Note To Michael Dell: Where's The Beef?

Do you remember that old Wendy's commercial with the cranky lady who barked "Where's the beef?" when comparing rival burgers? Well, after reviewing Dell's long-awaited entry into the channel, I am surprised more VARs aren't asking the same question. While many are reacting viscerally to Dell's formal entry into the channel, I wonder if they are giving the program as critical a review as they should. Most of the reaction has centered around Dell's direct heritage, past lame attempts at selling through the channel and questions of whether it can be trusted. To be honest, many VARs have looked past those issues and said they have been successfully selling Dell without the company stealing their accounts or running into conflict. Dell has been quick to note it has a global run rate of $9 billion in the channel and has some 15,000 partners reselling Dell in the Americas alone.

ROBERT C. DEMARZO Can be reached via e-mail at rdemarzo@cmp.com.

But where is the innovation in Dell's channel program? Its indirect strategy? Its marketing? Its vision? I am sorry to report, from my perspective there really is no "beef." To be fair, Greg Davis, the man Michael Dell put on the front lines to craft this program and engage with the channel, has done an admirable job. Davis met with the CMP Channel editorial board a few months ago and asked what Dell and he could do to be successful. Our response was simple and sound: Be innovative. HP, IBM, Oracle, EMC, Cisco, Juniper have been incredibly innovative in their channel approach over the past few years. Dell introduced a program that barely measures up to any of the companies it competes with today. In fact, the program seems to be designed for solution providers that focus their efforts around commodity hardware products. Sure, many do, but the real money is in the services business and around the higher-end storage and server gear.

If you look under the hood, Dell's got all the typical goodies: two tiers, certifications, credit terms and deal registration. It's a great start but nowhere near as innovative as it could have been. Davis is quick to respond, justifiably so, that what was really innovative was that sales reps are compensated equally for direct or indirect sales—and it's obvious his blood will boil if you take that accomplishment lightly. But what would have been truly innovative is if Dell found a way to compensate sales reps at a higher rate for closing channel deals vs. direct ones.

Forget the company's past. Judge it on the program it introduced and whether it demonstrates the kind of innovation and commitment you really want from a vendor partner.

Let me know how you judge the program.
CMP Channel Vice President/Editorial Director Robert C. DeMarzo is at rdemarzo@cmp.com.