February 2008 - Posts

• PartnerDirect Expands to EMEA

  Fri. Feb. 15, 2008
  by Lynn A. Tyson, VP - Investor Relations

  When you look at the world and see that the number of people online will double from 1 to 2 billion in a few years, it makes a compelling case for understanding where this growth is coming from and how well your company is positioned to take advantage of it.  According to data from the International Monetary Fund, in 2007, emerging economies like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and others accounted for nearly 30% of global GDP and almost 50% of global GDP growth.  Today this trend is only accelerating.  At Dell, Emerging Countries is one of our Big 5 strategic priorities and we are reexamining everything we do there.  One thing is becoming clear, to be successful in this space you must enable the success of your channel partners, who in most cases have the established infrastructure and brand to reach these customers.    

  This week, we announced that our PartnerDirect program, which we launched in the U.S. in December, is now available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.  Despite our roots as a "Direct" company, Dell has more than 30,000 global partners around the world who generated approximately $9 billion in Dell run-rate revenue in the past year alone.  With the expansion of PartnerDirect in EMEA, we thought it would it would be a good opportunity to further discuss Dell's global commercial channel strategy, how it supports several of Dell's business priorities, and the impact the channel will have on Dell's growth strategy-including emerging countries.

  As a quick recap, PartnerDirect was launched in the U.S. in December.  It comes as the result of feedback from thousands of solution providers and VARs who told us how exactly they wanted Dell to help them.  Dell listened and developed a new set of tools and services exclusively designed to make it easier for our channel partners to work with Dell and be more successful.  For starters, the program creates a new web portal dedicated to our partners--www.dell.com/partner.  And for the first time, Dell is providing a partner logo for certain types of joint marketing activities.  PartnerDirect also provides 100-percent dedicated sales and customer care and opens new vehicles for credit financing.

  Also PartnerDirect provides a clear mechanism for Deal registration.  Dell is committed to minimizing channel conflict.  Speaking to CRN last week, Michael put it best when he said, "Let's say you're a Dell/EqualLogic partner, and you recognize an opportunity inside your customer, and you register that opportunity-so far, roughly 90 percent of the opportunities that have been requested to be registered have been accepted-so you register this opportunity.  Our sales reps are compensated the same whether it's sold through a channel partner or it's sold direct. So they have no incentive not to work with the channel, and in fact every incentive to work with the channel."

  To get some more insight into how PartnerDirect is being implemented, I recently sat down with Greg Davis, Dell's Vice President & General Manager of the Americas Channel Group; Josh Claman, Vice President & General Manager of Dell Channels in EMEA; and Pim Dale, Vice President & General Manager of Emerging Markets in EMEA.  In the vlog, this team describes Dell's existing partnerships in emerging countries, the size and scoping of channel activities in EMEA, and Dell's current penetration rate through the channel and what it hopes to achieve over the next few years.  

  Format: flv Duration: 7:38

  Downloads WMV  MP4  OGG

  1 comment(s) del.icio.us email this digg

• Dell’s Planned Acquisition of MessageOne

  Tue. Feb. 12, 2008
  by Lynn A. Tyson, VP - Investor Relations

  E-mail has become one of the most ubiquitous and critical applications in business today; it can impact revenue, productivity, and a company's reputation.  Due to increased regulatory and business requirements, e-mail management--including measures for compliance and disaster recovery--is now more complex than ever.  Our announcement today to acquire MessageOne, an industry leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enabled e-mail continuity, compliance, archiving, and disaster recovery services is an important step towards simplifying IT and restoring integrity around a vital piece of our customer's IT infrastructure. 

  Dell's customers have been looking for solutions to help them simplify their IT infrastructure.  Legacy services masks IT complexity.  Estimates show that for every 1 dollar spent on hardware and software another 3 dollars gets spent on consultants and integrators.  This is where we believe there is room to fundamentally change the industry's infrastructure services model.  Through the use of technology, Dell's supply chain advantages, remote infrastructure management and SaaS, Dell is pursuing a strategy in the services space that is analogous to the approach taken to simplify the hardware business 23 short years ago.  We have a legacy of driving down the cost of hardware for our customers and they believe we can do this in services as well.

  MessageOne is another key piece in expanding Dell's services, especially in the rapidly growing SaaS enabled managed services market and complements our recent SaaS acquisitions of Silverback Technologies and Everdream we completed late last year.  Silverback provides leadership in event-based monitoring and remote management of different Enterprise assets (servers, storage, printers, routers, etc).  Everdream extends this capability to include lifecycle management of client assets (notebooks and desktops).  These moves also signal Dell's efforts to address the needs of the small and medium business (SMB) market, similar to our purchase of EqualLogic late last year.  EqualLogic is aimed at Dell's drive to Simplify IT and virtualization for mid-sized enterprise customers through Dell's channel partners and direct channel.  EqualLogic has the third largest sales of iSCSI SANs and has patented storage virtualization technology that will give customers the power to cost-effectively install, expand and modify their data storage resources.  We will build upon the portfolio of existing customers and channel partners for all of these offerings and will incorporate the respective technologies into future Dell services, including Dell's new ProSupport offering announced earlier this month.

  We think ProSupport is especially exciting because it is more than another service offering, it is a choice of comprehensive support solutions that offer customers a choice based on who they are, how they use technology and where they want to allocate scarce IT resources.  Dell ProSupport is breaking the "one size fits all, fragmented" support model that is industry standard, by putting choice in the hands of customers.  This global offering spans all areas of hardware and will enable commercial customers, including small and medium business, to obtain world-class service from Dell or our registered solution providers without paying for more or less than they need. 

  Acquisitions for Dell are not a strategy unto themselves - they are a part of an overall strategy to fuel growth in five key areas: Consumer, Emerging Markets, Notebooks, Enterprise and Small Medium Business.  When assessing possible acquisitions we look at several things including strategic fit - or how does it drive growth by scaling through our customer base, give us access to channels or provide new tools.  We also look at how it can fit into our business model, how easily we can integrate the business, and also the track record of the management team.  Via organic growth and acquisitions we will fill key capability gaps, gain access to new channels and leverage key technologies across our broad global customer base.  You will continue to see Dell pursuing opportunities that strengthen our ability to meet the increasingly changing needs and challenges faced by many of our customers and simplify their IT environments.

  One thing unique about this transaction is that it involved related parties.  MessageOne was co-founded by Adam Dell, Michael Dell's brother, and is owned in part by two venture funds managed by Adam Dell--Impact Venture Partners and Impact Entrepreneurs Fund.  Michael Dell, Susan Dell, a trust for the Dell’s minor children, and Mr. Dell’s parents are investors in both funds.  Michael was not involved in the negotiation or decision-making process, and the independent members of Dell's board of directors (excluding Michael and Don Carty) analyzed in detail management's decision process to ensure that management was acting independently and in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.  Additionally, Dell's board received an opinion from Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated concluding that, as of the date the deal was signed and based upon and subject to the matters stated in the opinion, the consideration to be paid by Dell pursuant to the acquisition was fair from a financial point of view to the company.  Based on all of that, our independent directors concluded that the transaction was fair to, and in the best interests of, the company and its shareholders and approved the transaction.  Michael and Susan Dell have indicated that the proceeds which they and their children’s trust receive from the acquisition will be donated to charity.
  0 comment(s) del.icio.us email this digg