Dell Technologies has revealed the changes it will make to its channel programme this year with the vendor looking to make it easier for partners to achieve gold status.
The channel chief and its top channel executives took to the virtual stage and save for a few exceptions, asked its partner community to stay the course with the vendor’s global partner program.
The more significant refinements mentioned during Dell Technologies partner broadcast included a further simplified market development funds (MDF) process, the addition of more products to the company’s rebate programs, and a reduction in the number of trained employees need to achieve Gold status.
In an update to partners the firm’s president global channels, OEM and IoT solutions Joyce Mullen said that there would not be any dramatic changes but it had listened to partner feedback and was making enhancements to the existing programme. “You shouldn’t see or expect major changes, just improvements and refinements in the areas that are most important to you,” she said.
Darren Sullivan, senior vice president, global partner strategy and business operations at Dell Technologies, said that the benefits of the programme would remain consistent but it had chosen to make enhancements based on feedback.
The vendor has gold, platinum and titanium tiers which channel partners can reach by gaining revenue, training and services targets.
Joyce Mullen, predicted the amount of data the world is expected to generate by 2020, and according to IDC, that number is 44 zettabytes (or 44 trillion gigabytes). “There are massive opportunities on the horizon,” she said. “And customers will be looking to you more than ever as a trusted advisor…and we want to be right there to back you up.”
She also acknowledged the fact that constant refinements to the partner program are needed, most of which are fueled by partner feedback. In addition to a revamped MDF Tool homepage, Dell EMC says it’s simplifying its MDF by moving to one Dell Technologies payment process. This means no more multiple payments for a single claim. Cheryl Cook, senior vice president of Global Partner Marketing, said MDF rates will also be aligned to product categories instead of having one rate for its Client Solutions Group and another for Infrastructure Solutions.
Last year Dell made it straightforward with gold requiring one training competency, platinum two and titanium three. Sullivan said it was now going further, reducing the number of staff that needed to have been trained by half for those going for gold. That now means only one sales and system engineer has to get trained up to hit the requirements. “We have heard you loud and clear and we hope this change allows more partners to achieve gold standard and financial benefits,” he said.
Smaller partners, big rewards
In order to enable partners, especially smaller ones, to reap benefits of the partner program incentives faster, Dell EMC is reducing the number of individuals needed to complete the training to reach the Gold tier, the level above Authorized.
The company also introduced a Data Analytics Solutions Competency through its Partner Academy training program, tying back to Mullen’s message earlier in the broadcast about the incoming tsunami wave of data.
