Dell EMC Says Purchase Order System Back On Track After Larger Customer Base Causes Delays

Dell EMC says it has remedied a problem with its purchase order system that was frustrating partners globally through last week.

Partners' purchase orders were significantly delayed because Dell EMC's system was experiencing "higher than anticipated demand from our newly combined customer base," Dell EMC said in a statement to CRN.

Dell and EMC's massive customer bases and partner ecosystems came together in Dell's $58 billion acquisition of the data storage giant in early September. Delayed purchase orders aren't the first hiccup partners have experienced since then.

[Related: Dell EMC Fires Sales Scofflaws For Creating Channel Conflict]

The Dell EMC online partner portal was not ready for prime time when it launched in February, and partners had difficulties navigating the system, which was designed as a central location for partners to automate and track rebates, certifications, program advancement and other vital aspects of life in the unified Dell EMC partner program.

Channel Chief John Byrne owned up to the portal problems recently. "Some of you had massive problems with the portal, but did we hide? No, we did not hide. As a team, we spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week working to resolve those problems."

Similarly, the company says in its statement on purchase order delays that it "takes these issues very seriously. An important tenet of the Dell EMC Partner Program is open and transparent communication with our partners, striving to exceed their expectations."

Patrick Fettuccia, senior vice president of business management at solution provider Rolta Advizex, said so far, Byrne and his team have done a good job of solving channel problems as they've come up. "At the beginning, it was kind of bumpy, but I think they've worked it all out. It was bumpy to begin with, but they worked it all out, and it took a quarter," Fettuccia said.

A Dell EMC spokesman said it appears as if the problems with the purchase order system mostly occurred in the U.K. and Australia.