Dell EMC launches historic new integrated partner program

Dell EMC yesterdat announced the official launch of the integrated Dell EMC Partner Program, built from the ground up while preserving the best of two world-class legacy programs. The program establishes one extraordinary new program that addresses the needs of partners today and into the future. Developed in collaboration with partners globally, the program’s primary tenets are to be simple, predictable and profitable.

“Global business is rapidly changing as more and more customers prioritize investment in digital transformation. Dell EMC and its partners are uniquely positioned to help customers through this evolution,” said John Byrne, President, Global Channel, Dell EMC. “Dell EMC provides vast opportunities to our partners’ through an industry leading portfolio of innovative products, services and solutions, and now with the Dell EMC Partner Program, provides the support and programs for partners to excel.”

Michael Collins, Senior Vice President, Channel, Dell EMC EMEA, added, “We’ve diligently designed the Dell EMC Partner Program to be the most desirable program in the industry. We are truly providing the means and the opportunity along with the recognition and profitability that our partners want and deserve. We’re ‘all in’ with our partners and invested in their success.”

Program Tiers and Special Status

The new program tiers, developed to elevate Dell EMC Partners over competitors and establish a clear path to level-up, include Titanium, Platinum and Gold, as well as a new status level within the Titanium Tier, Titanium Black. Benefits to solution provider partners include generous rebates focused on profitable behaviors such as driving new business, service sales (inclusive of consulting, deployment, support and education services), training participation and selling the full portfolio. As a partner progresses their tier, their benefits increase.

The Titanium Black Status is an invitation only, special designation created to strengthen the relationship with partners who are extremely aligned with Dell EMC. The unified program embraces the entire Dell EMC partner ecosystem, inclusive of solution providers, cloud service providers, strategic outsourcers, OEM partners, systems integrators and distribution partners. The program includes unique tracks with specific advantages and incentives that align to a particular partner type and attained tier designation. As part of this full ecosystem strategy, included as well is the “Powered by Dell EMC” brand program for those businesses that embed Dell EMC technologies into the marketplace.

Distribution is a key component to help our partners deliver for their customers and Dell EMC is investing to grow this business. The distribution program offers a comprehensive set of benefits, which include base rebates paid back to dollar one of sales, growth accelerators based on targeted partners and lines of business and services rebates. In addition, earned quarterly market development funds (MDF) can be spent on activities such as enablement, demand generation and headcount.

All distribution partners that are authorized by Dell EMC will be granted status as an Authorized Distributor, which each will maintain by meeting annual minimum revenue, services penetration rates and training competencies requirements. Dell EMC plans to consolidate the list of distribution partners in the new program, and partner more closely with key global distribution partners who are placing bets on the company. Dell EMC will maintain a smaller set of local distribution partners by country.

Predictable: Rules of Engagement

Dell EMC is committed to rewarding partners for driving new business. Through a fully integrated and streamlined process, as well as a globally enforced Partner Code of Conduct, the Deal Registration program helps protect those partners who actively promote Dell EMC’s products and solutions to their customers. Partners with registered and approved opportunities receive both advantaged pricing as well as protection from direct sales conflict. Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) Incumbency for Commercial Accounts Dell EMC’s vision is for partners to extend their reach into new and existing markets as a true extension of our entire sales force.

As such, Dell EMC is evolving its current Line of Business (LOB) Incumbency for Storage program to ISG Incumbency in its Commercial Sales segment, which provides incumbency across all ISG lines of business including Server, Networking, Storage, Backup, Converged/Hyper converged and Solutions on qualifying accounts. ISG incumbency will provide more predictability than ever before to enable partners to aggressively grow their business with Dell EMC. ISG Incumbency allows us to mutually play to win with our partners.

To help partners plan their growth and protect their investments, Dell EMC launched the LOB Incumbency for Storage program in October 2016. This program recognizes the relationships partners have established with customers based on historical business performance with the goal to minimize direct conflict and ensure alignment between the Dell EMC sales team and the incumbent partners.

Now evolving to a more comprehensive ISG Incumbency model where rather than providing incumbency for a specific line of business in an account, qualifying Commercial accounts will receive incumbency across all ISG lines of business including Server, Networking, Storage, Backup, Converged/Hyper converged and Solutions. ISG Incumbency will protect the entire datacenter solution and enable cross-selling of the full ISG portfolio. In addition, partners are provided the opportunity to earn incumbency on new customers or new lines of business on existing customers across the ISG portfolio. Operationalising the ISG Incumbency program is actively being worked with details to follow.

Services

Partners can build deeper relationships, provide greater customer value and increase profitability when they supplement their own capabilities with Dell EMC Services. The new program gives partners a choice on how to tap into the growth opportunities with services. Partners can resell Dell EMC Services to earn lucrative rebates and contributions to tier level requirements or those who obtain Service Competencies in consulting, support and deployment can co-deliver or deliver Dell EMC Services themselves.

Simple: Resources and Technology Enablement-Unified Partner Portal

To enhance the partner experience, there will be one portal for the Dell EMC Partner Program, streamlined with distinctive views for each partner type and partner track providing a wealth of necessary enabling information. The single point of entry portal for all partners is scheduled to go live the week of February 20, 2017.

Through the portal, Dell EMC partners will have access to needed tools and resources including: Rebate and MDF Tracking Sales and Marketing Tools Program Guides and Event Kits Country Specific Benefits& Requirements FAQs Training and Competencies Deal Registration Services and Support Resources Quoting and Purchasing Tools

Profitable: Rich Rebates and MDF

The opportunity for profitability is a cornerstone of the program awarding eligible partners with lucrative rebates. Base rebates are paid back to dollar one and growth rebates reward partners who successfully grow their respective Dell EMC lines of business over time. And partners who attach services to expand into new lines of business can earn additional rebates on top of the base and growth rebates. In addition, there is an infusion of $150 million of incremental investment opportunities to boost back-end rebates and MDF, both earned and proposal based.

Service Provider Partner Investments

As enterprises accelerate their shift toward all-digital businesses and cloud delivery models, Dell EMC is increasing its commitment through additional investments in the Cloud Service Provider track of the new partner program. These investments start with increased go-to-market resources, the instantiation of service provider solutions engineering team all backed up by new revenue-based rebates and access to both earned- and proposal-based business development funds.

Cloud Partner Connect Initiative

Dell EMC’s Cloud Partner Connect initiative facilitates building resale relationships between Solution Provider and Cloud Service Providers. It allows Solution Providers to expand their offerings to include leading cloud services for their customers, with minimal investment and powered by Dell EMC.

OEM Partner Commitment

Every OEM customer is unique with different go-to-market requirements. The OEM Partner track was created to better serve the needs of Dell EMC OEMs and their customers. Dell EMC OEM partners are hand selected based on their resources and capabilities and are dedicated to helping OEM customers bring products to market efficiently. These partners complement Dell EMC’s offerings by providing value-added services such as custom hardware and software integration, final assembly and test, financing options, inventory management, consolidation and shipping, custom support engagements and supply-chain solutions.

Dell EMC Working Capital Solutions

In partnership with leading financial institutions, Dell EMC offers extended payment terms and increased credit capacity to enable our partners to grow their business faster.

“The new Dell EMC Partner Program is architected for partner growth and profitability,” said Kevin Rhone, Director, Channel Acceleration, Enterprise Strategy Group. “This new integrated program brings forward the best aspects of both programs and truly goes above and beyond what we’ve seen previously in the industry in terms of partner support and recognition. No doubt this will be highly lucrative to partners and Dell EMC, and will enable further growth throughout the industry.”

“Dell’s new integrated program will provide Arrow’s global reseller and system-integrator ecosystem with opportunities to deliver greater customer value and increase profitability,” said Benjamin Klay, Vice President, Infrastructure Systems Group for Enterprise Computing Solutions, Arrow Electronics. “Dell EMC is helping to differentiate itself with an expansive portfolio of value-added solutions and a demonstrated commitment to listening to the needs of its partner community.”

“The Dell EMC partner program is a win-win for partners and allows us to continue to focus on growing our business” said Sonia St. Charles, CEO, Davenport Group. “The transparency and accessibility to a host of products and services focused all around the data center allows us to address multiple customer challenges and increases our earning potential with multiple paths to achieve tier status.”

“Digital transformation is driving our business and with the breadth of the Dell EMC portfolio we can address complex customer requirements,” said Bob Murphy, President, and Presidio North. “The new Dell EMC Partner Program enables us to provide solutions with more agility while maintaining the predictability that’s so important to our business. Combined with the support and enablement in the program, I think our future is bright.”

“The new (Titanium Black) partner status is going to create new opportunities for us. I think there are a lot of things we can do collectively from an innovation perspective.” said Jim Kavanaugh, CEO, World Wide Technology, Inc., “Driving accelerated growth around the world that’s exciting.”