The @DellEMC partner strategy appears to be paying off, with the vendor this week reporting healthy growth in various channel business areas. Dell EMC, which completed its fiscal year in February, placed a large bet on a channel strategy that emphasized cross-selling from the post-merger portfolio. Besides having to come to grips with the broad Dell EMC portfolio, partners were tasked with digesting the unified program that launched in February 2017. In a recent partner broadcast, Dell EMC partner executives revealed that the company doesn't plan to make any changes to Dell Partner Program's framework, instead focusing on making refinements to various elements such as the program's rebate structure.
"We continue to be delighted with the overall momentum, performance and velocity in the business, particularly when you consider just how new everything was [and] the education involved in the change for everybody," said Cheryl Cook, senior vice president of global channel marketing at Dell EMC.
Reviewing Dell EMC's fourth-quarter results, Cook said the vendor saw share gains in the PC market and "strong double-digit growth" in its PowerEdge and cloud server business. She also noted that Dell EMC continued to hold "the No. 1 market position" in all-flash array technology.
Specific to Dell EMC partners, Cook said the vendor's indirect sales revenue was up 19% in the fourth quarter and up 12% for the full fiscal year. Channel revenue in the client and PC business increased 21% in the fourth quarter and 15% for the fiscal year, while the server business rose 28% in the fourth quarter and 23% for the year.
Storage channel business grew more sluggishly. Dell EMC saw 3% growth in the fourth quarter and a decline for the overall year. Dell EMC dedicated energy in the past six or so months to spurring storage business sales, especially around midrange storage, but this storage focus seems to have yet to take root.
"We are very much focused on returning that business to growth," Cook said of Dell EMC's storage revenue.
Cook said that in the past year partners have been receptive to the breadth of the Dell EMC portfolio. Forty-six percent of partners in the program's Gold, Platinum and Titanium tiers are growing their Dell EMC businesses and expanding their lines of business, she said. The vendor will continue to push partners to capitalize on the cross-selling potential.
Dell EMC will also continue incentivizing partners to acquire net-new customers and augment their lines of business in existing customer accounts. Partners delivered about 14,000 net-new and reactivated customers to Dell EMC in the fourth quarter and about 54,000 customers over the entire year.
Cook also highlighted growth in Dell EMC's distribution business, a partner segment that she described as "probably the fastest growing for us." Distribution business grew 35% in the fourth quarter and 15% for the overall year.
The vendor next month will kick off its first-ever Dell Technologies World, held April 30 through May 3 in Las Vegas, with the Dell EMC Global Partner Summit held during the conference.
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