Dell's DeFoe: Surface Pro Deal Creates Opportunities For Partners In Windows 10 Migration

Dell says its recent deal to resell Microsoft Surface Pro tablets directly to customers does present partners with opportunities, specifically around Windows 10 migrations.

In a Monday blog post titled "Dell's Stability and Commitment to the Channel," about partner programs and incentives, Dell Vice President Americas Channels Jim DeFoe dedicates a paragraph to the Surface deal, which raised partners' hackles when it was announced last week.

The Surface Pro deal "will help create opportunities and interest for Microsoft Windows 10 migration and for selling other Dell-branded end-to-end solutions," DeFoe writes.

[Related: Microsoft Claims Partners Will Be Able To Compete With Dell On Surface Pro Pricing]

DeFoe did not return a phone call from CRN before publication.

"In addition," DeFoe continues in the blog, "we believe the continued interest and adoption of Windows is good for the industry and as a result will help drive new customer opportunities for our partners and Dell."

The explanation fell flat for a top executive at an East Coast solution provider and Dell partner, who said the Surface Pro deal is more likely Dell's response to customers "who are saying to Dell, 'Why don't you make something like this?' "

The Surface Pro simply isn't sufficient to start a Windows 10 migration conversation, the solution provider said.

"That conversation is driven by compatibility to existing applications in an enterprise," he said. "We've got enterprises that are running Windows 7 because Windows 8 won't run on what they've got. The first question is, 'Is it going to work on our servers?' "

Likewise, the president of a Texas-based Dell partner told CRN the Surface deal would not "make any sort of determining impact for clients to go to Windows 10."

"Clients have gotten used to running different operating systems on different devices as long as they can get to the applications they want," he said. "My clients are probably having to support some variant of their applications on iOS, Android and some flavor of Windows anyway."

The agreement allows Dell, as well as Hewlett-Packard, to bypass the channel and resell Surface Pro tablets directly to commercial customers. Dell will also sell the Surface Pro on Dell.com/work.

The arrangement angered Dell and HP partners, who told CRN the move puts them, and the vendors' existing tablets, in direct conflict with direct sales teams.

Microsoft, which provided a $2 billion loan to Dell as part of the Round Rock, Texas, company's $24.4 billion leveraged buyout two years ago, insists resellers would be able to "compete" with Dell on Surface Pro pricing and that Dell will not actively sell Surface Pro into SMB and midmarket accounts, according to solution providers briefed by Microsoft on the Dell deal.

"It would create more of an opportunity for me if I could resell the Surface through Dell, of course," the Texas solution provider said, "but since that's not an option, it's somewhat of a moot point."

PUBLISHED SEPT. 15, 2015