Dell Looks to Channel Globalization

Dell Technologies wants to make it simpler for partners to close deals on a global basis.

During a recorded webcast to kick off fiscal 2021, Bill Scannell, president of global enterprise sales and customer operations for Dell, told partners there would now be one sales leader in every country for all Dell business segments.

Previously, Dell had been organized around enterprise and commercial segments across five different global theaters. The goal is to make it simpler for partners to close deals spanning multiple countries, said Scannell.

“We should be able to scale our mutual businesses,” says Scannell.

While just about every IT vendor and most partners conduct business internationally to some degree, it’s challenging to sell a solution spanning multiple geographies because of all the people and processes involved. As a result, the number of IT solutions a single partner can sell on a global basis is often constrained by the way IT vendors are organized in various regions.

It’s too early to say whether the move by Dell will drive globalization across the IT channel. At the very least, however, there should be a lot more conversation within IT vendors about the need to simplify the process of selling IT solutions spanning multiple countries.

Dell also plans to simplify channel processes by making it simpler to integrate price quotes across the Dell storage, server and networking portfolio and will consolidate its rebate structure down to three primary server, storage and client lines of business. At present, that rebate structure spans seven lines of business.

The company also committed to eliminating quarterly target process for partners to reduce process overhead and plans to introduce more automation to make it easier for partners to forecast their earnings each quarter.

Finally, Dell is expanding its Partner Preferred Program to include additional target customers for server acquisition to an existing list of storage accounts, while also making some adjustments to the Dell cloud service provider (CSP) program to streamline processes.

There’s always plenty of room to streamline channel processes in any program. What will be interesting to see in the next year is to what degree a globalization of channel programs among IT vendors might serve as a catalyst for a wave of mergers and acquisitions of channel partners around the globe.