ARC: Dell Needs More Effort To Win With Channel

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If Dell is going to make any serious inroads with the channel and truly capture the hearts and minds of solution providers, it's got some work to do, according to results from the 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey. Dell finished sixth among seven vendors in the Notebooks and Mobile Computers category, tied for third among four companies in Midrange (High-End) Servers and tied for fifth among seven vendors in the Network Storage category.

Of course, Dell has less than a year under its belt with its formal PartnerDirect program. The Round Rock, Texas-based company said it is adding more than 200 solution providers each week and has a $12-billion run rate for revenue through the channel. Still, Dell realizes it has some work to do to win over a critical mass of solution providers to effectively compete against the likes of EMC, Hopkinton, Mass.; Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif.; IBM, White Plains, N.Y.; Lenovo, Morrisville, N.C.; Sun Microsystems, Santa Clara, Calif.; and others.

Within the Notebook and Mobile Computers results, Dell finished sixth out of seven in product innovation including sixth in five out of six subcategories, which include product quality and reliability, richness of product features/functionality, product technical innovation, product compatibility and ease of integration and marketability. It tied for fourth in services opportunity. Its highest score was an 81 in quality and reliability, but in this highly competitive category, that earned it only a sixth place spot.

In the partnership subcategory for notebooks, Dell's highest criteria scores came in ease of doing business and communication (fourth out of seven), but Dell also received its only last-place finishes in this category, in the ROI and revenue and profit potential.

Meanwhile, in the Midrange (high-end) Servers category, Dell finished fourth out of four companies in product innovation and support, and tied for third with Sun Microsystems in partnerships. Its best criteria finish was second, in ease of doing business; it also tied for second with IBM in communication and product compatibility and ease of integration, and with Sun in partner portal.

In Network Storage, Dell tied for fourth with IBM in the product innovation category, tied for fifth with Netgear, Santa Clara, Calif., in the partnership criteria and placed fifth in the support subcategory. Its highest placing in the criteria was third in product compatibility and ease of use.

Greg Davis, vice president and general manager, Americas Channel Group, maintains a positive attitude on the company's ARC results. "We are pleased to participate for the first time since the launch of PartnerDirect in the Annual Report Card," he said. "Partner feedback is the cornerstone of our program. ARC is the perfect opportunity for us to gather feedback and continuously improve."

Dell's biggest challenge is winning over solution providers against whom it has competed for years. While the company is expanding its partner base, there are many VARs who will always consider the company a four-letter word.

"We have no intention of partnering with Dell," said John Zammett, president of HorizonTek, a Huntington, N.Y.-based storage solution provider, who counts himself as a Network Appliance, Sunnyvale, Calif., loyalist. "We see Dell as a competitor. We can outsell them by the value-add we provide. They can't do the [up-close] and personal service we provide."

But Dell believes it is taking innovative steps to attract VARs, moves that other manufacturers aren't doing, Davis said.

For example, the vendor is piloting a program in which solution providers can register their SMB customers to protect their pre-sales investment, and not just specific opportunities for those customers.

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