MSPmentor

Dell continues to maintain a direct and indirect balancing act in the managed services market, this time as the company marches into the New York Metro area. Here are updates on the Dell’s overall MSP strategy, including direct monthly pricing info and the company’s latest certification momentum.

In a letter to New York Metro Registered and Certified Partners, Dell outlines three key steps:

• expansion of the direct Managed Services for Small Business offering into the New York Metro area;
• development plans for future channel offers; and
• additional benefits to Dell’s MSP Certified Partners.

Ultimately, the letter states, Dell’s strategy is to:

“enable customer choice.  This includes the ability for customers to work with Dell both directly and through Registered and Certified Partners.”

The letter was signed by Dell VP and GM Greg Davis (here’s a podcast featuring Davis) and SaaS Global Channel Sales Manager Peter  Klanian.

The letter states that New York area businesses will be able to leverage Dell managed services directly from the PC giant; or through sales agents (resellers); or via Dell’s Certified MSP partners. Those certified partners, in turn, can leverage their own Network Operation Centers (NOCs) or Dell’s NOCs.

Generally speaking, Tom Roberts, Dell’s global manager for channel services marketing, expects vertical market MSPs to continue leveraging their own NOCs, while general purpose MSPs may be more inclined to leverage Dell’s NOCs.

150 Partners Get Certified

Skeptics worry that as Dell moves into more and more markets with its managed services offerings, the PC giant may be tempted to take that business direct.

However, Roberts notes that 150 Dell partners are now certified to offer Dell’s managed services platforms on their own. Also Dell has disclosed its direct managed services pricing to partners, in an effort to maintain Dell’s transparency with partners.

The direct-from-Dell managed services cost:

• Alerts: $9 per desktop or laptop per month; $59 per server per month
• Resolution: $39 per desktop or laptop per month; $199 per server per month
• Management: $59 per desktop or laptop per month; $299 per server per month

Remaining Questions

During my phone conversation with Roberts, we focused mostly on Dell’s Silverback Technologies product line (increasingly branded as Dell Remote Monitoring). Dell’s Everdream acquisition, by contrast, focuses more on remote service management.

However, I’m still waiting for Dell to more clearly articulate how the MessageOne managed email services fit into Dell’s overall MSP strategy. It sounds like Dell will share more info about the MessageOne effort later this year.

In the meantime, Dell plans to host MSP discussions with Partner Advisory Council Members in Europe next week and with US partners in early November.