It’s anything but business as usual at Dell Technologies since news surfaced, less than two weeks ago, that Michael Dell is considering taking his company public. However, in a choreographed video announcement Wednesday on 2018 Dell EMC Partner Program enhancements, not one of more than a half-dozen channel executives – including Dell himself in a brief appearance – addressed the elephant in the room. 

What Joyce Mullen, Dell EMC’s new channel chief did note, was that Dell Technologies’ global channel business is on a run rate to hit $43 billion, with the goal of reaching $50 billion. She also noted that the foundation of the Dell EMC Partner Program, rolled out last year, will remain intact, with the company making refinements in areas such as rebates, training and marketing development funds (MDF), for example, with many of the enhancements partner-driven. 

“Today, not only are we unveiling a rich partner program and announcing new storage SPIFs, but we’re also enhancing our partner financial program to help fuel your businesses,” Mullen, president, global channels, OEM & IoT, said. Partners that utilize financial programs grow, on average, twice as fast as those that don’t, she noted. 

Before diving into partner-program changes, Mullen was quick to let partners know that the company is updating its rules of engagement to provide clarity to direct and indirect sales teams, and is taking infringements seriously.

“We’re proud to announce that in [the fourth quarter], rules-of-engagement infraction escalations were down by over 80 percent quarter over quarter,” she said.

Joyce Mullen

Joyce Mullen

Mullen also shared where the company would like to see partners focus their businesses in 2018: growth; selling bigger/richer servers; putting storage front and center on their sales map; selling client services to new customers; and to think about attaching services to all sales.

The vendor outlined program enhancements, beginning with rebates: 

The four rebate categories continue, but with a few refinements: 

Dell EMC also addressed training and noted several improvements: 

Mullen was joined today by Dell EMC channel executives: Jay Snyder, senior vice president, global alliances; Randy Huey, senior vice president, global channel strategy; Chris Wolff, head of global OEM and IoT partnerships; Kristina Austin, senior director, global alliances marketing; Jim DeFoe, senior vice president, worldwide distribution; Kimberly DeLeon, vice president, global channel programs; and Cheryl Cook, senior vice president, global channel marketing.