Dell Technologies Partner Program adds VMware sales option (original) (raw)

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Published: 05 Feb 2021

Dell Technologies has refreshed its global channel program by adding several new partner sales tools and incentives.

Notable among the updates is the option for Platinum- and Titanium-level partners to transact VMware licensing through the program with an aligned base rebate. Dell Technologies partners can also now access a streamlined version of the New Business Incentive; an Incentives Center, which provides a centralized view of rebates, market development funds and other financial benefits; and the Online Solutions Configurator pricing and quoting platform.

In a press briefing, Cheryl Cook, Dell senior vice president of global partner, embedded and edge solutions marketing, described the latest version of the Dell Technologies Partner Program as an "evolution, not revolution." Since the program's launch, Dell Technologies has stated that while it would aim to continuously improve aspects of the program, partners could expect it to remain stable and consistent at its core. The unpredictable conditions of 2020 validated the vendor's overarching channel strategy, Cook noted.

"[The Dell Technologies Partner Program] is helping our partners grow in good times and in challenging times," Cook said.

The revised Dell Technologies Partner Program also introduces the Power Up program, which consolidates the company's Partner Preferred programs. Partner Preferred lets partners earn Partner of Record status when they close deals in underpenetrated accounts. Cook described Power Up as a "broad, go-to-market sales campaign for all Dell sellers, for acquisition, cross-sell and upsell."

Dell Technologies global channel chief Rola Dagher noted that existing incentives for selling Dell storage -- Competitive Swap, Tech Refresh, midrange storage incentives and PowerStore front-end discount -- will remain in place. She said Dell is exploring rolling out similar incentives to other products.

Dell executives cited the upcoming launch of Project Apex, Dell's cloud initiative to create an as-a-service portfolio, as a driver for integrating VMware licensing with the Dell Technologies Partner Program. "VMware is foundational to the Dell Technologies Cloud Platform and our hybrid cloud approach, so this extended availability is a step that will help prepare [partners] for the Apex launch later this year," Dagher said.

Buyers seek cloud skills, regional expansion

IT services firms pursued cloud platform expertise and broader geographic reach in the latest round of M&A activity.

Accenture this week agreed to acquire Imaginea, a product and platform engineering firm with cloud skills across AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. The purchase of Imaginea, based in Mountain View, Calif., would add about 1,350 cloud professionals to Accenture's roster. Accenture in September 2020 revealed a $3 billion plan to invest in its Cloud First group as the focal point of the company's cloud activities.

In another cloud move, Sunstone Partners, a private equity firm based in San Mateo, Calif., purchased Evergreen Systems, Cerna Solutions and Novo/Scale. The acquisitions aim to create what Sunstone called the largest independent ServiceNow consulting partner. The Sunstone investment team previously invested in another ServiceNow specialist, Fruition Partners, while working at another firm. Computer Sciences Corp. bought Fruition Partners in 2015.

Logically, an MSP based in Portland, Maine, last month acquired two MSPs: Network Support Co., based in Danbury, Conn.; and NG2, based in Minneapolis. The deals follow Logically's purchase of Personal Computer Resources, a Braintree, Mass., outsourced IT services provider. The Riverside Company, Logically's private equity partner, invested in the three add-on companies.

And in data center services, DataBank, a colocation provider based in Dallas, has acquired five French data centers from Zayo Group Holdings.

IBM NewCo open to partnering

IBM's managed infrastructure services spinoff, temporarily dubbed NewCo, will be open to partnering in areas such as application development.

Operating within IBM Global Technology Services, the Managed Infrastructure Services unit provides a wide array of IT services. Bart Van Den Daele, general manager of global technology services for IBM Europe, said he's currently seeing demand for cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and end-user computing and help desk services.

With the eventual spinoff to IBM shareholders, expected to take place by the end of this year, NewCo will represent $19 billion in revenue.

"We are going to be, by far, the No. 1 infrastructure services player in the world," Van Den Daele said. "We need to make sure we don't pretend to be somebody else."

That's where partnering will come in. For example, NewCo can help customers with application discovery and cloud migration, but won't dive into areas such as application coding, Van Den Daele said. Instead, NewCo will be partnering with other application providers, application management companies and business process reengineering firms, he noted.

NewCo's partnering plans are consistent with IBM's vision of "full autonomy when it comes to adapting [NewCo's] go-to-market strategy," as expressed by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in an October 2020 conference call on the spinoff.

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