Dell Technologies Reveals Top 3 Channel Trends

DELL TECHNOLOGIES WORLD — Dell Technologies’ channel leaders have outlined three big trends that are reshaping the partner landscape. They were addressing partners at today’s Dell Technologies’ World virtual event.

Partner Ecosystem

First up, global channel chief, Rola Dagher said partners are now taking an ecosystem approach to serving customers.

Dell’s Rola Dagher

“The lines between partner types are blurring. They are recognizing the tremendous value they can deliver together,” Dagher said.

Customers are engaging more than one partner, she said. This is because they’re focusing on an outcome and experience, “better, faster and at a lower cost.”

“Today we live in a world where experience in personalization is paramount. Gone are the days when a single product technology or a solution is enough. Now we are delivering for the future, an inclusive future for all.”

“This means we need to change our mindset to deliver an experience,” said Denise Millard, SVP, global alliances, Dell Technologies.

‘As a Service’

Millard said this also related to the second channel trend — “as a service.” The vendor on Wednesday unveiled Apex, its new services-based way to consume its infrastructure portfolio.

CEO Michael Dell described the company’s business model transformation to “everything-as-a-service”. He noted it was “a whole new chapter for our company.”

Dell;s Denise Millard

“It has become the standard,” said Millard. “It’s one of the reasons you’re seeing us go all in on Apex. It’s an incredible opportunity for partners to create their own IP around consumption offerings, services. What does that mean? It means deeper customer relationships and new recurring revenue opportunities.”

Industry Specialization

The third channel trend Dell noted is partners specializing more by industry.

“They’re investing in in-house capabilities to customize solutions for today’s world. The past year has only accelerated this trend,”  said Hayley Tabor, Dell’s global head of industries.

Partnerships During COVID-19

Dell’s Hayley Tabor

Tabor said it was “all hands on deck across virtually every industry” during 2020.

In the education sector, she said Dell worked with partners around the world to remote enable learning. For example, in the U.K., it worked with the Department of Education to deploy more than 400,000 notebooks to students.

In health care, Tabor said Dell worked with its OEM partners, ISVs and technology partners. She said they quickly built and deployed “a comprehensive remote clinical diagnostic system for radiologists and pathologists and other clinicians. This completely embraced edge technologies, core to cloud, and the broad partner ecosystem.”

In retail, partners used AI and edge computing to deliver loss-prevention solutions.

“Retailers are now transforming to data-driven businesses using analytics to better serve their customers,” she said.

Thanking Partners

Separately, Dagher praised partners for their contributions over the past year.

“While technology is an enabler, our partners are our true transformers. What a transformation we’ve lived through this last year. All businesses regardless of industry have had to adapt and transform.

“Technology has never been more imperative to business success, or the well-being of our shared community. We stepped up together to meet our new reality. We’ve helped our customers meet theirs. With new demands, we reinvented what partnership looks like.”