Company Updates

New Year, New Beginnings for Dell Channel

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With the fiscal year now securely behind us, I wanted to take a look back and reflect on our past achievements and recent growth within the channel. 

Dell’s fourth quarter (November-January) included events such as Dell World where we announced new improvements to the PartnerDirect program, adding $125 million in enhanced incentives and programs, including the Dell Storage Accelerator, Windows Server 2003 Migration, and Growth Accelerators for the Client Solutions and Enterprise Solutions Groups that are all launching this year. This news garnered a lot interest, including several stories in CRN and Computer Dealer News. Both the channel news and the global enterprise announcements resulted in over 718 pieces of coverage.

Photo of two men talking in front of several different colored signs with the Dell logo on them

We also hosted the PartnerDirect Summit at Dell World and had a great turnout with hundreds of partners from around the world. This event gave our channel partners a chance to hear from our top leadership on the strategic importance of channel partners and how to grow their business.  To show how much we appreciate all the hard work our partners have done throughout the year, we hosted a fun Partner Appreciation cocktail reception, as a way to say thank you and for partners to meet and network with each other.

I am happy to report that channel represents over 40 percent of Dell’s global revenue, making us one of the top vendors with a channel business at this magnitude. The engagement from our 4,300+ certified partners around the world has been incredible with the number of competencies being completed by partners globally increasing 25 percent over last year with the strongest growth areas in Data Protection, Client Management, Networking, Network Security and Storage.

The channel press has recognized all of our hard work and dedicated a series of 12 stories on how awesome the Dell Channel business is. In one story, CRN reports, “A year after winning its $24.9 billion hard-fought battle to go private, Dell now sees its PartnerDirect channel community as instrumental to its success. In fact, Dell reported its channel business is growing faster than the direct side of the house. That's a trend partners said has directly benefited them.” While we are thrilled with our progress, we are aware and focused on how we can raise the bar on partner experience and programs that help them grow and thrive with Dell.

We have already kicked off the first quarter of the new fiscal year with a bang. In February, I made an announcement on new partner incentives in North America. These include additional discounts on key Dell Solutions to 45,000 U.S. registered channel partners as well as $40,000 in marketing development funds to Premier Partners to stay ahead and stand out from the crowd within the channel marketplace.  In addition, U.S. partner reps will also be eligible to receive a $250 new account bonus on all hardware and software products sold through the channel.

As we look ahead in 2015, we see great opportunities for partners including adding new tools to your tool box:

  • Offering Windows Server 2003 Migration tools to customers before the July deadline
  • New data center upgrades within servers, networking and storage
  • Updates to data protection and network security to ensure your customer’s data is protected against cyber threats

Thank you again to the Dell channel team and our channel partners for all your hard work and we look forward to continue thriving with you this year. As always, we love to hear from you, so please comment below on the program updates and incentives you are most looking forward to utilizing or just share your opinion on the PartnerDirect program. I also encourage you to engage with me on Twitter via @CookCherylS. 

Cheryl Cook

About the Author: Cheryl Cook

Senior Vice President at Dell Technologies, Cheryl Cook spearheads development and strategy for the Global Partner Marketing organization. Beyond her main global responsibilities for branding, partner program marketing, channel events, partner communications and MDF/BDF program investments and execution, Cheryl drives long-term partner marketing strategy, together with Global Alliances, OEM, and global and regional business teams. A vocal advocate for the partner community, Cheryl is a 20+ year partner veteran, known as an innovative, collaborative leader who creates compelling business solutions that accelerate partners’ success. Prior to her current role, Cheryl served as Vice President, Global Channels and Alliances, leading channel strategy for the company worldwide. Her responsibilities included setting Dell’s partner strategy company-wide, as well as developing and executing channel programs, training, certification, and global marketing programs that enabled partners to grow their business with Dell. Cheryl and her team contributed to the growth of Dell’s global channel business from 33% to over 40% of Dell’s total revenue. Prior to running Dell’s channel business, Cheryl served as Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, where she was responsible for the go-to-market strategy and execution for Dell storage, server, networking and related software businesses. Cheryl has more than 25 years of IT and high-tech experience. Before joining Dell in 2011, Cheryl was Senior Vice President at Nuance Communications managing sales across all lines of business. She also served as Senior Vice President at Sun Microsystems with global responsibility for $6B in enterprise solutions revenue. A contributor to Fortune Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Women’s community, Cheryl is an active proponent of women in business and technology. Cheryl is the founder and executive sponsor of the Dell Technologies Women’s Partner Network, an initiative that supports and empowers our community of women partners. Cheryl also contributes to Dell’s Women in Action and Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network. Honored by CRN numerous times as one of the Power 100 Women of the Channel, 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs and Top 100 Channel Sales Leaders, as well as Channel Partners Top Gun 51, Cheryl serves on the board of directors for ARC Document Solutions, is a member of Channel Focus Club 50 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Florida.