Dell Technologies hosts partner broadcast for refinements in 2019

Dell Technologies has revealed the changes it will make to its channel programme this year with the vendor looking to make it easier for partners to achieve gold status. The channel chief and its top channel executives took to the virtual stage and save for a few exceptions, asked its partner community to stay the course with the vendor’s global partner program.

The more significant refinements mentioned during Dell Technologies partner broadcast included 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 need to achieve Gold status.

In an update to partners the firm's president global channels, OEM and IoT solutions, Joyce Mullen said that there would not be any dramatic changes, but it had listened to partner feedback and was making enhancements to the existing programme. She said, "You shouldn't see or expect major changes, just improvements and refinements in the areas that are most important to you."

Darren Sullivan, Senior Vice-President, global partner strategy and business operations, Dell Technologies said that the benefits of the programme would remain consistent, but it had chosen to make enhancements based on feedback.

The vendor has gold, platinum and titanium tiers which channel partners can reach by gaining revenue, training and services targets.

She also acknowledged the fact that constant refinements to the partner program are needed, most of which are fuelled by partner feedback. In addition to a revamped MDF Tool homepage, Dell EMC says it’s simplifying its MDF by moving to one Dell Technologies payment process. This means no more multiple payments for a single claim.

Cheryl Cook, Senior Vice-President of Global Partner Marketing, said that MDF rates will also be aligned to product categories instead of having one rate for its Client Solutions Group and another for Infrastructure Solutions.

To make it easier for partners to do business with the company, Dell EMC is adding more self-service and automation for process improvements. Sullivan outlined the company’s five partner experience improvement themes for 2019: simplification of the end-to-end process; differentiated support, or finding the right people to help them navigate through the processes and systems; investments in the online experience, particularly in quoting; predictability of engagements; and making it easier to do business across the Dell Technologies companies.

Bill Scannell, President, Global Enterprise Sales and Customer Operations, who helped develop and implement the Enterprise Preferred Channel Program last August, addressed enterprise sales, noting that. In the first three quarters of 2018, enterprise business growth exceeded 25 per cent. “Today, over 60 per cent of my $25 billion business is sold with and through [partners], and we see that accelerating with things like the Enterprise Preferred Channel Program and deal registration,” he said, noting this year’s goal of taking more market share.

In order to enable partners, especially smaller ones, to reap benefits of the partner program incentives faster, Dell EMC is reducing the number of individuals needed to complete the training to reach the Gold tier, the level above Authorized. The company also introduced a Data Analytics Solutions Competency through its Partner Academy training program, tying back to Mullen’s message earlier in the broadcast about the incoming tsunami wave of data.