Dell Partners Can Now Sell VMware Licenses Via New Partner Program

‘It’s going to make it easier for customers to do business with us, which in turn is going to help everybody sell more VMware and sell more hardware because we can do more one-stop shopping around configurations and transparency on pricing,’ says Josh Lee, director of sales at VirtuIT Systems.

In a bold move to make the Dell-VMware channel partnership tighter than ever before, Dell Technologies partners can now transact VMware licensing deals directly though the revamped 2021 Dell Technologies Partner Program.

Josh Lee, director of sales at VirtuIT Systems, a Nanuet, N.Y.-based Dell Technologies Titanium partner, said being able to buy and sell VMware via Dell’s partner program will give channel partners a leg up over the competition around speed and ease of business.

“It’s going to make it easier for customers to do business with us, which in turn is going to help everybody sell more VMware and sell more hardware because we can do more one-stop shopping around configurations and transparency on pricing,” said Lee. “Between VMware and some of the new things they’re now doing with price transparency, it’s going to make turning around proposals and projects as well as making any tweaks and changes a lot faster. It’s going to make the ease of doing business with Dell Technologies a lot better and a lot easier.”

Lee added that the new VMware sale motion is “going to be great for end users for speed in getting projects done without having to go back and forth to multiple different places to get the hardware and the software. The program is very lucrative for the channel community and their making it better.”

The $92 billion Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant launched its revamped 2021 Dell Technologies Partner Program on Wednesday. One of the major highlights in the new program is providing Dell Titanium and Platinum tiered partners the ability to transact VMware licensing directly through the program with an aligned based rebate.

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Dell Technologies Global Channel Chief Rola Dagher (pictured) told CRN that the new VMware sales option erases many of the restrictions previously in place for partners wanting to sell VMware through Dell.

“Previously, it was kind of restricted, especially in some areas. So this will give our partners the simple way of transacting and expanding on the portfolio. There will be no restriction in terms of the VMware, ‘Can I do this versus that?’ questions [from partners],” said Dagher. “So this gives them the simplification and will give them growth from a rebate perspective across the entire Dell Technologies portfolios. Overall, the objective is to simplify the way our partners do business with us in expanding the portfolio of the end-to-end experience.”

Dagher added that the move “is a step that will help prepare partners for the Apex launch that we’re doing later this year that we have a major focus on.” Project Apex is Dell’s long term as-a-service strategy aimed at simplifying how customers and partners access Dell’s growing as-a-service portfolio, from servers and storage to PCs and client offerings.

VMware is majority owned by Dell Technologies, stemming from Dell’s blockbuster acquisition of EMC in 2016. VMware is the dominant leader in virtualization and is looking to become the software leader in areas such as hybrid cloud and Kubernetes. The two companies jointly engineer market leading products such as VxRail, the world’s leading hyperconverged infrastructure solution, while also having a strong go-to-market partnership via their channel partners.

Dell launched several new enhancements to the Dell Technologies Partner Program today, including a new Incentives Center to give partners a better view of all their program incentives in one place, as well as greater pricing transparency through an Online Solutions Configurator (OSC).

The OSC aims to improve the ability for channel partners to get better configuration, pricing and quotes on solutions.

“The OSC will deliver greater pricing transparency,” said Dagher. “And that’s buying directly from Dell and it would also enhance the online self service capabilities. We’re so excited about this opportunity because those enhancements will allow partners to create better and faster opportunities. It’s a win-win on both sides.”

VirtuIT Systems’ Lee said Dell has done a phenomenal job in ramping up the Online Solutions Configurator tool. “Having more price transparency in there so we get a better idea of what our pricing is going to be as well as the ability to do a lot of quotes directly from the tool – it’s going to make life easier for us. The faster we can turn around proposals to customers, the easier it is for an end user to do business with Dell partners.”

Dell’s new Incentives Center gives partners increased visibility and insight across all their programs and incentives in one, centralized location. Previously, Dell had different platforms for rebates, marketing development funds (MDF) and its MyRewards program. “So now, MDF, rebates and MyRewards are all under the same platform,” Dagher said. “This is one of the biggest achievements in providing that simplification experience to our partners.”

There is also a dedicated Incentives Center support team available to partners by phone, email and online chat.

The last major enhancement to this year’s Dell Technologies Partner Program is a new program dubbed Power Up.

Dell’s new Power Up program combines the company’s existing Partner Preferred programs together. The Partner Preferred programs, launched in 2018, hands over Dell accounts to channel partners to find net-new opportunities in underpenetrated accounts with the full backing of Dell’s internal sale teams. The new program will continue to push joint success, collaboration and trust between Dell and its channel partners, according to Dagher.

“So now thousands of more high potential accounts have been added to the Power Up, which gives partners a huge opportunity,” said Dagher. “Power Up gives them an opportunity to expand on the growth because those accounts will be the high potential accounts.”

Dell’s new Power Up program will give channel partners access to Dell Technologies enterprise, commercial and SMB accounts.

Additionally, Dell is simplifying its New Business Incentive together with the new Power Up program to provide partners with even more profit and opportunity to sell across the Dell Technologies portfolio. VirtuIT Systems’ Lee said Power Up is beneficial to partners in several ways.

“One, it gives better alignment between the Dell sellers and the channel team, and the channel partner going after those accounts,” he said. “But I think the big thing it does, is it’s going to allow for more partner of record opportunities where there’s longer term protection for the partner that actually wins business and brings it into Dell. As oppose to always having to worry about making sure we’re protected from a deal registration perspective or anything else. It’s really good that Dell’s putting incentives in there for long term partner of record protection. … Also putting these up for an incentive stackable with the [New Business Incentive] is phenomenal. They’re making these accounts very very lucrative for the channel.”

The enhanced 2021 Dell Technologies Partner Program goes into effect on Feb. 3.