DELL flying high!

Mahesh Bhalla
GM, Consumer & SMB, Dell India

Dell has consolidated go-to-market channel strategy for its commercial channel partners to increase partner convenience, profitability and growth. Under the new initiative, Dell's PartnerDirect programme will now be led by a separate Global Commercial Channel (GCC) team, which will serve as a single point of contact for channel partners across the company's different commercial business segments - Large Enterprise, Public and Medium Business.  

The new GCC structure, with its single point of contact for partners, will lead to higher productivity and improved time cycles and enable more customized programmes to support the partners in the market. The new structure will protect partner profitability by bringing consistent pricing across different Dell commercial businesses and offer the partners increased growth opportunities with solution-centric offerings and a broader end customer base.

Commenting on the initiative, Mahesh Bhalla, GM, Consumer & SMB, Dell India, said, “Dell recognizes channel as an important growth engine to gain greater coverage and customer access in a market like India, especially in the highly-distributed medium business segment. Our partners feedback has helped us evolve a more robust go-to-market strategy for our indirect business. The single face to Dell will allow our partners to tap the market better and increase the width and depth of market penetration”. 

Talking about the PartnerDirect programme, Ajay Mittal, HBS Systems, India, said, “Participating in Dell PartnerDirect saves us time and reduces costs by 30-40 per cent. As a result, we are able to focus on managing customer relations. The programme is different from other partner programmes in three ways: cost savings are realized faster; it provides partner confidence by protecting margins; and it is more transparent.”

Dell has also announced expansion of its mobile portfolio with the new Venue and Venue Pro launch at the Bangalore Fashion Week. The latest smartphones from Dell are available in India on all GSM networks. Venue and Venue Pro users on the Aircel network will enjoy exclusive privileges of a preferred partnership between Dell and Aircel, a leading telecom player with pan-India operations.  

Elegantly designed, the Venue with Android 2.2 is the perfect one-touch, unlocked 3.5G smartphone providing instant access to everything you love. It offers a vibrant, high-contrast 10.4 cm (4.1-inch) AM-OLED display with curved Corning Gorilla Glass that is perfect for watching videos to performing business applications. Dell's first Windows Phone 7 smartphone, the Venue Pro is designed to take productivity, social networking and on-the-go entertainment to new heights. Bhalla adds, "Our strategy is to continue creating smart, innovative and new mobile experiences to help people discover new ways to enjoy the web, connect with friends, and navigate their lives. Following Dell's purpose, to give our customers the power to do more, the Venue - with Android 2.2 and Venue Pro - with Windows Phone 7 smartphone gives customers a fresh new way to meet everyday social and professional commitments in a sleek and attractive form factor, and for the best value."