This week Dell added two new desktops and two new laptops to its Vostro business line. What makes this announcement unique is that the new Vostro models have been designed to meet the needs of small businesses and public organizations in the world’s high-growth economies. So what does this mean for you as a Dell Channel Partner? You can now offer what many of your customers in the emerging economies are looking for – affordable, reliable basic office computing. Check out the press release and information on the new models, as well as a great VLOG on the Vostro line.

You might be asking yourself, are these models just some sort of scaled-down versions of other models? Actually the opposite is true. Dell is able to make these systems affordable by providing all the functionality needed for basic business computing, and eliminating any components that are not used yet drive costs up. Check out the product information for essential laptops A840 and A860, and the entry-level desktops A180 and A100.

MSP's blogger, Joe Panettieri, interview Greg Davis yesterday to get the latest information on PartnerDirect's progress and future momentum. Listen to the podcast and feel free to comment here on on the MSPmentor blog.

This afternoon in Beijing I'm taking part in a global Webcast to announce two new Vostro laptops and two desktops designed especially to meet the needs of small businesses, government and educational institutions in the world’s emerging economies.

The two new Vostro laptops  (the Vostro A860 15.6 inch and A840 14.1 inch) and two desktop models (the Vostro A180 and A180 mini towers) are being introduced in countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America over the next several weeks.

These new products will primarily be sold through our channel partners in emerging countries—a first for Dell.

These systems:

• are easy to manage and deploy, offering Ubuntu or Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic operating software;
• are designed to deliver world-class quality and reliability;
• come with support to meet unique customer needs; and
• provide affordable access to today’s higher level of basic computing needs.

Today’s announcement also builds on Dell’s leading momentum in mobile computing:  introduction of our Studio laptops in June; the new Latitude E-family products, launched two weeks ago, which offer freedom from business as usual; and more new mobile products to come. With today’s products we’re bringing great, new mobile technology to customers in the world’s emerging countries.

Those customers tell us that the cost of technology, especially mobile technology, is too high. They want affordable systems that are high-quality and highly reliable. They want technology that’s easy to deploy and maintain. They want great service, and support that’s easy to get and pay for. 

We’ve designed these new Vostro products to meet those needs.  At Lionel's post on Direct2Dell, Kirk Schell, who leads our global product-development center in Shanghai, describes the design concepts behind these products. We’ve posted more images on our Flickr account. Also, here is a recorded version of today’s launch event.

There are more than 72 million small businesses worldwide.  And hundreds of millions more that will be started over the next few years. We’ve seen how technology is often the key element in why smaller companies succeed—or fail.  This is particularly true in high-growth economies.  Technology makes it easier to market, sell and support products and services.

Those benefits of technology mean opportunity for customers and, in turn, opportunity for Dell and its partners, for you.  Today is another illustration of our intention to together lead the industry in providing great technology to high-growth and emerging economies. 

Last week Dell continued its competitive charge through the Channel at Everything Channel’s XChange ‘08 event in Dallas.  As a Platinum sponsor of the event, Dell had the opportunity to educate the market about the strides we are making with PartnerDirect, as well as gather valuable partner feedback. The Americas channel team did six breakout sessions with 15-20 partners per session, conducted several 1:1 partner meetings and Dell's Greg Davis, VP/GM Americas Channel Group, took the main stage for a 45-minute “world premiere” keynote presentation. 

Greg’s keynote, designed to provide the audience with an update on Dell’s progress in the channel over the last year and new investments being made, opened with a brief video on the evolution of our channel strategy.  Greg then took the crowd through an honest scorecard around Dell's progress and new PartnerDirect investments including:

• new Certified Practice Areas;
• lower Deal Registration limits; and
• a new returns policy for Certified Partners.

In order to fully illustrate Dell's commitment to the channel—and for the first time in the history of the conference—a channel exec (Greg) was joined on stage by two direct executives (Donna Troy and Erik Dithmer), who took a few minutes to expand on how their segments are fully embracing the channel.  The combination of Donna, Erik and Greg showed just how serious Dell is about the channel and how we are actively collaborating across segments and evolving our culture.

To read more about the event and our participation, check out CRN.  And as always, let us know more about your questions/comments here on the blog!

We hear a lot from our community regarding the various online tools and today we're talking with Mary-Catherine Wilson and Chad Hamilton, Channel E-Business Managers, regarding the PartnerDirect portal. We'll continue to provide our partners with updates and insights that will benefit them on Dell's offerings and partner benefits.

In the channel we hear a certain word used most often – partner. We know that Webster’s defines “partner” as:  a person who shares or is associated with another in some action or endeavor; sharer; associate. We get it. Another definition is:  a player on the same side or team as another. Agreed. To Dell it means engagement – tuning into channel partners and turning up the volume on what you have to say.

As The VAR Guy recently pointed out we’ve been working hard with you, our partners, to understand the channel needs. In addition to the Michael Dell meetings that CRN touched on, we’ve also launched a Partner Advisory Council for Enterprise Architecture partners to open the lines of communications and get feedback on how we can help each other – all with the goal of improving channel programs. From the input we received, one of the things that jumped out at us was the need to have a point person be totally focused on partner satisfaction. So that’s what we did. And, we’re working daily on a number of other insights that came out of the meeting.  

On a day-to-day basis, many channel partners are also taking advantage of the PartnerDirect Forum to interact with each other, ask and answer each other’s questions, share information and ask us questions. We also use the Dell Channel Blog to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in the channel with Dell. Check these out. And, coming soon, we’ll be holding roundtable meetings throughout the country to gather even more feedback and insight from our partners.

We invite all Dell channel partners to engage with us and turn up the volume!

As part of Dell’s commitment to our Channel Partners, we are pleased to announce the launch of a Return Policy program, available to our current Certified Partners.

Pilot Program Terms & Conditions:

• Product can be returned within twenty-one (21) days of Dell shipment for a credit (excluding S&H charges) for the following reasons: Any reasons covered under Dell's Limited Warranty, or End-user order cancellation or modification (requires documentation from end-user).
• Return policy is for U.S Certified Partners participating in the Dell PartnerDirect Program only, and does not include U.S. Registered Partners or Canadian Registered or Certified Partners.
• Except for cases of Dell error, returns can be subject to a restocking fee.
• Dell does not provide credits for portions of packaged, bundled or promotional offerings provided at a single price.
• Partner must contact us directly before they attempt to return Product to obtain a Return Material Authorization Number, that will be included with the return.
• Partner must return Product to us in its original or equivalent packaging.
• Partner is responsible for risk of loss and shipping and handling fees for returning or exchanging Product.
• Additional fees may apply, if you fail to follow the return or exchange instructions and policies provided by Dell.
• Partner is responsible for Product that is lost, damaged, modified, or otherwise processed for disposal or resale.
• At Dell's discretion, credit for partial returns may be less than invoice or individual component prices due to packaged, bundled or promotional pricing.
  
  Return Policy Exclusions:
  -- Application software and operating systems that have been installed by Dell may be returned only if installed on a returnable system, and only if you return that system within the applicable return period.
  -- Dell EqualLogic and EqualLogic-branded products.
  -- Dell|EMC and EMC-branded products.
  -- PowerVault ML6000 tape libraries, non-Dell-branded enterprise products, enterprise software, and customized hardware or software products may not be returned at any time.
  -- Software licenses purchased under any type of volume license agreement may be returned only with the express approval of the publisher, which in many circumstances will not be granted.
  
  

For more information, please contact your sales representative. 

Let us know if you have any questions regarding this new policy and we’ll be happy to answer them!

This morning Dell formally announced a pricing reduction in our EqualLogic PS Series hardware platforms and support services. As we continue to hear feedback from our Partners via surveys and our channel community, we will continue to evaluate our PartnerDirect program and offerings.

With up to a 10% reduction on Models PS5000E, PS5000X, PS5000XV and up to a 20% reduction on support services, our goal is to help our Partners stay competitive in the iSCSI storage market. According to Bob Skelley, Director, Enterprise Channel, “Reducing the list price on the Dell EqualLogic storage arrays enables our channel partners to offer a compelling value proposition to their customers. You can be competitive in the marketplace, continue to build a profitable business practice around our solutions and circle back to clients where price was the hurdle.”

For more information, please contact your sales rep.

One of our Channel Account Managers pinged me regarding CRN’s coverage of Dell’s latest Future Computing Event. Last week’s FTC was held at Pier 60/Chelsea Piers in NYC where IT Managers and VARs were invited to see latest Dell offerings on simplifying IT via our products, services and solutions.

CRN’s slide show coverage of the event started off with the best intentions but somewhere, after slide 10, things went downhill.

On Slide 11- http://www.crn.com/it-channel/210002164;jsessionid=M3FCJOSYEY4ZOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=11

We would like the opportunity to address CRN’s coverage and let everyone know that we had four sales managers staffing the booth throughout the event (thank you to Chris, Bryan, Stuart and Xavier). While they were with Partners for most of the day, we believe this photo was taken during their actual presentation. While we like to multi-task, we just can’t be everywhere all the time!

On Slide 12- http://www.crn.com/it-channel/210002164;jsessionid=M3FCJOSYEY4ZOQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=12

Dell had numerous existing and potential partners show interest in our booth and attend the presentation. Whether you’re a current Dell partner or looking to become one, we are always happy to share and educate you on our offerings. Bryan’s quote on slide 12, is spot on, Dell is constantly proving ourselves and building trust with our Partners and Industry folks.

As a follow up to yesterday’s E-Family post, we wanted to direct our partners to all the information at their disposal on the PartnerDirect portal and on Dell.com. In addition to the vlog, I missed the opportunity to showcase our global channel marketing’s work in my original announcement.

If you are a registered partner, click on the link below to see what the new Latitude E-Family has to offer.

 www.Dell.com/partner/latitude

In addition to having materials in 14 languages, specific channel training, partner marketing material, and shortly we’ll have products sheers in dozens of languages, is nothing short of revolutionary.

If you’re interested in reading external reviews, you can find additional information at CNNMoney.com, Engadget and PC Magazine.