Nice Dell
The Professional Computing Association succeeded where channel journalists have failed (cough) and scooped the first public appearance of Dell’s new UK channel director – Andy Dow.
Dow left his long-time role as commercial director of Westcoast – a major UK distributor of HP, Lenovo and Apple gear – to take up the role late last year.
While it appears that his presentation covered a lot of the announcements first announced by Dell’s EMEA channel head, Josh Claman, on 12th February, this was the first time Dell had targeted its message specifically at UK resellers.
The attending resellers’ biggest fear appeared to be having to compete with Dell’s direct operation. Dow reassured them that they would not see their products in a retail environment and that Dell’s trade pricing will be fixed.
There will be two flavours of Dell partner. Registered partners will need to demonstrate a minimum of 10 per cent services revenue in their business, while certified partners will need to demonstrate at least 40 per cent services revenue. In other words: no box-shifters.
PCA Chairman Derek Jones commented: “This is one of the most significant events that we’ve seen in the reseller channel for a long time, and its impact will be felt for many months and years to come.
“What we’ve heard today, not least Dell’s admission that it needs to earn trust and loyalty from its new partners, must be very encouraging for resellers. We hope Dell will come back to our next conference in October and tell us just how it has been able to live up to its early promise.”
HEXUS.channel expects to be interviewing Andy Dow later this week and will try to ask any questions suggested by our readers. So don’t be shy, let us know your thoughts and concerns.
