Dell to encourage small resellers to work with distribution as it rewards them bringing in new customers Andreas Schuetze (below), director, Channel Marketing & Programs, Dell EMEA says this year will see a strong focus on new business, with incentives adding around 15% to new customer rebates, and a drive to put more business through distribution. “We want to see a stronger distribution market and grow faster here,” he says.
“We have new leadership, with Michael Collins in a new role as vice president, Strategy & Channel, Dell EMEA. His strategic view experience is important in developing channels. And we have changed the way targets are calculated so that growth comparisons for bonuses and rebates are based on average sales over the last few quarters rather than just the last one – this recognises that some of the deals come in over lengthy sales cycles,” he says.
The main idea is to get to customers who have not been involved with either Dell or its channels previously – obviously this is different for the size of the client business, and different countries, but the plan is to continue the momentum from the Q4/Q1 period, with the channel still fast-growing.
The incentives also encourage the partners to buy through distribution and the new package and changes are being rolled out to teams in Europe this week.
Organisational changes, starting in the UK are reflecting progress with the managed services providers part of the channel, and this will formally launch later this year; “There are lots of partners who are virtual resellers, and who do not sell hardware at all. We are defining this in the UK and the EMEA roll-out will follow.” he says.
After the MSPs will come the ISVs , but this is still in development, although here have been some pilots with SAP in Germany. Security is another area where Dell thinks it is getting good traction, and is encouraging channel to use competency training and accreditation to win more here.
Dell is not standing around waiting for the EMC deal to complete, but is making strategic position changes for the channel in the longer term.