Channel Partners Get Religion: 35,000 Solution Providers Worldwide Join Dell’s PartnerDirect

In May 2007, Michael Dell announced “direct was no longer a religion” and announced Dell would explore new ways to reach customers via the channel, and on December 5, 2007, PartnerDirect was launched. Today, one year later, we have achieved many milestones, and I’d like to share some of the highlights with you to remind you of all we have accomplished over an exciting and productive year.

On December 5, 2007, when we launched PartnerDirect in the U.S., we were already conducting business with 30,000 resellers worldwide and had approximately $9 billion in Dell annual run-rate revenue globally. PartnerDirect formalized our existing channel initiatives, and was built based on feedback from thousands of solution providers. It included deal registration serviced by Salesforce.com partner relationship management tool, partner logos, channel-neutral compensation program, a channel community forum, and Managed Services as the first certification.

We opened our doors for business with some skepticism from the channel press. But each new development within PartnerDirect built confidence with our channel partners and gradually the tone of our media coverage began to change also. In February 2008, we added the Enterprise Architecture certification path, and we lowered the deal registration minimum from $75,000 to $50,000. We added a link to the partner portal from the main Dell page. We launched PartnerDirect in Canada and EMEA. And PartnerDirect was highlighted in CRN’s 2008 “Channel Chiefs” list.

In April, we launched PartnerDirect in two of the world’s largest emerging economies, China and India. We reached 7,000 partners registered in the U.S., and were (and still are) adding approximately 300 partners a week.

May was a milestone month. Six months after the launch of PartnerDirect in the U.S., eWeek ChannelInsider 2008 Product of the Year Awards voted Dell the preferred notebook and desktop provider among all OEMs. Dell finished second in the award’s server infrastructure category. We also held the first Partner Advisory Council meeting in the U.S., with Michael Dell in attendance. We launched the Dell Channel blog, and learned that PartnerDirect was on a $12 billion worldwide revenue runrate.

In June, we launched PartnerDirect in Central America and the Caribbean, and EMEA launched its first certifications in Enterprise Architecture and Small and Medium Enterprise. In July, we reached the 10,000 registered partners mark, and launched a pilot to drive joint partner/SMB account acquisition.

August saw us launching a formal returns policy pilot for certified partners, and in September PartnerDirect launched in Mexico and Brazil. In October, we launched our third certification path, Federal, here in the U.S. And in November, we held our first Managed Services and Enterprise Architecture Advisory Councils.

Now, as we close out our first year in PartnerDirect, we have some significant accomplishments we can point to, both here in the U.S. and throughout the world. We have 35,000 registered partners worldwide, who can access partner portals in 19 languages in 148 countries. Through the first nine months of fiscal FY09, Dell’s global channel business grew significantly faster than the industry. We have more than 13,500 U.S. registered partners and 532 certified partners. All this could not have been achieved without all the solid hard work you did to make these accomplishments a reality. As we look to FY10, let’s continue to build on the solid foundation we have laid down for our channel partners and for Dell.