Dell swells partner numbers with 10,000 new recruits

Dell EMEA president claims the firm added 10,000 resellers in western Europe in past 12 months

Dell has claimed it has added 10,000 partners across western Europe over the past 12 months.

Speaking with CRN, at this year's EMEA Solutions Conference in Vienna, Aongus Hegarty, Dell's EMEA president, said the company has rapidly expanded its reseller base, particularly around SMB.

"With those 10,000 partners I mentioned, many of them have been acquired and became Dell partners through our distributors," he said. "And that is clearly in the SM and SMB space."

Hegarty added that those 10,000 partners are a mixture of partners that deal directly with Dell and those going through distribution.

He also said events such as HP splitting have caused partner movement and brought new resellers over to Dell.

"Over the last two years, we have significantly expanded relations with partners and [seen] partners actively coming to us," he said. "[This has happened] with some of the changes in what the competition has been doing, exiting and splitting and so on, but also acquiring partners through the expansion of the distribution side of the business."

Hegarty said that Dell intends to carry on increasing its reseller base, but wants to focus on the partners it does have now.

"We will add several thousand more partners for sure," he said. "But we have done a lot of partner acquisition in the last 18 months or so, and I think it's important we make sure we are focusing on those partners and building capabilities, directly through them and then with distribution as well."

Simply the best

One of the key benefits of partners working with Dell today is the simple approach it offers, according to Hegarty.

"I guess the key point we always make to our partners, is we are committed to all areas of our business. You saw some speculation around our PC business a few weeks ago, how crazy is that? Our PC business, all the way through, we see all those elements together as critical from a business point of view. As others have sold off businesses, split up, made it more complicated to work with, we have kept it simple and we continue to do that."

He said this simplicity was a differentiator for Dell, adding that HP's split will make it more complicated for its partners.

"If yesterday you were dealing with one company and tomorrow you are dealing with two separated companies and with all the evolution over time with contracts and terms and conditions, that has to be more complicated," he said. "And it has to be more complicated than working with Dell, which is adding more capability and has a single point of contact."