Dell Partners Get New 2021 Program, More Access to VMware

Dell Technologies on Wednesday rolled out its 2021 Partner Program with several updates, including more opportunities with VMware for Dell partners.

Rola Dagher is Dell’s global channel chief. She said during a time of continued uncertainty, Dell’s program structure and partners’ engagement with the company will remain consistent.

Dell’s Rola Dagher

“I’ve been watching the amazing work that actually has been developed and executed on during the pandemic, and the pace of digital transformation and how it’s accelerated beyond anything we could have imagined,” she said. “Since I started with my role, my mission was to accelerate that momentum and continue to empower our partners, and drive that positive impact in the community, not just through technology and through everything else we do.”

Dell Technologies also released a new promise statement: “Together, we stop at nothing.”

“Our partners should know that Dell Technologies will always be there for them and by their side through the ups and downs,” Dagher said. “And everything we need is their investment to continue to grow and deliver on that impact to our customers.”

Partner Program Changes

With the new partner program, Dell has focused on three key areas based on partner feedback:

• More opportunity for new customer and line-of-business acquisition. Dell has simplified its new business incentive. With its new Power Up program, there’s more opportunity to sell across the Dell portfolio and win new buyers.
• Accelerated growth and profit potential with increased access to VMware. Solution provider partners can transact VMware licensing directly through the partner program with an aligned base rebate.
• A more streamlined and personalized end-to-end experience. This includes a new incentives center. It gives partners a comprehensive view of all their program incentives in one place. In addition, there’s greater pricing transparency through the solutions configurator.

Cheryl Cook, Dell’s senior vice president of global partner marketing, characterizes the new program as “evolution, not revolution.” She said key areas of the new program resulted from partner feedback and tangible business results.

Dell’s Cheryl Cook

“We absolutely are extending the opportunity for VMware,” she said. “It shows more collaboration and seamlessness of where our partners can do business with us.”

Dell also is extending its cloud platform subscription, making it more available in a few European countries.

Project Apex

In addition, Dell will continue expanding Project Apex, Cook said. It will bring offers to the market in an as-a-service model.

“It’s really a radically simplified way of driving seamless, integrated operational management of a multicloud, hybrid cloud environment,” she said. “And we know that will add tremendous value and provide a public-like cloud experience on-premises for our partners and our customers. And this will be a multiyear journey. We’ll continue to bring products to the market. We announced storage as a service as our first offer. Our partners will absolutely be empowered. They’ll be able to resell this and they’ll be able to integrate and have API interfaces with their own marketplaces to ensure they can deliver, one, against the rapid pace that we’ve been describing, but really in that flexible consumption model that many of our customers want.”

Dell is actively working with partners on Project Apex, Cook said.

“We have active work underway with many partners today around garnering and soliciting input and feedback with them on a private preview as we bring these products and these offers to market,” she said.

Denise Millard is Dell‘s senior vice president of global alliances.

“The pandemic has forced a pace of change that has been unprecedented,” she said. “Companies, our channel partners and our alliance partners, as well as Dell Technologies, are forced to respond quicker. Things like Project Apex, giving the ability to drive a financial instrument … aligned with consumption, is going to ease that ability to free up cash. So I think that’s super positive for a broad base of the partner community.”