Dell Technologies Partner Program 2025 sees greater incentives for the partner ecosystem

The 2025 partner program will focus on three strategic priorities - growth and modernization of the core business, new market opportunities and providing a strengthened and streamlined partner experience.

In 2025, Dell Technologies is aiming to deliver a more simplified and structured focus through its partner program. The 2025 Dell Technologies Partner Program, which was recently announced, will help partners accelerate growth and collaboration across critical technologies.

In December 2024, Manish Gupta, Vice President and Regional Partner Ecosystem Leader, Asia Pacific Japan & Greater China at Dell Technologies told CRN Asia that partners in the Asia Pacific region will be trained to be trusted advisors to help customers in their digital journey. Enabling this will be ensuring there is a structured and simplified ecosystem that will focus on various aspects of Dell’s portfolio.

As such, the 2025 Dell Technologies Partner Program has been designed to accelerate innovation throughout Dell’s shared ecosystem, allowing the tech giant to address the largest opportunities in the technology industry today and unlock growth in the AI era.

Discussing the latest offerings in the partner program for 2025, Gupta mentioned that partners contributed approximately 50% of net revenue in Asia Pacific & Japan (excluding Greater China) over the past four quarters. Partners are also instrumental to the joint success and leadership as one of the industry's largest go-to-market engines.

The 2025 partner program will focus on three strategic priorities. This includes focusing on growth and modernization of the core business, new market opportunities and providing a strengthened and streamlined partner experience.

“The program framework is simple. The objective is to make it predictable and drive profitable growth using the three strategic priorities which are around growing and modernizing the core business through the new market opportunities and increasing collaboration and building a better experience for our partners,” said Gupta.

Growth and modernization

In terms of growth and modernization of the core business, Gupta said the partners will have access to further profitability through valuable benefits and rewards in key areas.

“There are a couple of things that we are doing here. In fact, late last year we announced our growth incentive for client business, which was one of the biggest investments that we have made in this space. What we are doing now is, we are doubling down by also including storage as a part of the growth incentive program for our Titanium partners,” said Gupta.

Titanium partners will receive a new 2% Storage+ growth incentive when they meet quarterly targets. Dell recently introduced one of the largest investments it has ever made in its partner client PC business with an incremental 1.5% client growth incentive for Titanium partners when they meet their quarterly client PC unit target.

“We are also going after the large under penetrated accounts. We are doing that through ‘compete select’, a program where we are giving partners an opportunity to earn another 4% by penetrating those under penetrated accounts on Dell in storage, on data protection or on clients. So that's another key incentive that comes in front of our partners. With ‘compete select’, we are actually adding on top of our partner first strategy and the partner of record strategy. Through partner first, 99% of our storage accounts are open to our partners and through partner of record, our teams are incentivized to work with partners in those accounts,” explained Gupta.

Another area for growth is in the PC refresh cycle. Following the release of its new AI PC portfolio, partners will have the opportunity to capitalize on this through the client growth incentive. This includes increased client+ base rate eligibility and recognition of consumer products towards base rate eligibility that will help partners meet customer demand.

“The new opportunities are really all of what's happening around the AI Pcs. The AI PC portfolio we recently announced provides increased base rebate eligibility and the opportunity for partners. That is massive simply because there are so many PC refresh required,” said Gupta.

New market opportunities

With the technology market projected to reach over US$5 trillion in 2025, more than 70% of it is expected to be partner-delivered. Dell Technologies believes AI will be a key driver of this growth, necessitating the investment in tools and resources to help partners accelerate enterprise AI adoption.

The 2025 Partner Program will enable partners with access to AI-enabled architecture such as the industry-leading Dell AI Factory portfolio to help them build AI capabilities.

Through the AI Networking Multiplier in the program, Dell and its partners have a joint opportunity with the infrastructure that supports AI solutions including data management, power and cooling and networking. Dell is doubling down on its base incentive for AI Networking with a 3 times multiplier on the Dell PowerSwitch Z-series. Dell has also updated its Data Science & AI training competency to enable partners on Dell’s offerings across Dell AI Factory and on positioning Dell products for AI.

On PC refresh, Dell Asset Recovery Services will help partners plan by securely and responsibly retiring legacy IT assets to drive environmental impact. To help assist partners with increased metal tier services revenue thresholds, Dell is retaining a 3 times services tier revenue accelerator for all storage-attached services. Partners selling Storage+ with services and storage-based Dell APEX Subscriptions are best positioned to take advantage of this accelerator for next year’s metal tiering.

Partners will be equipped with essential tools and resources such as an energy efficiency calculator, messaging resources, an RFP portal tool, on-demand training and Product Carbon Footprint reporting to support their journey and fulfill requirements. Dell’s refreshed Sustainability Competency, launched last year, also helps partners engage in valuable efficiency conversations with their customers.

“We constantly continue to evolve on some of the tools around efficiency, calculator marketing resources, so on and so forth. This is really around the new market opportunities not just around AI, but equally related to the PC refresh where there are asset recovery services and bringing newer tools so that the partners can equip the customers, and we can equip the partners in taking the right message to the customers,” said Gupta.

Strengthened and streamlined partner experience

As a part of the 2025 program, Dell will continue to enhance the tools, policies and processes available to partners, with a commitment to make it easier for collaboration and engagement.

This includes accelerated growth and collaboration through Partner First Strategy for Storage . The introduction of ‘compete select’ builds upon Partner First Strategy for Storage’s commitment to collaboration by making 99% of customers and prospective customers “partner first” for storage. With 5 times increase in Partner of Record storage accounts since launch, Partner First is fostering collaboration between Dell sellers and partners, helping to unlock new revenue streams and drive storage outcomes. Dell is also driving consistency in seller compensation for its client business to be agnostic of route to market and to facilitate collaboration.

“In the AI world, it's not just about the computational power that's required. You need a significant amount of data management because all of that computation is really going to consume data. And that's where we believe there's a massive opportunity around storage,” explained Gupta.

At the same time, in-tool intelligence showcases partner capabilities based on past customer account engagements, partner of record status and competency completions, making it easier for sales reps to identify partners to collaborate with. Dell will also accelerate time to quote for partners by leveraging competitively priced storage, client and server pre-configured bundles.

“What we are also doing is helping our partners accelerate their time to quote. For example, we are building tailored solutions or smart select, so that partners get immediate quotes which are competitive in nature, and they can address their customer requirements in a much faster manner,” said Gupta.

To empower business decisions, Dell will launch an Incentive Simulator that enables partners to calculate their prospective deal incentives and profit potential in the Incentives Center.

“The partners will be able to get early visibility, or they can automatically calculate what would be the rebates applicable for a particular transaction, and use that to calculate what their, what their profitability is going to be,” added Gupta.

Partners welcome the 2025 Partner Program

Gupta also mentioned that the 2025 Partner Program was well accepted by partners in the region, with many seemingly enthusiastic about the opportunities that are available.

“Our customers' needs are at the heart of everything we do at Data#3. Together with Dell, we deliver innovative solutions and services that unlock new opportunities by addressing our customers' challenges and helping them achieve their business objectives. Dell's commitment to partner collaboration has been instrumental in driving success for our customers and, in turn, for Data#3,” said Rob McCabe, General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions at Data#3.

For Ross Salisbury, Director, Product Solutions Group (PSG), Datacom AU, Dell has been a trusted partner in their AI journey.

“Their commitment to innovation and customer success aligns perfectly with our vision. Together, we're empowering organizations to leverage AI to solve complex challenges and achieve amazing results,” said Salisbury.

Ramesh Natarajan, CEO of Redington Limited also commented that Dell is revolutionizing the way businesses harness AI.

“Together, with their advanced AI solutions and expertise, we’re empowering our customers with tailored innovations that deliver transformative outcomes,” said Natarajan.

“With predictable engagement and tailored rewards, Dell is committed to leveraging new growth opportunities and drive greater impact hand-in-hand with our partners. The 2025 Partner Program will enable deeper collaboration such that we continue to win with our partners and uncover new routes to shared growth and success in the years ahead,” concluded Gupta.