Dell, EMC Partners Brace For Tumultuous Transition After Merger Close

As Dell and EMC draw nearer to closing their enormous merger this fall, partners of both companies anticipate anything but a smooth transition.

Nathan Rizzo of EMC partner Rx Technology told CRNtv he’s less than thrilled to be working with a company that will soon be owned by Dell.

’EMC’s traditionally done a pretty good job with the channel, and I don’t think Dell has, to be very frank with you,’ Rizzo said.

’The front end of Dell is terrible, they’re very difficult to work with. So I’m hopeful that EMC and the channel, they can help Dell figure it out. I don’t want to compete against my distribution,’ he added.

TeamLogic IT’s Todd Dehn told CRNtv that although he’s actually enjoyed working with Dell, he isn’t confident about its upcoming performance immediately following the deal’s close in September or October.

’Dell’s been just a wonderful supplier and really great to work with, but I’m just going to leave it at: I think it’s going to be a pretty bumpy road.’

Wayne Abbott, of Georgia-based Cpak Technology Solutions, told CRNtv he felt even worse about the Dell-EMC merger after attending a Dell session at the XChange 2016 conference in San Antonio.

Abbott’s main concerns were around how Dell will handle ’conflicts of interest’ between the two vendors.

’I was in the Dell meeting this afternoon, and they’re just real unsure of how this is going to pan out, you know, with EMC owning VMware and how much of this is Dell going to own, and how much favor are they going to show with Microsoft versus VMware. There’s some conflicts of interest is the way I see it,’ he said.

ReelData’s Jeff Spalla agreed that there will certainly be growing pains for the new Dell-EMC company following the deal’s close.

’It seems like it’s going to have to sort itself out for a while. I can’t really tell where it’s going to go, it’s going to be a lot bigger and badder company in a lot of ways,’ he said.