Dell Technologies’ Partner Program Brings Back Titanium Level Incentives, Rebates

In response to the feedback from its channel partners, Dell Technologies has reinstated Titanium-level partner eligibility and incentives for storage and client new business to help partners grow their businesses and revenue.

Under its reimagined Storage & Client Growth Program, Dell will include a targeted set of its largest partners and offer them two target levels of sales, training, and service achievements so they can work to enhance their profits and customer bases, according to the company. Also being brought back to the Dell partner program are partner rebates for securing competitive system swaps for customers.

Dell’s VxRail Transition Program is also being continued to aid partners in transitioning customers from Dell VxRail to a disaggregated infrastructure for use with the Dell Private Cloud. Participating partners have access to incentives and rebates, as well as no-cost training and migration services, trade-in or try-and-buy programs, and financial services offerings to help them serve their customers.

Denise Millard, chief partner officer for Dell Technologies, announced the updates to its partners during a recent virtual broadcast with Darren Sullivan, Dell's senior vice president of partner revenue operations, and Eric Arcese, Dell's vice president of global partner marketing.

"Partner feedback directly shapes our program updates," Millard told ChannelE2E. "Partners asked for a focus on storage and client growth, along with a streamlined experience for demand generation and quoting, and we delivered. We will be sharing more on these updates around lead management, deal registration, and quoting and buying at Dell Technologies World in May."

Also, as part of the program updates, new AI tools and automation will be introduced by Dell to help partners streamline lead management and deal registration under the program, she added.

Together, the partner program updates aim to help MSPs, VARs, systems integrators, and other channel partners expand the value of their products and services to customers, said Millard.

"We remain committed to a simple, predictable, and profitable program model," she said. "These updates prioritize modernization and operational excellence to promote mutual success."

Dell Partner Program Changes Follow Industry Trend to Simplify: Analysts

Shelly Kramer, principal analyst at Kramer&Co., told ChannelE2E that the coming partner program revamp from Dell makes sense for a vendor that does so much of its business through the channel.

"This move by Dell to continue to enhance, fine-tune, and simplify its partner offerings is in line with what we are seeing from tech vendors throughout the industry," said Kramer. "I expect this trend to continue into the year ahead and beyond."

Dell's partner-first storage strategy, which directs 99% of the company's sales through channel partners, and a reported 5x increase in partner-of-record storage accounts since the launch of the program, have clearly been a win for Dell, which reports double-digit channel growth, said Kramer.

In addition, Dell's investments in AI networking multipliers, AI PC portfolios for the Windows 11 refresh cycle, and providing access to the Dell AI Factory architecture nicely position partners to capitalize on the holy grail of enterprise AI adoption, said Kramer.

"What Dell has done is really what every channel partner seeks: the reduction of complexity by doubling down on predictability and simplification," she said. "When that happens, partners win, the vendor wins, and, most importantly, customers win."

Another analyst, Jack E. Gold, president and principal analyst at J.Gold Associates, LLC, told ChannelE2E that, like many other vendors today, Dell is working to optimize its partner programs to focus on key partners that can deliver more revenue for the company.

"That includes offering increased services and leveraging the partnership more fully with enhanced programs that Dell finds important to their business, such as migrations to newer platforms," said Gold. "It is not all that surprising given how costly it is to maintain a partner program to begin with. Optimizing the program to make it more cost-effective and maximize revenues is why so many companies are moving to make their partnership programs more streamlined and rewarding for the leading partners."