Channel veteran Nancy Reynolds will be spearheading a push at Dell to recruit new enterprise solution providers, grow the vendor's global channel business and strengthen Dell's channel-partner relationships.
Dell said Tuesday that Reynolds has joined the Round Rock, Texas-based vendor's channel-management team as its director for business strategy, global commercial channel. Reynolds previously gained notoriety as Trend Micro's channel chief during her five-year tenure at the security company.
In her new role, Reynolds will work on a global basis with corporate accounts and solution providers to, she believes, grow partners' revenue streams while strengthening the ties between Dell and the channel.
"My challenge is to match Dell's corporate strategy with the right set of partners," she said. "Obviously, partners on a global basis have a bigger footprint, but as you go upstream, we have to enable smaller solution providers as well."
Part of enabling the channel means that Reynolds will work to recruit partners on a global basis. And while she hasn't been charged with recruiting a specific number of partners worldwide, Reynolds wants to cultivate strong relationships.
"I follow the philosophy that it's not about the number of partners a company has, but making sure it has the right partners," she said.
According to the company, Dell is approaching 50,000 partners worldwide.
Reynolds brings extensive channel experience to Dell at a time when the vendor is still working to prove its commitment to solution providers and the indirect sales model.
Dave Casey, principal at Westron Communications, a Carrollton, Texas-based solution provider, still thinks Dell can use all the help it can get.
"I know Dell has been trying pretty hard, even since they've made some acquisitions, to become more channel-friendly," Casey said. "It's just that I think, by and large, most of the channel doesn't trust them very much. They spent so many years developing that Dell Direct strategy that, I think, even if they could win over the channel, the end users still think of it as a direct strategy, not a channel strategy, so I think that's really part of the problem that they face."
Reynolds is aware that earning solution provider trust is going to be one of her ongoing challenges while working with the computer manufacturer.
"The No. 1 challenge [Dell] has is credibility," said Reynolds. "We have to prove ourselves, and we have to prove ourselves more than once. Partners like consistency; they like being able to bank their business on a company, and I think that Dell is in it for the long haul."
Of course, Dell isn't the only vendor working with the channel. For Reynolds, growing Dell's enterprise channel on a global basis means that she will most likely bump heads with its competitors. And snatching partners away from the likes of Hewlett-Packard requires forethought and keeping the best interests of the channel at heart, according to Reynolds.
"Channel sales are sales. And sales is a thinking man's game. You always have to be thinking three steps ahead. Partners don't work for you and they don't have to speak to you, let alone recommend my products. So we have to put ourselves in their shoes and find a reason for them to care. In our case, it's a value proposition."
Reynolds also knows that profitability for both sides is key to strong vendor-channel relationships.
"Most partners want to be associated with good quality products as well as services and technology. That's something Dell has grown up on and is important to solution providers. But we have to make it profitable, that's the key. It has to be profitable to do business with Dell," she said.
Dan Evans, CEO of Nexus Information Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based solution provider that works with Dell, agrees with Reynolds that good partnerships are built on the right financial elements, noting that his monetary concerns are likely a little different from Dell's.
"In my opinion, a lot of manufacturers focus on top-line revenue. Revenue grew this much or that much," Evans said. "For [solution providers] the most important number is the net. We don't run our business to increase top-line revenue. At the end of the day, I want to grow my net revenue."
Jennifer Hagendorf Follett contributed to this story.
