PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Dell’s partner programme PartnerDirect has seen sales growth of 45 per cent globally, compared to 21 per cent for the whole company, generating a quarter of the vendors revenues in the first quarter of 2010.
Growth for PartnerDirect EMEA, which now has 30,000 registered resellers, stood at 40 per cent and has gone from strength to strength, seeing an increasing amount of business with each passing quarter.
“PartnerDirect is now in its third year and obviously we’re proud of what’s been achieved, but we recognise that we’re still building this programme and it’s important to stay consistent to some key partner commitments,” Dell’s EMEA director for channel marketing and programmes, Kathy Schneider revealed to PCR.
As the partner scheme continues to grow in prominence, Dell is looking to further support its partners by opening up its Solution Innovation Centres in Limerick and Frankfurt. Partners will be able to either visit or link remotely and demonstrate the capabilities of Dell products to potential clients. It is also planning a link up scheme, whereby Dell certified partners will be recommended to customers depending on their needs.
“This is something that up until now has only been available to the Dell sales people,” noted Schneider. “We’re now making this accessible to our certified partners, and they would be able to use both the on-site and remote facilities, which I think is a really big step forward in providing the tools to boost sales further.”
Emphasising a consistent message of profitability, collaboration and communications, Schneider said that the ongoing development of the partner programme, coupled with inventives has helped the partner division deliver its impressive results.
“In addition to the growth rates, the number of collaborative deals has continued to grow incredibly over the last few quarters,” she commented. “In Q1 we did almost 12,000 registered deals, versus Q4 which was 8,000. In addition to this, the approval rate has stayed up at around 74 per cent, which is really good especially considering the increase in partner numbers.
“Much of this success has been down to the consistency of our message, as well as partners turning a big corner on trust and recognising that it’s of value to them to expand their portfolio and include Dell.”
