Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'Partner Direct Events'

And The Winner's Are...

DELL-Bob Sk — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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.

Dell Virtualization: Simplifying the Path to Profit

DELL-Jeff J — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, we had a live webinar for our PartnerDirect partners designed to provide ideas and guidance on how to drive more virtualization business with your customers.

Three things you will learn more about during the webinar include:

· How to help your customers achieve an 8 month ROI on server consolidation

· How to leverage virtualization to increase availability and faster recovery when/if disruptions occur.

· How to deploy servers 43% faster than previously possible

Dell is working hard to demystify the complexity associated with virtualization. This webinar will talk through how and what we are doing to make that possible. Here is the archived recording to watch when you get a chance.

Darwin could have been a Dell partner

DELL-Paul H — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:00:00 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.

Partner Perspective: Update on Dell’s Enterprise Architecture Partner Advisory Council

Doug Ford — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:00:00 GMT

*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.”

Dell PartnerDirect InThe News

DELL-Amie P — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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 Talks Managed Services Strategy with MSPMentor.net

DELL-Amie P — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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, you can look below for the question and answer session between participants and Peter.

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!

NYC Future of Computing – Follow Up

Dell-Amie P — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT

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.

First PartnerDirect Solutions Club Events roll-out in UK

DELL-Paula W — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Over the last two weeks, we've held the first in a series of EMEA PartnerDirect Solutions Club Events. Held in Manchester and Bracknell, the two events attracted partners who wanted to learn more about the benefits of becoming a PartnerDirect partner for them and their customers.

During the one day event, the partners heard from Josh Claman (VP & GM Dell EMEA Channel Business) and Andy Dow (head of the UK channel business), plus other senior product and solutions experts from Dell, EqualLogic and Intel.

The agenda covered details on our Certified Partner Program, together with break-out sessions on Green IT, Virtualisation and Mobility, giving partners first-hand access to tips and information to help them sell these solutions to their partners. It also enabled these partners to get an early look at some of our latest and greatest products, and a good networking opportunity between partners and the PartnerDirect EMEA team.

Feedback from the partners about the PartnerDirect Program and the event was very positive and constructive. We'll be using their input to help shape the Program moving forward. Here is what partners said about the event and Dell:

· "Excellent information throughout the day. Not afraid to tackle difficult questions - very refreshing to see"

· "Informative and useful, whole event was pitched well"

· "We look forward to developing a mutually successful partnership"

· "Would welcome the chance to do this kind of day with my team; Great to be getting your support"

These events were the first of five events being held across Europe. The next events will be held in September.