More Advice For Dell

Yes, I am full of advice. Or something like that. But this time the wisdom comes from the feet on the street: The channel. My last column about the challenges Dell's new channel chief faces drew a lot of comment and unsolicited advice. Dell's Greg Davis, faced with building a new, comprehensive channel program, indeed has many challenges. I offered up what I thought those challenges were. And the channel came back to me with some more, and some specifics.

Chris Adragna, president of Biziteks in Orlando, Fla., has been a Dell fan in the past. Biziteks participates in Dell's current channel program, "Solution Provider Direct." He says about half of his product sales are Dell, and that he and his team have been getting good support from Dell. But as of late Adragna has been running into pricing issues, where he can't get a better price than what's available to any consumer on Dell's Web site. Good support or not, that won't stand, Adragna said. Either he gets a better price than consumers or he finds another vendor, he said. Sounds reasonable to me.

LARRY HOOPER Can be reached via e-mail at lrhooper@cmp.com.

Joe Gleinser at GCS Technologies in Austin, Texas, said returns are a real issue when dealing with Dell, which tells solution providers to "resell" returns to another customer, he said. That doesn't sound like a partnership to me.

Larry Grippo at Corporate Computer Solutions in Harrison, N.Y., went further. He laid out a plan for me that he said Dell needs to follow to gain the trust of VARs.

To be a true channel player, Grippo said Dell needs to: (1) go through distributors Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data; (2) give up the direct relationship; (3) become as dealer friendly as HP; (4) hire VAR account reps to go out and recruit VARs; (5) set up a liberal return policy; and (6) make it easy for VARs to service the products and get paid a decent amount to handle the warranties. Sadly, Grippo said, he doesn't believe that any of it will actually happen.

And Grippo is not alone. In a Dell-commissioned study, some 60 percent of solution providers said they were worried that Dell would steal their customers if they partnered with the company.

So, as we often are in the channel, we are in wait-and-see mode. Will Dell's new channel program, currently in the works, offer what solution providers need to trust Dell?

Here's hoping. And one more piece of advice: Call it something other than Solution Provider Direct.

What's your advice for Dell?
E-mail me your ideas at lrhooper@cmp.com.