January 2016: Farewell, Channel Xpress

You may have heard about a pretty significant change coming your way in January of 2016.

In case you haven’t …

EMC will replace Channel Xpress (CXP) with a single quoting tool for both EMC and Partners.

Because we operate in an industry of rapid change, we continually look at ways to make it easier for our Partners to do business with EMC. This new quoting tool will help us do just that—it will remove friction and simplify the selling process.

It’s a big deal; and I’d like to share a few points about why we’re so excited about this change.

Let’s start with the basics.

It is ONE quoting tool. For years our systems have not been aligned to the way we work with our Partner community. By introducing a single quoting tool the quoting process will be faster and easier. And, it will be easy to navigate and easy to access via multiple devices, including your tablet.

What else? The new solution will also:

  • Offer a single sign on experience – getting you into the quoting tool faster
  • Protect approved quotes from configuration updates – decreasing rework you often experience today
  • Introduce automation and workflow into the quote approvals process – enabling more timely and transparent approvals

The quoting tool will be accessible only through the Partner Portal. Once the new quoting tool is live in January 2016, EMC will no longer use CXP for quoting or ordering. However, after that time, CXP will remain available in order to provide read-only access to prior quotes and to view order status information of quotes submitted to order from CXP.

Get ready for the change

We’ve only just started talking about this change. Watch for additional information throughout Q3.

Below are steps you can take now to help you prepare for this exciting change:

  1. Plan to attend training in Q4
  2. Verify that your Partner Portal login credentials are current and active
  3. Access additional information, tools, and resources on the CXP Overview & Upcoming Changes page of the Partner Portal

We’ll continue update the Partner Portal regularly with videos, demos, and news you need.

As I said earlier, this is a big deal here at EMC and has been in the works for some time. As you learn more about this solution over the next two quarters, I think you’ll see that your voice has been heard and we are taking a massive step forward in making it easier to do business with EMC.