Dell believes in "Simplifying IT"

Dell Premier Partners demonstrate the highest level of commitment with two Dell certifications, and maintenance of minimum annual revenue threshold. New benefits include: rebates on qualified products, 180-day deal registration, access to Dell-generated leads, and Case Studies collaboration.

Dell Preferred Partners are recognized experts in key Dell solutions with at least one Dell certification and a minimum annual revenue threshold. New benefits include: enhanced deal registration terms (120 days), including extended deal registration for storage products and access to Dell-generated leads. 

Dell offers many tools and resources to help VARs raise profits and provide the flexibility and expertise customers deserve. Early this year, Dell has initiated the Global Commercial Channel as part of its renewed go-to-market channel strategy to increase partner convenience, profitability and growth. Under this initiative, Dell's PartnerDirect programme is led by a separate Global Commercial Channel (GCC) team, which serves as a single point of contact for channel partners across the company's different commercial business segments - Large Enterprise, Public and Medium Business.  

The GCC structure leads to higher productivity and improved time cycles and enables more customized programmes to support the partners in the market. The new structure protects 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.

PartnerDirect's structure for certified partners consists of three new levels - Registered Partners, Premier Partners and Preferred Partners. Partners who currently hold any of Dell's certifications - enterprise architecture, networking and security, and systems management - will migrate to one of the Premier or Preferred levels, depending on their level of commitment and training. The newly enhanced PartnerDirect programme featured a new structure which set out increased rewards for certification and training, including new rebates for premier partners, expanded deal registration terms, financial incentives, and marketing and technical assistance.

Efforts made by Dell for strengthening the channel business have been constant and consistent. Dell, in the month of May this year, announced an enhanced structure for channel partners under the PartnerDirect programme, to expand their ability to deliver value to their customers and reward them for their investment in key Dell solutions, at the same time helping partners drive business growth.  

Suresh Reddy, Director & General Manager, GCC, Dell India, said, “We, on our part, are constantly engaging with our partners via training programmes. We are aligning instructor-led classroom training programmes and extending online courses to cover more relevant areas. More instructor-led trainings are planned for other partners for their pre-sale reps. Incentive plans are being aligned accordingly with much higher incentives for both the partner organization and partner sales representatives for selling enterprise solutions.”

Recently, Dell has further restructured its Global Commercial Channel team to increase Dell's penetration and footprint in the market, especially in the Tier-II regions, which is a heartland of commercial and SME businesses. Dell has also doubled its sales force in the last two quarters. 

As the IT market is evolving and moving into specialized focus and the pressure is on OPEX and end-customer budget optimization, partners need to evolve around solution and add unique value for an end-customer to consider them. Channel partners are also facing the heat of profitable growth and looking for vendors who enable them in this area. End-customer budget constraints, changing technology, virtual era and other factors driving them to come out with customer-centric solutions, and Dell is rightly poised to help partner grow and thrive with customer need-based solutions.

Suresh further added, “A big role in Dell being No. 1 in the Indian PC market is our focus on 'listening' across platforms. For our channel partners, our programmes are focussed on ensuring that the consumers get access to the products while making sure that our partners remain profitable. We are determined to support the channel in whatever is possible for us, including investing in marketing to generate consumer awareness on products and best value customer solutions. We believe in “Simplifying IT” and focus on making IT work for our consumers and their business. Our channel initiatives are designed to provide customers with more choice, flexibility and value when investing in Dell Solutions.”

Finally...

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. The Indian IT market is an under-penetrated one, and Dell believes there is a great opportunity for them to work with their partners to offer differentiated solutions, even more in the SMB segment that will have a significant channel play. 

The PartnerDirect programme has been a major success in many ways. It has created value for resellers to reach out to more customers. It has also helped in the better availability of Dell brands to the commercial and SME segment which contributes a significant part to the business. 

S. Mohini Ratna 
mohini@varindia.com