Dell Technologies Partners Get New 'Need-to-Know' Digital Series

Dell Technologies partners are getting a taste of a new “Need-to-Know” digital series. The vendor launched the series during the same week originally reserved for Dell Technologies World and Global Partner Summit in Las Vegas. A virtual Dell Technologies World is rescheduled for October.

Joyce Mullen is president, global channel, embedded and edge solutions at Dell. She and other top partner executives addressed the challenges that partners face today and how Dell will help them succeed in the current business climate.

Dell’s Joyce Mullen

“As we’ve shifted out engagement strategy to all digital experiences, today I’m excited to launch [this] new video series called Need-to-Know,” said Mullen. “We’ll use these videos to bring you the most important information you need to maximize every opportunity in our partnership. Today, we’ll talk about the real challenges all of you are facing and how we at Dell Technologies are here to help you succeed in this environment.”

The Business Climate

Mullen also talked about how Dell Technologies partners and the company can learn from today’s business climate, and how everyone can prepare for the opportunities ahead and grow stronger and more resilient as a result.

In Tuesday’s Need-to-Know series, Mullen updated partners on Dell’s partner relief package, while other speakers addressed partner program updates and the new midrange PowerStore launch.

Mullen talked the top three priorities for partners: cash flow, business continuity and building for the future. And she outlined the relief package the company put in place to address partner concerns.  She also named new Dell titanium black partners — Ahead and SCC.

Meantime, Dell veteran Denise Millard talked about her promotion to SVP, global alliances. Also on the crisis management team at the company, Millard has a bird’s-eye view of the pandemic and the vendor’s response. She announced two new titanium black partners within global alliances. Those partners are Atos and DXC Technology.

Her predecessor, Jay Snyder, Dell’s former global alliances leader, announced his departure from the company early last month.

Partner Program Changes

Darren Sullivan, SVP, global partner strategy, programs and operations, addressed Dell Technologies Partner Program improvements and a new services competency.

Dell launched the latest iteration of the partner program a couple of months ago. On Tuesday, Sullivan talked about how the company improved the partner experience.

It did so by including storage, server and networking into the Solutions Configurator tool, an integrated quoting tool. The tech giant is phasing partners in to use it. Partners in Latin America, Canada and a limited number in the U.S. have transitioned to the Solutions Configurator. That’s for Unity XT ad VxRail. Dell will add the new PowerStore products to the tool and the remaining U.S. partners will get access in June. EMEA and APJ partners will get access in July. All remaining partners can use it by October.

Sullivan also introduced new Proven Partner services competencies. Dell recognizes “proven partners” as those with comprehensive capabilities to position, design and deliver the Dell Technologies product portfolio.

The new competencies include data center infrastructure and hyperconverged infrastructure. Data Center infrastructure includes alignment across server, storage, networking, and data protection competencies. Hyperconverged Infrastructure includes alignment across HCI, networking, server and data protection competencies.

“Partners who achieve a Proven Partner Services Competency will hold the broadest level of services delivery abilities within the Dell Technologies Partner Program,” said Sullivan.

These partners will receive benefits from involvement in an early-access program to active promotion of their achievement by the company.

PowerStore Introduction

The vendor on Tuesday also launched Dell EMC PowerStore, new midrange storage, with NVMe all-flash or Storage Class Memory (SCM) with Intel Optane.

“I’ve been in the storage industry for 20 years and this is the single, most important and most differentiated product launch I’ve ever seen,” said Scott Millard, senior vice president, specialty sales, global channel, alliances and OEM. “PowerStore combines all of the best features that our partners have been asking for across all the current product lines.”