TORONTO – Dell EMC’s on-going channel journey took an interesting side route. Dell EMC worldwide channel chief John Byrne told Canadian partners at the 2017 Dell EMC Canada Partner Summit the deal registration program will be moved out of the channel organization and will be run independently.
Also, Dell EMC channel partners should expect more data analytics to come their way through the new deal registration group.
Some of the issues that led to this decision stem from the old EMC channel program. Byrne told CDN that partners did not use it that much, but Dell had a robust deal registration program. The KPIs (key performance indicators) in deal registration were based around time of response, which was roughly around four hours.
“The journey we are on is about selling more of the infrastructure portfolio. I do not need to respond in four hours. That is too responsive and it goes from direct and channel so it did not make sense for deal registration to sit in the channel and so we are now running it independently,” Byrne said.
The new independent team will have the same rules of engagement. Byrne went on to say, when something bad happens such as conflict it’s not a channel rep verses a direct rep. Instead it will be an independent body with human resources relations personnel involved.
The two-strike rule, Byrne instituted earlier this year, will still be there.
Long time Dell executive Bobbi Dangerfield has been tasked to oversee the new deal registration group. Dangerfield was the vice president of global sales operations before Dell acquired EMC. She initiated Project Collaboration to improve the channel experience with the company. Project Collaboration provided incentives to internal rep to collaborate with channel partners. Results from Project Collaboration showed an 84 per cent improvement in the number of deals won back in 2015.
Dangerfield will have a brand-new team to work with in the deal registration group. Byrne went on to say that Dell EMC processed more than 145,000 deal registrations per quarter in 2017 of which 4,509 were completed in Canada. However, 27 per cent of those were rejected by the Dell EMC channel team. The stat, Byrne admitted, was a bit misleading as 51 per cent of those rejections was because another channel partners was involved.
Byrne was also open to admit the channel team made a few mistakes along the way in the development of the 2016 Dell EMC Partner Program. For example, mapping in the program proved to be too cumbersome for partners and the ability to access training was slowed.
“We have more work to get done on simplicity and automating rebates faster,” he said.
The channel team at Dell EMC is looking to get channel partners paid in six weeks. “Cash is king and you need a good balance sheet,” Byrne added.
NEW CHANNEL THRESHOLDS COMING SOON
New channel thresholds for the Dell EMC Partner Program are coming on November the 8th. These thresholds will determine and channel partner’s status in the tiers Gold, Platinum, Titanium or Titanium Black.
While Byrne would not reveal those thresholds until the November 8th date, he did say the channel team are adjusting them for North American partners and they will be richer for those solution providers who add services and can attach more products to sales.
He added that those using Dell Financial Services got a 96 per cent boost in deal sizes and are growing their business one and half times faster than those solution providers who do not.
“We have not done a great job on articulating the services percentage against the competition. There is a 1 to 3 ratio on rebates for the services suite. So, if you sold a box at $1,000 and attach $100 of services you’ll get paid three per cent on that total value,” Byrne said.
“It’s pretty clear those who can do more lines of business and are selling storage – not just Dell servers – are getting an uptick. It’s time to sell servers and storage and if you do you’re going to make a bucket load of money,” he said.