Dell EMC’s Partner Program Wants Your Businesses Simple, Predictable, Profitable

After its acquisition of EMC, the newly formed Dell Technologies announced in February 2017 the official launch of the integrated Dell Partner Portal, built from the ground up while preserving the best of two world-class legacy programs. The EMC Partner Program addresses the needs of partners today and into the future in an exciting new way. Developed in collaboration with partners globally, the program’s primary tenets are to be simple, predictable, and profitable.

“Global business is rapidly changing as more and more customers prioritise investment in digital transformation. Dell EMC and its partners are uniquely positioned to help customers through this evolution,” said John Byrne, President, Global Channel, Dell EMC. “Dell EMC provides vast opportunities to our partners through an industry-leading portfolio of innovative products, services, and solutions, and now with the Dell EMC Partner Program, provides the support and programs for partners to excel.”

Michael Collins, Senior Vice President, Channel, Dell EMC EMEA, added, “We’ve diligently designed the Dell EMC Partner Program to be the most desirable program in the industry. We are truly providing the means and the opportunity along with the recognition and profitability that our partners want and deserve. We’re ‘all in’ with our partners and invested in their success.”

Covered in this Article

Program Tiers and Special Status
Dell Partner Portal: Distribution
Dell Predictable: Rules of Engagement
Dell Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) Incumbency for Commercial Accounts
Dell Partner Portal: Services
Simple: Resources and Technology Enablement – Unified Partner Portal
Profitable: Rich Rebates & MDF
Service Provider Partner Investments
Cloud Partner Connect Initiative
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Partner Commitment
Dell EMC Working Capital Solutions
Analysis of the Dell Partner Portal Program

Program Tiers & Special Status

The new program tiers, developed to elevate Dell EMC Partners over competitors and establish a clear path to level-up, including Titanium, Platinum, and Gold, as well as a new status level within the Titanium Tier, Titanium Black.

Benefits to solution provider partners include generous rebates focused on profitable behaviours such as driving new business, service sales (inclusive of consulting, deployment, support, and education services), training participation, and selling the full portfolio. As a partner progresses their tier, by meeting certain revenue and training requirements, their benefits increase.

According to Dell EMC, benefits of the Solution Provider track include the following:

• Authorised partners can access the Dell EMC Partner Portal, financing programs for partners and customers, product and solution training, and the deal registration system.
• Gold partners can tap incumbency programs for the commercial segment, rebate programs, Dell Solutions, and Briefing Centres, and proposal-based marketing funds.
• Platinum partners can receive earned market development funds, priority access to leads, and a spot on the Partner Advisory and Technical Advisory Boards.
• In addition to the benefits above, Titanium partners obtain consideration for the highest rebate potential and executive support from Dell EMC, as well as consideration for the vendor's elite Titanium Black status.

The unified program embraces the entire Dell EMC partner ecosystem, inclusive of solution providers, cloud service providers, strategic outsourcers, OEM partners, systems integrators, and distribution partners. The program includes unique tracks with specific advantages and incentives that align to a particular partner type and attained tier designation.

Dell Partner Portal: Distribution

As part of this full ecosystem strategy, the “Powered by Dell EMC” brand program for those businesses that embed Dell EMC technologies into the marketplace is included as well.

Distribution is a key component to help our partners deliver for their customers and Dell EMC is investing to grow this business. The distribution program offers a comprehensive set of benefits, which include base rebates, growth accelerators based on targeted partners, and lines of business and services rebates. In addition, earned quarterly market development funds (MDF) can be spent on activities such as enablement, demand generation, and headcount.  All distribution partners that are authorised by Dell Partner Portal will be granted status as an Authorised Distributor, a tier status which each partner will maintain by meeting annual minimum revenue targets, services penetration rates, and training competencies requirements. Dell EMC plans to consolidate the list of distribution partners in the new program, and partner more closely with key global distribution partners who are placing bets on the company. Dell EMCˡ will maintain a smaller set of local distribution partners by country. 

Predictable: Rules of Engagement

Dell EMC is committed to rewarding partners for driving new business. Through a fully integrated and streamlined process, as well as a globally enforced Partner Code of Conduct, the Deal Registration program helps protect those partners who actively promote Dell EMC’s products and solutions to their customers. Partners with registered and approved opportunities receive both advantaged pricing as well as protection from direct sales conflict.

Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) Incumbency for Commercial Accounts

Dell EMC’s vision is for partners to extend their reach into new and existing markets as a true extension of their entire sales force. As such, Dell EMC is evolving its current Line of Business (LOB) Incumbency for Storage program to ISG Incumbency in its Commercial Sales segment, which provides incumbency across all ISG lines of business including Server, Networking, Storage, Backup, Converged/Hyperconverged, and Solutions on qualifying accounts. ISG Incumbency will provide more predictability than ever before to enable partners to aggressively grow their business with the Dell Partner Portal Program. ISG Incumbency allows Dell EMC to mutually play to win with their partners.

To help partners plan their growth and protect their investments, Dell EMC launched the LOB Incumbency for Storage program in October 2016. This program recognises the relationships that have been established by their partners with customers, based on historical business performance with the goal to minimise direct conflict and ensure alignment between the Dell EMC sales team and the incumbent partners.

Now evolving to a more comprehensive ISG Incumbency model where rather than providing incumbency for a specific line of business in an account, qualifying Commercial accounts will receive incumbency across all ISG lines of business including Server, Networking, Storage, Backup, Converged/Hyperconverged, and Solutions. ISG Incumbency will protect the entire data center solution and enable cross-selling of the full ISG portfolio. In addition, partners are provided the opportunity to earn incumbency on new customers or new lines of business on existing customers across the ISG portfolio.

Dell Partner Portal: Services

Partners can build deeper relationships, provide greater customer value, and increase profitability when they supplement their own capabilities with Dell EMC Services. The new Dell Partner Portal program gives partners a choice on how to tap into the growth opportunities with services. Partners can resell Dell EMC Services to earn lucrative rebates and contributions to tier-level requirements. Those who obtain Service Competencies in consulting, support, and deployment can co-deliver or deliver Dell EMC Services themselves. 

Simple: Resources & Technology Enablement – Unified Partner Portal

To enhance the partner experience, there will be one portal for the Dell EMC Partner Program, streamlined with distinctive views for each partner type and partner track providing a wealth of necessary enabling information. The single point of entry portal for all partners went live in the week of February 20, 2017.

Through the portal, Dell EMC partners have access to needed tools and resources including:

• Rebate and MDF Tracking
• Sales & Marketing Tools
• Program Guides & Event Kits
• Country-Specific Benefits & Requirements
• FAQs
• Training & Competencies
• Deal Registration
• Services & Support Resources
• Quoting & Purchasing Tools

Profitable: Rich Rebates & MDF

The opportunity for profitability is a cornerstone of the program, awarding eligible partners with lucrative rebates. Base rebates are paid back to reward partners who successfully grow their respective Dell EMC lines of business over time. Partners who attach services to expand into new lines of business can earn additional rebates on top of the base and growth rebates. In addition, there is an infusion of $150 million of incremental investment opportunities to boost back-end rebates and MDF, both earned and proposal-based.

Service Provider Partner Investments

As enterprises accelerate their shift toward all-digital businesses and cloud delivery models, Dell EMC is increasing its commitment through additional investments in the Cloud Service Provider track of the new partner program. These investments start with increased go-to-market resources, the establishment of a service provider solutions engineering team all backed up by new revenue-based rebates and access to both earned- and proposal-based business development funds.

Cloud Partner Connect Initiative

Dell EMC’s Cloud Partner Connect initiative facilitates building resale relationships between Solution Providers and Cloud Service Providers. It allows Solution Providers to expand their offerings to include leading cloud services for their customers, with minimal investment and powered by Dell EMC.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Partner Commitment

Every OEM customer is unique with different go-to-market requirements. The OEM Partner track was created to better serve the needs of Dell EMC OEMs and their customers. Dell EMC OEM partners are hand-selected based on their resources and capabilities and are dedicated to helping OEM customers bring products to market efficiently.  These partners complement Dell EMC’s offerings by providing value-added services such as custom hardware and software integration, final assembly and testing, financing options, inventory management, consolidation and shipping, custom support engagements, and supply-chain solutions.

Dell EMC Working Capital Solutions

In partnership with leading financial institutions, Dell EMC offers extended payment terms and increased credit capacity to enable their partners to grow their businesses faster.

Analysis of the Dell Partner Portal Program

“The new Dell EMC Partner Program is architected for partner growth and profitability,” said Kevin Rhone, Director, Channel Acceleration, Enterprise Strategy Group. “This new integrated program brings forward the best aspects of both programs and truly goes above and beyond what we’ve seen previously in the industry in terms of partner support and recognition. No doubt this will be highly lucrative to partners and Dell EMC and will enable further growth throughout the industry."