Dell Technologies rallied the channel troops this week as part of an effort to further accelerate double-digit growth in channel sales on a base of $43 billion in annual revenues generated by channel partners.
In the most recent second quarter, Joyce Mullen during a webcast update for partners revealed Dell Technologies saw a 22 percent year-on-year gains in channel orders and a 24 percent gain in revenue flowing through distributors. Overall, channel sales of servers, storage, and client hardware were up 32, 15 and 19 percent, respectively, for the quarter, says Mullen. In the first half of fiscal 2018, Dell Technologies says channel revenues are up 18 percent.
Mullen says the top three channel imperatives for Dell Technologies is to make the company easier for partners to do business with, enable partners to deliver solutions faster, and help partners embrace and monetize new technologies.
As part of that first initiative, Mullen says Dell Technologies is well down the path towards implementing previously announced revisions to its channel program. In addition to adding elements to its Preferred Partner program, such as enabling partners to be named the partner of record for some customer accounts, and providing additional incentives for partners that register deals in new Dell customer accounts.
Dell Technologies is also committing to provide additional market development funds (MDF) and technical resources that will enable partners to attain skills badges in solutions based on VMware software.
Mullen also reiterated Dell Technologies is especially keen for a partner to increase storage sales, attach service such as financing to deals, and acquire net new customer logos. Dell EMC claims to have a 33 percent share of storage market valued at $26 billion that it wants channel partners to substantially increase by selling, for example, Dell EMC PowerMAX storage systems in the midmarket.
To close those types of deals, Dell Technologies is also committing to getting 80 percent of pricing request back to partners within four hours and 95 percent approved with 24 hours and will pay partners within 60 days of the close on any deal.
Finally, Mullen also promised that Dell Technologies is committed to enforcing rules of engagement on its direct sales force. Mullen says while the number of infractions is small, any issue involving a sales conflict will be escalated up now to a committee of senior managers following a recent review of the company’s processes.
“Rules are rules, and we take them seriously,” says Mullen.
With less than four months to the end of the fiscal year, Dell Technologies is making it clear it plans to pull out all the channel stops through the rest of the year. For example, Dell Technologies now has 3X and 1.5X accelerators in place for storage and converged infrastructure sales. The interesting thing to watch from a channel partner perspective will be to what degree rivals will respond in kind.
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