Dell announced a series of new and enhanced programs to continue to drive channel growth, which for the first time has passed 40 per cent of total Dell revenues.

AUSTIN — At its Dell PartnerDirect Summit, which kicks off Dell World here, Dell is announcing a variety of new programs and investments to build on its channel growth.

Dell’s channel revenues in 2014 grew faster than its direct revenues. That’s not earth-shattering news, as that trend has been there for a while. What is noteworthy however, is that channel revenue as a percentage of overall Dell business is now over 40 per cent of Dell’s total revenues. This metric had been stuck in the low and mid 30s for a while, so getting past the 40 per cent mark is a significant accomplishment.

“We really want to help fuel the pace of growth you are experiencing,” said Cheryl Cook, VP, Global Channels and Alliances at Dell.

Dell’s new channel announcements are intended to build on that growth. They include new global Business Accelerator funds of $USD 125 million.

“We are investing another $125 million holistically across our programs to reward you for growth and alignment,” Cook said.

Six programmatic components were identified at the event.

First, Dell is delivering a new Dell Storage Accelerator program to help partners increase their share within customers’ storage accounts. It will kick off in February in North America, and will offer Premier and Preferred Partners enhanced financial incentives to partner sales representatives for selling Dell Storage Solutions.

“We are going to stay focused in driving disruption, Cook said. “We want to drive the right kind of enablement so you can achieve the highest value-add as a trusted advisor with our mutual customers.”

Next, as part of their Windows Server 2003 migration campaign, Dell is announcing a comprehensive set of partner enablement and sales materials along with significant partner sales representative incentives for upgrades to Windows Server 2012R2 and Windows Server DataCenter 2012R2.

“We want to drive customer collateral on this for you,” Cook said. “We will also give reps incentive to drive attach of the new Windows Server platform. There is a tremendous opportunity here for both of us to help customers in their transition.”

Dell is also bringing in accelerated rewards for partners who grow their client and enterprise solutions business. As Preferred and Premier Partners increase their Dell revenue in these categories, their reward rebates will accelerate delivering them increased profits.

“We will double partner sales rep incentives for both clients and servers,” Cook said. In North America this will translate in an incremental 5-8 points on client opportunities, and 10-13 on enterprise solutions for net new business.”

Another new initiative is the doubling of investments in demo equipment. Dell plans to double its investments in demo equipment available to partners to use as seed units and in customer sales cycles. Similarly Dell also announced plans to double its investments in lead generation efforts designed to drive new business to channel partners.

“We will double the amount of incentives in lead generation across all regions, as well as improve rapid response in deal registration,” Cook said.

On the financing front, Dell and its financial partners will enhance the Extended Terms Financing program by offering 75 days interest-free financing on all Dell purchases for an introductory period of 180 days starting today.

Dell is also announcing new PartnerDirect competencies to let partners offer customers more comprehensive solutions. New Core Client Solutions and Workstation Competencies extend the nine existing enterprise hardware and software competencies.

Dell also announced new advanced competencies in Storage and Identity and Access Management. The latter will assist focused partners by helping them achieve Premier Partner status and benefits through their selected advanced competency.

“We really want to ensure you have the ability to navigate the highest levels of our competencies, so you can participate more richly and robustly in our programs,” Cook told the partner audience. “Bringing in more advanced competencies shows how we are really trying to tailor our programs and capabilities for you to participate in the highest levels of our program.”

These competencies will launch in phases around the globe in the coming months.

Cook noted that HP’s decision to split into two companies leaves Dell as one of the new IT vendors who can offer a full end-to-end suite of offerings, which is very attractive to partners.

“We want to be seen as stable partner who will drive simplification in our programs,” Cook said.

“We have a strategy and couldn’t be more delighted that you have embraced us,” she said in closing. We will continue to double down and continue to invest to fuel growth.