Dell broadens deal registration scope

New 'line-of-business' scheme is designed to prevent Dell from competing with partners once they have formed ties with a customer

Dell says an extension to its deal registration programme will institutionalise its commitment not to compete with partners once they have formed a relationship with a customer.

‘Line of business' (LoB) registration will be launched later this month and will be open to the vendor's 80 or so top-level UK partners.

Kathy Schneider, channel marketing and programmes director at Dell EMEA, said LoB registration is an extension of its existing deal registration scheme. It will be launched later in May.

"At the moment, if you sell a bunch of servers in January and three months later the same site wants more, you have to re-register it and start from scratch," said Schneider.

"If we grant a partner line-of-business registration, that partner is then protected from other partners but also Dell's direct sales team for all future sales into that end-user at the same location in that line of business."

It will be down to the heads of Dell's business units to decide which end-user accounts and lines of business are valid for the scheme.

As an example, Schneider said Dell's public sector business unit could allow the scheme to run on all accounts but with storage as the only valid product line.

Dell has just over 80 top-level Certified partners in the UK and 550 across EMEA but is currently re-classifying them as either Preferred or Premier partners. LoB registration will be open to both sets of partners.