Dell overhauls partner programme - again

Dell has updated its partner programme yet again, announcing at Dell Technologies World 2019 that the Dell EMC Partner Programme will now become the Dell Technologies Partner Programme.

Accordingly, sales for all of the 'strategically aligned businesses' within Dell's portfolio will count towards the tier requirements for the Dell Technologies Partner Programme, as long as partners use the programme to conduct the sale. The separate partner programmes operated by the likes of VMware and Pivotal will still operate independently of the overarching umbrella partner programme.

"Our partners asked us to make it easier to do business across our full Dell Technologies portfolio, so we made it a top priority," said Joyce Mullen, president of Dell's global channel, OEM and IOT solutions division. "By providing our partners with a clear roadmap and investing in training and development, partners will win even more deals and grow their business."

The goal of the refresh is to encourage partners to sell as much of Dell's portfolio as possible by incorporating products and services from the likes of VMware, SecureWorks and other brands within the Dell Technologies family, in addition to infrastructure hardware and PCs.

"It is an incredible opportunity that we have here," Dell's president and chief commercial officer Marius Haas told an assembled crowd of partners at Dell's Global Partner Summit. "And the moment you end up selling the broader breadth of architecture sales, solution sales, the more successful and more profitable you become. We all know that if you sell three lines of businesses or more, you will make 29 times more money than if you just sell one line of it."

This announcement is the latest in a long list of shakeups to the company's channel business following its merger with EMC in 2016, including the introduction last year of the Dell Technologies Advantage framework, its preferred partner programme, and just two months ago, the announcement that any VMware sales made through Dell would be included in Dell EMC's partner programme.

The company is also introducing new badging and competencies to support the rechristened programme. The first competency will be comprised of the Dell Technologies Cloud badge, to accompany the new cloud infrastructure suite that was also announced at the show, as well as other relevant certifications such as Services Delivery Competency on VxRail. The company says many of its partners have already earned this competency, but the full requirements will be released in Q3 this year. The company has also announced a new badge for its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure business.

Dell's channel business has had an extremely strong year since Dell Technologies World 2018; it drove more than $50 billion in sales, and was responsible for more than 50% of the company's overall revenue. The situation is even better in Europe, Haas told Channel Pro, where Dell's channel business is not only growing faster than the company's global average, but is the fastest growing route to market overall.