“Dell has gone through a transformation as a company”

Tell us about the rationale behind introducing the Dell's Engineer's Club initiative?

Dell's transformation to an end-to-end solutions company has broadened the company's capabilities and opened up a new set of business opportunities. Our channel partners are key stake holder today and we will invest in growing their capabilities, so that they are able to articulate these solutions effectively to customers.

We have launched the Dell's Engineers Club in India. This club is aimed at providing scheduled training to partners so that they can rise up to becoming IT consultants to the end-customers. The club will open ways for technical discussions with Dell and industry experts who will share their views on industry trends and also give feedback on Dell's IT solutions that will help in the design of future technology solution.

In India, in line with our long-term focus of providing best value to channel partners. Dell has expanded its channel network to around 1,700 channel partners in India. At Dell, we have spent the last 2 years evolving into a customer-inspired end-to-end solutions provider. Our partners are a significant part of our business and as we continue to implement an end-to-end solutions strategy for customers the channel is an important part of delivering those solutions. Keeping this in mind and supporting the overall growth and evolution of the Indian Channel partner community;

Is this program only catering to the Indian channel partners? What are the solutions and products Dell India would intend to push under this program?

Dell's Engineers Club is an APJ initiative and was first launched in China in October last year. The launch was a resounding success as it was very well received by our China channel partners.

 

Dell offers over 100,000 training sessions a year to all partners globally under the GCC Partner Direct program. The Dell's Engineers Club will further build on this initiative to formally invest in the development of individual engineers and partners. The Club will aim to bring together Technical Experts and Pre-sales & Post-sales Engineers across IT industry to network, exchange ideas, and share industry trends and best practices. This club will also help train channel partners and their engineers to be knowledgeable in Dell's advanced server, storage, security, networking and cloud solutions. This program has been extended by Dell to the Indian market to cater to the market potential in India and we feel it is important for us to bring the Indian channel partners at par with their global counterparts.

With our recent acquisitions like Quest Software, SonicWALL and Wyse we have been able to add extensively to our solutions portfolio with leading management, security, virtualization and cloud capabilities. Our focus on these enterprise solutions and services creates tremendous opportunity for our channel partners and therefore the necessity to ensure that our partners receive the required training to help them understand our extended portfolio of solutions and services and provide customers with the right solutions and advice.

How many partners and its technical staff would be part of this club and what kind of eligibility a partner should have to be part of this program?

As a start, the Dell's Engineers Club is by invitation only. Partners with a certain level of certification already attained from us through the Partner Direct program will be sent an invitation to join this club. In that invitation, we will include details on where and how to sign up. Once their registration is approved, they will have access to all the programs and activities under this initiative. At the start of the program we will be looking a limited number from the top 8 cities and will expand the program to more partners from the top 11 cities by the end of the month.

With this new program, how can partners broaden their capabilities and see new set of business opportunities?
The Dell Engineers Club is designed to provide maximum training about data center solutions so that our partners are better informed and can rise up to becoming IT consultants to the end-customers rather than just being a solutions provider. With our own rapid increase in the number of enterprise solutions we are now able to provide customers, from servers, storage, networking, security and cloud solutions, these trainings are essential to help our partners be able to communicate our range of solutions and services to customers and provide customers with a single solution that covers their IT needs from end to end. Through this program we aim to positively impact the overall growth of our partners by engaging with them, educating them and thereby elevating them.

How has been Dell's journey so far in transforming into an end-to-end solutions company?
Dell has gone through a transformation as a company. We have moved from solely being a PC maker to a complete IT solutions provider. As a result we have also changed the role we play for customers. Five years ago, we would have a series of ingredients that we would sell to customers: laptops, servers, desktops, storage etc. But we are now have evolved to be able to provide a complete solution to business institutions of all sizes.

Our technology and services help customers do more and do it better with maximum long-term value. We believe our legacy qualifies us specially to help SMBs expand their businesses. Dell remains committed to offering simplified IT solutions that free up time and money to foster growth and innovation in the SMB segment. 40% of the Indian IT market (around $28 bn) or about $11-$12 bn is mid-market. 85% of that sits in the top 25 cities in India. India has around 35,000 mid-market customers & we have in our database close to 27,000 of those. We know those, because we have a direct model and a robust channel model. So that gives us a clear advantage.

In line with transformation, how Dell India sees the channel as a key stake holder and how partners will validate the new Dell story to customers?
Our channel partners play a significant role in our business - 25 to 50% of our commercial business depending on country to country. In some countries it's 100% and we see it growing further. We are heavily investing for our partner community for their overall growth showcasing our long term commitment to our channel business.

India is a very important market as far as our partner community is concerned. We engage with our partners in this region at the highest level ensuring that the programs and policies designed are favorable to their benefits which leads to their overall growth

Efforts taken by Dell for strengthening the channel business have been constant and consistent. The Dell GCC (Global Commercial Channel) structure was announced with its single point of contact for partners, to lead to higher productivity and improved time cycles and enable more customized programs to support the partners in the market. The new structure protected partner profitability by bringing consistent pricing across different Dell commercial businesses and offer the partners increased growth opportunities with solution centric offerings and a broader end customer base. We continuously hold training programs for our channel partners with instructor led classroom training programs and extending online courses to cover more relevant areas. The Dell Engineers Club will add to this and create more opportunities for partners to grow their knowledge and skill-set.

Sandhya Malhotra (sandhyam@cybermedia.co.in)