Dell EMC urges enterprises to "think IT differently"

• Modern day infrastructure needs to be able to deal with the global scale
• Plans to introduce all-new channel partner programme February next year

DELL EMC, the world's largest vendor of enterprise IT solutions, stresses that IT managers need to approach IT differently in order to embrace digital innovation.

"If you think about it on simple terms - traditionally it is about building infrastructure that counts money, systems of records, human resources systems, financial systems and so on. 

"In the new digital era, the focus is more on customer experience. It is a totally different IT requirement altogether," said Dell EMC Enterprise Asia Pacific and Japan president David Webster in an interview with Digital News Asia in Macau recently.

Today, almost all industries have been disrupted by new business models that are very focused around customer experience, data, analytics, and the ability for the customers to self-serve.

For example: the automotive industry is disrupted by Tesla; the hotel industry is disrupted by AirBNB; the media industry is disrupted by Facebook; the taxi industry is being disrupted by the likes of Uber, Lyft and Grab. 

"This is a set of IT requirements that is very different compared to the older days... Modern-day infrastructure needs to be able to deal with the global scale, millions of users, gigabytes, terabytes and petabytes of data, and the users want the data real time."

Best IT practice and approach

According to Webster (pic above), enterprises focusing on digital transformation should approach it on two modes. First, is to modernise the existing IT infrastructure. When that is completed, then enterprises should start looking at building a new infrastructure.

"Our agenda is to help our customers modernise their existing infrastructure, automate it, take costs down, and therefore transform the existing infrastructure. And then, we will provide them with the tools and technologies that allow them (enterprises) to build the new infrastructure. 

"You can't take an old infrastructure and make it a new infrastructure. What you do is take the old, make it more efficient, you modernise it, and in parallel you build a new infrastructure. Over time, you retire the old infrastructure as you move the new one," said Webster.

New channel partner programme
Meanwhile, Webster said that Dell EMC is in the process of designing a new global programme for its channel partners. 

"We are currently in the midst of designing a global partner programme. We will be announcing all these details in February 2017," he said.

During the Canalys Channel Forum in Macau last week, Canalys chief executive officer Steve Brazier said that tech companies need to re-look at the way they reward their channel partners.

"There is a fundamental conflict between how the programmes are set up and how they are telling the channel partners to change their business," said Brazier.

Webster said that the plan to introduce a new partner programme was mainly driven by the changing market landscape.

"Globally, the market is changing a lot. The customers are changing. Our new channel partner programme will reflect that. I think you will see the world's best and most lucrative partner programme from Dell EMC. It will be simple, it will be predictable, and it will be profitable," he said.

"It will be very different from what it is available out there, because this (new programme) is designed for the modern world."

Without going into too much details on the programme, Webster said that under the new programme, the company will not be rewarding its channel partners based on their sales performance.

"It will have multiple dimensions on how you can be rewarded and make money."

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