Dell is certainly very public about their desire to build out a world class partner program and to start working with their channel partners; to be clear, this isn't about them getting into the channel, but formalizing an existing relationship with partners that accounts for over $4b a year in sales for them. This is a high stakes move and they are getting some good folks to help out - IPED is helping do their research and design on their programs and they are partnering with CMP for their XChange events to get into the field with their partners.
The stumbling block for Dell to overcome, however, isn't a programmatic design challenge or even overcoming the current fears that partners have about Dell taking their customer information and going direct. The big challenge for Dell is a balancing act that I've never seen a company successfully pull off - balancing between being built to win deals at all costs versus the DNA of the company being built to have a win/win relationship with partners.
As a company, Dell has a long standing and admirable culture of being a low-cost, lean and aggressive competitor for customers business that vexed HP and IBM for many years. The very competitive advantage that Dell had and continues to have is a sales culture that empowers sales managers to do what it takes to win a deal - if you need to discount a bundled product from an OEM like VMware, do it. If you need to sweeten the deal with a LCD television, get it done. Just win the business.
HP and IBM were saddled with a culture that was far more rigid, but is a competitive advantage for them when it comes to working with partners - they were built for the win/win. Being built for the win/win isn't just about programs, or account coverage, or rebate schemes; for the typical partner, it's all about being predictable and consistent. IBM and HP have 'rules of engagement' and 'hard-decks' and all sorts of other formal programs to prevent the very behavior that Dell used effectively against them - they could not just do what it took to win the business, as most of the time, the partner was right in the cross-fire.
The challenge Dell faces isn't just about building deal registration or getting their tiers right in their program; they have a massive cultural change to wrestle with in building a business that partners can consistently bet their mortgages on. Can they do it? They can if they invest the effort across the company, but this takes a willingness to fire former top performers who do anything to win if that anything includes damaging a partner relationship.
