Dell President Says Company Is Reaching Out To Solution Providers

Rollins said "there is a certain cadre or segment within our customer base" that is getting services from a "local solutions provider" that Dell is looking at targeting.

"In that regard, we might partner with more of them, many of them that can provide their services," said Rollins in a Q&A session following his keynote at TechXNY in New York.

Rollins said the key to Dell's partnering strategy is making sure there is enough profit margin for both parties. "The industry is competitive enough that we each have to make a profit based on what our core competence is," he said. "We believe our core competence is the hardware. Therefore, we want to maintain the profitability associated with the hardware and have those service partners or application partners make their profits predominantly off of the applications and services they provide."

Rollins comments followed moves by the company to offer some solution providers a percentage of Dell's product sales into an account in exchange for their services expertise. Dell has also significantly increased the number of employees working with channel partners in the past 18 months.

Despite Dell's recruitment efforts, solution providers said the company has not offered solid channel programs. And they shouldn't expect any new programs anytime soon, Rollins said.

"It's not a No. 1 priority of the things we're doing around the globe," Rollins said during the Q&A session. "The programs have moved along and have changed a bit, but it is not a big focus."

One end user at the keynote said Dell should do more to partner with solution providers on services.

Anthony Landolfi, a senior NT Exchange administrator at software developer Aspen Technology, Cambridge, Mass., said Dell has shifted some of its help-desk support to off-shore companies that don't have a deep enough grasp of technology issues. "Solution providers would be better than having to deal with a support center in India," he said. "I would want to work with [solution providers]. I'm sure I'd get faster response. I think people would spend a little more for that type of service."