Dell to SonicWall partners: As you were

Vendor claims SonicWall partners stand only to benefit as it ports them across to PartnerDirect scheme

Dell claims SonicWall's 800 UK partners will be the same if not better off under its wing as it "grandfathers" them into its PartnerDirect scheme.

Most of SonicWall's top-level UK Gold and Silver partners will automatically become Dell Preferred partners, bagging them 40 per cent discount on registered deals. Most Approved partners will move into Dell's Registered tier, netting them discounts of 30 per cent on registered deals.

Andy Zollo, EMEA managing director at Dell SonicWall, said partners had nothing to fear from Dell's direct sales force.

"Dell is the first company where I can see direct and indirect working hand in hand," he said.

Dell's compensation neutrality model for its sales reps, combined with its deal registration system and "discount authorisation matrix" – which governs how much discount direct sales staff can offer – should ensure partners do not lose out, said Zollo.

"We run a report every day to see if there have been [any discounts made by direct sales staff] above what were allowed and will take action against that," he said.

Preferred and Registered partners automatically receive a six and 10 per cent discount for registering deals worth more than $10,000 (£6,320) respectively.

"If partners register deals then they will get a significantly better discount than what Dell can offer," said Zollo.

"Registering those projects not only unlocks extra discounts, but also means our sales and technical team is behind them at a time when more and more end users expect the vendor to be involved in enterprise deals. Where we engage with partners, we have a 50 to 60 per cent better chance."

SonicWall's Medallion partner programme will be turned off on 31 January 2013. Partners then have until 30 June 2013 to update their accreditations, which will be similar to the old regime but with some added basic networking requirements.

Zollo added: "There is no longer a ‘SonicWall-who' issue – everyone knows Dell, and we are just starting to get the marketing machine going."

Jason Hill, sales manager at SonicWall distributor Tekdata, said that – at least on registered deals involving SonicWall's higher-end E-class products – Gold and Silver partners and Registered partners will be about five and 10 per cent better off respectively under the new regime.

"I was worried at first," he said. "But none of the horror stories have so far come true. Everyone at Dell we have interfaced with has been very responsive and they have kept the promises they have made."

Vincent Booth, director of SonicWall Gold partner Solved IT, said that, five months after Dell announced its acquisition of SonicWall, it remained business as usual for the SonicWall channel.

"SonicWall had 60 people in its marketing department and Dell has 60,000 and that is something that has been sorely missed," he said. "SonicWall has not been marketed well over the years and hopefully this is something we will see soon from Dell."

However, Neil Roberts, chief operating officer at SonicWall Gold partner Concorde IT Group, was still reserving judgement.

"A lot of information has been fed back from SonicWall and Dell to the US partner base, but very little on the UK and European side," he said. "We seem to be the poor cousins."