Dell-SYNNEX relationship in Canada goes live November 1

The final T to be crossed is deciding how the premium offer Dell extended to U.S.-based SYNNEX Varnex members at this year’s spring Varnex will be rolled out in Canada, and that will be decided by, and likely announced at, the fall Varnex event coming up.

Frank Vitagliano Dell

Frank Vitagliano, Vice President, WorldWide Channel Strategy and Programs, Dell

Last year, Dell announced that it had added SYNNEX to its distribution roster in the U.S., completing the troika of the three largest broadline distributors as Dell partners since Dell made its return to distribution. November 1 is the data at which SYNNEX products will become available in Canada.

“We are excited and SYNNEX Canada is excited,” said Frank Vitagliano, Vice President, WorldWide Channel Strategy and Programs at Dell.

Following Dell’s return to distribution in North America in 2014, Dell began to work with Ingram Micro, Tech Data and D&H in Canada. Last fall at Dell World, Dell officially brought SYNNEX on board in the U.S – but not in Canada. At the time, Dell channel chief Cheryl Cook told ChannelBuzz the issue with adding a third broadliner in Canada was concerns about overdistribution, given that the Canadian market is only one-tenth the size of the United States.

This spring at the spring SYNNEX Varnex event, Vitagliano announced that Dell is introducing an attractive program for Varnex members – essentially the same as ones they earlier announced for Tech Data and Ingram Micro’s premium program members. It provides partners who would not otherwise qualify with all the benefits of the Dell Preferred Partner tier in Dell’s PartnerDirect program – the middle of its three tiers – for a six month period. The objective, of course, is that partners ramping up their business with Dell in this way will take the steps to qualify for the Preferred tier on their own.

At that time, ChannelBuzz spoke with both Vitagliano and SYNNEX Canada President Mitchell Martin on the topic, and was told that Dell-SYNNEX was coming to Canada, but that some things still need to be ironed out, and partners should not expect anything for at least a quarter. A Dell team met with SYNNEX Canada in the spring to go over a plan how the relationship could work effectively. Discussions continued over the summer.

Vitagliano said that what has changed now is that Dell has put the resources in place.

“Overcapacity and the ability to balance supply and demand is always out there, and there wasn’t anything holding this up other than just needing time to work through the process,” Vitagliano said. ”The opportunity was there, and this was always something that was going to happen. The key was just timing, making sure that we and they had prepared to make the mutual investments that have to be made. We have now done that. We have added some resources to work with SYNNEX in Canada, and we are ramping that up right now so we can go live on November 1.”

The deal with SYNNEX Canada covers everything that Dell sells.

“It’s our entire line,” Vitagliano said. “We benefit from a couple positive things here as well. We have had the U.S. SYNNEX relationship over the last year, so a, lot of the learning is transferable to the Canadian business. Also, because we have had a distribution relationship in place in Canada for a while with Ingram and Tech Data, we have learned from that.” Vitagliano added that as was the case with the other distribution deals, partners who are happy working with Dell through PartnerDirect without distribution can continue to do that.

“Some are happy with PartnerDirect, while others asked us for this relationship with SYNNEX,” he said. “We want to facilitate the easiest way possible for partners to get access to Dell products.”

Exactly how the premium offer extended to American partners in the spring will roll out in Canada has not been finalized.

“We will figure out and announce at the fall Varnex event what we will do there,” Vitagliano said. “This program has been very successful in the U.S. Many SYNNEX partners have expanded their business with us who may not have otherwise.”