"We want our partners to transform from being a hardware reseller to reselling solutions"

Dell Technologies is committed to delivering simple, predictable and profitable partner programs. But at the same time it believes that constant refinements to the partner program are needed, most of which are fuelled by partner feedback. In a chat with VARINDIA, Anil Sethi, Vice President  & GM, Channels India - Dell Technologies explains what necessitated the revamping of its Dell EMC Partner Program and how it will further catalyse its go to market strategy -

Dell Technologies is committed to becoming the industry’s most trusted advisor to its customers. Its portfolio is well equipped on both sides of infrastructure with desktops, notebooks, server, storage and other assets within Dell Technologies family like VMware, Pivotal. This comprehensive portfolio helps in meeting the business outcome when it sells to a line of business.Furthermore, Channel partners, system integrators and distributors have played a critical role in empowering Dell Technologies customers on their path towards digital transformation. 

“The fact that we differentiate with the breadth of our portfolio, from the edge to the core, and to the cloud, is resonating very well with the channel ecosystem. Today, we work with all major partners in India and we see that trust and comfort of partners is growing every year,” reiterates Anil Sethi, Vice President & GM, Channels India - Dell Technologies.  

Dell Technologies has specialized teams in all the core areas, be it storage, compute, network followed by Smart Pricing concept. It has an Insight Engine that does a great job. Through its MDF (Market Development Fund), partners are now involved in the demand generation exercise. Instead of passing leads to them, Dell provides them with funds and wants them to provide returns on investment here. 

Dell Technologies is also committed to deliver simple, predictable and profitable partner program, which is designed to build trust and long-term relationships with its customer base. “In order to keep our relationships strengthened with the customers, it is imperative to develop and enable a robust Partner Community,” says Anil.

He further adds, “Our Channel Ecosystem is comprised of 4500+ Partners, each competent in their own way. Our channel partners have their own expertise, including industries such as BFSI, Surveillance, ISVs etc. Depending on the business model, Dell Technologies partner ecosystem includes solution providers, cloud service providers and strategic outsourcers, system integrators, distributors and OEMs.”

The Dell Technologies Partner Program

The Dell Technologies Partner Program has been instrumental in ensuring profitability and scale for all Dell Technologies partners in India and across the globe. 

“We believe that the partner program will further catalyse our go-to-market strategy and business growth. We really want our partners to make the transformation from just being a hardware reseller to reselling solutions that meet business objectives. It will be a good start for partners to sell more lines of business at their customer end; for example, they can sell storage or networking products than just selling a server,” says Anil. 

Dell Technologies has recently revealed the changes made to the channel program this year with the vendor looking to make it easier for partners to achieve gold status. The more significant refinements include a further simplified market development funds (MDF) process, the addition of more products to the company’s rebate programs, and a reduction in the number of trained employees needed to achieve Gold status.

“We believe that constant refinements to the partner program are needed, most of which are fuelled by partner feedback. The vendor has gold, platinum and titanium tiers which channel partners can reach by gaining revenue, training and services targets. We have simplified our MDF by moving to one Dell Technologies payment process. MDF rates will also be aligned to product categories instead of having one rate for its Client Solutions Group and another for Infrastructure Solutions,” he explains.

Emerging Technologies & Partners

India’s rate of adoption in emerging technologies is increasing rapidly, with the entire region playing a significant role in driving much of the digital adoption. There is a real push for businesses to accelerate their digital transformation plans with emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, and cloud computing, in order to remain competitive. 

Sensing this, Dell is preparing its India partners as well as those from other markets in this region, so that they can solve their customers’ complex digital challenges. It has continuously focused on emerging technologies and innovations to bring in the maximum growth for its channel partners. Partners can add great value at the customer end as new models and changed buying methods evolve faster. 

“Also, we believe that with 50 per cent of the traditional way of buying IT infra changing, channels will need to shift gears to fulfil these needs,” says Anil. 

Anil further concludes by saying that it is important for a partner to participate in the emerging government led projects  be it digital India or smart cities. Learning the new ways with a strong capital will be the two ‘must-have’ eligibility for partners to be part of this drive. Training and building capabilities of partners will be the core focus of Dell EMC India.