Partners: Dell Supply Chain Superiority Is Driving Sales Growth Versus Competitors

by Steven Burke, CRN Executive Editor

When several top World Wide Technology customers were concerned about getting orders filled in the midst of the current memory shortage and supply chain crisis, Dell Technologies founder, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell stepped in to personally guarantee availability, bringing those sales "opportunities" over the goal line.

"Michael was able to come in and reassure the client on supply and availability and that we collectively would be able to meet their demand," said Bob Olwig, executive vice president of global partner alliances for WWT, the $20 billion global solution provider behemoth that counts Dell as one of its top partners. "I think that's pretty powerful. We don't take that for granted—the relationship that we have with Michael Dell and other executives like Pete Trizzino, who heads up global sales. We feel like we are in a very humbling position with Dell right now, but it has been built up over 25 years of partnership."

As Dell hosts thousands of partners this week at its Dell Technologies World Conference in Las Vegas, Olwig is one of many top channel executives saying that Dell Technologies' much-heralded supply chain prowess is paying off. They say Dell's ability to work hand in hand with them on price, supply and availability is a big differentiator in the current supply chain crisis.

When Michael Dell founded the company that bears his name 42 years ago in a dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin, he made its supply chain superiority a hallmark of the company from its early days. That supply chain prowess has become a big factor, with the company leveraging its $113.5 billion size and carefully nurtured legacy partnerships with memory and component suppliers to grow the business amid the current memory shortages.

Olwig, a 30-year WWT veteran who has been an executive sponsor of the Dell relationship for 25 years, said Dell "clearly" has a supply chain advantage that gives it a competitive advantage.

"We're seeing great momentum with them right now, not the least of which is the AI-driven growth that we are sharing in terms of not only large hyperscalers and neoclouds, but we are also starting to see some traction with the enterprise accounts we are working on," he said. "Dell is in a great position. Their stock is at all-time highs. It's just a lot of fun working with them right now."

With the memory shortage and supply chain crisis "top of mind" for every one of WWT's enterprise accounts, the tight partnership with Dell is paying off in "more strategic" conversations with customers, said Olwig. "Nobody likes to be in this situation, it is disruptive for everyone, but Dell is a steady hand in all of this," he said. "They have a great reputation in terms of delivering. I think they are bringing a competitive advantage in the market with their supply chain, and it is really coming through. We're having very strategic customer conversations with Dell and with our enterprise customers together as we try to understand their spend and the time frame in which they need to acquire equipment and get it deployed."

Olwig said there simply is no one that can match the Dell supply chain. "Dell has always touted that, and it has always been brought to bear through the years," he said. "There is no one positioned like they are in terms of storage, compute, AI and client. They are unmatched in the industry as it relates to that amount of business and strength that they have. That just bolsters their supply chain advantage for sure."