Dell Partner Program Enhancements: 10 New Incentives And Tools

CRN breaks down the 10 new incentives and tools in the Dell Technologies Partner Program that every channel partners needs to know.

Dell Technologies Revamps Its Partner Program For FY21

Dell Technologies on Wednesday unveiled a slew of new incentives, tools and rebates in the Dell Technologies Partner Program.

The $91 billion infrastructure giant is striving to make its fiscal year 2021, which began this week, a year of growth with new server and VxRail incentives, automation tools, a revamped Cloud Service Provider program and an overall more simplified program to drive sales to a new level.

“We’re continuing to raise the bar of our promise of simple, predictable and profitable,” said Dell Technologies’ global channel chief Joyce Mullen during the company’s virtual 2020 Global Partner Kickoff. “The opportunity is enormous, our momentum is strong and our partnerships are more solid that ever. This is our year to help customers turn data into one of their most valuable assets. … As we head into 2020, our commitment to you remains strong and steady.”

Here are 10 new incentives and tools in the Dell Technologies Partner Program that every channel partners needs to know about.

New Integrated Quoting Platform For Server, Storage And Networking

One of the biggest boosts to partners in the program this year is the company’s new Integrated Quoting Platform aimed at accelerating channel sales.

“Over the past two years, we’ve made significant IT investments aimed at driving an improved online partner experience. This year, these investments will really come to life,” said Darren Sullivan, senior vice president, Global Partner Strategy, Programs and Operations. “One of the biggest projects is the delivery of an Integrated Quoting Platform. Our Solutions Configurator platform will accelerate our journey to provide you with integrated quoting for our storage, server and networking portfolio this year. Aligning on one platform unlocks a lot of capabilities.”

Sullivan said the Integrated Quoting Platform will drive much more predictability in pricing to partners with deal registration to provide the best online price when compared to partners without deal registration.

“It will also mean that partners with deal registration get access to additional price negotiation through Solution Configurator, and your price advantage from deal registration will be completely transparent to you,” said Sullivan. “This continued focus on driving automation in our deal registration process, expansion of our storage product availability in the integrated platform and improved collaboration capabilities will streamline your online experience, enable you to self-service more often and accelerate the time to get a winning price to your customers.”

New Server Incentives For The Partner Preferred Program

Dell is striving to drive net new server sales as it expands its Partner Preferred Program by adding new target customers for server deals to the existing storage accounts in the program.

“We’ve seen great momentum with this program driven by the collaboration of Dell Technologies core sales and you, our partners,” said Sullivan. “We’ve made it more profitable to pursue these accounts. In addition to your normal back-end rebates, we also provide incremental discounting on the front-end. When you receive a deal registration approval for server or storage opportunities with an applicable Partner Preferred account, you will receive an increased discount. This advantaged pricing allows you the discretion to price with greater profitability.”

Sullivan said the bottom line for partners right now is to focus “on the right new business targets and you’ll maximize profitability both through increased up-front discounts and back-end rebates” in the partner program.

Cloud Service Provider Program VxRail Accelerator

One of the biggest focus areas in revamping the Dell Technologies Partner Program in fiscal year 2021 was around the company’s Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Program.

“We want to be able to look at other ways to help our partners drive and achieve value, such as the new 2X accelerator on VxRail for cloud service provider partners earning the CSP Dell Technologies Cloud competency,” said Jay Snyder (pictured), senior vice president of Global Alliances at Dell. “This acceleration is completely aligned with the company strategy and the core selling focus.”

VxRail is Dell’s market leading hyperconverged infrastructure product that is jointly developed alongside VMware.

Consolidating Rebate Structure

Dell is consolidating its product rebate structure from seven lines of business, with two or three sub-categories within each line of business, to now only three lines of business: client, serve and storage. “We’ve also introduced base rebate multipliers on focus products to reward targeted behavior,” said Sullivan.

Eliminating Quarterly Target Process

Dell says it is taking a big step forward in making partner rebate attainment much more predictable for the channel.

“[We are] eliminating the quarterly target process as well as increasing program automation to make your in-quarter earnings easier to forecast and reduce the number of adjustments required after quarter-end,” said Sullivan (pictured).

Dell Paying Sales Reps To Work With Partners

As part of revamping Dell’s Cloud Service Provider Program, the company is expanding the program benefits for sell-out compensation to now include deals with authorized cloud services partners.

“This means we’ll now be compensating our core sales reps on deals that involve our authorized partners, which increases collaboration with sales instead of creating competition,” said Snyder. “This should increase sales engagement at Dell Technologies, resulting in more engagement with partners. I’m hoping this change will get us closer to the 50 percent mark with regards to the number of sales teams that leverage alliances in 2020. … I want to see 50 percent of the Dell Technologies sales teams leverage what [partners] have to offer.”

Ending Point-Of-Sales Report Requirements

Instead of requiring a partner to submit a point-of-sale report each month in its Cloud Service Provider Program, Dell will now be doing most of the leg work.

“We’re going to send our partners an end-user validation report each month, asking them to verify the information we’ve provided,” said Sullivan. “I can actually hear hundreds of partners out there standing and applauding. I really do believe this will greatly minimize the efforts on your end.”

Simplified Training Requirements

Dell is making it easier to meet training-hour requirements for Cloud Service Provider (CSP) partners.

“This year, partners will now have the option to earn a CSP Dell Technologies Cloud competency which counts towards training hour requirements and provides our sales reps with visibility to your specific business as a competency option for Dell Technologies Cloud Service Provider opportunities,” said Sullivan. “And these partners will also receive a 2X accelerator on their rebates for qualified VxRail purchases.”

Reduction In Tier Revenue Requirement

One of the biggest pieces of feedback Dell channel leaders heard around its Cloud Service Provider Program was around revenue tier requirements for solution providers who focus in smaller markets, according to Snyder.

“We have recognized that a global revenue requirement may not work in all countries. So we have adjusted the program revenue requirements needed for tier promotions for partners that primarily operate in smaller markets,” said Snyder. “These different revenue requirements will help provide more attainable tier advancement opportunities and benefits for these partners in smaller markets. This is as huge and positive change for the business.”

Dell did not respond to CRN’s request for exact figures in terms of the new tier revenue requirements by press time.

Streamlining Sales Organization And Leaders

Effective this week, Dell Technologies no longer has a separate commercial and enterprise sales organization. In its place is a combined enterprise and commercial sales organization led by longtime Dell EMC sales veteran Bill Scannell (pictured). Dell’s new global sales leader said the move will help streamline the sales process in each region across the globe.

Scannell said when Dell acquired EMC and VMware in 2016, there was both an enterprise and commercial sales organization with different country managers and segment managers for each region.

“We’re going to organize under one leader. So in every country, there’s going to be one leader. Now yes, we will segment within regions, within countries – so we will organize around our customers and how our partners go-to-market -- but this should really simplify how our partners work with us and offer a much greater degree of consistency in who they deal with and how they deal with us in the field,” said Scannell. “And when we do that, when we take simplicity and we eliminate the complexity – it equals scale. We should be able to scale our mutual businesses and grow much faster in the market. … We have the portfolio, we have the team and we have the partners to go and take massive share in fiscal year 2021. I really want to take our partnerships to new heights.”