"For us, partners are the kings", says Anil Sethi of Dell

Anil Sethi, director & GM, commercial channels, Dell who recently took over, talks in detail about their new channel intensive strategy

Dell has re-invented its channel strategy and pursuing channels very aggressively. What is the rationale behind this revamp of channel strategy? 

Dell has always been known as a direct company. However, now as part of our new strategy we have shifted accounts to partners. In India, we have shifted 30,000 accounts. That has been our global strategy too. Actually we are shifting customer relationships to be managed by these partners. Our focus are channel partners now whom we treat as our customers.

Can you elaborate on your new channel-intensive strategy.
Now the entire India is open to partners. We basically have three categories-Partner-led, Dell-led and distributor-led. In Dell led, we manage relationships executed by partners. In partner led, its partner managed relationships executed by partners and in distributor led, relationships are managed by distributors and executed by partners. So, in all the categories, the execution is by partners only. Dell-led is about 2,500 accounts whereas the rest of 30,000 accounts are falling in either partner-led or distributor-led categories. All new accounts will be added in partner-led and distributor-led categories.

What is the objective of this new strategy?
The objective is simple and that is to build trust. We are very clear that at least 35-40% of business for a partner should come through Dell, which is not the case at present. That is our challenge at the moment and we definitely want to reach there by the end of 2016.

What are the product lines that are being covered under this Dell led category?
Everything and it includes all our product lines. Our focus is a converged infrastructure that gets sold. We would like to approach a customer with a complete solution comprising storage, networking and software. We want to address the complete IT infrastructure need of the customer.

How are you differentiating and profiling the partner?
When we talk about partner led category, these are the large system integrators who have great service oriented organizational set-up and are very experienced. They will offer our complete portfolio to the customer. Then we have 3 distributors who are doing different products. It's Ingram Micro, nationally, for desktops and notebooks, Redington for enterprise storage, servers and networking and Iris for desktops and notebooks for north and east. A huge exercise of channel capacity planning is on. In this endeavor, we are profiling the partners as to find the cities, the products and accordingly allocate the partners. Definitely, detailing and defining the partners is extremely crucial.

So, what are your focus areas at national level?
We are doing a 15 city distribution roadshow. That's happening in two phases in 5 cities-Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai & Pune-are already covered and 10 will be done now, which includes Kochi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Nagpur, Indore and Coimbatore. So our focus is clear. We want to tap the markets in tier-2 and -3 cities as much as in metros and there is huge potential.

What have been your recent channel initiatives?
Since now our entire focus are partners, we have devised and launched a number of programs. The include: online gaming contest for channel partners. The contest was open for Dell registered Commercial Channel Partners or entities engaged in IT Enterprise (Server or Storage or Networking) Products reselling/distribution business. Dell launched a marketing tool for Indian Channel Partners - The Online Solution Configurator which allows partners to create multipart, customized enterprise solutions for their customers in an easy, collaborative and intuitive way.

We recently launched the emerging markets program in June this year, aimed at bringing Dell Solutions through partnerships with preferred partners to small & medium business customers in emerging markets. Then we formed a partner advisory council which aims to build a strong think tank and discuss Dell's partner plans, strategy and program offers moving forward. We also have Dell's Engineering Club aims to bring together Technical Experts and Pre-sales & Post-sales Engineers across IT industry to network, exchange ideas, and share industry trends and best practices. Also we are organizing many award programs and summits to recognize and motivate partners.

Can you tell us about your focus areas as far as your products are concerned.
Market has increased. Tier-2 and tier-3 markets have tremendous potential. Our focus is servers and network storage. We are #1 in existing PC market. As far as enterprise segment is concerned, we are aiming big and there is a lot scope. We are a big player. We are #2 in server space and definitely we want to lead. In storage and network, there are immense opportunities for us to grow.

What is the partner's reaction to the new go-to-market strategy?
There is great excitement amongst partners. We are primarily aiming to build trust. There is great interest in the partner community. What we are bringing in is very different. We have opened a new area for partners. They are the ones managing customer relationships now and in the long run, this will be big business boost to them.

Last but not the least, what is the customer's response to this?
We are ensuring that the customer gets as much satisfying experience as he was getting earlier. There cannot be any compromise on this. It's a best lot of partners in India. They are flexible, aggressive and go-getters. They are doing phenomenal job. Our respect for customer is huge and we are treating our partners as customers. It's all about raising the trust quotient and we are focusing completely on that.