Partner Direct Community

Dell is constantly asking in person, on this blog, and other places what channel partners want in a vendor program.  When we launched PartnerDirect we heard three things:  Simplify the program and lower my administrative costs while giving me the best products.  With that direction we launched PartnerDirect less than two years ago.    Today I found that CRN in the UK is asking the same question, which you can find here.  What is interesting is that the responders are asking for the same kinds of things as they did two years ago:  Help me make money.  Work with me, not against me. Give me the tools. 

Partners tell us we’ve made great strides.  We also continue to build out the program and invest based on partner input.  So join the CRN debate, so we can learn from your comments. Or add your comments below.

Face it.  A lot of channel programs have some sort of certification.  Some have dozens of them – so many it is hard to know which one is right for you as a channel partner. Two weeks ago I had a chance to talk with Bob Skelley who heads up Global Enterprise Architecture for Dell’s channel to ask him two really hard questions:  Why does Dell have fewer types of certifications, and are they any better than what is already out there?  Naturally Bob had an answer, but it was the increased sales productivity that surprised me. Check out the interview here.

In every program there is bound to be channel conflict. So what is Dell doing about it? Listen to an interview with Dell’s Erik Dithmer, GM for Small & Medium Business Americas, as he talks about how Dell manages potential sales conflict between channel partners and the rest of Dell’s business.

Listen to the podcast here.

Updated 7-7-09 with the correct link

This week we announced the Enterprise Architecture Partner of the Year Awards (Note:  Login to the Partner Portal before linking to read the announcement). Congratulations to the winners:  (National) GreenPages, Open Storage Solutions and Nviron and (Regional) Corporate IT Solutions, Syscom Technologies, Keep IT Simple, Eagle Software and OPUS Consulting Group.

Looking back at the nomination award forms, I see a number of common threads.  First, these partners lead with Dell solutions to their customers, solving their critical business challenges using a consultative approach from needs assessment right through to planning and deployment. Second, despite encountering initial bumps in the PartnerDirect program road and challenges engaging with the Dell direct account team, these Partners persevered by staying the course – building relationships across all the Dell lines of business and customer segments and by figuring out how to best work together with the Dell Channel and direct account teams teams to grow their businesses.  And, third, these Partners fully utilize Dell Certified Partner resources by participating in Dell training programs, holding lead generation, tradeshow, and solutions events, scheduling Call Blitz Days, and passing along incentive and promotion opportunities.  In some cases, this level of engagement has earned Partners significant--even high double-digit growth year over year.

Having personally called each of these Partners to notify them of the award, I can tell you they were all very excited to be a “Partner of the Year” and looking forward to leveraging this recognition in their marketing efforts and in the press.  Even more important, the awards are just one more way they’ve been rewarded for their willingness to work through challenges with us and take advantage of the Dell brand and market share opportunities.  That’s the secret in the sauce.

As IT spending is in turmoil, the customers of our channel partners do strange things – sometimes including stopping IT spending altogether. So when I read this article in Dell’s Power Solutions Magazine, it really resonated. What channel partners should tell their customers is that the wrong decisions today will plague their IT costs for years to come. So here are the five big ideas

1. Not making the most of what you already have. Transitioning to a virtualized environment using existing systems can be significantly less expensive and more flexible than scaling your hardware infrastructure.

2. Leaving inefficient equipment in place. A major part of most IT budgets goes toward simply keeping the data center running. That’s why energy-efficient features are designed directly into Dell PowerEdge server and blade solutions. Dell channel partners can also help companies optimize the office IT environment through desktop and mobile client power management and efficient desktop computing.

3. Skimping on security and disaster recovery. Safeguarding your systems and preparing for the worst isn’t a big deal—until it is. Don’t get caught rolling the dice: calculate your potential downtime losses, define your recovery objectives, pinpoint your primary risks, and then design and size your disaster recovery systems accordingly.

4. Investing in new projects rather than existing ones. It’s tempting to look at a difficult business climate as a good time to try out completely new strategies. However, continuing to invest in existing projects is more likely to produce long-term gains.

5. Not establishing a social media strategy. Social media is poised to transform marketing and change how employees relate to each other within your company. Making a small investment now can position your company for benefits down the road.

These guys are certainly smarter than me, but I would add a couple more:

6. Maintaining multiple versions of applications, rather than standardizing on just a few.

7. Adding still more storage on to an already tortured & dispersed & non-standardized storage infrastructure, rather than consolidating.

What are your ideas? We’d like to hear them.

Read the full article here.