Dell Technologies is trying to keep its sales teams and channel partners calm by honoring multiple registrations for competing products until a unified channel program is launched Feb. 1, according to solution providers briefed on the effort.
The focus is on what one large Dell and EMC solution provider executive called “hot spot” product lines where Dell and EMC overlap and compete. For example, if a Dell partner is registered to sell Dell Compellent storage to a customer and an EMC partner is registered to sell EMC VNX storage to the same customer, both registrations will be honored and the partners will have to compete for the sale.
When the Dell and EMC channel programs are fully integrated Feb. 1, the Dell partner and the EMC partner will automatically be registered on each other’s competing solution, the solution provider executive said.
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“No one can end-run your Compellent with [EMC] Unity or VNX,” he said. “That’s very thoughtful, and I give them a lot of credit. They’ve thought this through, and I think it’s fair. They’re trying to honor the account base.”
A top executive at an East Coast Dell solution provider said the move is an effort to keep the peace while the companies’ programs are integrated.
“There’s not one registration system, and it’s impossible for them to devise a system by which they can check every registration against every other registration across each company,” the solution provider executive said. “Trying to get the registration systems to work together is hard to do, and I can accept it as part of the acquisition. The only way to be fair is to do both. Otherwise you have to pick a favorite.”
Dell executives have not addressed specific channel program changes, but said in an interview with CRN Wednesday that changes were imminent. Dell COO and President of Enterprise Solutions Marius Haas said the company is trying to create a channel program that is predictable and that has “program elements that partners can get excited about both on the front end and back end. These are all the elements we’re putting in place. [Upcoming changes] are absolutely positive, and partners will absolutely see that their voice is being heard.”
Almost a year in the works, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell closed its acquisition of data storage giant EMC – along with virtualization powerhouse VMware – Wednesday, creating Dell Technologies, a more than $70 billion global IT conglomerate with a portfolio that stretches from budget PCs to high-end data center infrastructure and cloud services.
The companies’ channel programs will be run in parallel until Feb. 1, when Dell’s fiscal year begins. By then, the two programs will be integrated into a single Dell Technologies program led by new Global Channel Chief John Byrne.
As soon as the deal was closed, though, Dell began notifying channel partners about early program changes designed to foster loyalty and instill confidence among partners as the integration begins in earnest. Dell will bring EMC partners into the Dell program at their current EMC level, and the company will also use a partner-led sales model in accounts where solution providers have built successful relationships.