Year 2020 is turning out to be a great year for the partners of Dell Technologies, as the company under the leadership of Joyce Mullen, President, Global Channel, Embedded & Edge Solutions, Dell Technologies has laid out an expansive plan to accelerate partners’ engagement and acquire technologies relevant for the partners.
As Dell Technologies is going to enter the new fiscal year, it has extended its vote of thanks to its Partners, who have delivered $52 billion over the past years. Partnerships of Dell are more solid than ever. It has also officially announced its annual 2020 Dell Technologies Partner Summit, which is going to be held in the Venetian, Las Vegas from May 04 – 07th 2020. This year, Dell Technologies has dramatically simplified the program structure in a couple of areas like the programs point – of – sale report requirement. Instead of requiring its partners to submit a point – of – sale report each month, Dell is going to send its partners and end-user validation report each month, asking them to verify the information it has provided. Dell will be investing in acquisition of technologies relevant to the partners. It is also building an end-to-end experience to accelerate velocity and improve predictability. Every investment Dell will be making this year is designed to empower, to serve customers better and deliver business outcomes faster than ever before. In addition to its powerful partner program, there’s so much more to be looked upon.
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“Customers need partners to help them build the foundation. They need partners who are technically proficient, partners who understand their businesses and what they are trying to accomplish.”
Joyce Mullen,
President, Global Channel,
Embedded & Edge Solutions,
Dell Technologies
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Joyce Mullen, President, Global Channel, Embedded & Edge Solutions, Dell Technologies says, “In this decade, our customers will learn how to put their data to work. They will make their processes even more efficient. Create safer and more environmentally friendly factories. They’ll improve their customers’ experiences, protect privacy even more diligently and they will unlock the power of their data in ways we never imagined. Customers need partners to help them build the foundation. They need partners who are technically proficient, partners who understand their businesses and what they are trying to accomplish. They need partners they trust, partners who have their back and partners who can offer the world’s best solutions to deliver the results they are looking for. Together, we’re doing this. Together, we’re bringing it. Solutions that enable customers, skills that simplify the complex and capabilities that encourage innovation”.
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“Dell is an enabler, but partners will bring the transformation of our collective customers to life. We want to see 50% of the Dell Technologies sales teams leverage what partners have to offer and I expect we will also continue to grow double digits.”
Jay Snyder,
SVP Global Alliances
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Dell is investing 4.5 billion dollars annually in R&D, more than many of its competitors combined. The collaboration it has across the industry is second to none. It is bringing innovative solutions to the markets that can simplify customers’ digital future. Some of the solutions that they launched last year were Power One, Dell Technologies Cloud, new versions of VX Rail, Unity, Data Protection Solutions and award-winning personal devices etc. Dell is even making sure that a partner takes training with VMware on their cloud module for example, that counts towards the Dell Technology cloud certification and competencies. It is also planning that its Global Partners Summit coincides with Dell Technology World, so there will be tons of exciting content for the partners of all sizes and different business models.
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“Dell Technologies has the portfolio strength; we have the team and we have partners to go and take massive share in FY21. We really want to take our partnerships to new heights.”
Bill Scannell,
President, Global Sales,
Dell Technologies.
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Q3 performance of the Dell partners:
- 8% order revenue growth
- 9% distribution growth
- 11% storage growth
- 7% server growth
- Over 52,000 new and reactivated customers
“We used to focus on healthcare, energy and video security initially. In the past year, we’ve added retail, media entertainment, and are in the process of adding financial services. We’re investing in SME’s and developing solutions geared toward customers across all of these industries. Our business has more than doubled in the last 5 years. I can’t wait to share more details with you at GPS (Global Partner Summit). Dell Technologies’ continues to modify the Cloud Service Providers, CSP program tracks feedback from partners, with a focus on profitability. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve heard is around revenue tier requirements. At Dell Technologies, we’re committed to innovate and deliver incredible value to our customers. I can assure you Dell Global Alliances will be a key enabler of this. Dell is an enabler, but partners will bring the transformation of our collective customers to life. We want to see 50% of the Dell Technologies sales teams leverage what partners have to offer and I expect we will also continue to grow double digits. These goals go hand in hand. It is all about the people and cultivating innovation, which is why we believe in the Dell Technologies’ Progress Made Real 2030 plan we announced a few months ago at Dell Technologies Summit 2019” says Jay Snyder, SVP Global Alliances, Dell Technologies.
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“We have simplified the partner program by consolidating our product rebate structure to just three lines of business; Client, Server and Storage. We have removed quarterly targets to improve predictability while automating other processes to make it easier to forecast partner’s quarterly earnings. Our investments are in projects that will improve the end-to-end partner experience.
Ng Tian Beng,
SVP, Channel Sales APJ,
Dell Technologies
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Dell Technologies has recognized that a global revenue requirement may not work in all countries and has adjusted the program revenue requirements needed for tier promotions for partners that primarily operate in smaller markets. These different revenue requirements will help provide more attainable tier advancement opportunities and benefits for these partners in smaller markets. Along with revenue requirements; Dell has also adjusted the rebates. However, overall program rebate percentages for platinum and titanium CSP’s remains the same, but the rebate accelerators have been removed.
Dell is also expanding the program benefits for sell-out compensation to now include deals with the authorized CSP’s. This means it will now be compensating its core Sales Representatives on deals that involve the authorized partners, which will increase collaboration with sales instead of creating competition. Dell is hoping this change will get them closer to the 50% mark with regards to number of sales teams that leverage Dell Alliances in 2020 which is currently up to 30%.
Dell is ambitious to turn a vision into reality:
- By 2030, 50% of our global workforce and 40% of our Global people leaders will be women and 25% of our US workforce, and 15% of our US people leaders will be black African- American, Hispanic- Latino minorities
- We will advance health, education and economic opportunities to deliver enduring results for over a billion people
- We’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, and we will source 75% of our electricity from renewable sources at our facilities. Our product portfolio will reduce its energy intensity by 80%
Dell Technologies 2020 Partner Program for Solution Providers will provide an even more compelling business proposition through 3 focus areas:
- Increased opportunity and profitability for new customer and line of business acquisition
- A simplified structure, making it more predictable and easier to manage your Dell business
- An improved end-to-end experience accelerating the time to get to a winning price and improving the predictability of partner’s overall incentives
Dell Technologies’ combined go-to-market structure will make engagement with partners easier and more effective. In addition to normal back-end rebates Dell Technologies also provide incremental discounting on the front end. When partners receive Deal Registration approval for server or storage opportunities with an applicable Partner Preferred account partners receive an increased discount. This advantaged pricing allows the discretion to price with greater profitability. In addition; Dell is continuing its New Business Incentive as a reward for bringing new customers and new lines of business to Dell. Also for Storage, it is continuing the Competitive Swap rebate for opportunities. Dell Technologies is consolidating product rebate structure from 7 lines of business and 2 or 3 sub-categories within each line of business to 3 lines of business: Client, Server and Storage.
“Dell Technologies has the portfolio strength; we have the team and we have partners to go and take massive share in FY21. We really want to take our partnerships to new heights,” added, Bill Scannell, President, Global Sales, Dell Technologies. “The changes we announced last quarter were really around our go-to-market. Our new combined team simplifies how our partners work with us and offer a much greater degree of consistency in how they deal with us in the field. We take simplicity and eliminate the complexity which equals to scale.”
He opines, Dell has an incredible portfolio wrapped around an incredible strategy. Their customers are going the Cloud way but they don’t know what that means. Therefore, the onus lies with the company and its customers’ facing people to explain the Cloud isn’t a place, it’s a way of doing IT. Bill added, “So when our partners get on-board with our strategy and work closely with us it’s a winning hand.”
Summing up the conversation, Ng Tian Beng, SVP, Channel Sales APJ, Dell Technologies, said: “We have simplified the partner program by consolidating our product rebate structure to just three lines of business; Client, Server and Storage. We have removed quarterly targets to improve predictability while automating other processes to make it easier to forecast partner’s quarterly earnings. Our investments are in projects that will improve the end-to-end partner experience. We will further optimize quoting tools to help our partners better calculate their potential gross margin position for each product, with a fast, seamless and intuitive online experience.”
“Furthermore, we have just launched a Deal Registration dashboard to distributors that make it easier to view and use opportunities directly in a partner portal. We are rolling out two more phases so that partners with Dual Registration capability will have access to this dashboard as well. Complimenting predictability and simplicity, our base rebate multipliers will be on focused products to reward targeted behavior. These multipliers will cover specific products such as Precision Workstation, Rugged Notebooks, Client Peripherals, Displays, 7 and 9 series laptops for Client category and Power Edge 4-socket and Blade Servers for server category. Our focus this financial year is to provide partners with incremental benefits that will drive their pursuit of new business and reward their continued and growing engagement with us,” he added.
