Dell and The Channel: The Readers Speak

It didn't take long before CRN readers began reacting to the news that Dell has decided to launch a major initiative to engage the channel in its sales strategy. From CRN's discussion board, bad_the_ba writes:

Would giving in and selling a product with "Dell" on the front of the box undermine my own whitebox branding, or would it fill in the gaps in areas I can't touch? Even with seeing possible advantages to partnering with Dell, the possibility of them making a major deal with a large retailer such as Best Buy and seeing "Dell now supported by Geek Squad" makes me shy away from a sticky situation that could go either way.

That comment was echoed by a number of others, with readers offering up some skepticism that Dell -- after years of competing with the channel -- could become a trusted partner. But not all thumbs were turned down. There have been several cautiously optimistic remarks, like this one from Skeezix:

Dell could make this right, and set up a real channel play for the mid tier market and resellers could make decent margins supporting their customers IT needs.

Reader hurdygurdy isn't in the "cautiously optimistic" camp, however. That reader tapped out several posts on a couple of different threads, including this one discussing some of the specifics Dell is proposing, such as deal registration:

I assume to register a deal, you would need to login to their web site and TYPE IN YOUR CUSTOMER'S NAME, and CONTACT INFO. So this way Dell can start inundating my customers with mountains of catalogs and direct marketing pieces on a weekly basis?

What does a broader sampling of CRN.com's readership think? Our online poll, embedded into this story, had about 200 reader responses as of late afternoon Thursday. It is unscientific, but of those answering the question, "Would you be willing to partner with Dell?", 56 percent responded "Yes," and 44 percent responded "No."

Let's see what those results, and reader comments, will look like three months from now.