MUMBAI: Dell today 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. 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 US$1.2 billion business selling into 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies and supported by 6,000 dedicated software employees worldwide.

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

“Today’s announcement marks a fresh beginning for Dell, and is the perfect opportunity for partners to take advantage of both our hardware and software capabilities. We are very excited to bring to partners in the region 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,” said Barrie Sheers, Vice President & General Manager, Software, Dell APJ.

The four software competencies are now available to all Dell PartnerDirect partners, providing training against the new competency requirements and learning paths. The competency training provides rich, role-based curricula allowing partners to drill down and learn more on those areas of greatest interest. The training is currently available in English. Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese versions will be available in February 2014. 

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 $18 billion in revenue[1]. Gartner also found that the enterprise distributed system backup/recovery software market was valued at $4.4 billion 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 $4.4 billion 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.

[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, PushanRinnen, 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