Dell EMC's Canadian channel chief discusses the new changes to the Dell Technologies Partner Program, and what they mean for partners.
Andre Valiquette, National Director, Channel Sales, Dell EMC Canada
By: Andre Valiquette, National Director, Channel Sales, Dell EMC Canada
Partnerships are essential to making many businesses run efficiently, successfully and profitably; and they are certainly an essential component of how we do business at Dell Technologies.
In fact, one of the most exciting announcements that came out of Dell Technologies World 2019 earlier this year was the new direction and rebranding of the former Dell EMC Partner Program, now known as the Dell Technologies Partner Program.
What’s In A Name?
“Rebranding” can get a bad rep in the technology sector as it usually appears to be inauthentic and is regarded as a “quick fix”. So when we set out to revamp our partner program, we took that to heart and focused foremost on explaining to partners the reasoning behind the rebrand – to offer partners access to the entire Dell Technologies portfolio through its large family of brands. With this exciting expansion, partners have more resources at their disposal and more opportunities to grow new competencies in a way that’s straight-forward, predictable, and properly incentivized.
We want our partners to feel secure with Dell, and to feel that the options we’re providing them truly demonstrate our awareness and understanding of the challenges they’re facing, the growth strategies they want to execute on, and the areas of digital innovation that excite them. Our rebrand was a way for us to show partners that we’re doubling down on those imperatives, and are offering the catalyst for profitable transformation.
More Pathways to Success
If you’re familiar with the previous incarnation of our partner program, you’re no doubt aware of the ways we’ve leveraged Dell EMC and VMWare to our partners’ benefit. With the Dell Technologies Partner Program, purchases made across the entire portfolio of the Dell Technologies family will now count towards tier credit and towards MDF funding, making it even easier for partners to purchase and interact with the services that can boost their business.
This also gives us an opportunity to show different members how the Dell portfolio can be properly leveraged for growth. Beyond our longstanding partnerships with Dell EMC and VMWare, the new program encompasses businesses like Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream, and Dell Boomi. For those unfamiliar with these brands, they represent powerful new options for modernizing their IT ecosystems: streamlining modern application development, gleaning big-data insights, and finding better connectivity by migration to cloud-based solutions.
Digital transformation paves the way to profitability, and these brands pave the way to digital transformation. The services they provide complement each other, making transformation more streamlined and intuitive. With them, we’re creating the environment in which transformation leads directly to profitability, one that partners can take hold of to gain previously inaccessible insights, generate customer demand, and ultimately get the business outcomes they want.
Education and Training
With new opportunities comes a greater demand for certification and training. Partners need to quickly become comfortable with new tools to differentiate themselves in market. With this in mind, we’re debuting two new solution badges composed of already-in market certifications that will allow partners to accelerate their foundational knowledge base and become cross-validated in key areas. The two new competencies are for Dell Technologies Cloud Platform and Dell Technologies Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Both bundle key certifications necessary for jumping into these two foundational elements of digital transformation, and we are already planning on making sure our future certifications reference strategically aligned businesses so that each new certification builds towards overall growth, making the path towards total transformation clear and intuitive for partners.
The Essence of Partnership
Besides debuting a new suite of powerful tools, and besides refining the training tools that let businesses implement those tools, the new Dell Technologies Partner Program really is a reflection of listening to partners’ feedback, giving them more of what they love and eliminating pain points. We saw this rebrand as an opportunity for us to focus on how we can bring stability and innovation to partners and ultimately their customers. The brand partnerships we’ve created and passed along through this program are based on where the most exciting work is being done and where we’ve identified the greatest opportunities for success. This year, Dell Technologies World was our chance to share this new vision, and we’re looking forward to coming together again in 2020 to see where you’ve taken it.
