Guest Column
Dell Looks To Capitalize On Storage Industry's Gaffes In The Channel
Click Here To Download:•Contributing Editorial: Dell Looks To Capitalize On Storage Industry's Gaffes In The Channel
By Jerome M. Wendt and Kelly Polanski, DCIG LLC
20 years ago Michael Dell envisioned a future where businesses no longer just bought servers and storage from resellers but instead bought these products over the Internet. Naysayers scoffed at the idea of Dell ever making inroads into this market. Now that Dell ships 1.5 million servers and generates billions of dollars in revenue quarterly, no one questions that Dell has succeeded.
Fast forward to today. Michael Dell envisions a new type of future as Dell puts in place a channel program with equal ambitions of selling equal amounts of gear through the channel and pulling in billions of dollar from it. The question is, "Did Dell so succeed in going direct that, in the process, it forever alienated the very resellers that it now needs to partner with in order to succeed in the channel?"
We recently conducted a briefing with Sean Phelan, Dell's Director of Storage Sales and Advanced Solutions Group, to better understand his vision for Dell's channel in North America. As we met with him, two thoughts struck us. The first is, with this type of leadership, it's no wonder that Dell is building momentum with the channel. The second is how long it will take for storage vendors to wake up to the new reality of Dell effectively serving the channel.
It seems about time that the channel receives this type of serious attention from a major vendor in storage. With recent commentary on Symantec's latest gaffe all over the industry press and HP making some unexpected overtures towards expanding its relationship with CDW, it seems that respect for the channel in North America has generally gone from bad to worse. Caught between low margins and lack of attention from the major storage vendors, resellers are getting creative with managed services and riding the virtualization wave but without much in the way of apparent support.
Click Here To Download:•Contributing Editorial: Dell Looks To Capitalize On Storage Industry's Gaffes In The Channel
