Dell appoints corporate reseller partners

In a bid to expand its operation in India through channel, Dell has appointed
SD Computers and HBS Systems as their corporate reseller partners for Delhi.
After Delhi, Dell is looking at making similar appointments in the channel space
in Mumbai, Bangalore and other small cities as well.

It may be noted that when Dell started recruiting channel partners in India a
few months back, it was said that they had appointed Cache Technologies,
formerly Cache Peripherals, as their channel partner. While Dell did not make
any official appointment, a few months later it was learnt that Cache had indeed
been appointed but had decided to severe ties with Dell for unknown reasons.

Talking about this new initiative, a source from Dell stated, “We have
initiated the channel business globally and are doing very well in UK and China.
In India we are trying to replicate the Chinese model and through this, we will
do corporate selling through our channel partners. Presently we are
concentrating only on the corporate vertical and are going very selective in
terms of selecting partners. We are ensuring that before we sign up with any
corporate partner, we go through his credibility and feedback from the market.”

This apart, Dell is trying to freeze the customers that they are going to
work on. “First, these partners have to convey to us in which companies they
would like to quote Dell then we will support them,” elaborated the official.

He further added that Dell has been successful in terms of global customer
base, IT and ITeS and the corporate space and now the company is aiming at
tapping the SMB space. “As the channel partners are very strong in this segment
and also since we have seen the channel grab the SMB segment in China and UK, so
we are trying to replicate the same model in India as well,” stated the
official.

When asked what was Dell's expectations from its newly appointed corporate
reseller partners-SD Computers and HBS Systems, the official added, “Since they
have good customer base in the educational and corporate segment as desired by
us we would like to encash on that and help them grow along with us.”

On the other hand, excited about this new venture Harsh Vij, CEO, SD
Computers said, “We have become their corporate reseller partner or system
integrator partner. With the tie-up in place we will approach SMEs, SMBs and
other related customers.”

Elaborating on the above, Vij stated that prior to this SD Computers was
selling other branded systems to their customers but with this tie-up they will
now be selling Dell to them and will also locate newer customers and sell them
Dell products. Stating the reason behind the same Vij mentioned, “We have been
selling only branded systems to these people and somehow for quite some time we
were not associated with any of the brands. But with Dell being a very well
accepted brand in corporate, we wanted to make the best use of the opportunity.
Till date Dell was never into the channel space and with its worldwide
initiative in place Dell is concentrating on having more channel partners with
them.”

He further added that Dell does not expect them to stock these systems and
this decision will remain at their discretion. “Once you have a good brand
associated with you and people are willing to work with you the relation has to
become stronger. Also, we have now stopped working without profits. There was a
time when we used to do wholesale quite a bit and at that time the scenario was
completely different but here without profits we will never work and the best
thing is that Dell also does not encourage operating without profits.”

Ajay Mittal, CEO, HBS System, claiming that he had not as of now received any
official confirmation about the move, chose not to comment.

Apart from sales, Dell will provide all the services to the customers they
rope through their channel partners and for ensuring the same the company has
put together a service teams. The corporate reseller partner will only be
responsible for integrating the system and putting the entire infrastructure in
place.

When contacted about Dell's recent initiative Prarthana Gupta of Cache
Technologies said that Cache had no plans to revisit Dell and that the entire
channel community should not encourage Dell to take the channel mode.