Dell partners embrace cross-sell and VMware, secure triple-digit rewards

Tian Beng Ng (Dell Technologies)

Partners selling across the entire Dell Technologies’ portfolio - enhanced further by strategic VMware attachments - are generating triple-digit rewards amid an acceleration of cross-sell opportunities across Asia Pacific.

Channel Asia can reveal that partners selling three line of business items - spanning client, server and storage - plus VMware achieve approximately 124x the revenue compared to providers selling one product item.

According to third quarter data supplied to Channel Asia by Dell, partners selling across the vendor's three offerings without VMware also stand to benefit, creating revenue increases in excess of x11 and x42 compared to two and one product lines respectively.

“This represents a quantum shift for our channel,” outlined Tian Beng Ng, senior vice president and general manager of Channels across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) at Dell Technologies. “Our big differentiator is the strength of our end-to-end portfolio and our message to partners remains simple; leverage this strength because more money is to made and this approach offers more chance of winning in the market.”

As revealed by Channel Asia, Dell first outlined the path to partner profitability in early 2020, introducing a condensed solution line-up by reducing core product segments from seven to three. Almost 12 months on and more than 40 per cent of partners across Asia Pacific have maximised such potential in relation to cross-sell.

“We’ve had data centre partners selling client but also client partners selling data centre solutions, especially due to the increased focus on digital transformation,” added Tian Beng, when speaking exclusively to Channel Asia. “We’re seeing strong uptake in the market because this is highly profitable for the channel, and the VMware attach is even higher.”

In addition to strong cross-sell uptake, Dell continues to press ahead with plans to expand as-a-service capabilities via Project APEX, in a move designed to simplify how customers and partners access the vendor’s portfolio of solutions.

With the aim of unifying all products, the initiative - first revealed to the market in October 2020 - will span storage, servers and networking, in addition to hyper-converged infrastructure, PCs and broader solutions.

“By the end of 2021, the agility and adaptability that comes with as-a-service consumption will drive a 3x increase in demand for on-premises infrastructure delivered via flexible consumption / as-a-service solutions,” said Rick Villars, group vice president of Worldwide Research at IDC.

As reported by sister publication Network World - and according to IDC research - more than 75 per cent of all infrastructure at the edge and more than 50 per cent of all infrastructure in the core data centre will be consumed as-a-service by 2024.

For Tian Beng, the roll-out heralds a new era in relation to how customers consume - and therefore how partners sell - enterprise-grade technology solutions.

“Partners are definitely excited but also learning the new business model,” he added. “Through Project APEX, we believe the channel has a big role to play in delivering our as-a-service offerings which we will support through attractive incentives. We have a 20 per cent incentive for partners reselling storage as-a-service and 10 per cent for servers - the market is interested and we’re currently working on driving partner enablement and training to capitalise further.”

But in a direct message to the ecosystem across Asia Pacific, Tian Beng cautioned that such a transition will take time to materialise, insisting there is “no light switch” in terms of triggering immediate change.

“We have a responsibility to work with the channel to enable this transition,” he qualified. “Last year was challenging for partners but we stepped up and rolled out a number of programs to ensure the channel was protected, supported by our industry-leading supply chain to ensure we continue to meet supply and demand.”

Credit: Dell Technologies

Embracing the data era

According to recent Digital Transformation Index findings - commissioned by Dell - organisations across the world are accelerating transformational technology programs in response to the pandemic.

Specifically, 80 per cent of businesses have fast-tracked digital transformation initiatives in some capacity with 79 per cent re-inventing business models. Currently, just six per cent of enterprise and mid-market customers placed as ‘Digital Leaders’, viewed as the most digitally mature organisations, with second-ranked ‘Digital Adopters’ increasing to 39 per cent (up 16 per cent from 23 per cent in 2018).

“Businesses are accepting and acknowledging the fact that digital transformation and digital disruption is real,” observed Amit Midha, president of APJ and Global Digital Cities at Dell. “In many ways, transformation and disruption are two sides of the same coin - depending on the vantage point.”

As outlined by Midha, 2020 represented a year of acceleration across the region, with digital change forced upon customers, irrespective of maturity.

“Keeping the lights on was the March to April scenario of last year,” Midha recalled. “But now customers don’t want to do things fast, they want to do things right. Therefore the approach is centred on customers seeking the right answer, having full control of data and not simply placing a mainframe in the sky.

“Digital transformation is expected to take shape during the next decade and potentially beyond that. And as digitisation happens, we are now entering the data era.”

In assessing the current data landscape, Midha advised that the market continues to reward leaders putting data to use, citing Tesla as a standout example.

“Tesla is bigger than all other manufacturers combined and it’s not even finished yet,” he added. “You might have been in the business for more than 100 years and be worth $200 billion but this new kid on the block has emerged and is now bigger than you. The difference is the data.”

As outlined via Digital Transformation Index research - and within the context of future technology investments - customers are prioritising the roll-out of cyber security, data management tools and 5G infrastructure, as well as privacy software and establishing multi-cloud environments during the next 12-36 months.

“Today, cloud is all the rage but what is around the corner?” Midha asked. “5G and edge computing will eclipse what cloud does and push the market towards a hybrid cloud scenario. Companies will have workloads on the edge, via a software-as-a-service [SaaS] model, public cloud and private cloud.

“But how can customers manage and orchestrate this? By having a team capable of delivering a data-driven outcome. Data is in motion and companies must put this data to use.”

Delving deeper, Midha also predicted that the consumption of semiconductors will be “unprecedented” with data growth expected to keep pace, doubling every 18 months to follow previous market patterns.

“We also believe customers will open projects up again supported by the right framework,” he said. “This won’t be a ‘let’s just put everything on the cloud and see what happens’ approach, rather a measured strategy in which a hybrid scenario will emerge.

“The partners that can transform and take advantage of everything as-a-service, plus maximise the potential of the data era, will make more money than before. But the partners that don’t keep pace will have to find a different outlet for their business.”