Dell stressed it will operate a ‘size doesn’t matter’ channel policy as it launched its long-awaited Certified Partner tier.

The vendor has registered 10,000 resellers across EMEA since unveiling its first ever formal partner programme, PartnerDirect, in February.

Josh Claman, vice president of EMEA channels at Dell, told CRN he now intends to elevate several hundred of those partners to the newly unveiled higher tier. The first UK Certified partners will be announced over the coming weeks.

Dell’s top tier contains no revenue threshold or mandatory training on Dell equipment, but partners must commit to four consecutive quarters of enterprise business with Dell and show that more than 40 per cent of their business comes from services.

Michael Buck, EMEA marketing director for Dell, said the vendor is in talks with the channel’s big names, but would also embrace ‘solution providers’ with annual sales of $3­4m. “If a partner has additional specialisation in a solution or vertical category, that is more interesting than the partner’s size,” he explained.

“If someone knows how to sell virtualisation solutions into finance, this is an expertise we would not replicate because it is not scalable.”

Simon Aron, managing director of VAR Eurodata, said he welcomed Dell’s liberal stance on revenues.

“If Dell had started setting revenue thresholds, it would have alienated people immediately, particularly EqualLogic partners,” he reasoned.

The vendor is also in the process of creating an EMEA partner advisory council to help shape its future channel strategy.