Dell ups the APAC ante with new leadership team, channel initiatives

• Dell’s channel business growing faster than overall market
• To invest US$125mil in enhanced incentives and programmes in 2015

DELL Inc said it has recorded “significant growth” in its channel partner business in the past year, and to maintain the momentum, has appointed a new channel leadership team in Asia Pacific and announced new programmes to accelerate this growth into 2015.
 
Over the past 12 months, Dell’s channel revenue has recorded double-digit growth in Asia Pacific, the company said in a statement, without disclosing actual figures.
 
Channels now represent half of Dell’s commercial revenue in the region with over 45,000 commercial partners. Distribution is a core part of the company’s ‘omni-channel strategy’ and has thus far demonstrated over 50% revenue growth in the past year, Dell said.
 
As part of its continued support for the partner engineer community, Dell is also set to expand its Dell Engineers Club to include more Asia Pacific countries.
 
The programme, which was first established in 2012, has accumulated over 1,000 exclusive members in India, China and South Korea, helping engineers further develop their technical expertise by providing them access to additional resources, information as well as training.
 
Partner engineers in the program can benefit from training in specific practice areas, including four main competencies: Storage, server, networking, and software, Dell said.
 
New channel leadership
 
To further drive the success and sustain growth of the channel business, Dell has appointed Ng Tian Beng (pic) managing director, South Asia & Korea, vice president, Commercial Channels, Asia Pacific Japan to lead Dell’s Commercial Channel business across the region.
 
In his expanded role, Ng will be responsible for the growth of the Dell Commercial Channel business across all product lines including Enterprise, Client, Services, Software and Solutions in Asia Pacific.
 
Dell also appointed Sumir Bhatia as executive director, Commercial Channels, Dell Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) to lead the Solutions & ISV (independent software vendor) business.
 
Previously the director of Enterprise Solutions, Dell South Asia, Sumir has continuously grown Dell’s Enterprise business in South Asia, leading to share gains in both the server and storage business in the South Asia region, the company said.
 
“Critical to the success of our channel business in APJ is the strength of its leadership,” said Amit Midha, president, Asia Pacific and Japan, and chairman, Emerging Markets, Dell.
 
“As we continue to create greater customer value and grow the most profitable parts of our business, [Ng] Tian Beng and Sumir both bring impressive experience in continuously expanding and cultivating our partner relationships across South Asia.
 
“I am optimistic of their ability to focus on increasing awareness of our end-to-end solutions capabilities, strengthening our customer relationships and growing the channel business across APJ,” he added.
 
The new APJ Channel organisation will be accountable for delivering sustainable business growth for Dell and its channel partners. The team will drive a focus on ISV/ Solutions partners, distribution partners, channel enablement, and channel talent.
 
Accelerating channel growth in 2015
 
To further enable partner productivity, Dell is spending US$125 million to deliver new Business Accelerator initiatives to help partners bid and close new acquisition and retention deals with customers.
 
This would help partners increase storage share within customers’ accounts, provide accelerated rewards for growth in client and enterprise solutions businesses, and double investments in demo equipment and lead generation efforts, the company said.
 
Dell said it is also enhancing its IT systems and will provide additional tools in areas such as lead management, deal registration, training and certification, navigation, and mobility.
 
The company is also helping partners take full advantage of its end-to-end solutions with the new PartnerDirect competencies to enable partners to offer customers comprehensive solutions for all their needs.
 
Dell also introduced new advanced competencies in Storage and Identity and Access Management for partners who prefer to specialise in these single practice area solutions.

The launch of the Dell PartnerDirect programme enhancements outlined above will start in North America on Feb 1 2015, and rollout to other regions will soon follow. Additional details will be shared with Dell’s PartnerDirect partners in the coming weeks.
 
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