Dell plans to reorganize the deal registration program that was one of the founding tenets of its PartnerDirect program five years ago to make it simpler and more consistent now that Dell has added many new products and services to the mix following years of acquisitions.
When the deal registration program was created, PartnerDirect had just started. But Dell has purchased many companies since then, including Quest Software, Wyse and many more. As a result, the deal registration program has taken many turns as Dell tried to integrate legacy channel programs, which created a situation in which different products require different minimum dollar requirements to register.
"We have continually brought down the registration requirements, but we've complicated it. We agree, and we'll look at that, and we'll simplify it," said Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell's global commercial channel, told a crowd of more than 400 partners from around the world at a Global Commercial Channel Partner Summit as part of Dell World in Austin, Texas, Tuesday.
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One Dell partner attending the summit, noted that the situation causes confusion among his employees. "Not only are the revenue levels different, but how you split the deal registration across servers, storage and more adds complexity," he said.
Davis thanked the VAR for the feedback and noted that similar conversations took place at recent Dell partner advisory council meetings in the U.S. and Paris. "We will drive better incentives, not just in money, but in deal registration and other engagement benefits for those bringing complete solutions to bear. We have to look at a complete [deal registration examination]," Davis said.
In particular, Dell needs to address deal registrations around software-based solutions brought to the company from partners around some of the numerous applications the company has acquired, Davis said. Dell is likely to look at a more complete training curriculum around software to further reward partners certified in that area, Davis added.
"We're looking at a complete set of trainings around software offerings. With the acquisition of Quest and thinking through [the acquisitions] of SonicWall, Kace and SecureWorks, we'll bring those together in a set of training curriculums that our partners can get trained and certified on. Then we'll have a set of benefits that are consistent."
Dell's channel programs will likely require more frequent fine-tuning as Davis and other executives said Dell's aggressive acquisition strategy is likely to continue in 2013.
"There's a lot of different pricing models, ways to work with Dell. We have to bring them together with a consistent manner with partners. We are working with software partners to bring to PartnerDirect a program that we can roll out globally," Davis said.
PUBLISHED DEC. 11, 2012
