Kathy Gibson is at Dell EMC Partner Summit in Cape Town – Technology is all very well, but means very little without pre-sales, deployment and after-sales services.
Dell EMC partners are able to offer these services to their customers, either through their own operations or together with Dell EMC.
The services that Dell EMC can bring to the party include consulting, deployment, support and education, says Bradford McKenzie, director: EMEA channel services sales.
Together, the portfolio of services help partners to drive transformation as well as rapid adoption and optimisation of their customers’ technologies.
The company’s services are aligned to the product offerings, and also the partner programme.
In fact, services are good business, McKenzie points out. “We have found that when services are attached to products, hardware deals increase in value.
“But what’s really important is the fact that attaching services improves customer experience.”
Services increase the time to value – by 66% for deployment and by 94% for customer satisfaction – up to 96% when clients are added.
For partners, services attract rebates, but this is not the extent of the value, McKenzie says. Dell EMC will actually pay partners for break-fix services that they perform themselves.
The services business is a dynamic organisation, McKenzie adds. “We brought together two big organisations, and we asked our partners what they wanted in terms of services.”
This has resulted in a hybrid services business: partners can buy services from Dell EMC; they can provide services on their own; or they can co-deliver in partnership with Dell EMC.
“The approach we want to take is about trust and collaboration,” McKenzie says.
Partners can also maximise the value of contracts by attaching accessories.
It’s an easy sell, says Chris Buchanan, client solutions director: southern Africa at Dell EMC.
One out of every two monitors sold in the southern Africa market is a Dell – in fact, Dell EMC sells almost two monitors for every PC it sells.
This is a great attach rate, Buchanan says, and it’s possible because of advanced technology.
Dell EMC monitors have thin bezels, so real estate on the monitor is maximised, and a full portfolio of monitors ranges from small desktop models to large billboard-size displays.
The vendor is also getting behind wireless boardroom solutions, and competitively-priced conference and meeting devices.
Gaming is a big user market, and Dell EMC is a leader in this market with its Alienware brand.
Under this label, the company offers a range of high-performance computers, monitors and accessories.
The good news, for partners and customers, is that Alienware products could be less expensive than comparable commercial devices.
For customers with heavy graphics requirements, the Precision range of PCs can offer extreme performance and scalabilty.
Another great attach that partners can use to help customers be more efficient are management tools.
“It’s so easy to remotely manage devices, and to automate processes,” Buchanan points out.
Partners also have the opportunity to maximise their return by adding support services. And customers don’t have to break the bank, Buchanan adds. They can start off with basic support and upgrade later with the top-of-the-range ProSupport and ProSupport Plus.
