Dell seeks to double EMEA software business
EMEA chief reveals plans to add up to 500 staff across the region this year
Dell is setting its sights on doubling its software revenues in EMEA over the next five years, according to Dave Hansen, global vice president for software sales and marketing at Dell.
"The potential is out there, and our product portfolio is very compatible to the market. I think some other companies have goals to grow significantly, but it's tough to be able to execute on, if your product portfolio does not meet the needs of that market. But I would be very bullish on our product portfolio in this market," he said.
"I want to double my [software] business in EMEA in terms of revenues over the next five years," he said. "We are trying to figure out how to solve that, and it will require a combination of direct selling, channel motions, more and more partners, and leveraging the rest of Dell. There are a lot of components to that plan."
During the keynote address, Hansen noted that Dell is already a $2bn (£1.29bn) software company globally. And according to Hansen 60 per cent of Dell's software revenue goes through the channel.
As well as setting its sights on ambitious growth in software for EMEA, Dell is also looking to expand its overall staff numbers over this region in the coming months.
Speaking to CRN, Aongus Hegarty, Dell's EMEA president, said the vendor is going to add between 400 and 500 new staff to its books in 2015 across EMEA.
"Through the first five to six months [in 2015] we landed around 100 new staff and we are going to add 300 to 400 hundred more through this year, in western Europe, a number of key markets in the Middle East, South Africa and eastern Europe.
"They will be focused around engaging with our customers, working with our partners, enhancing our channel business and [working] in specialist resources around the key areas of our business from a development perspective. It's about investment for growing and developing the business over the next few years."
Hegarty said these new employees would not just be within one division of Dell, but he said that they will be spread "across all elements".