Dell: We have turned a corner

Three years after commencing its foray into the channel, Dell recently made the first tweaks to its Partner-Direct channel programme.

Top-level certified partners are being split into two camps: Preferred and Premier, the latter of which will be the vendor’s new elite band of resellers.

CRN caught up with Kathy Schneider, EMEA director of channel marketing and programmes, to run the rule over Dell’s progress in the channel.

How is Dell’s channel business performing so far this year?

We were still showing double-digit growth in the first quarter and we are still on a really good growth trajectory. In the client business, sales of the high-price bands are strong. We also see sales of workstations in the enterprise business are strong.

What percentage of revenue now comes indirectly?

We are at about 30 per cent. In Europe it is a bit lower, but still in the 20s. It is definitely viewed as a growth engine. We are like an overlay and are growing faster than the [technology] business units. We see the channel as a core element of Dell’s strategy and there is a lot of buy-in and support.

The surfeit of stock in the UK PC channel has been widely reported. Does Dell suffer from this?

That is not something we have been struggling with in our channel business. We are not having to make these price moves to shift things.

How has uptake been of the two new tiers in the partner programme?

We have 38,000 registered partners across EMEA and 500 are certified as Preferred or Premier and 10 to 15 per cent of these are Premier. Another 200-plus are being certified. Our goal is to continue increasing the number of partners getting certified.

What is next for the Dell channel?

We want to go wider and deeper. To be certified you need two sales and two technical people. That is only four people out of 30, 40 or 50. How do we get 20 or 30 per cent of the sales force in that firm trained on Dell? Lots of our programmes and marketing activities are aimed at encouraging partners to get more of their teams trained and enabled.

How hard has it been to win over partners with long-standing relationships with HP, IBM, EMC or others?

The mid-sized partners are more flexible, the bigger ones have more concerns. But now they are saying: ‘For two years we have blown them off, we can’t any more. Other resellers are winning business with Dell.’ We are on track to be a $2bn business. It is at varying degrees in different countries, but I think, this year, we have turned an interesting corner.