TORONTO – Dell Canada is putting more resources towards the Quebec market place. The Canadian subsidiary recently hired Mario Vitale, a long time vice president of HP Canada’s Eastern region based in Montreal.
Vitale you might remember was one of the three survivors after HP Canada gutted its Enterprise Group back in 2012 that saw 10 executives leave the organization.
Canadian channel chief Tara Fine said at the recently concluded Dell Canada Partner Summit that Quebec is the biggest opportunity in front of subsidiary today. “From a share perspective we are under-penetrated and these moves are to ignite the business in the province,” she said.
Dell Canada did confirm that its coverage model for the channel changed to concentrate on regional markets. One of the moves saw Jon Dermott, who was leading public sector, now is responsible for all customer types in Western Canada including public sector. The same approach is being taken for the Eastern portion of the Canadian market with Andre Valiquette in charge of Quebec, Eastern Canada and Central commercial business. Vitale will report directly to Valiquette.
The current channel business for Dell is above 40 per cent in North America; growing at six per cent and a further 25 per cent in the enterprise space.
In Canada, Fine said that the channel makes up 31 per cent of the subsidiary’s revenue. It was at 25 per cent in 2014. “We are mainstreaming the opportunity with the channel and accelerating sales leadership, collaboration and account planning with partners,” she added.
Dell’s worldwide channel chief Cheryl Cook reported that there is strong double digit growth in distribution with Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Synnex. She did say that Dell’s channel team is working jointly with Synnex executives for the Canadian market. Cook described the situation as a “matter of when and not if”.
Rebates to partners shot up to 60 per cent in North America, while 32,000 deals got registered by partners in the second quarter, which is up nine per cent.
On the competency side approximately 15,000 partners completed network security, data protection was up by 44 per cent, networking was at 10 per cent, and network security came in at 16 per cent.
David Miketinac, the past channel chief at Dell Canada, said why Quebec is a focus the company still believes that Western Canada is a big opportunity. Miketinac, who was in town for the Dell Canada Partner Summit, said that even with oil prices down that sector can still save money by consolidating IT specifically with Dell’s end-to-end solution portfolio.
“The reality is IT can save company’s money. Whether the price of oil out west goes up or not we are winning business out there and I believe it’s a place where we can make a positive impact,” Miketinac, who is now the executive sales leader for North American distribution at Dell based in Phoenix, Ariz.
One quick hit before I go. Dell Canada presented some awards at the final night of the Dell Partner Summit. Channel Business Unit Award for Enterprise Partner of the Year went to Scalar Decisions, while Softchoice captured the price for 2015 Canadian partner of the year.