Registered Partners

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. 

By Colin Steele, news writer, SearchITChannel.com

At least once a week, I get a press release from an IT vendor that’s launching a partner program and wants publicity. Most of these times, it’s a small startup that nobody’s ever heard of -- and that nobody’s likely to read about -- so I ignore the pitch.

That wasn’t the case last December, when the press release came from Dell. Dell? The company that lets customers and businesses go on its website and custom-build systems? Starting a channel? Now this was interesting.

It’s one thing for a small startup to build a channel from scratch. It’s a completely different story when a giant vendor, which has grown to that size because of its direct sales strategy, decides to become partner-friendly. I was excited to cover this story for two reasons: One, it’s a really intriguing case study of a major corporation making a major shift in strategy. And two, it was bound to create controversy. And journalists love controversy.

That most definitely has not been in short supply. Partner complaints are common on PartnerStorm, Dell’s channel wiki, and on the PartnerDirect forum. There are also concerns about Dell’s push into Software as a Service, as well as its OEM agreements with software vendors.

But what’s been surprising is how so many solution providers have been willing to give Dell the benefit of the doubt. For every partner complaint, there’s a comment that PartnerDirect is young and Dell needs time to iron out the details -- sometimes from the same partner who complained. I think that’s because of Dell’s outreach program, which has by far been the most interesting thing to watch over these last nine months.

For starters, there’s this Dell Channel Blog, PartnerStorm and the PartnerDirect forum. Plus, channel community manager Amie Paxton is on Facebook and Twitter, as she talked about on a SearchITChannel.com Partner News Podcast earlier this year. I haven’t seen another vendor do so much -- and do it creatively -- to connect with partners.

Of course, that’s probably because no other vendor has such an uphill climb to win over the channel and shed its direct-only reputation. But still, it’s a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to covering the Dell partner program as it continues evolving, and talking to partners about their perspectives. You can follow all our channel-related news at SearchITChannel.com and contact me at csteele@techtarget.com.

The opinions in this column are the author’s alone. Dell did not pay the author for this contribution and did not change the posting in any way.

We’ve learned via a memo leaked to CRN that HP has moved to strengthen ties with its biggest vendor, CDW. The Web is full of chatter as the channel weighs in and discusses the ripples this will create for smaller HP SMB solution providers.

For example, The VAR Guy asks about the perception of trust. Dell has been under the microscope since the launch of its PartnerDirect program, with many questions focused on our trustworthiness. Now, you have a channel program that’s known for its longevity and, as The VAR Guy calls out, “perhaps those solutions providers should worry more about a potential betrayal by Hewlett-Packard.”

I asked Greg Davis, VP of Americas Channel Group, for his perspective on this turn of events. Here’s his take:

“It is clear that HP sees greater value in CDW and continues to invest millions of dollars to advantage CDW over traditional solution providers.  We are committed to drive value to our network of solution providers.  Our partners work with Dell to take advantage of our build to order model, custom configuration capabilities and lower operating cost to compete with CDW.  While HP is walking away from these partners we are embracing them and adding great value.”

This HP deal seems to run counter to what Dell is creating with PartnerDirect, which is a simplified solution and relationship with our channel partners. With Dell, our partners and their customers are our customers, if you go with HP/CDW, can you be sure whose customer you are?

Today’s featured Partner is IT services provider, Redapt, from Redmond, WA. Redapt’s challenge was utilizing Dell’s expertise without adding complexity to its business model.

With a staff of 40, Redapt realized they needed to leverage the size and scalability of Dell to further their reach and offer a wider range of services and support. By partnering with Dell, Redapt has realized a 15 percent increase in total revenue last year.

While we realize that Dell’s PartnerDirect program is not perfect for everyone, for a growing number of partners, it is. Partners such as Redapt understand that integrating Dell’s consultative services help to eliminate a lot of pain points.

Read more about Redapt’s successes and how they’ve benefited from Dell’s business model while increasing bottom line profits.