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.

The terms and conditions for this program are as follows:

· Product can be returned within twenty-one (21) days of Dell shipment for a credit (excluding shipping and handling charges) for the following reasons:

1. Any reasons covered under Dell Limited Warranty

2. End-user order cancellation or modification (requires documentation from end-user)

3. Dell Order Processing errors

4. Dell delivery of incorrect products

· Subject to a 15% re-stocking fee.

· Excludes all EMC and EqualLogic product.

· Dell does not provide credits for portions of a packaged offering provided at a single price.

· You must contact us directly before you attempt to return Product to obtain a Return Material Authorization Number for you to include with your return.

· Packaging must be unopened.

· You must return Product to us in their original or equivalent packaging.

· You are responsible for risk of loss, 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.

· Dell is not responsible whatsoever 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 bundled or promotional pricing.

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.

What doesn’t cost a dime, but can be worth a fortune? Advice, especially when it comes from someone who speaks from experience. The recent Dell Small Business Excellence Award has spawned an opportunity to have Michael Dell answer your questions via the web. Just submit your ideal question in the comments section here before Friday, August 15^th and let the community vote.

Over the past few months, we’ve received several notices via partners and industry bloggers about the channel miss in our product launches.

Your voices have been heard and moving forward, we are actively going to showcase partner benefits in all upcoming launches. Starting today, with the latest Latitude launch we’re committed to talking with the channel about our products and services and how you can maximize your opportunities.

Take a few minutes to hear Jeff Johnson, from our Global Channel Marketing Team, on the E-Family channel benefits.

The new line of Latitude and Precision laptops, were created from a close collaboration of IT and end users (100 ideas implemented from IdeaStorm). As a result, the launch features our lightest ultra-portable laptop in addition to our most powerful mobile workstation. In addition to the Latitudes, Dell launched a new line of ISV-certified Dell Precision mobile workstations. All of our new products are available with Dell’s ProSupport Mobility Services, which we launched several weeks ago to help companies protect assets and data.

By Colin Steele, news writer, SearchITChannel.com

At least once a week, I get a press release from an IT vendor that’s launching a partner program and wants publicity. Most of these times, it’s a small startup that nobody’s ever heard of -- and that nobody’s likely to read about -- so I ignore the pitch.

That wasn’t the case last December, when the press release came from Dell. Dell? The company that lets customers and businesses go on its website and custom-build systems? Starting a channel? Now this was interesting.

It’s one thing for a small startup to build a channel from scratch. It’s a completely different story when a giant vendor, which has grown to that size because of its direct sales strategy, decides to become partner-friendly. I was excited to cover this story for two reasons: One, it’s a really intriguing case study of a major corporation making a major shift in strategy. And two, it was bound to create controversy. And journalists love controversy.

That most definitely has not been in short supply. Partner complaints are common on PartnerStorm, Dell’s channel wiki, and on the PartnerDirect forum. There are also concerns about Dell’s push into Software as a Service, as well as its OEM agreements with software vendors.

But what’s been surprising is how so many solution providers have been willing to give Dell the benefit of the doubt. For every partner complaint, there’s a comment that PartnerDirect is young and Dell needs time to iron out the details -- sometimes from the same partner who complained. I think that’s because of Dell’s outreach program, which has by far been the most interesting thing to watch over these last nine months.

For starters, there’s this Dell Channel Blog, PartnerStorm and the PartnerDirect forum. Plus, channel community manager Amie Paxton is on Facebook and Twitter, as she talked about on a SearchITChannel.com Partner News Podcast earlier this year. I haven’t seen another vendor do so much -- and do it creatively -- to connect with partners.

Of course, that’s probably because no other vendor has such an uphill climb to win over the channel and shed its direct-only reputation. But still, it’s a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to covering the Dell partner program as it continues evolving, and talking to partners about their perspectives. You can follow all our channel-related news at SearchITChannel.com and contact me at csteele@techtarget.com.

The opinions in this column are the author’s alone. Dell did not pay the author for this contribution and did not change the posting in any way.

We’ve learned via a memo leaked to CRN that HP has moved to strengthen ties with its biggest vendor, CDW. The Web is full of chatter as the channel weighs in and discusses the ripples this will create for smaller HP SMB solution providers.

For example, The VAR Guy asks about the perception of trust. Dell has been under the microscope since the launch of its PartnerDirect program, with many questions focused on our trustworthiness. Now, you have a channel program that’s known for its longevity and, as The VAR Guy calls out, “perhaps those solutions providers should worry more about a potential betrayal by Hewlett-Packard.”

I asked Greg Davis, VP of Americas Channel Group, for his perspective on this turn of events. Here’s his take:

“It is clear that HP sees greater value in CDW and continues to invest millions of dollars to advantage CDW over traditional solution providers.  We are committed to drive value to our network of solution providers.  Our partners work with Dell to take advantage of our build to order model, custom configuration capabilities and lower operating cost to compete with CDW.  While HP is walking away from these partners we are embracing them and adding great value.”

This HP deal seems to run counter to what Dell is creating with PartnerDirect, which is a simplified solution and relationship with our channel partners. With Dell, our partners and their customers are our customers, if you go with HP/CDW, can you be sure whose customer you are?

Today’s featured Partner is IT services provider, Redapt, from Redmond, WA. Redapt’s challenge was utilizing Dell’s expertise without adding complexity to its business model.

With a staff of 40, Redapt realized they needed to leverage the size and scalability of Dell to further their reach and offer a wider range of services and support. By partnering with Dell, Redapt has realized a 15 percent increase in total revenue last year.

While we realize that Dell’s PartnerDirect program is not perfect for everyone, for a growing number of partners, it is. Partners such as Redapt understand that integrating Dell’s consultative services help to eliminate a lot of pain points.

Read more about Redapt’s successes and how they’ve benefited from Dell’s business model while increasing bottom line profits.

It’s very important, in our channel community, to represent our Partner’s voice via their idea generation, commentary, feedback and business successes. Starting today, we’ll begin featuring different Partners who are achieving success and growth with PartnerDirect.

First up is Rev2 Technologies based in Santa Clara, CA., who used Dell’s nimbleness for its own growth and business opportunities. By relying on Dell’s quick response and technical expertise, Rev2 Technologies achieved:

• A 65% increase in repeat business
• A 75% increase in Dell server sales
• And 55% more deals won

Since becoming a Dell Partner, they’ve registered about 25 deals and stated that Dell has been open, truthful and has worked through any conflict that has arisen.  In addition, Rev2 stated that Dell was a complimentary partner who shared a common interest in the complexity of data centers today including; security software, virtualization and green initiatives.

By choosing a reseller program that offers less complexity & bureaucracy, Rev2 was able to present more solutions faster with streamlined ordering and flexible financing. Read more about Rev2’s story and about the challenges they’ve been able to overcome, as they noted, “being an IT services-provider in Silicon Valley isn’t easy.” After reading, please feel free to share your story with us.