Dell is committed to grow Channel ecosystem by enhancing partner experience levels and building services led go-to-market strategies, aided by new incentives and distribution support.
As the year 2023 draws to a sluggish close, it’s time to look back and take stock of the channel performance of leading vendors and distributors and the key achievements and take-aways from the Channel Market. Starting from the widening market opportunities to the breakaway from the raving pandemic, from being the year of Europe’s greatest war since World War II and the devastating war in the Middle-East that pushed the pandemic battered global economy and the European markets into recession to a year of greater cybersecurity concerns, 2023 has seen it all.
“Dell focuses on strategic technologies such as Multi-cloud, Edge, 5G, AI/ML, Data Management and Cybersecurity to enable end-to-end, modern IT systems for future.
Anil Sethi, Vice President & General Manager, Channels, India, Dell Technologies
In a series of interactions with the poster-boys of Indian IT, SME Channels attempts to understand how leading vendors have fared in the year goneby; what drives their growth engine; the key milestones achieved from channel perspective; direction for channel partners and their growth blueprint for 2024.
We spoke to market leader Dell Technologies to get a sneak peek into its performance in the channel market.
In an exclusive chat with SME Channels, Anil Sethi, Vice President & General Manager, Channels, India, Dell Technologies, shares his company’s key channel achievements and seminal vision for the Partner Ecosystem. Edited Excerpts:
As a company – how have you performed in 2023 in Indian Channel Market?
Dell Technologies is committed to its goal of being the preferred technology vendor for its partners and customers. Channel partners have been one of the keydriving forcesfor Dell Technologies’ overall growth and the year 2023 is no different. Our 2023 Partner Program launched in February builds upon a position of partner strength. Partners are also leveraging next-gen solutions through our collaborations with OEMs like Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat and others.
Our recent announcement on “Partner First Strategy for Storage” is a step towards this commitment. This marks a fundamental change in our go to market, resulting in over 99% of Dell customers and potential customers being considered partner first for storage. The Partner First Strategy for Storage, including data protection, is a change in our go-to-market strategy designed to fuel continued storage growth in India and around the world. By further embracing the power of collaboration with our partners, we win more deals and drive better outcomes for customers.
Dell Technologies is investing heavily in customer and market research for not just additional technology and features that customers want, but also identifying new and emerging ways that are used to consume technology.
What are the major technologies that you have provided to Channel to leverage the market opportunity?
We are looking for new ways of working, learning, and living with technology as the enabler. Dell focuses on strategic technologies such as Multi-cloud, Edge, 5G, AI/ML, Data Management and Cybersecurity to enable end-to-end, modern IT systems for future. Moreover, hybrid cloud for the hybrid workforce, Edge opportunities will come into focus; Edge innovations will create urgency for Telcos to accelerate 5G and Intelligent PCs will adapt to hybrid, hyper-connected users. The various consumption models – Flex-On-Demand, and Project APEX – will help Dell and its partners to meet customers’ expectations and address their demands in the new “as a service” world.
What is your revenue growth expectation for this year?
The Channel ecosystem plays a pivotal role in expanding our footprint. We are committed to grow this further by enhancing partner experience levels and building services led go-to-market strategies, aided by new incentives and distribution support. Organizationsacross the globe have accelerated their transformation journey, embraced multicloud architectures and started adoptingas-a-service models.
We launched our 2023 Partner Program in February with a renewed focus – Together, We Stop at Nothing. This celebrates the sixth anniversary of the program and its continued success with the partner community. We are building upon a position of partner strength. Our commitment has helped us secure #1 positions in the majority of the industry’s critical IT infrastructure categories.Dell is focused on fulfilling its customers evolving needs as well as their broader digital transformation ambitions with new innovations and solutions.
What are other milestones you achieved last year from a channel perspective?
We have continuously focused on emerging technologies and innovations to bring in the maximum growth for our channel partners. We are committed to investing in our partner’s end-to-end experience with us and are excited for the opportunities that will allow Dell Technologies and its partners to create together, for the future.
In 2023, we focused on maximizing growth, enabling transformation, and streamlining the partner experience. We made big strides in these three categories with all the program enhancements we announced in February. To complement industry needs, we have also streamlined and enhanced the partner experience across multiple program tracks allowing solution providers, CSPs and OEM partners to enjoy one regional incentive structure, one tier structure, and one set of tier requirements. Our goals are to be our partners’ #1 choice for today, and for years to come. To do that, we will continue listening, evolving and raising the bar on our partner program and commitment.
What is your road map for 2024?
With the accelerated pace of digital transformation, progress can only be made when we push relentlessly to innovate, improve and advance.Dell Technologies recentlyheld the Visions 2024 media briefing in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), which was hosted by John Roese, Global CTO, Dell Technologies, and Peter Marrs, President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Dell Technologies. They highlighted emerging trends that are set to shape the technology industry in 2024 and beyond, as well as how Dell is working with customers to navigate these trends and build on the innovation opportunity in the region.This included conversations about Gen AI, Zero Trust architecture and the Multicloud.
By harnessing the transformative power of technology, businesses can build more secure digital foundation needed to be ready for what’s next. As we look ahead, below are a few emerging trends that are set to shape the technology industry in 2024:
- GenAl dialogue will move from theory to practice
- Supply chain and ecosystem of enterprise GenAl will improve
- Zero Trust will become real in 2024
- Edge platforms will emerge
- Quantum Computing and GenAl will becomeentangled
What is your direction for channel partners for next year?
Dell Technologies’ partner programme has been rated as one of the best in the industry. With the partner feedback process we have in place, we have found that even our partners view our programme as simple, predicable and profitable. Our partner programme enables them to plan their resources better, decide on the opportunity strategy more accurately and have more controlled and beneficial outcomes.
We are focused on keeping our program structure and engagement with partners consistent while we continue to invest in key focus areas. We design our rules of engagement (ROE) around deal registration and to govern our internal sales team behaviour in a way that promotes customer choice while protecting the integrity of our partner programme principles. We will make sure that partners are engaged and understand all the capabilities that we have. We listen to our partner’s feedback, and we will continue to review our operational model to ensure we’re optimizing and simplifying our engagement with partners. We are committed to enhancing our channel ecosystem and supporting our partners to enable maximum growth.
