As the channel ecosystem evolves to meet the demands of a rapidly transforming digital economy, Vivek Malhotra, Senior Director and General Manager – Channel Sales, Dell Technologies India, shares his insights with CRN India on how Dell is empowering its partners to drive business transformation. With over three decades of industry experience and nearly five years at Dell, Vivek discusses the evolution of Dell’s channel strategy, the significance of partner-first initiatives like “Partner First for Storage” and “Compete Select,” and how AI, client refresh cycles, and next-gen infrastructure are unlocking new growth opportunities. In this candid conversation, he reflects on his leadership journey, the shift toward AI-driven solutions, and how Dell is enabling partners to thrive in a hybrid, innovation-first marketplace.
Vivek, as you complete one year as Head of Channel India for Dell Technologies, how do you reflect on the transition and key milestones? Where do you see your journey and the channel heading next?
Well, I’ve been in the industry for over three decades, working with several large MNCs across various roles, both customer-facing and channel-focused. I’ll be completing five years at Dell Technologies soon. Interestingly, I joined Dell just a day before the COVID lockdown was announced. That meant starting remotely—without meeting my team in person—and learning to manage the business entirely from home, building relationships with team members and partners over the phone.
For nearly four years, I led different geographies, and then I was entrusted with the responsibility of leading the channel business for India. It’s been a fulfilling and exciting journey. Channel leadership isn’t just about driving business—it’s about working with people, enabling them to grow their organisations, not just in terms of top line but also profitability.
Our partner program is built to support this. If partners truly understand the program—and it’s our job to ensure they do—it helps them grow holistically, both financially and in terms of market insight. Over the past year, we’ve focused on increasing partner participation in our business, particularly in driving pure-play incremental business. Have they delivered? Absolutely yes. And that’s because we’ve equipped them with the right skills and designed programs to support their growth. That, in short, has been the journey so far.
You joined the company during an unprecedented time, with uncertainty affecting both personal and professional lives. With nearly three decades in the industry and witnessing its evolution, what are some of the key learnings that stand out for you?
One of the biggest lessons I’ve carried forward into my current role is the importance of proactive engagement and collaboration. It’s important to identify the right stakeholders, assign responsibilities clearly, and ensure timely delivery. Equally important is leveraging the new tools—especially those powered by AI—that are helping boost productivity. These tools enable us to do more with less, ultimately allowing us to contribute more effectively to our organisations.
One key area you mentioned is the partner program, which forms the foundation of your organisation’s initiatives. With annual updates reflecting market dynamics, ecosystem feedback, and evolving demands, could you highlight the key tenets of this year’s Partner Program? How is it structured to support the profitability and sustainability of growth within your partner ecosystem?
There are a few key areas I’d like to highlight, but before diving into the specifics of the program, it’s important to note that many of these initiatives are driven by partner feedback. Through various forums and surveys, our partners continuously share what’s working, what isn’t, and what they’d like to see introduced. We take this global feedback seriously and incorporate it into our annual updates.
One standout initiative is the Partner First for Storage program. This means that any storage opportunity identified is pursued through a partner. Our account executives and core teams engage directly with partners to help them grow their business, which in turn grows ours. This program also comes with strong incentives. For instance, Titanium partners now receive an additional 2% growth rebate on all storage revenue, provided they meet their quarterly targets.
In the client space, which we expect to see significant growth this year, Titanium partners are eligible for an additional 1.5% incentive on all client units built within the quarter. We’re calling this the “year of clients” because of the strong demand and momentum we’re witnessing.
We’ve also introduced a new initiative called Compete Select, focused on a carefully chosen set of under-penetrated accounts. The goal here is to expand presence in these accounts through partners, who will earn a 4% incentive for driving business in this segment.
All of these additions are built on top of existing programs, with the goal of supporting partner profitability and ensuring long-term, sustainable growth.
So, in the ‘Compete Select’ aspect, will partners independently develop these clients, or will Dell’s directives also play a role in this process? How will this collaboration work?
There are cases where partners independently manage the entire engagement end-to-end because they are well-skilled. As part of our program, we ensure partners upskill themselves, some of their rebates are even tied to this. So, in many situations, they can handle engagements on their own, and we actively encourage that. However, for large and complex cases, especially in the current AI-driven environment—where building solutions requires additional support, we step in to provide that assistance.
How is Dell enhancing partner profitability and growth through the 2025 Partner Program, and what new incentives have been introduced to support business modernisation and expansion?
Partners contributed approximately 50% of net revenue over the past four quarters, and are instrumental to the joint success and leadership as one of the industry’s largest go-to-market engines.
The 2025 Dell Technologies Partner Program continues to deliver further profitability, with valuable benefits and rewards in key areas:
Enhanced growth incentives: Titanium partners will receive a new 2% Storage+ growth incentive when they meet quarterly targets. Dell recently introduced one of the largest investments it 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.
PC refresh: Dell’s newly unveiled AI PC portfolio will enable partners to capitalise on the upcoming PC refresh cycle. The Client growth incentive, increased Client+ base rate eligibility and recognition of consumer products towards base rate eligibility will help partners meet customer demand.
Compete Select rebate: Dell will reward all metal tier partners with an incremental 4% Compete Select acquisition rebate when they win new business with Dell storage, data protection or Client+. The rebate is eligible for large, underpenetrated accounts, adding previously ineligible end users to acquisition rebate eligibility.
Client devices are poised for significant growth in the coming times. What factors, in your view, will drive this expansion in the client business?
As you’re aware, the Windows 10 sunset is approaching, and Microsoft has projected a significant number of units that will need replacement. That presents a huge opportunity for everyone in the ecosystem. For us, it’s not just about the revenue—it also helps customers upgrade to newer technologies and devices. Our AI PCs, for example, are among the lightest available today. We’ve been ahead of the curve in driving these transformations, ensuring our customers benefit early from the latest advancements.
AI PCs were launched last year and generated significant buzz across the market and industry peers. How has the market uptake been so far? Are AI PCs still in the early stages of realising their growth potential?
The market has moved in the right direction, but the uptake hasn’t been as fast as expected. It still needs to gather more momentum, which I believe will happen as more organisations go through their refresh cycles. With new product launches increasingly focused on AI-enabled features, we can expect adoption to pick up pace soon.
Considering current market trends, what new opportunities are emerging for your partner ecosystem? How do predictable engagements and tailored rewards create avenues for growth and innovation?
We discussed endpoint devices as a key focus area, but AI is going to be especially important moving forward. With AI comes the need for newer devices and servers. For instance, we talked about the launch of the 17G server—replacing roughly seven 14G servers with just one 17G. That means a massive reduction in physical footprint, power consumption, and cooling requirements. This is the kind of efficiency new technology brings.
Beyond AI, storage is another major opportunity. Our current storage portfolio is the strongest it’s ever been, covering the entire spectrum—from entry-level offerings to high-end solutions like PowerStore Prime. This opens up significant possibilities for our partner ecosystem to innovate and grow through predictable engagements and tailored rewards.
You highlighted the significance of AI, which is now central to most platforms and interactions. With the global tech market projected to reach $5 trillion by 2025, do you see AI as a key growth driver? If so, how do you plan to support partners in driving enterprise AI adoption both in India and globally?
I recently came across an interesting analogy—someone compared the impact of AI to the invention of the wheel. I found that quite intriguing. Have we unlocked the full potential of AI? Not yet. We’re still on that journey, but AI is certainly poised to make a massive difference in how humans and machines coexist and collaborate.
Technology cycles, which once spanned decades, are now shrinking to less than a year. Things are evolving rapidly, and the key question is: are we doing enough to keep up and bring meaningful innovation to the market?
Dell’s AI Factory was built with this intent—to bring together a wide range of partners offering AI solutions, and to enable other partners to take those solutions to end customers and drive real-world impact. Think of it as a marketplace of industry-specific solutions, ready for execution. We were ahead of the curve in creating this setup for our customers.
That said, not everything is going to move on-prem. It’s going to be a hybrid model. Some workloads will stay on the public cloud, some will move to private data centres, and others may reside in customer-owned data centres—it all depends on the use case.
For our partners, it’s crucial to continuously upskill, understand the self-serve motion more deeply, and start engaging with these tools. Many of them already are—and those who do are seeing meaningful impact.
As enterprises aim to modernise their legacy infrastructure with AI-ready devices and computing solutions, what specific efforts are being made to support this transformation? How are you collaborating with partners to identify opportunities and build value propositions that benefit both the partners and their customers?
Let me take this from a slightly different angle. This transformation began with cloud service providers offering AI capabilities to customers through subscription models. In India, we’ve seen similar momentum driven by initiatives like the government’s AI Mission and emerging subscription-based offerings. Right now, some organisations are experimenting with these models, while others are clearer about their strategies. They’re deciding which workloads should stay on the public cloud, which should move to private cloud, and which should remain in their own data centres. Going forward, we expect certain players to specialise in this space and collaborate with others to ensure that AI-driven solutions reach the last mile effectively.
You drew an analogy to cloud service providers, highlighting their transformation during the pandemic-driven adoption of cloud and digital technologies. Do you see a similar shift happening with AI, where more ‘born-in-AI’ partners emerge in the market, potentially reshaping the legacy partner ecosystem in the country?
I think it’s still a bit early to say definitively, but yes, some of that shift is likely to happen. If we—partners, organisations, all stakeholders—truly want to grow together, the key will be collaboration. We’ll all need to work together to make a meaningful impact for our end customers across industries.
Given your extensive experience in the industry, do you think the initial resistance to cloud adoption has been addressed with AI? Has AI helped overcome similar challenges in its adoption journey?
Some of those earlier challenges occurred over long change cycles—spanning decades or years. But with AI, the change cycle is extremely fast. Those who embrace this shift and move quickly are the ones who will grow. I don’t think we need another COVID-like event to accelerate adoption; it’s already happening at a rapid pace. The market has realised this, and those who get on board now will move ahead.
At the start of the new year, what channel direction have you set for your team—both internal and external? What goals or achievements are you aiming for by the end of this fiscal year, and how do you envision the path forward?
When it comes to our data centre products, my goal is 100% channel participation—it’s a partner-first approach, especially for storage and servers. We’re already highly engaged with our partners in this space and will continue to strengthen that collaboration. We count on them to bring in as many opportunities as possible, and we’re fully committed to working alongside them.
On the endpoint side, I’d say the sky is the limit—I won’t quantify it because the potential is immense. My team is fully energised, motivated, and driven. Everyone is collaborating closely and focused on delivering results this fiscal year.
