10 March 2008
by Paul Kunert
Resellers have called on Dell to enable them to offer next-day delivery, particularly on servers and options, so they can compete more effectively with rival vendors’ channels.
The Partner Direct scheme was unveiled by the US hardware vendor last month (Microscope 18 February) and it is currently working through resellers’ applications to determine in which tier they will sit.
The plan is to build links with strong services-based resellers that sell to small and medium-sized enterprises, which often require pricing and quick availability. But to date Dell has not offered next-day shipping as standard.
"There will be an issue that Dell needs to sort out if it wants to model itself on Hewlett-Packard," said Simon Aron, joint managing director at Eurodata Systems. "HP can deliver options and servers next-day through its distribution channel, and that service is really useful. Some customers could start to expect it."
One of the tenets of Partner Direct is its single-tier structure, which means Dell will not be able to lean on distributors.
A reseller with experience of Dell’s supply chain said, "In the past, we have had to unpack deliveries to manually check what had arrived, and there is a cost associated with that."
Talking to MicroScope, Andy Dow, UK channel director at Dell, said it was listening to partners’ requirements and was sure that a next-day delivery service would feature this year.
"Clearly, configure-to-order has a tremendous value [but] we also recognise there are times when people need to have speed rather than flexibility of configuration.
"We are looking at having the ability to service [that demand]," he said, adding it was "on the cards" for 2008.
