Dell’s OEM Solutions could be one of the best-kept secrets at the company, but Michael Dell set the tone for changing that in his Dell World opening keynote when he referred to the “tremendous capabilities in OEM” while announcing the $300 million strategic innovation fund. Growth and capitalizing on future trends were common themes across the various events Dell OEM Solutions sponsored in conjunction with Dell World 2013.
”We love Dell and only resell Dell. How can we add OEM capabilities for our customers?”
That was the question one Dell partner from South Africa asked when he visited Dell OEM Solutions’ booth on the Dell World expo floor. “Powered by Dell OEM” signage was displayed on a number of customer booths, as well – Solidfire, Healthspot, Kemp Technologies, Axis Communication to name a few. We’ve found telling the stories of our customers like Prentke Romich is often the best way to explain what we do, so it wasn’t surprising that the Tobii demo – controlling a computer with your eyes – also drew interest and was a great conversation starter around our OEM capabilities. If you attended Dell World, you might have also seen several of our technology partners such as Microsoft Embedded, RedHat, Suse, and more showcasing their capabilities.
Our custom bezels continue to be big draw with companies interested in private labeling our hardware with their own brands and we had more than a few players returning to “beat their score” at our Derby Dash.
“Interaction with other OEM’s and their experiences was very helpful.”
Feedback like that is why the exclusive Dell OEM Solutions CTO Summit has become a tradition during Dell World. This year more than 40 OEM CTOs attended a two-day session to listen and participate in a roundtable discussion around the Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, security, Dell’s enterprise portfolio and other related topics. A few highlights included Peter Zornio from Emerson Process Management talking about the Industrial internet, Forrest Norrod wearing his lab coat while covering enterprise solutions and an extremely active discussion around building mobile compatible solutions lead by Anthony Sayers.
We encouraged an extremely candid discussion and plan to use this feedback in future product planning and service delivery. Having attending all three CTO Summits, I’d say this has been my personal favorite. It was also a special treat for Michael Dell to close out the event allowing the CTOs to ask him anything.
”The overview of all the components in your portfolio was fantastic.”
The first introduction many have to Dell OEM Solutions is our appliance and custom bezel capability. But, over the last three years, Dell’s had an increasing presence in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market and telecom industry. It was a pleasure to host this December’s meeting of TIA’s CTO Council where the council discussed two main topics: Network Funcations Virtualization (NFV) and Wireless Spectrum Sharing.
NFV: Dell’s Wenjing Chu led a very engaging discussion of how NFV technology is changing the network solution for the carriers, service providers, MVNOs, and Enterprises. The discussion was spirited and informative with the time running out before the group was prepared to stop. Additional discussions will be scheduled for future meetings.
Spectrum Sharing: Opened by a panel talk from experts and government leaders. Discussion ensued on the technical challenges for Spectrum sharing, the business opportunities, and the regulatory environments which could hinder or aide the technology in the market.
”Being able to meet your leaders and have a collaborative discussion was huge.”
Representatives from all 12 OEM Channel Partners attended the 4th annual OEM Partner Summit during Dell World. During their daylong event, our channel partners heard firsthand from the Dell OEM leadership team about our strategies for the coming year and how integral they are to the growth of our business. We are entering an exciting time for the program and are looking forward to the increased collaboration with our partners.
After the Summit, the OEM channel partners attended the Dell Channel Awards celebration. At the reception, Dell honored several channel partners, including Arrow OCS, who won the Dell OEM Partner of the Year award.
Keeping up with Dell OEM
We hope everyone who had the opportunity to attend had as much fun at Dell World as we did. View highlights and videos at dellworld.com and stay connected with Dell OEM through our website, blog, and twitter @DellOEM.