Channel chiefs, Channel partner programs

Dell-EMC Names John Byrne Global Channel Chief

Dell EMC Channel Chief John Byrne
John Byrne

Dell, which is expected to finalized its $67 billion buyout of EMC later this month, has named John Byrne as its global channel chief for the combined companies. The combined Dell and EMC businesses will be known as Dell Technologies once the deal closes. Details about Byrne's shift into the global channel chief role surfaced in community blog authored by Marius Haas, chief commercial officer and president, enterprise solutions, Dell.

"Byrne has been at Dell for a year and was most recently Global Vice President of Sales Strategy, Planning & Channels, where he focused on optimizing our route-to-market strategy, which also included overall ownership of the channel business," Haas wrote.

"In the role he had responsibility for all facets of Dell’s Go-To-Market efforts, including channel strategy and enablement, managed the relationships with global systems integrators and distributors, and drove the team responsible for implementing our most rigorous Integrated Sales Planning process in many a year," Haas added.

Prior to joining Dell, Byrne had a 25+ year career including executive positions at Advanced Micro Devices.

Dell, EMC Partner Program Strategy

As part of the announcement, Byrne revealed the following channel plans:

  • Dell and EMC will continue to maintain separate deal registration and partner programs for 2016.  Effective February 1, 2017, Dell Technologies will move to a unified partner and deal registration program.
  • From the closing until February 1, 2017, to protect partner accounts and deals, Dell and EMC teams will cross check all existing deal registrations to ensure that they are aligned with the partner of record.  If multiple partners have the same opportunity registered, Dell and EMC will have rules of engagement in place to mitigate any possible adverse impact to partners and customers.
  • Dell Technologies plans to keep partner-facing resources from both Dell and EMC in place for 2016.  "We will coordinate our joint approach to ensure that we are all aligned as we work through the unified coverage model for 2017," he added.

ChannelE2E is checking to see if or how the existing channel teams will evolve under Byrne's leadership.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.