Kace taps up Dell's top channel partners
Dell-owned systems management vendor wants to double the proportion of sales it draws from the channel
Rob Meinhardt: People who were prior resellers of Altiris and LANdesk have been effective for us
Systems management vendor Kace is aiming to double its channel business as it targets new parent Dell’s top partners.
The vendor is hunting for resellers with skills in systems management to offer its K1000 and K2000 appliances, which are designed for end users with between 100 and 10,000 endpoints.
Its first formal UK partner programme will go live in August with about eight or 10 initial resellers. Certified partners will enjoy margins of 30 per cent on registered deals.
Talking to CRN, Dell Kace chief executive Rob Meinhardt said the goal is to double the proportion of sales it draws from non-Dell channels by next year, a figure that currently stands at 25 per cent.
Resellers without technical nous need not apply, he said.
“Our platform is easy to use, but it is a technical sales process,” said Meinhardt.
“We find that the more technical-savvy resellers gravitate towards Kace and systems management technology more generally.”
Meinhardt cited LANdesk and Altiris as key competitors, but claimed there were good reasons for resellers to switch from either.
“People who were prior resellers of Altiris and LANdesk have been effective for us as they understand the technology and value we bring from an ease of use perspective.
“LANdesk has gone through a number of iterations and its channel mix has changed dramatically over the last couple of years so we see a lot of resellers coming in our direction.”
Jim Docherty, EMEA managing director at Dell KACE, hinted that KACE may also go down the distribution route in the UK and Ireland, which is one of three key EMEA growth markets for KACE alongside Benelux and Nordics.
“We are having some discussion there but it’s a little too early to say too much,” he said.