News & Press Releases

Sonia St. Charles, CEO of Dell EMC solution provider Davenport Group, St. Paul, Minn., applauded the move to put partners on notice that are not making the grade. That said, she stressed, it must be done fairly. “One of the mistakes companies make is to set out a program and then they don’t stick to the rules,” St. Charles said. “That’s where companies lose their credibility, but if they deem that these criteria are important and they’re going to measure partners against it, that’s a fair move. I do agree with that, as long as it’s fair and equitable. If there’s no way a partner can hit their revenue goal for the full year, that would be a safe measure.” READ FULL ARTICLE

Having a wide range of offerings is important for Dell’s partners as well, said Paul Clifford, president of Davenport Group, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider and long-term Dell partner. This is important as customers are increasingly attracted to the hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, Clifford told CRN. “We have a lot of solutions for our customers,” he said. “One solution, however, is a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s how this business works. But while SMB, mid-size, and enterprise customers all need hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, they have different needs. This just gives us more tools to use to work with customers.” READ FULL ARTICLE

For Davenport, the expanded customer base provides a huge new opportunity, St. Charles said. DMS qualified as a premier Dell partner, but had that status because of all the servers it sold rather than services related to those servers. “Dell needs a strong partner in that area,” she said. “DMS didn’t offer services. They just dropped boxes. They have Fortune 500 accounts and other high-end and mid-market customers. So we see the opportunity to go deeper with these customers.” READ FULL ARTICLE