economies. 

Last week Dell continued its competitive charge through the Channel at Everything Channel’s XChange ‘08 event in Dallas.  As a Platinum sponsor of the event, Dell had the opportunity to educate the market about the strides we are making with PartnerDirect, as well as gather valuable partner feedback. The Americas channel team did six breakout sessions with 15-20 partners per session, conducted several 1:1 partner meetings and Dell's Greg Davis, VP/GM Americas Channel Group, took the main stage for a 45-minute “world premiere” keynote presentation. 

Greg’s keynote, designed to provide the audience with an update on Dell’s progress in the channel over the last year and new investments being made, opened with a brief video on the evolution of our channel strategy.  Greg then took the crowd through an honest scorecard around Dell's progress and new PartnerDirect investments including:

• new Certified Practice Areas;
• lower Deal Registration limits; and
• a new returns policy for Certified Partners.

In order to fully illustrate Dell's commitment to the channel—and for the first time in the history of the conference—a channel exec (Greg) was joined on stage by two direct executives (Donna Troy and Erik Dithmer), who took a few minutes to expand on how their segments are fully embracing the channel.  The combination of Donna, Erik and Greg showed just how serious Dell is about the channel and how we are actively collaborating across segments and evolving our culture.

To read more about the event and our participation, check out CRN.  And as always, let us know more about your questions/comments here on the blog!

We hear a lot from our community regarding the various online tools and today we're talking with Mary-Catherine Wilson and Chad Hamilton, Channel E-Business Managers, regarding the PartnerDirect portal. We'll continue to provide our partners with updates and insights that will benefit them on Dell's offerings and partner benefits.

[Admin Note: We are about to launch the new Portal 2.0, so look for updated content soon]