Dell's ambition to expand its professional and managed services business is making some solution providers and managed service providers nervous. In the old days when Dell ignored the channel, they would close a lot of business supporting Dell products. Today, some wonder if working too closely with Dell will cost them lucrative services revenue.Is Dell shooting itself in the channel foot with its services ambitions? A growing number of solution providers seem to think so.
After years of rejecting the channel and services, Dell is embracing both models in hopes of jumpstarting sales and reviving its market leadership position. The acquisitions of Everdream, Silverback and Equal Logic, as well as deep alliances with VMware and other software publishers is opening services opportunities previously unavailable to Dell and, in theory, its channel partners.
But solution providers are growing increasingly wary of Dell's services ambitions because it is or could cut into their golden revenue stream - value-added deployment and configuration services. In fact, some solution providers are longing for the old days when Dell publicly ignored the channel.
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