Dell Channel Blog : Registered Partners

Darwin could have been a Dell partner

DELL-Paul H — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:00:00 GMT

This week I have been attending the ChannelExpo 2009 show in Birmingham, UK. The show had a great turn out and for me was an ideal opportunity to meet with partners, customers and members of the UK IT trade press at our Dell stand.

For Dell, the event marked 16 eventful months in the channel. Reflecting on this opening period and what we’ve learnt was the focus of my keynote speech in the seminar theatre on the first day. Talking with existing and prospective partners encouraged me that we are making the right enhancements to PartnerDirect. We now have over 17,000 partners across EMEA and our channel business is worth $11bn worldwide.

One of the key things we have taken from the last year is the value of feedback from partners in developing the programme. This is why we created the Partner Advisory Councils (having just held our second one last month in London and attended by Michael Dell). Without partner input we genuinely would not have got to where we are now, and have the planned enhancements for the next 12 months.

Our recent company re-organisation is another enhancement allowing us to integrate our partners and business segments. The channel is now woven into everything we do. This combined with the changes to internal processes that encourage and reward our internal teams working with the channel means we are continuously evolving. The initial concerns the partner community had towards Dell’s commitment to wholeheartedly adopting a channel model are disappearing rapidly.

Our partners are evolving too. Charles Darwin is often misquoted as saying “survival of the fittest”. What he actually said was the species most responsive to change are the ones that survive. This is happening across our eco-system too, as partners move from broad coverage to specialisation in services and vertical solutions.

This clear differentiation is something we are striving for in our partners and our PartnerDirect programme – the desire to stand out above the rest. Dell is committed to becoming the No.1 partner rated programme through listening, engaging and enabling our partners to lead with Dell.

The year ahead is set to be a challenging one for the whole industry as we work through the world economic crisis. However, I’m confident that our partners are accepting the challenge in the right way by adapting and evolving how they work with their customers, in the same way that we are evolving the programme that serves them.

Dell’s Peter Klanian Discusses Common MSP Mistakes

DELL-Kara K — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:05:00 GMT

In the third and final part of his series on MSPMentor, How to Fail as a Managed Service Provider, Peter Klanian discusses five more common blunders aspiring MSPs should avoid. If you've encountered any of the errors mentioned in the series, feel free to share your best practices in the comments section below.

The Upgrade Imperative

DELL-Ryan S — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT

CRN, Intel and Dell have a very informative session planned for later this week (Thursday). We have the results of Dell and Intel internal IT case studies, industry trends and metrics that all highlight a golden opportunity. During these hard economic times we have potential solution for you to offer your customers that has a quick ROI and positions them to leap frog their competitors. Now is the time for your customer to refresh their data centers and server rooms, come learn why?

Dell’s Peter Klanian Discusses How to Fail as a Managed Service Provider

DELL-Amie P — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT

In part two of his series, How to Fail as a Managed Service Provider, Peter Klanian offers the next four errors common to MSPs that reduce profit and discourage growth. Read over the common errors and join the lively conversation that is occurring on MSPMentor!

Tech Rate Special, Dell and CIT offers for PartnerDirect

DELL-Mike B — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:45:00 GMT

As we mentioned on Friday, Dell and CIT are offering special promotions until the end of the month for registered and qualified partners within the PartnerDirect program. To learn more about the promotion were presenting today, click on the attachment below and contact your sales rep for more details.

Feeling the Credit Crunch? Check out Dell’s Latest Partner Promotion

DELL-Amie P — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

One of the most common pieces of feedback I receive from Dell partners is their challenge to stay informed of the various promotions and offers we have available for them. As an effort to increase visibility and help saturate as many communication channels as possible, Sean Phalen, Director of America Storage Sales, sent me this latest promotion over to be evangelized on our social network

In order to get the word out as soon as possible, I won’t list the specifics in this post, but I’ve attached the pdf announcing terms and conditions that Dell and CIT are offering to qualified customers.

Dell PartnerDirect helps Nalta win new business

DELL-Amie P — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:30:00 GMT

Nalta bases all of its storage solutions on EqualLogic iSCS technology. So when Dell acquired the storage company, Nalta saw a long term opportunity to engage with Dell and continue building their strategic vision. Nalta, based in the Netherlands, with 25 employees quickly became a Certified Dell Partner and a member of the PartnerDirect program. By establishing their relationship with Dell and by implementing a dedicated channel account manager, they ensured Nalta’s access to the EqualLogic products at discounted prices.

“We tailor our solutions to the precise needs of each customer. We’re a long-term partner, rather than a short-term vendor. Services are at the core of what we do.”

Mike Veldhuis, Project Director, Nalta

The overall benefits of Nalta’s relationship with Dell are:

More sales through collaboration and co-marketing
Seamless customer experience
Reduced product development costs
Single point of contact

The Dell channel team congratulates Nalta on their success, to read more about Nalta’s story, download their case study, A Logical Choice.

Rev2 Technologies – Providing the Missing Link

DELL-Amie P — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:00:00 GMT

“The services Rev2 and Dell provide are enabling CA to effectively outsource the manufacturing of the CA|Wily CEM solution while maximizing gross profits."
- Steve Brown, partner, Rev2 Technologies

I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Brown two weeks ago during his trip to our Round Rock headquarters. As far as Dell partners go, Rev2 Technologies is one of the most adept I've seen at being ready, able and, most importantly, willing to go the distance for their customers. The growth and development of his business is reflected through his sharp business acumen teamed with a customer-first philosophy. In this featured case study, Rev2 Technologies rises against the challenge and helps CA accommodate 500% growth in its CA/Wily CEM product over 2 years utilizing Dell’s PartnerDirect program.

Rev2, has many success stories to share with other partners and the channel industry. Read their In Step with Dell case study, check them out on Facebook, Twitter and hear their latest podcast with our own Jeff Johnson, Global Channel Marketing, on how to simplify and save utilizing Dell technologies, or read their blog posts here.

Partners are welcome to submit questions for Rev2 Technologies on their successes, growth strategies and more.

A message from Josh Claman

DELL-Amie P — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:31:00 GMT

By now you will have seen the announcements we have been making about changes to our organisation to introduce global customer business units. Dell is organising itself globally around four major customer segments - Large Enterprise, Public, Small and Medium Business, and Consumer (already operating globally).

I appreciate that you will have many questions at this point on how Dell’s reorganisation affects our channel business and partners. I want to emphasise that the new structure does not affect Dell’s ongoing commitment to our partners globally. We have worked hard to earn your trust. While our channel partners will not be directly affected by the restructuring, the efficiencies and synergies that result from this should positively influence our channel business and better position it to serve partners and your customers.

PartnerDirect has been critical to the success of our business. In a little over twelve months, we have 36,000 registered partners across 148 countries. Dell’s revenue from solution providers grew from $9 billion to $12 billion worldwide, and the PartnerDirect portal is available in 19 languages. This success means that we remain committed to our partners and to growing PartnerDirect.

Over the past year, we’ve made every effort to listen to our channel partners and to respond to their needs to simplify IT, reduce costs and maximise productivity. In 2008, Dell made significant accomplishments in driving simplification around:

· Supercomputing
· De-duplication
· Disaster recovery
· Virtualization

With the changes to the organisation, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that Greg Davis, General Manager of Americas Channel Group will assume a global role in running our channel business. Greg launched PartnerDirect in the US, and has accomplished several significant milestones, including recruiting around 16,000 partners in North America. We will formally announce the European team and more details on the reorganisation in the near future.

It was a privilege to launch Dell’s first partner program across eighteen countries in Europe, and an exciting and fulfilling challenge for me. Over the last twelve months we built a compelling and robust program for our partners in Europe like no other.

As you may have seen, going forward I will be leading the Public business in EMEA, which is an exciting new challenge for me. Over the years we have all seen how technology can fundamentally help improve the lives of every citizen. We help our public customers use technology to address challenges that matter to us all – the education of our children, the effectiveness of our healthcare, our safety, democracy and efficiency of the public services we use every day.

I am confident that Greg will continue to grow and expand PartnerDirect, and that his new role will provide even more global efficiencies for Dell’s world-class partner program. Please join me in welcoming Greg to this new chapter in Dell’s history and journey.

All the best for 2009.

Josh Claman

Partners Remain Key to Dell Success

DELL-Amie P — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:30:00 GMT

(Posted on behalf of Greg Davis)

As many of you have recently read in the media, Dell is organizing itself globally around four major customer segments—large enterprise, public, small and medium business and consumer (already operating globally).

These business groups all have a simple charter: to get closer to customers and partners, simplify and make it easier to do business with Dell and deliver superior, differentiated value.

Many of you have asked questions about what Dell’s reorganization means for our channel business. I want to reinforce that our partners are key to Dell’s success in all our segments, both here in the U.S. and globally. When we launched PartnerDirect last year, we were responding to customers’ demand for choice and expanding the way we go to market. In the past year, 36,000 registered partners have signed on with PartnerDirect in 148 countries. The PartnerDirect portal is available in 19 languages. Dell’s revenue from solution providers has grown from to $12 billion worldwide. PartnerDirect has won various awards and recognition. All these are significant proof points that underscore Dell’s commitment to our partners, and that you remain an important part of Dell’s go-to-market strategy.

To further underscore the importance of the channel to Dell’s success, I will assume a global role in running our channel business. We will have further details on the globalization of PartnerDirect in the coming weeks.

While our channel partners will not be directly affected by the restructuring, the efficiencies and synergies that result from this should positively influence our channel business and better position it to serve partners and your customers.

In our first year of PartnerDirect, we worked hard to build our channel business and earn your trust. Together, we’ve laid a solid foundation for partners that we will expand and build on in the coming year. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me directly at Gregory_davis@dell.com. Best wishes for 2009! Greg