update SINGAPORE--Dell has brought to Asia its new channel program introduced in the United States at the end of 2007, targeting the high-growth potential small and midsize business (SMB) segment.
The Dell PartnerDirect program will be introduced first in China Wednesday, followed by India and over the next few weeks and months in Japan and the rest of the region, Paul Henri Ferrand, Dell's president for Asia-Pacific South, said Tuesday in a media briefing. The program is also already available in Europe.
The regional market opportunity for growth through channel partners is significant, said Ferrand. Citing market research, he noted that channel sales targeting SMBs and large enterprises account for nearly US$30 billion, or one-third, of the total hardware market in the region.
Ferrand told ZDNet Asia that with the new initiative, Dell intends to grow faster than the market, but declined to indicate specific growth targets.
Currently, Dell's direct model contributes about 85 percent of its revenue, while channels contribute about 15 percent. The company also expects its channel sales to grow faster than sales based on the direct model.
According to Ferrand, the PartnerDirect program is mirrored after Dell's direct model, where the company sells products to consumers and businesses without going through a third party. Rather than appoint a distributor, Dell wants to manage channel partners on its own.
Under the program, partners including those offering industry-specific applications will be labeled as either a registered partner or a certified partner. Registered partners have relatively few commitments and the relationship with Dell is mainly transactional.
Certified, or more exclusive, partners will be required to fulfill obligations, including meeting sales quotas and training, and in turn will be entitled to benefits such as rebates on products and use of Dell's logo. These resellers would be the "20 percent of partners that deliver 80 percent of the revenue", said Ferrand.
Dell, he said, has already recruited some partners on board the initiative, and intends to announce some of them over the next few months.
"There's a lot of interest from the partners to be viewed as a 'selected few' partner of Dell…we see a lot of stickiness in the program rather than us trying to recruit," said Ferrand.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.