Partner Direct Events

*Note from the Editor: Our Partner, Doug Ford – President, The I.T. Pros wrote the following for us during the Partner Advisory Council meeting last week in Chicago.

“We partner with several vendors, but Dell stands above the rest in their effort to listen to their Partners and take action on issues impacting the channel.  In the last Partner Advisory Council (PAC) meeting, Greg Davis asked the group for their top 3 issues disrupting the channel.  After receiving constructive feedback and suggestions from the group, he walked out of the room, got on his cell phone, used the recommendations made by the PAC members, and came back into the meeting with an “on the spot” actionable solution that allayed the concerns of the PAC.  In the same meeting, Bob Skelley came prepared with a status update on each of the issues discussed in our last PAC meeting.  It’s clear that Dell is interested in Partner feedback and is committed to making changes to improve the channel experience.”

At the recent, RCP Platinum Partner Program Awards, Dell’s PartnerDirect program walked away with accolades from the Redmond Channel Partner readers. With a hearty 69% of readers stating they resell or recommend Dell products and 33% of respondents belong to the PartnerDirect program, Dell walked away as a serious contender with a relatively new program under their belt.

The RCP Awards, evaluate third party vendors based on their ability to integrate well with Microsoft oriented solutions. Read more about the awards or check out the complete results here.

Dell’s Peter Klanian, Senior Manager Channel Sales, hosted a webinar with the MSPMentor folks on Wednesday. During the event, Peter answered numerous MSP & partner questions about Dell’s managed services strategy.

If you missed the webinar, visit http://tinyurl.com/dbx9zj

Q: How are silverback & Everdream different?

A: Silverback (Dell Remote Monitoring) is a tool that proactively alerts on a set of pre-defined conditions related to servers, network devices, PCs, and peripherals as well as the applications and operation systems that run on these devices.

Everdream (Dell Desktop Manager) is a tool that allows desktop admins to deploy various services to desktops and laptops, such as software distribution, asset management, antivirus, antimalware, and may other commonly used desktop services. Everdream is not an alerting tool, it is a management tool.

Q: How has Dell adjusted Silverback and Everdream positioning and partner programs?

A: Both Silverback and Everdream platforms are the basis for MSP Certification under PartnerDirect.

Q: Can I manage non-windows devices?

A: Yes, Silverback can handle non-windows devices.

Q: How many MSPs has Dell Certified?

A: More than 200 (and growing.)

Q: What are the costs?

A: Starter packages range from $5k to $9k.

Q: What are the requirements for certification?

A:1. Purchase a starter package

2. One engineer must attend a 1-week training class and pass an exam

3. Partner must complete either Business Builder program to build service offerings or pass Audit to prove they already have Managed Service offerings.

Q: Does Dell offer MSP pricing guidance?

A: Yes, this is a key part of our business builder program.

Q: Does Dell help develop service level agreements?

A: Yes, we help partners develop their own SLAs but do not provide pre-packaged SLAs.

Q: Will Dell use my Deal ref info to take sales direct?

A: Absolutely not. We have strict rules to make sure we maintain integrity with our channel partners.

Q: How do I escalate complaints or concerns to Dell?

A: Start with your account team. They will raise to executive management in the channels group as needed.

Q: Do your NY and Dallas direct managed services program compete w/ MSPs ?

A: Yes, to a degree. However, we protect Dell Certified MSPs from competing with this offer via our Deal Registration program. Also, if we engage with prospects who are already under a Managed Services contract with a Dell Certified MSP, our policy is to back away from the opportunity to avoid channel shifting.

If our readers have additional questions, please leave them here for Peter to answer. We’ll post the webinar recording as soon as the file is posted on MSPMentor. Thanks!

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.

One of our Channel Account Managers pinged me regarding CRN’s coverage of Dell’s latest Future Computing Event. Last week’s FTC was held at Pier 60/Chelsea Piers in NYC where IT Managers and VARs were invited to see latest Dell offerings on simplifying IT via our products, services and solutions.

CRN’s slide show coverage of the event started off with the best intentions but somewhere, after slide 10, things went downhill.

On Slide 11- http://www.crn.com/it-channel/210002164;jsessionid=M3FCJOSYEY4ZOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=11

We would like the opportunity to address CRN’s coverage and let everyone know that we had four sales managers staffing the booth throughout the event (thank you to Chris, Bryan, Stuart and Xavier). While they were with Partners for most of the day, we believe this photo was taken during their actual presentation. While we like to multi-task, we just can’t be everywhere all the time!

On Slide 12- http://www.crn.com/it-channel/210002164;jsessionid=M3FCJOSYEY4ZOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=12

Dell had numerous existing and potential partners show interest in our booth and attend the presentation. Whether you’re a current Dell partner or looking to become one, we are always happy to share and educate you on our offerings. Bryan’s quote on slide 12, is spot on, Dell is constantly proving ourselves and building trust with our Partners and Industry folks.