Canada- based Rola Dagher, Global Channel Chief, Dell Technologies says that it has been the proudest moment for her to re-join the company 10 months ago and lead the entire global channel organisation with a strong channel team and partners ecosystem
The global channel business of Dell Technologies in the past 12 months have delivered strong growth results. Revenue wise, the Q1 was a solid quarter, Dell saw US$ 54 in the past 12 months in orders. The revenues through the channel were up 14 per cent year over year globally. Order revenue for the channel through the client business was up 21 per cent year over year and same was with storage. The growth across all partners’ tiers and especially through distribution registered 80 per cent year on year growth in Q1.
Apart from getting a strong channel leader and revenue. The channel business has unveiled a new ‘Promise Statement’ for its partners. For several years, Dell Technologies has been delivering channel business with ‘Simple, Predictable and Profitable’. With Dagher’s coming on board the global ‘Promise Statement’ shifted to ‘Together We Stop at Nothing’.
Commenting on the statement, she says, “When I came into Dell the ‘simple, predictable and profitable’ is something that we are leading at but it was good, but I was pleased with it, but I was not satisfied. So therefore, we changed our promise statement ‘Together We Stop At Nothing’, because we want to ensure that we are leading with the partners with these statements. However, we continue to provide simple, predictable and more profitable business for our partners. You will hear me always lead with ‘Together We Stop At Nothing’, but of course building on the three pillars which are the simplifications of our programs of continuing to do that and then more predictability and more profitability for our partners.”
As the company look towards the remainder of the year, Dagher has scripted four broader and deeper focus areas for the partners.
Enhancing end-to-end partner experience
Dagher states, “Gone are the days when we just focus on what’s just right for us. It is all about what is right for our partners and customers. And we are living in a world where experience and personalisation is what matters. So, the partner experience for us is all about making it easier to do business with us. We are raising the bar with automated tools and processes. And we all know it is always good, but how do we take it from good to great. How do we build on the partner program of the future, and how do we continue to build upon the partners’ predictability as simplicity and profitability, because it is all about simplifying and continuing to simplify the way we do things?”
Accelerate partner’s growth
The next focus, according to her is, accelerate partner growth with best in class emerging technology focused on delivering end-to-end solution.
“We know it is not about a project or just an opportunity. It is all about the digital transformation journey that we want our customer to be on from a technology perspective. Leveraging our leading capabilities with VMWare to capitalise on the new large addressable market that we have in the emerging technology space. Doubling down our position with partners on the consumption base and service offering. In Q1, we announced our APAC project and the APAC’s flex on demand partner incentive at Dell Technologies World,” she says.
Sustainability and Ethics
Thirdly, activate partnership to advance sustainability, cultivate inclusion and transform lives all while upholding ethics and privacy. “Dell Technology focuses on impact through our community work. We did a lot of things through business enablement and resources and best practice sharing around the partner ecosystem, and engaging our partners networking with them and the support globally that we have offered. Our partners are the true transformers to go out there and make a huge difference with our customers and community,” she mentions.
Driving As- a- Service model
The pandemic has brought and expedited 10x or 30 times in terms of where Dell’s business was a year and a half ago to where it is today. Partners are extremely excited about the ‘As-a- Service’ model. But not a lot of the partners are ready to deliver on the as a service model. Because the ‘As-a- Service’ model requires partners to shift business models and shift their business towards services more focused on the right thing for the customers.
The company is soon going to strengthen its ‘As a service’ model geography wise. “We are working with the partners that are ready and, in a position, to deliver on the as a service model. Hence the reason why we are not just going out there and saying everybody could have it and let’s go because we want to do it right. And the proof of concept that we built with all of our partners that helped us learn best practice from what we need to do in certain countries and what we do not want to do in other countries. The focus continues on those partners that are ready and we are enabling those partners through some of the services that we are putting in front of them,” she adds.
The beauty of the ‘Flex on demand as a service’ is that when Dell puts it in front of its partners, and they can build services on top of it and add more value to the solution in front of the customers.
