New Software Competencies Enable Dell Channel Partners To Capitalize On End-To-End Solution Offerings

• New software competencies provide specialized training and learning paths for Dell PartnerDirect partners
• Dell PartnerDirect Service Provider program offers business and technical support, customized pricing and billing and additional benefits unique to service provider model
• Trusted advisors benefit from new commercial referral fee program

Dell recently announced improvements to its channel partner programs, including software-specific enhancements to its PartnerDirect program through four new software competencies, as well as new service provider and referral programs.

The enhancements highlight Dell’s commitment to enabling channel partners to sell end-to-end solutions through one simple program, and increase the scope and revenue potential of their partnerships. Partners selling a mix of Dell hardware and software can now achieve Premier status through a mixed competency, while an advanced competency offers a path to Premier for partners specializing in a single line of business. Today also marks the official transition of legacy North America and EMEA partners from disparate partner programs such as Quest Partner Circle into the PartnerDirect program. The KACE, AppAssure, and SonicWALL partner communities had been transitioned earlier in the program’s lifecycle and fit well into the four software competencies introduced today.   

Historically, the Dell PartnerDirect program has focused on enabling and promoting hardware sales for Dell partners. Over the past year, Dell has launched an aggressive strategy to build scalable enterprise software offerings into its solution portfolio in the areas of datacenter and cloud management, information management, mobile-workforce management, and security and data protection, with the objective of becoming a full service, end-to-end IT solutions provider. Today, Dell’s software division is one of the largest software companies in the world, with a $1.2 billion business selling into 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies and supported by 6,000 dedicated software employees worldwide.

“Software partners have unique requirements and SonicWALL has always done a tremendous job of not only meeting those needs, but also driving tangible business benefits and lucrative rewards for partners,” said Joe Thompson, VP Channels, Abacus Solutions. “As acquired companies like SonicWALL transition into PartnerDirect, we are confident that Dell is committed to maintaining that partner equity. We are always excited to explore the potential that comes with partnering with Dell and leveraging its end-to-end solution offering for the good of our customers.”

Dell Software PartnerDirect Competencies

The enhanced program features customized requirements and revenue thresholds for software partners to achieve Premier and Preferred Partner status. The software competencies will allow Dell to better serve the needs of its combined channel partner community, including software- and hardware-focused partners, as well as partners selling a combination of both.

PartnerDirect competencies provide specialized learning paths for channel partners to validate and distinguish their expertise, leading to increased profitability and competitive advantage. The new software competencies announced today are as follows:

• Security: Includes identity and access management, as well as network, endpoint and email security
•  Systems Management: Includes client management, performance monitoring, Windows Server management, virtualization and cloud
• Data Protection: Includes enterprise backup/recovery, virtual protection, application protection and disaster recovery
• Information Management: Includes database management, business intelligence/analytics, applications and data integration, and big data analytics

Dell Software partners can now take advantage of vital PartnerDirect benefits including:

•  New paths to Premier status to drive even greater revenue potential, including a blended competency for partners selling Dell’s end-to-end hardware and software offerings
•  Rewards for training and sales achievement through Dell Partner AdvantEdge
•  Marketing and Market Development Funding for lead generation
•  Concierge-level, white glove support from the Certified Partner Resource Desk
• Free or low-cost, high value online and instructor-led training

“Trained partners sell four times more than their untrained counterparts,” said Marvin Blough, executive director of Worldwide Channels and Alliances for Dell Software. “We are very excited to bring our partners a tremendous array of new benefits to expand their revenue potential and the scope of their customer relationships. It is a huge win for all of us to be part of a single program with end-to-end solution offerings and endless possibilities.”

Service Providers
Recent enhancements to PartnerDirect also include a new Dell Service Provider program. More than 150 Dell Software products are currently available to service providers to greatly simplify service provider business processes. Service providers receive flexible pricing and billing to suit their unique business models and, in many cases, are only required to manage one contract, one usage report and one invoice each month or quarter. This enables service providers to use Dell solutions for managing Windows messaging, collaboration and identity management, as well as virtual environments, databases and applications, without incurring capital expense or extending that cost to their customers. Dell Service Provider program benefits also include marketing and business planning support as well as training and certification.

Referral Fee Program
With today’s announcement, Dell is also introducing a referral fee program for Dell Software solutions sold in the commercial sector. This program rewards partners who act as trusted advisors and support the sales process by referring Dell Software solutions. Similar to other PartnerDirect incentives, the referral fee is aligned to both program level and sales involvement.

Market Opportunity
The Dell PartnerDirect software enhancements announced today empower Dell’s channel partners to take advantage of tremendous market opportunities in this growing space. Recent findings that illustrate the opportunity for partners in areas such as systems management, cloud technology, data protection and access management include:

• Gartner reports that in 2012 IT operations management software grew 5 percent and generated $18B in revenue^[1]. Gartner also found that the enterprise distributed system backup/recovery software market was valued at $4.4B  in 2012, and it is projected to grow to $6.8 billion by 2017, for a five-year compound annual growth rate of 9.0 percent.^[2]
•  Harvard Business Review found that 85 percent of businesses expect to use cloud technology moderately to extensively in the next three years^.[3]
• IDC found that the identity and access management market was $4.4B in 2012, growing at a five-year CAGR of 9.4 percent.^[4] Dell has grown 27.1 percent and is 8th largest IAM vendor.

About Dell
Dell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

^[1] Gartner “Market Share Analysis: IT Operations, Management Software, Worldwide, 2012” by Laurie F. Wurster, Federico De Silva, Matthew Cheung, 3 May 2013 

^[2] Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery Software” by Dave Russell, Pushan Rinnen, 5 June 2013

^[3] Harvard Business Review, “How the Cloud Looks from the Top: Achieving Competitive Advantage In the Age of Cloud Computing” 2011

^[4] IDC, “Worldwide Identity and Access Management 2013–2017 Forecast” Doc # 241685, June 2013