Dell EMC UK channel boss on Brexit: 'We have enough stock to cover up to eight weeks'

Rob Tomlin opens up to CRN about the vendor's soft and hard Brexit contingency plans

Dell Technologies' Brexit strategy ensures that stock levels would cover up to eight weeks of interruption, according to Rob Tomlin, Dell EMC's UK channel VP.

Tomlin told CRN that the vendor has prepared for both soft and hard Brexit scenarios, including increasing its holding of spare parts and equipment to ensure that there is an uninterrupted level of service to its customers.

"We have enough inventory in our distributors to satisfy a hard Brexit," he said.

"We haven't over-stocked; we probably have the right level of inventory to satisfy whichever way it goes. We have enough to cover six to eight weeks of interruption."

"Our partners have been asking us what our strategy is, and we have a strong policy that if partners want an action report as to what we are doing, they can ask us and we will provide it to them."

Dell has been working with distributors Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Exertis to shore up its stock levels ahead of the 29 March leave date, Tomlin added.

"They have fantastic warehouse facilities and haven't had to go and build new warehouses for it," he said.

"We are working closely with them so that - should there be a hard Brexit - we can cover the situation."

Tomlin replaced Sarah Shields as UK and Ireland channel boss in November and is nonchalant about the effect that a potential Brexit may have on the channel.

"I worry about things I can influence, and I can't influence what happens in the next fortnight, 60 or 90 days," he said.

"We are in such a good place in the market, driving business and gaining market share."

Dell has seen hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) gain huge momentum in the past year, and a growing number of partners are seeking out Dell specifically to aid customers who want a HCI environment, according to the channel boss.

"More and more partners have started working with us in HCI who we've not worked with before, but they're identifying that our products are best in class and their customers want to buy them," Tomlin said.

"A lot of what we are seeing is partners who've tried to build a public cloud business with the public cloud vendors, but their customers are telling them that though they like the public cloud, they want the predictability of an on-premise cloud."

Dell reported strong growth in its servers and storage divisions in its first results since becoming a publicly-listed company again in December, and Tomlin said that this success should assure partners that the move was just about accelerating business.

He expects this market share to grow with the launch of Dell's Power Quote programme in the coming weeks, which allows partners to configure their servers online and have it delivered the next day.

"To partners wondering what's next - it's more of the same," he stated.

"We're on a roll; we've taken some really big share in the server market and are concentrating on driving that business."