Dell EMC Channel Chief: Partners Are Embracing Our Full Portfolio

Has the creation of the Titanium Black designation for elite partners had the effect you wanted? Are partners excited by it?

I would say it's the No. 1 question I get asked: 'How do I become Titanium Black?' When you have this kind of concierge key status, it's an interesting balance between excitement and exclusion. You have to make sure you don't get into the exclusion part. We have partners who were on the cusp of Titanium Black. There are a couple of Dell partners who are selling hundreds of millions but were not selling the full portfolio, and they are now building a plan to aggressively build the skill set and focus on the full portfolio to give themselves the chance to be Titanium Black. I had exactly the same thing with a couple of EMC partners who were doing hundreds of millions with EMC. One is very, very good at selling servers, just not Dell servers. That partner is aggressively trying to move business to us and at the same time is looking at an M&A strategy. There's definitely prestige around [Titanium Black]. They love the access it gets them to people like Michael [Dell], like our CTOs, getting the inside scoop. I think all the partners should be striving to get there. We wanted it to cause excitement, and it has caused a lot of excitement.