Exclusive: Dell Matches HPE’s 30-Day Price Quote Validity; Partners Cheer Change As ‘Huge Step’ Forward

‘With as much activity as the channel does with Dell, this is going to have a big impact on partners and customers,’ says C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Myriad360 company.

Dell Technologies has matched rival HPE’s 30-day price quote validity in the wake of improved predictability with regard to component costs, sources told CRN.

“This is a huge step forward to support the partner community,” said C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Independence, Ohio-based Advizex, a Myriad360 company. “With as much activity as the channel does with Dell, this is going to have a big impact on partners and customers. To have that 30-day commitment gives us more breathing room and avoids all the work that went into changing quotes. This reaffirms Dell’s long-term commitment to partners and customers.”

The Dell 30-day price quote validity, which went into effect earlier this month, comes after HPE announced its 30-day price quote validity policy effective on June 15.

The price quote validity changes come after rising memory costs resulted in some companies moving to 14-day price quote validity earlier this year. That resulted in partners being forced to constantly reprice quotes, which led to angst for partners and customers.

The 30-day price quote validity is a testament to the “supply chain excellence” Dell has demonstrated time and time again, providing firm commitments to customers on pricing and ship dates and then meeting those obligations, said Howdyshell (pictured).

“Dell has demonstrated that they can meet the timelines they commit to,” he said. “That’s extremely important because CIOs are making commitments to business leaders based on those timelines.”

Howdyshell credited HPE with making the first move to 30-day price quote validity and is hoping the pendulum will swing to even more attractive terms in the future for customers. “Customers need more predictability,” he said. “Anything OEMs can do to improve quote validity is going to help customers do budget planning.”

Dell declined to comment when contacted by CRN.

But a source close to the company with knowledge of the decision said it has nothing to do with HPE’s move and is simply a matter of greater visibility into component costs that has given the company the confidence to extend price quote validity from 14 days to 30 days.

Furthermore, the source acknowledged that the company was responding to customers who had complained that they often needed more time to process internal approvals for purchase orders.

A ‘Smart Move’ By Dell

Bob Venero, founder and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a Dell Titanium partner, called the change a “smart move” by Dell that brings more stability to the infrastructure pricing environment.

“It shows that Dell is figuring out in a very tumultuous environment how to lock in for a period of time cost structures that can support the orders that customers and partners are placing,” he said. “We’re very excited that Dell was able to bring the 30-day quote validity over the goal line. It really helps us and our customers plan. It gives us a lot more flexibility and capabilities with regard to what the cost is going to be for the next 30 days.”

Venero said customers, especially large enterprise customers, cannot do budget planning in a market with less than 30-day price quotes. “It’s almost impossible because it takes these companies time to process these purchase orders,” he said. “You need to get to some type of stability so customers can plan their pricing and budget cycles. If you don’t do that, then you are going to have an up-and-down roller-coaster environment.”

The Dell changes come with HPE stepping up its bid to grab compute share with more aggressive pricing and additional partner incentives and guarantees.

Besides the 30-day price quote validity, HPE Aug. 4 changed its contractual terms to guarantee price quotes on compute, storage and GreenLake Flex deals below $1 million despite rising memory prices and shipment delays plaguing the industry.

In addition, HPE lowered compute deal escalation pricing from $1 million to $500,000 and moved its compute new business opportunity incentive lookback—which rewards partners for upgrading existing HPE accounts—from a five-year lookback to three years.

More Competitive Computing Pricing From HPE

HPE partners, for their part, said they have seen a noticeable difference in the field with more competitive compute pricing paying off, allowing them to win more deals. “We are seeing HPE getting more aggressive on pricing and it’s having a positive impact,” said the CEO of an HPE solution provider who did not want to be identified.

Pat O’Dell, the head of HPE’s North America Partner Advisory Council and managing partner at CPP Associates, Clinton, N.J., said the 30-day price quote validity changes from both HPE and Dell benefits customers.

“Competition is good,” he said. “It drives innovation. Kudos to HPE for being the first to move to 30-day quote validity and for guaranteeing pricing for customers on channel deals under $1 million. Also kudos to Dell for going to the 30-day quote validity.”

Dell worldwide server revenue soared 244 percent in the first quarter to $20.2 billion, or 16. 5 percent market share, in the quarter, according to market researcher IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.

During the same period, HPE’s worldwide server revenue was up 17 percent to $3.7 billion, or 3 percent market share, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.

Dell Technologies Vice Chairman and COO Jeff Clarke told analysts in May that Dell is taking share in all market segments including AI servers, traditional servers, storage and PCs.

“During these times of supply disruption and a lot of puts and takes in the marketplace, customers tend to come to Dell to look for a calming hand,” he said.

Dell Is Leveraging Its Supply Chain Prowess To Grab Share

Venero, for his part, said Dell has the ability to leverage its supply chain prowess and its position as one of the largest buyers of memory and components to grab market share.

“Our Dell business is through the roof on all product lines,” said Venero. “This is going to be a record year for us with Dell, especially in the enterprise market with servers, storage, networking and software. Dell is now the de facto infrastructure leader in the world, bringing stability, predictability and product breadth to partners and customers.”

The CEO of a CRN Solution Provider 500 company, who did not want to be identified, called the 30-day price quote validity notification from Dell a “step in the right direction” in what has been a difficult time for partners, who have repeatedly had to reprice orders for customers in the midst of the memory shortage.

“This means that we are getting closer to quote validity terms that partners and customers are used to,” he said. “It’s been a lot of extra work for all of us—distributors, partners and customers—to go through all the different requoting processes.”

The CEO said he sees Dell’s 30-day price quote validity move as a sign Dell is going to continue to be aggressive in battling HPE in the sales trenches to drive share gains. “This shows Dell is serious about gaining share,” he said. “Dell is very aggressive and very focused. Their reps get involved early in the process with us and they knock down walls inside of Dell to get deals done.”

A top distribution executive, who did not want to be identified, hailed the Dell 30-day price quote validity as a “tremendous relief” given the constant repricing of quotes, which had become a burden for partners, distributors and customers.

“Going to 30 days dramatically reduces the quote churn and gives buyers more confidence,” he said. “There was huge customer frustration with the 14-day quote validity. The 14-day quote validity was not sustainable. It was causing tremendous stress for customers. You would get a customer the quote and if they missed the window, the partner would have to go back to the end user and requote it with us.”

The distribution executive said the price increases on memory are not as “erratic” as they were three to six months ago. “That has given the manufacturers the ability to go to 30 days,” he said.

The distribution executive credited HPE with driving the 30-day change trend. “That helped the channel to operate with historical sales cycles to improve the end-user experience,” he said.