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169

Solution Provider Direct Program Upgrade

169 points posted to PartnerStorm by cyberbiz 02/20/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**

Most customers and industry people don't know this, but Dell has a reseller program where small software vendors, VARs and system integrators can buy discounted Dell gear and resell to the public. The idea, naturally, is for the reseller to provide support services in conjunction with the hardware sale.

This reseller program addresses Dell's support issues because end-users who buy from the channel tend to rely on their reseller for primary support, or use the reseller to run interference when a problem needs escalation.

Based on my experience this reseller program could use a few basic tweaks to make it more industry standard and give the program members some more incentive to use Dell rather than TechDarta and HP/Compaq or IBM/Lenovo as channel/hardware partners.

* Bump up the credit limits and help the channel get more working capital

* Simplify the billing and payables process

* Make the Dell Premier site actually give us the prices we can get from our human reps

* Give us some reseller basics like a logo program and soft marketing dollars

* Support the channel by giving us leads and some sort of regional or industry sales support for big leads

If Dell is losing direct corporate sales, then I believe the wrapping their gear in a reseller channel will give Dell customers more local support and feel better about buying Dell based on a trusted recommendation.




Please see amie_p's comment

voelkertj
06/05/07		 I would also like to see a return policy that is the same as consumers. I recently had an issue where the wrong monitors were sent and I could not return them since I am a reseller. I can not sell these on ebay because that violates the program agreement. I can see if I had ordered a custom system, but when purchasing a monitor and paying the same price as my customer can get directly from Dell and not being able to return it for the correct model does not make sense. Even the reseller division was having problems with the no return policy and tried to fix the issue. I ended up having to take the loss of the two monitors and shelf those for hopefully another customer to purchase. So much for making a profit on that sale.

I am hoping that Dell will upgrade the program.
bitsmt
08/13/07		 You are so right. Unfortunetly, I have tried to no avail to get Dell to realize the stored potential of their Reseller devision. It's useless. Have you ever read the SPD manual? Did you know that there are no returns for the SPD channel?

I've gone as far as talking with the Executive department about creating a special partnership so that I can ensure our clients always see Dell in a positive light. I was turned down. It's a sad place to be.

Dell does not see the SPD as a lucrative market. They only have a $$ counter. Unfotunetly, (I believe) no one at Dell has looked at the potential of the SPD to win/keep Dell clients loyal and how it impacts revenue. Where the heck is Michael Dell when you need him?
amie_p
07/16/08		 Cyberbiz,

Thank you for posting your suggestions.

1) We have recently promoted our efforts on working capital via our blog at http://direct2dell.com/channel/archive/2008/06/25/taking-advantage-of-dell-s-...
2) Can you be more specific on this suggestion? What works or doesn’t work on the billing and payables process?
3) This is already on our Dell roadmap and is one of our most common requests. Most likely it will be implemented within the year as Dell.com runs on a different platform from Premier.
4) Once you become a Registered Dell Partner, you will find logos on our Partner Portal site. In addition, Dell does offer our Certified Partners soft marketing dollars.
5) On the horizon, Dell is working on providing our Partners leads. Stay tuned for more information about this launch date.
jackie_c
07/16/08		 Changed status to **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**.
davealger
08/06/08		 * Simplify the billing and payables process - we had to fight with Dell a bit, but was able to increase our credit line. This was fine, however there is no way for us to pay our bills online. Everytime we ask we're told to call an accounts recievable person at Dell, provide our checking account information over the phone, what invoices we'd like to pay. Its easier for our office manager to go online and pay via online banking. However that only mails Dell a check which take 5-7 days (which sometimes we've tapped our credit line from orders) and need to hold orders up until payment it recieved. Tech Data uses Invoice Habor http://www.invoiceharbor.com/ which is almost instant (1 business day). Please allow us to pay online and review open invoices online in our Premier Accounts.
mike_b
08/27/08		 davealger,

We, unfortunately, don’t have any current functionality that will allow customers to pay an invoice online. After taking this to a few key people in finance and Channel it looks like there are some legalities behind the decision to keep online invoice payments a non option. We’ve taken the idea to them to review it again, but we don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon.
 
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