Anyway, judge for yourself.

JC

Big picture

1. Describe dell three years from now in terms of your product and service mix?
2. How far do you see your managed services offering extending into a client? Do you envision managing the entire IT spend of a client or do you envision doing the management and monitoring and having partners do the rest?
3. How do you protect your product revenue while rolling out service offerings such as managed services?

Partner strategy

1. I understand the pitch you have gone to market with telling providers they can become a Dell partner and register deals to protect their managed services clients but where does that leave current product partners who are not ready to become Dell managed services partners?
2. How can you convince a partner that has 4 or 5 million in revenue and perhaps already has a small managed service practice established to continue selling your product, or do you ultimately care?
3. How do you plan on competing at the local level, I sat in a room of service providers last week that were certain that Dell will never be able to provide the high touch service they provide their customers, how would you respond to that?

Future plans

1. We have seen how Silverback and Everdream are going to be utilized in your managed services offering what about MessageOne and Equalogic? Do you envision Dell offering these solutions from the cloud in a SaaS model?
2. What can you tell us about what we should expect next from Dell’s managed services program?

Normally I would spend the evening writing about how Dell is going to cause themselves a problem with the channel if they continue down this path but I think our friends at MSP mentor did a great job so I have included part of a post from The VAR Guy along with a link to their site.

Historically The Var Guy and MSP Mentor have remained neutral about Dell’s movements in the market so I have to say it is gratifying that even they are pointing out Dell’s shortcomings with the partner channel.

I am working on getting Dell to write a post clarifying their ideas on how the channel will benefit from the SaaS offerings dell is brining to the market as everyone I have talked to is a little hazy on the benefit, stay tuned….

In the meantime check out that The VAR guy had to say in his post:

“With its acquisition of SilverBack Technologies, Inc., Everdream Corp., ASAP Software Express, Inc. and now MessageOne, Dell is architecting an integrated service delivery platform of SaaS applications THAT WILL ENABLE IT to remotely monitor, maintain, troubleshoot and address the majority of routine IT infrastructure issues that challenge businesses of all sizes. “

The VAR Guy emphasized four key words (”THAT WILL ENABLE IT“) on purpose. As currently worded, the release suggests that the Dell service delivery platform is for Dell alone — and not for partners. With a few simple word tweaks, (”ENABLE DELL AND ITS PARTNERS TO…“), the company could have delivered a far more inclusive message to partners.

You can find the full post here:

http://www.mspmentor.net/2008/04/25/dell-misses-mark-on-messageone-announcement/

JC

Guess what we found in our mailbox this morning (names and account numbers have been changed to protect the innocent):

Dear Client Name,

I am compiling some information on topics that may be of interest to my customers.

These topics include but are not limited to:

· Voice over IP (VOIP)

· Cooling of Server Areas

· Security Appliances

· Reducing Spam

· Virtualization and Server Consolidation

· Disaster Recovery and Failover

· SAN Storage – particularly ISCSI

· Converting to a Mobile workforce

If there are other topics you would like information on or if you want me to send info on any of the above topics, please email me or call me.

Company Name: Client Name

Customer Number: xxxxxxxxxx

Thank you!

A whole list of Dell people my client should contact about their services

Now on the surface you may say this poses no threat to my business and I still would argue that Dell will never get the high touch server our clients demand right. But I do believe this will cause some tough conversations with clients as Dell starts to provide my same service offerings at a low price – no idea on pricing yet but I imagine dell is thinking sheer volume for this play to make sense to their business.

So if you are not listed as the main email on your clients Dell account you may want to think about changing that or getting out ahead of Dells message to your client by talking to them first.

JC

Dell is pushing Everdream direct to customers and offering us MSP certification. At first glance this looks like cause for alarm until you realize it is Dell and they will never get the personal touch our service requires right with small businesses.

In the last month dell has visited two of my clients unsupervised and both ended up with sever business interruption and are in the process of trying to get money out of dell. Why do I tell you this? Because I feel it will be the same with Dell’s direct managed services. Not to say they are not a smart organization, they are just too big to give Joe’s local consulting business the personal attention they need.

In my opinion (take it or leave it) I feel Dell’s, and all the other giants, push into the market will do nothing but educate clients sending them looking for you and me – the quality high touch sub fifty million dollar organizations providing managed services with a personal touch.

Check out the letter and I will see you at the webinar the week of the 21^st.

JC

Dear Partner,

At the Dell/SilverBack Managed Services Partner Conference held in January, we committed to open and continuous dialogue with our partner community on Dell’s managed services strategy, program enhancements and go-to-market initiatives.

MSP Certification Update

Today, we are pleased to announce some updates. The Dell MSP certification program has been enhanced to include Dell’s end-user device management services (enabled by the recently acquired Everdream technology). This technology is exciting as it permits our partners to offer new and expanded product sets consisting of software distribution, patch management, remote asset discovery, asset management, data encryption, online backup, software licensing and remote administration to your vast base of desktop and notebook systems.

To support these new capabilities for our partners, Dell has added an MSP certification track for Dell’s end-user device management services. Our partners can now access the technology, training and best practices of all managed services practice areas, including those offered for IT infrastructure remote monitoring and management technology driven by Dell’s enterprise monitoring services (enabled by the recently acquired SilverBack technology), and those offered for Dell’s end-user device management services.

Dell’s end-user device management services technology represents an exciting addition to our MSP certification program. Current Everdream partners who register before May 15, 2008 will be “grandfathered” into the Dell MSP desktop remote management certification program. Also, we are thrilled with the results of our first Dell MSP Partner Certification program based on Dell’s enterprise monitoring services, as new partner certifications have increased over four hundred (400%) percent in just four (4) months. We look forward to similar results with the expansion of the program utilizing the Dell’s end-user device management services platform technology.

Managed Services Update

As we discussed at the January MSP partner conference, Dell will be starting a limited pilot in Dallas, TX selling small businesses basic remote monitoring and remediation services using Dell’s enterprise monitoring services. Dell will look to expand this pilot over the course of 2008 in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific regions as feedback dictates.

As promised, we will update you on the progress of this pilot as results and feedback are generated. We’ll continue to communicate and work with partners to further develop the channel offering that will compliment Dell’s small-business managed service offering. There will also be opportunities for partners to participate in the pilot, and we will provide details in the coming months.

And in closing, during the week of April 21, 2008 we will host a managed services partner webinar that will further outline the results and growth of our MSP certification program, and share our plans for continued enhancements to the MSP platform and overall channel program. This webinar will provide our partners the opportunity to be educated on the enhancements to Dell’s platform technology and programs that will enable you to develop specific initiatives suited to meeting your business goals.

We envision this webinar being the first in a series of conversations with our partners as we continue to develop Dell’s Managed Services channel strategy and offerings for our partners.
We will be in touch with you shortly with details about our upcoming webinars.

As always, we look forward to your feedback.

Sincerely,

Greg Davis
Vice President and General Manager
Americas Channel Group

Michael Menegay
Global Director, Dell Managed Services

I am not sure if Dell has even taken the time to evaluate the claims they are making on the Silverback homepage: http://www.silverbacktech.com

No offense but generally one man shops are one man shops because they have technology focus rather than a business focus. Getting a one man shop to sell recurring revenue products is a challenge by itself never mind convincing them to put the business process and people in place to reach the $10 million mark!

I think this is just another example of Dell not having a sniff how to approach our market. Not more than a few weeks ago they announced they are going to sell the Silverback product direct to small businesses and in the same breath they are asking you and I to get in bed with them as a partner.

If you get in bed with Dell you are getting in bed with your competition, albeit they don’t know what they are doing buy why partner with Dell when they will be directly selling against you?

Think about it.

JC

http://www.crn.com/article/printableArticle.jhtml?articleId=205900650

I personally don’t think they have an understanding of the market or what a sub 100 person business needs from an MSP but they sure are snatching up tools providers and making a stink about coming after this space.

I have had no fewer than three dell reps, one Silverback rep, and a former Everdream rep (also snatched up by Dell) contact me about how to get into this space. Needless to say I told them all the reasons I don’t believe they will make it in this space anytime soon but I am not sure they believe that building client loyalty as an MSP takes more than slapping a management tool on a desktop or PC.

Let me know what you think about some of the big guys like Dell making a move on the SMB MSP space and trying to sell direct.

I personally welcome them along with their gazillion dollar marketing budget. I believe that they will server to educate our clients about the value of working with an MSP, making it that much easier for you and I to grow our business through superior service and perhaps a little Dell bashing along the way!

JC