Greg Davis, vice-president and general manager of Dell’s global commercial channels, said the company has furthered its “commitment” to the channel, by announcing as part of its PartnerDirect program, new distribution agreements with Ingram Micro and Tech Data in the U.S. and Canada.
The two multi-year distribution agreements were forged as a result of listening to Dell’s partner feedback. Partners wanted to have the choice of working with the Dell product line either directly with Dell, or through distribution, Davis said.
Currently, Dell has over 35,000 registered partners in its PartnerDirect program in 148 countries. Davis said of those, about 17,000 are partners from the U.S. and Canada. In Canada specifically, Davis says PartnerDirect has just under 1,400 Canadian registered partners.
With the new distribution relationships, Davis says he is looking to double the number of Dell’s certified partners this year.
“One of the benefits for Dell is we now have the opportunity to extend our reach further into the channel and to attract more partners,” Davis said. “Solution providers have told us they want to get some of our products through distribution to get quick delivery, credit and to take advantage of marketing programs they may run.”
Selected Dell products will now be made available at Ingram Micro and Tech Data. Both Canadian operations will have Dell products available to the channel sometime this spring. The first named product to go through distribution is Dell’s Vostro PC lineup, with more products to come, Davis says.
Davis said Dell’s build-to-order tasks, which are a big part of the PartnerDirect program, will not be made available to distribution because it’s not something partners have been asking for.
“Partners have asked for standard or fixed configurations to be made available from distribution, and that’s what we’ve done with this announcement,” Davis said.
When asked about present or future managed services plans, Davis says there are no immediate plans to do this with distribution. However, he did say that as the company builds on its relationships, there are other areas of opportunities Dell will be open to, such as services and other product lines.
Dell systems through distributors will be competitively priced with similar products that can be attained directly from Dell. This will give partners some flexibility in obtaining Dell products for customer solutions.
Ken Lamneck, Tech Data’s Americas president, said that Dell is responding to the same input we’ve received from our reseller customers.
“Resellers have told us there is strong end-user demand for Dell products, and that the easiest, most cost-effective way for them to capitalize on that demand is to source all their IT solutions–including Dell–through Tech Data. All Dell partners doing business with Tech Data will have access to our entire solutions offering and extensive services, including billions in credit capacity, best-in-class e-business tools and technical training.”
Keith Bradley, president, Ingram Micro North America, said this agreement gives Ingram customers greater choice, allowing them access to Dell’s products along with Ingram Micro’s financial strength and selection of complementary products and services.
