Dell Channel DNA

Scott Bicheno, of Hexus.channel, recently sat down with Dell’s Kathy Schneider, EMEA Channel Marketing Manager, to discuss the first year of Europe’s PartnerDirect programme. In Kathy’s informational interview, she highlighted PartnerDirect’s milestones, programme simplicity, deal registration, partner feedback and the latest organizational structure under Greg Davis’ leadership.

While we’ve recently formalized our PartnerDirect programme, and made it available across the globe, Dell has been working informally with channel partners for years. By creating PartnerDirect, we’ve enabled 15,000 partners to work with Dell as Registered and Certified partners. Via programme simplicity, value-add through the PartnerDirect portal, marketing materials and deal registration, we’ve been able to grow our partner base substantially and incorporate ongoing feedback delivered by our partners worldwide. In return, our programme efforts such as deal registration have allowed over 8,000 partners to engage with us, share information and win business.

In closing, Kathy makes a great point about Dell’s latest global organizational changes as she comments about Greg Davis and his leadership. Kathy notes that this recent organizational change allows Dell’s channel team to respond to partners more quickly by understanding what they buy versus their location. With a more holistic approach, Dell’s channel program is maintaining its momentum and Dell leaders, like Kathy, will continue to inform our partners with programme updates and feedback.

To listen to Kathy’s interview, click here to visit Hexuschannel

Today, we're talking with Dell's Paul Shaffer, Director of Global Channel Marketing,  on his perspectives of the channel program, opportunities and what the future holds.

Q: You’ve been with Dell for over 9 ½ years and focused on the channel for over 1 year. What are your specific responsibilities and how does your team add value to the PartnerDirect program?

Last year I was asked to start up a new global team focused on a strategic growth area for Dell as Director of Global Channel Marketing. I had worked with the channel for 3 years while at 3M prior to Dell so I was excited about this new opportunity to work in this area once again.

We created and staffed a new team focused on marketing with, through and to the channel. This new team worked with regional marketing organizations to drive global programs, tools and content focused on the channel and included team members based in Singapore, India, Switzerland, United Kingdom, France and Round Rock, Texas. For example, prior to this team being formed, we did not have any collateral to co-brand for our channel partners nor did we create advertising on a global scale talking to the channel and the benefits of Dell to help them grow their business.

In my new role, we will continue with our efforts around globalizing channel programs, tools and campaigns and will also pick up North America Marketing, Programs and Operations. The North America team is focused on all local activities related to the PartnerDirect program. This includes driving program awareness, partner acquisition and partner enablement for the Americas in addition to all aspects of online partner experience, web site sustainment and e-commerce.

From an operations perspective, my team is responsible for implementation, execution, and maintenance of PartnerDirect programs. This includes Deal Registration, on-boarding, maintenance and requirements and partner communications.

Q: Upon launch of our PartnerDirect program last December, an industry writer stated that Dell’s entry and build out of PartnerDirect is a marathon and that our company culture doesn’t think the way it needs to for channel execution, how has our progress in the past 14 months proved this statement wrong?

In the short amount of time since PartnerDirect has been in existence I think we have done a pretty decent job of building out a partner program that is easy for our channel partners to understand and participate in. We have built a portal in 19 different languages that is available to 140 countries worldwide, enabled deal registration to minimize conflict both within the channel and with Dell’s direct sales force and we are creating tools to help our channel partners sell Dell products and solutions. If you talk to the executives of the different business units running SMB, Public and Large Enterprise, the channel plays a key role in their growth plans. We actually had a separate module at our national sales training event to kick off the year that was focused on how to partner with the channel that was well attended and received.

Q: We keep mentioning that our program will take time to build and I do believe the industry as well as partners knows this is true, what does the future state of the marketing program look like and how will these next steps benefit our partners?

Like I mentioned above, we are trying to build out the “partner enablement” portion of our program. This includes co-brandable collateral, online syndication capabilities and such tools as a campaign builder are things that we have just added or planning to add in the next three months. We are also looking at adding an external “Partner Finder” capability in the next few quarters. We will also continue to look at building out our current Certification practices such as Enterprise Architecture in addition to looking at new practices for our partners to gain certification.

Q: Building a program from the ground up is no easy task, how do you incorporate partner feedback into your marketing strategy and planning? If partners have feedback, can they talk to you directly?

Absolutely. Between Partner Advisory councils, trade shows, sales feedback and Executive briefings with our channel partners, we are able to leverage our direct relationships with our channel partners to implement and drive programs and marketing activity. I will gladly ask for input from our channel partners and they can email me at Paul_Shaffer@Dell.com.

We know we have a long way to go but we hope that the channel sees our commitment to this area of our business. I would like to personally thank our over 40,000 Registered Partners who are now a part of PartnerDirect.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to introduce you to Greg Davis’ new channel team across the globe. We’re starting off our Channel DNA series with Iqbal Marican, Director, Channel/VAR Programs & Strategy.

A brief bio on Iqbal

Iqbal has joined Dell as of January 14^th and is based in Singapore and responsible for our Asia Pacific region. His role includes defining and directing our Channel & go-to-market strategy, Channel Partner Program, support acquisition & nurturing channel partners for sustained long-term growth as well as co-owning.

Iqbal joined Dell from Cisco Systems where he spent nine years in key management positions. His most recent role was General Manager for Distribution, Cisco Systems Asia Pacific, and had responsibilities for Channel Distribution as well as Commercial Channel Resellers. During his tenure, Iqbal led the growth of Cisco Systems distribution business in excess of 30 percent. Prior to Cisco Systems, Iqbal held key leadership positions in multinationals like Compaq, Unisys, Ashton-Tate and Wang Computers.

Q&A

Q: What excited you about the opportunity to work for Dell and join the PartnerDirect team? Beyond the responsibilities in your bio, can you share any further insights into your role and the impact on the APJ program and partner relationships?

>> Dell has the unique ability to bring value to its relationships. Be it with end-users or with its channel partners. This stems from Dell’s proven capability to add value in high impact areas while removing cost and complexity across all of IT. Add to that the desire to excel through channel relationships, and you have a very compelling value proposition- one that’d transform channel relationships across the industry. It is indeed exciting to drive, and, be a part of this transformation.

Keeping the channel partner at the centre of it all, we built out teams and infrastructure to create a program that’s truly simple, efficient and transparent. In short span of less than a year we have signed up thousands of partners and are meeting or execeeding our revenue expectations in APJ . This gives us the confidence that we are doing the right things. Specially in making sure that the Dell’s interests in Direct business do not conflict with the interests of our channel partners.

Q: You have been in the channel for some time, what advantages do you see in the PartnerDirect program especially in Asia? How can we continue to improve our program offerings to the region and what does the future look like?

>> PartnerDirect Program’s unique value proposition lies in simplification. Our focus is to simplify pricing, rebates, ordering, supply chain and support/services. Each one of these elements is critical to the success of our partners. If delivered well they become a competitive advantage and conversely, if not delivered well become either a cost disadvantage or a complete show stopper for our partners.

Individual markets in Asia have unique requirements in terms of enabling the ‘critical few’ elements I mentioned above. Keeping focused on the local requirements and making sure that all improvements are towards further simplifying and improving the efficiency is key to our success.

Looking to the future, we’ll be driving deeper relationships with our partners across all segments that Dell is aligning across. We believe that significant opportunities lie in the area of solution implementation. Dell’s product and services portfolio, while amongst the broadest and best in the industry, is truly complementary to the capabilities of SI’s and VAR’s. By delivering a value chain that enables these partners to implement customized solutions faster and at a lower cost, we’ll continue to drive the success of PartnerDirect program.

As the economic challenges come to bear, two things are becoming very clear. One, channel partners need a vendor who will help their customers manage cost. Second, channel partners are looking at a trustworthy vendor who can help them manage their own cost of doing business. These are times when keeping things simple will have a real advantage and, I believe, Dell is the vendor who does this best.

Q: Building a program from the ground up is no easy task, how do you plan to incorporate partner feedback into your everyday role? If partners have feedback, can they talk to you directly?

Listening has been and will always be the critical to how we design, implement or run our business. While we have structured means to seek feedback from our partners, nothing beats the ability to get to hear views directly. I invite partners to write to me at Iqbal_marican@dell.com

Q: Any final comments or asks of our Partners?

We are working on developing success stories around PartnerDirect. These stories are to encapsulate the business issues that were addressed successfully and helped partners drive better value to their customers. We invite partners to be a part of this process. If you have an experience you’d like to share please email me or our channels marketing director at Ashwini_bhatnagar@dell.com

Dell’s Peter Klanian, Senior Channel Manager, guest posts on MSP Mentor about common mistakes MSPs can avoid. Check out the post and join the discussions!

It’s now a year since we launched PartnerDirect in Europe and the first thing we would like to do is thank all of our partners who have contributed to the success of the program in the first twelve months. When we launched PartnerDirect we were responding in part to demand from customers who wanted more choice in the way they could purchase Dell technology, and also to feedback from resellers who were keen to engage with Dell in a structured way.

On February 12, 2008, when we launched PartnerDirect in Europe, we were already conducting business with 30,000 resellers worldwide and had approximately $9 billion in Dell annual run-rate revenue globally. PartnerDirect formalised our existing channel initiatives, and was built based on feedback from thousands of solution providers.

We starting operating with some skepticism from the channel and the media, but our success over the last twelve months is a testament to the fact that we have fulfilled the promises we made to our partners when PartnerDirect was first announced. In Europe, we now have over 15,000 partners on board in nineteen countries. Globally, we have over 35,000 registered partners, who can access the portal in 19 languages in 148 countries..

In June 2008 we announced our Certification program and in September we held our first Partner Advisory Council in Europe with Michael Dell in attendance, giving PartnerDirect members the opportunity to pass on feedback and help shape our channel programs going forward

We know that the year ahead is likely to be a tough one – IT spending priorities will change and purse-strings will be tightened. Dell’s ‘Simplify and Save’ motto clearly will resonate well in the times ahead and it is up to us and our partners to make sure this message gets out there to end-users. Over the coming months we will be making further announcements around PartnerDirect which we think will really help our partners remain profitable and defy some of the warnings we see every day in the media.

We have aimed to make the idea of listening to partners and customers a defining theme for PartnerDirect. Many of the changes we have made to PartnerDirect in the first year have come around as a direct result of feedback that we have solicited from partners. We had a great start in 2008 in EMEA, but there is much more potential to expand PartnerDirect. In 2009, we will continue to evolve PartnerDirect by:

· Increasing our focus on fostering advocacy and collaboration between our direct and channel business

· Announcing the next accreditation in our Certification program

· Continuing to invest significantly in our rebate program for our partners

Today’s anniversary is the culmination of months of hard work by our European PartnerDirect team. We would like to thank our Dell team and our partners for making PartnerDirect a success in 2008. As we look to FY10, let’s continue to build on the solid foundation we have laid down for our channel partners and for Dell.