AUSTIN, TEX. – Dell channel chief Cheryl Cook opened Dell World 2015 by informing approximately 1,000 channel partners on new enhancements to the PartnerDirect program highlighted by a Scale Ready Payment solution intended to help solution providers with the As-A-Service consumption model.
Dell Financial Services will now have a provision and pay module to help partners grow technology solutions over time with the presentation of a critical plan to Dell. Currently more than $5 billion has been provided to the partner community from Dell Financial Services.
Cook also introduced a formal service provider program and announced that Dell is modifying incentives and rebates.
“I am a huge advocate of driving alignment on the direct side and the partner side. These are new business incentives that will reward aggressiveness in top line growth,” Cook said.
The strategy behind these new moves from Dell’s channel team is to have solution providers produce multiple line of business expansion to include data centre equipment and storage specifically.
“We can taste the market opportunity. Its so close to tipping share against our competition. We can really feel it and partners can get us there,” she said.
Also look for Dell to release more engineered solution appliances and reference architecture blueprints to channel partners. Cook added that Dell will provide 13 engineered solutions and 20 referenced architecture blueprints that will help the channel to architect solutions using use cases and known workloads in the line of business, unified collaboration, VDI, core virtualization, cloud, big data and analytics and high performance computing.
PartnerDirect will also have new enhanced competencies in four areas: products, cloud, services, and training.
In the product area, expect to see new competencies in:
- Data Protection;
- Windows Management;
- End point management with Kace; and
- Identity and access management.
- In Cloud there will be network security and big data and analytics.
- With services Dell will have PS Series storage deployment, SC Series storage deployment and network deployment.
- Finally, in training there will be Dell Authorized Training Partners.
The change here is that Dell is embracing solution providers to offer the deployment and other services instead of Dell. Cook said that Dell distribution partners such as Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Synnex have been positioned to deliver the training and competencies.
These new competencies and training have been made available in 123 countries along with troubleshooting, best practices and online tools.
“I want scale. I want reach and I want coverage and the distributors can do this around the globe,” Cook said.