Dell Takes Desktop As A Service to Channel Partners

Dell (DELL) at VMware (VMW) VMworld 2013 in San Francisco has announced plans to include the channel in its desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) go-to-market strategy with two options for channel partners – a straight resale/affiliate relationship or a deeper relationship that lets partners “own” the customers. Here are the details.

The technology comes out of Dell’s Cloud Client Computing Solutions group, which will showcase several technologies at the VMware event, including a series of thin clients from last year’s Wyse acquisition.

The idea is to make it easier for organizations to get into the DaaS business without the cost and complexity of building the infrastructure from scratch. It’s an idea appeals to a number of potential providers, including telcos, Dell executives told MSPmentor. Even large providers are considering this option to enter the market quickly and eventually moving operations into their own data centers Jeff McNaught, executive director for marketing and Chief Strategy Officer Terry Vaughn, director of Services Sales Enablement in Dell’s Cloud Client Computing group told me.

Vaughn told MSPmentor that Dell has been working with systems integrator and MSP MCPC of Ohio since the beginning of 2013 to get the systems in place.  “We wanted to jointly build this capacity and we wanted to make sure that we were right on target at launch,” he said.

The service launched about a month ago, built on the Dell DaaS on demand service.  Vaughn told me Dell has built a playbook for this service so that it’s almost like a franchise model. 

Affiliate/referral margins in this are 5 points of revenue in a montly recurring model.

The co-deliver model requires the partner to achieve Dell certification. The partner is guaranteed margins of 15 to 20 percent with this delivery model.

“We know what we are selling this for direct in the market place, and we are holding the pricing consistent,” said Vaughn, who said Dell’s approach is designed to avoid any channel conflict.

To make it easier for customers to try the service, Vaughn said Dell has the ability to do a free proof-of-concept trial at zero cost.

“Selling this with PowerPoint doesn’t really work,” he said. “People need to touch it.”