Digging into Dell’s Managed Services
Amie Paxton, Dell Channel Community Manager
If you Google “Dell’s Managed Services,” you’ll find a ton of articles that put Dell’s Global SaaS Business Director Mike Menegay in the hot seat. He’s continually asked about the conflicts inherent within Dell’s Managed Service Provider (MSP) program, and it’s interesting to read his responses. Over and over again, Menegay stresses we will not compete with partners who bring qualified deals to Dell that get registered and that the ultimate goal is to have each side help the other.
With years in the channel and hands-on experience as a solution provider, Menegay has the chops to make our MSP program unstoppable. Previously, he looked to the automotive industry as a model for successful partnerships. And this is still applicable today.
Special Programs and Savings
In our MSP program, Menegay and team are creating a web of specialized programs to support Partners, while also creating a web of segmented partnerships. Over the next year, Partners will start seeing Dell’s latest acquisitions, SilverBack and Everdream, uniting under a common integrated platform, providing common graphical interfaces and reporting systems – as well as integration to service ticketing systems. Dell’s MessageOne acquisition, an on-demand email continuity and crisis management solution, will also be available for sale through our channel partners. These product offerings are supported by specific certification programs for each offering; requiring various levels of commitments for each program certification between Dell and the partner. For instance, each certification track requires the partner to commit to training, technical support and sales enablement engagements of varying degrees.
Key Benefits for Dell Partners
- Lower costs as Dell moves the infrastructure requirements off the Partners plate and into 24/7, ISO certified data centers with industry leading SLAs for performance
- Cloud based, on demand services that lower the investment of partners and provide variable costing aligned to a partners revenue stream
- Acceleration of new offer sets through Dell’s own internal development efforts and the integration of industry-leading acquisitions
- Integration of acquisitions (products) into a common integrated platform
- Worldwide channel certifications for a partners scalability
- Industry-leading partner portal with specific partner friendly programs; deal registration, certification tracks, collateral, partner communications/blog, etc.
- Access to Dell’s sales force providing MSPs new business opportunities
While industry critics question the vitality of the SMB target audience, Dell feels confident about using this market to help fine-tune our services offering. Plus, we’re going to stay focused on developing mutually beneficial relationships with Partners through our Deal Registration program and the continuous buildout of our internal processes.
By visiting our PartnerDirect portal, you can both register as a partner and take advantage of Deal Registration. The latter protects your deals from competition by Dell’s direct sales teams and other partners — helping to increase your sales pipeline and reduce any channel conflict.
This topic of conflict has been of interest to bloggers and industry sites for some time, and rather than repeat what’s already been said, I’d like to clarify Dell’s position within the MSP space. We will continue to listen and grow our Channel program here at Dell. Please visit our Dell Channel Blog to join the conversation and offer feedback.
