Dell EMC Channel Chief Mullen On What Partners Can Expect At Dell Technologies World And Global Partner Summit 2018

Dell Technologies World and Global Partner Summit 2018

Thousands of Dell Technologies channel partners will flock to Las Vegas next week for the highly anticipated Dell Technologies World 2018, which also will include Dell's Global Partner Summit.

"The product announcements are pretty darn compelling," said Dell EMC channel chief Joyce Mullen, in an interview with CRN. "We're going to fast-track our partners' abilities to deliver across transformational areas."

CRN spoke to Mullen about what partners can expect to learn and hear about during the summit, which takes place from April 30 to May 3. Keynote speakers at the event include Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and Mullen, as well as guest speakers such as actor Ashton Kutcher. Mullen's talks to CRN about what partners need to know heading into the conference next week.

What is the scope of Dell Technologies World and the Global Partner Summit?

We are unbelievably excited about this year. We have 6,500 partner attendees. We'll have about 4,000 of them at our Global Partner Summit. We have over 800 partner meetings scheduled. The product announcements are pretty darn compelling, and we like what we're seeing in terms of the market response to our solutions and our offerings. So we're feeling good about the business. It's a pretty big time to be talking about Dell Technologies solutions and getting together with our partners – it's going to be great. Having Michael Dell talk, Ashton Kutcher and we'll have some great entertainment. It's going to be a whole lot of fun and hopefully super informative and awesome for our customers and partners.

Can you give us a hint about what's going to be unveiled during the conference?

We are building on a partner program that was launched last year. We're not retooling this in any kind of dramatic way, but we have really internalized the feedback that our partners have been giving us in areas that we can improve on. Our ambition is to absolutely be the biggest and the best partner program in the world, and that is really defined by our partners. To get there, we're really focused on ensuring that we make it a whole lot easier for partners to do business with us. We'll be talking more about what we're doing along those lines.

What will be the biggest takeaways for partners?

We're going to fast-track our partners' abilities to deliver across transformational areas. We're really all about figuring out how to embrace these brand-new technologies like Internet of Things and artificial intelligence and machine learning. So our partners are going to learn a whole bunch about all of those topics when they're with us next week. It's about leaning into the future because the opportunity is massive for partners if you think about what's going to happen with digital transformation over the next several years.

What will you be talking about during your keynote?

How we are going to make it easier to do business with partners. How we're going to make sure it's easier for you to fast-track your ability to deliver solutions across the Dell Technologies brands and how are we going to help embrace and monetize these new emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and IoT. And how we are going to be the biggest and best partner.