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Dell Technologies grabs giant spanner, begins the Great EMC Retool

Details emerging of re-org tweaks to get business closer to customers

Following on from an exec-level re-org and top table resignations in December, and layoffs in January, lumbering tech monster Dell Technologies is again ringing the divisional changes in a bid to reduce reporting lines move up the sales dial.

Within David Goulden’s Information Solutions Group (ISG) - the combined EMC and Dell servers and networking organisation - the Chad Sakac-run CPSD (Converged Platforms and Solutions Division) has merged two units and dropped one incumbent exec.

Senior veep Jim Ganthier bossed the Validated Solutions unit with fellow big cheese Armughan Ahmad heading the Global Solutions and Technology Alliances unit: now Ahmad will run both. Ganthier leaves Goulden’s ISG to join a unit led by Dell’s top female exec; EVP and Chief Customer Officer Karen Quintos.

She was Dell’s Chief marketing officer before the EMC acquisition but she made way for Jeremy Burton post merger and became CCO. Ganthier is to become SVP for Customer Solutions Advocacy,reporting to Karen Quintos. Rory Read, Dell Technologies Chief Integration Officer was involved with Sakac in effecting the transfer.

According to an intenral staff email from Sakac that was seen by us:

"We ... need to constantly be evaluating how to make things simpler, clearer. Under Rory Read’s leadership, we have an opportunity to evaluate ways we can simplify our solutions, processes and how we work together to benefit our customers and team members."

There is a critical opportunity to ensure a total closed feedback loop to make sure that we are getting the last mile enablement to our key customers and key partners right. There is also an opportunity for very senior customer advocacy for Dell Technologies about our solutions - not just our point products. This would require a technologist who would engage with our largest customers and partners; explain how we come together as a whole vs. the parts; showcase the solutions we have; help them with their journey; and, listen for feedback on how to get even better.

If Bill Scannell and Marius Haas’ teams are the thousands of ‘hands and feet’ - think of this as critical ‘eyes and ears’ to close the feedback loop from the ‘outside in’ perspective. Of course, this role is far more than just eyes and ears. It’s vital that we understand our customers’ pain points as well as their outcomes so that we can guide them towards the right solutions for their business needs. This technologist will be a vital resource to our sales team and can work hand in hand with them to bring deep enterprise solutions expertise to the customer.

Dell Technologies CSPD president Chad Sakac told us: "There was a clear opportunity to do something obvious – our workloads and solutions are VERY linked to our tech alliance partners. Examples? RedHat wants to build their RedHat OpenStack Platform 10 with us. SAP HANA platforms business is cooking. Our Cloudera/Hortonworks/Splunk data analytics business is booming. Microsoft wants to build VxRack Azure Stack with us. And of course, our Dell Technologies Strategically Aligned businesses like VMware and Pivotal are family – critical for solutions like VxRail, VxRack SDDC, the Native Hybrid Cloud and more."

"What do these all have in common? Tech Alliances + Solution = the offer.

"Bringing the Tech Alliances team and the Solutions team together is what everyone always needs – simplification, focus. Armughan Ahmad is a long-time Dell veteran, and ideal for the combined role."

"At the same time – a great opportunity for another great long time Dell veteran in Jim Ganthier. With big parts of integration in the rear-view mirror, having people that are technologists, that know our solutions could be part of our Chief Customer Office led by Karen Quintos. Jim’s experience with our solutions business helps us get leverage out to him being in front of many of our customers…. That feedback to Armughan represents a 'closed loop'. Likewise, bringing our Tech Alliances and Solutions teams together = a clear move, good for the customer, good for Dell EMC, good for Jim."

He added: "We’re in full swing, man. Integration is going amazingly well. We’ve fully aligned our field model and account structure, the unified channel program is ready to roll, and we’re making a few additional fine-tune adjustments to come out of the gate strong as we kick off our fiscal year."

Dell Technologies - the holding company for the trading entities - has got a load of debts to pay down following the $60bn+ buy of EMC, and anything that helps it achieve this has got to be pursued. Expect further tuning as time passes. ®

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