The IT reseller channel is critically important for Dell, and the vendor has come a long way from its roots as a direct-to-market player. Doug Woolley, GM of Dell South Africa, points out that the channel has become a substantial part of the business; and this quarter will make up 75% of the company’s business in South Africa.

“As Dell has progressed as a company, from being client centric to an enterprise-rich business, we have are not able to scale the direct model effectively,” he adds. “The skills sets of partners, specialisations you offer, and the value you bring to market make it a good fit with Dell.”

The IT reseller channel is critically important for Dell, and the vendor has come a long way from its roots as a direct-to-market player.

Doug Woolley, GM of Dell South Africa, points out that the channel has become a substantial part of the business; and this quarter will make up 75% of the company’s business in South Africa.

“As Dell has progressed as a company, from being client centric to an enterprise-rich business, we have are not able to scale the direct model effectively,” he adds. “The skills sets of partners, specialisations you offer, and the value you bring to market make it a good fit with Dell.”

Woolley emphasises that scale is important. The Dell operation in South consists of about 200 people, or 100 if the break-fix support staff are taken out of the equation.

“Plus, the complexity of the product sets being delivered to customers means we simply cannot do it on our own,” he says. “Partners are a critical success factor.”

Globally, Dell is building a future-ready enterprise, from client and enterprise perspective, Woolley says. “And the acquisition of EMC will drive the enterprise message strongly, with new solutions that will add more value to partners.”

As the market evolves, he points out, there will be more complexity and more integration required. “The services that partners can deliver will complement the product set.

“We are not ashamed to say that we are the provider of the infrastructure layer – we provide the tin, and look to our partners to drive added value.” Dell works hard to drive a message of simplification, to take the complexity out of the solutions, and help partners to create value when the deploy these systems and provide the solutions around them.

“As Dell and EMC we are in a very fortunate position in the enterprise market,” Woolley says. “A lot f our competitors have gone on very different tacks. Time will tell, but we believe we have a very strong enterprise play that we can bring to market.”

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