Phone a friend
Schneider was keen to stress that the changes have been driven primarily by feedback from existing channel partners. "We've been in the channel for six quarters and we know that the tools we provide for the channel need to evolve. In the last year a lot of work has been done to harmonise the platform. We did quite a bit of research globally."
The main additions, apart from general usability and aesthetics, concern resources being made available to partners. These include help managing funding, easy access to images and logos and help with marketing collateral.
There's also a ‘find a partner' facility, which was apparently one of the most sought-after features. Increasingly, resellers with specific strengths are collaborating with each other in order to deliver complete solutions. Microsoft already helps its partner to do this and Dell, which currently has 207 certified and 18,600 registered partners in EMEA, has decided it's a good idea.
To put the importance of the channel to Dell in perspective, Schneider revealed that Dell's global channel is on course to be a $11 billion business by the end of this year. To conclude, here's a ‘before and after' slide of the partner portal, the new version of which is due to go live this week.
