Together, we thrive and excel!

Authored by Anil Sethi, Vice President & General Manager- Channels India at Dell EMC  

It’s that time of the year, again—the time to reflect on the past financial year and look forward to the next. I am glad to state that we made impressive strides in the year gone by with the new Dell EMC Partner Program. Our efforts resulted in building a larger partner network, paving the way for our customers to realize their IT transformation, faster and better. 

Our channel partner program—up the ante! For Dell EMC, channel profitability is the prime focus. I personally believe that our channel partner program, which is based on the three tenets: Simple, Predictable and Profitable, is the first choice for enterprise channel companies in India, as it enables partners to access the world’s best portfolio end to end, complete edge-to-core solutions, all the way from desktops, notebooks, servers, storage portfolio to networking and services. It’s the best in class and has helped our partners reap great benefits and fulfil their objective to increase reach and enhance their profitability.

In May 2017, our Global Partner Summit was held in Las Vegas, wherein over 70 partners from India participated to dive deep into our latest solutions, explore the technology roadmap, build the business network, and learn enormous cross-selling opportunities. Partners were also encouraged to capitalize on the opportunities created by customers' shift from considering IT mainly as a hardware purchase and to a strategy that considers IT as the essential to enhance efficiency, value, and profitability. 

Our India Partner Summit was held in Monte Carlo in November 2017. During the summit, we presented the success of our Partner Program that was announced at the beginning of the Financial Year. As numbers speak louder than words, a snapshot is as follows:

- Total Channel revenue in India grew 17% y-o-y, with 24% growth witnessed in Distribution business.
- Of the total channel business, nearly 45% was Infrastructure Solutions, implying mutual confidence and commitment in solution-led deals of all sizes instead of just point solutions
- Our strategic focus on Infrastructure solutions paid off. While Server revenue grew 50%, storage business witnessed growth of ~17%
- High focus was given on Storage and HyperConverged solutions and more investments were made for partners in the areas like training and enablement, technical resources, MDF, and other benefits. 
- We added 1500+ net new customers, with 29% growth in Geo-expansion territory – extending DellEMC’s reach to T3 cities and beyond 
- Mid-range storage solutions were launched with partners and Future Protect program for customer confidence was also announced 
- Partner portal was enhanced with additional features to help partners stay up-to-date about their performance and aim for more business.


Our partner network – Expanding the horizon 

There are more than 20,000 partners operating in the IT industry. At the beginning of the last fiscal, we came up with new tiers - comprising Titanium, Platinum and Gold. Now, we boast of more than 110 metal-tier partners and 5 authorized national distributors – expanding our reach to about 300 cities. We provide a comprehensive training and certification program for our channel partners so that they can help their customers ride high on their digital transformation journey. Carrying forward this initiative in the coming year, we will stay consistent in empowering our channel partners to accelerate the digital transformation journey of their customers. 

Hardware-as-a-Service—Driving IT adoption across enterprises 

In 2017, in collaborating with Ingram Micro, we, at Dell EMC, introduced Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) model to pave the way for IT adoption across organisations in India. HaaS includes a portfolio of IT hardware and some premium services, available with payment options up to four years – tailored to individual needs of organisations. 

Great optimism for future 

I sincerely admit that because of stupendous efforts of the great team of employees and partners, we thrived in the last fiscal year. Dell EMC will stay focused on channel strategy, including partner programs training, and market outreach, as we think that empowering channel partners accelerates our customer’s digital transformation journey. I’m sure that the future will be even more successful for our company, every employee, and every partner, obviously. 

Thank you. Wish you all success, happiness and blessings!