IBM/DELL/HP Resellers

atlrocks07

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
257
I am looking at be coming a reseller for one of three companys. I have some projects over the next 5 years that i can easily buy 100k of computers/server from one of these resellers. Which one is the best to go with?
 
First it sounds like YOU want to become a reseller, then it sounds like YOU want to buy and use the servers yourself in your project? Which is it?

Anyway, 100k is such a small amount so i doubt that it is worth to find a reseller, just buy directly from Dell/IBM or HP and they could probably give you a little better price than the listprice, but yeah, 100k isnt much so i doubt it would be that much cheaper.
 
You're going to have to go through a distributor like Ingram Micro or Tech Data. No one will deal direct with you for $20K/yr. Even a distributor may not if that's all you buy so your best bet may just be buying through Dell direct...or like CDW that only charges a few points over cost in many cases.
 
Waves his hand, i'm a dell fan, but that's because i'm trained / certified for all dell stuff.

I'm a dell / hp fan, the IBM stuff is a bit stubborn to work on and little more expensive / propitiatory.
 
I have a small business and am a reseller with TechData, BellMicro (Now Avnet), and some others. You really don't get much of a price break acting as a reseller. I would just go with a larger IT company like CDW and buy what you need. Companies such as them have the experts to help you figure out what you need, support it, deal with RMA's, etc...
 
Agree with everything these guys say. Generally speaking, you can find better deals directly in the end user market, than you might find at your distributors. The benefit of them is generally 1 stop shopping for all your needs, well, ok for 70% of your needs.

HP is the hardest one to crack directly, then Lenovo, and lastly Dell. If you're looking at 5 servers and 20 desktops, Dell will talk to you, the others probably not so much so. Points of entry are what your barriers are right now, and till you show some green, it don't mean jack.
 
If you're supporting your customer it could be worth it to get the service revenue on warranty work, You'll get the $35 or $50 they pay for onsite parts swap. At least that's my understanding how it works with HP.
 
CDW is pricey...pretty much retail prices, even if you buy large amounts. They're not really a "wholesaler".

If you want to get good margins, call Ingram Micro or Tech Data...talk to an account rep..and chose which one you want. They also can give you special pricing for projects you have..like if you are purchasing gear for a health care client of yours, or a non-profit client...you'll get much deeper discounts.

We resell Dell and HP and Lenovo. We tend to get the lowest pricing (thus make the most money) on HP gear.
 
CDW is pricey...pretty much retail prices, even if you buy large amounts. They're not really a "wholesaler".

If you want to get good margins, call Ingram Micro or Tech Data...talk to an account rep..and chose which one you want. They also can give you special pricing for projects you have..like if you are purchasing gear for a health care client of yours, or a non-profit client...you'll get much deeper discounts.

We resell Dell and HP and Lenovo. We tend to get the lowest pricing (thus make the most money) on HP gear.

CDW may be retail on their site but not if you call and get a rep. They'll register opportunities and give you much better pricing that way.
 
CDW may be retail on their site but not if you call and get a rep. They'll register opportunities and give you much better pricing that way.

We've bought from them (as a business) for over 10 years...we used them when we first opened up just to build volume, until we got into REAL wholesalers and qualified to resell HP servers from the likes Ingram Micro and Tech Data, etc. Prices are like...15-30% lower ...at the least, with real wholesalers.

We still purchase stuff from them, but not big ticket items....at least, not if we want to make any money on the sale.
They're OK for a starter business I suppose.
 
Maybe it depends on what you buy. I compete with them on storage and network gear and their reps will sell for 1 point over direct to try and win deals.
 
About the best you will get from anyone at that volume is Dell's PartnerDirect program. 3% off on the entry level stuff and accessories, 6% on servers and the good desktops/laptops (sometimes better if you get it quoted from a good rep).

In my opinion, Dell is the easiest to work with and allows the greatest flexibility of configurations. HP is a PITA. Never had to bother with IBM.

As for distributors, I prefer D&H to work with. TechData prices are usually a bit better on equipment, but I can't stand their website. Ingram was always screwing up my invoices and mis-billing freight, so I don't deal with them anymore. D&H doesn't carry Dell gear, though, so if you're not going direct through Dell and want their stuff, you'll have to go through TD. Direct prices are better, though, and you get more configuration options.
 
About the best you will get from anyone at that volume is Dell's PartnerDirect program. 3% off on the entry level stuff and accessories, 6% on servers and the good desktops/laptops (sometimes better if you get it quoted from a good rep).

In my opinion, Dell is the easiest to work with and allows the greatest flexibility of configurations. HP is a PITA. Never had to bother with IBM.

This man speaks much truth. We are a Dell Partner and it is much better then dealing with CDW or anyone else. We used to be partnered with HP, however they basically forced us to try and sell about 3x what we told them we could sell in a year, and when we didn't meet their targets they started messing with our discount rates.

Dell has been really good to us so far, I think their minimum is like $50K a year, and the more you sell the better your discounts get. Right now we are in the $250k a year range and therefore our discounts are a bit better then the normal 3/6% we also get discounts on accessories (switches, ram etc).
 
About the best you will get from anyone at that volume is Dell's PartnerDirect program. 3% off on the entry level stuff and accessories, 6% on servers and the good desktops/laptops (sometimes better if you get it quoted from a good rep).

In my opinion, Dell is the easiest to work with and allows the greatest flexibility of configurations. HP is a PITA. Never had to bother with IBM..

I agree that Dell is easiest to work with...for online configuring, and having custom orders made. However...their margins are awful! I've gotten up to 15% margin on higher end servers...so they will go higher than 6%, but it's usually under 10%.

The only time I use Dell now, are for non-profit clients...because Dell often gives a very deep discount if you're prepping a quote for a non-profit client of yours. I've seen 30 and 40% off with non-profits.

If you get approved as an HP Server reseller through Ingram, you can make a consistent 15% on it at true wholesale prices. However, you have to do your homework on configuring the parts and putting together your system....time consuming, versus doing the Dell route.
 
Go Dell, people saying no profits just dont sell enough. Start selling, always servers even cheap ones you save money over the "discount price" on the public site.
 
6 points profit on servers is about right. If you're making more you're probably in smaller, less competitive accounts so keep selling there. :)
 
Go Dell, people saying no profits just dont sell enough. Start selling, always servers even cheap ones you save money over the "discount price" on the public site.

What I've actually done..if my clients are going with Dell...I'll prepare the cart..and send it to my client..have them place the order. Unless I know I'm going to get a deeper discount, where I'll make 10% or more on the deal..it's simply not worth it for us to bother. Make our money in consulting fees. Hard to increase volume in todays economy.....clients striving to hold onto what they have. We're struggling to stay above 500k/yr in sales.
 
What I've actually done..if my clients are going with Dell...I'll prepare the cart..and send it to my client..have them place the order. Unless I know I'm going to get a deeper discount, where I'll make 10% or more on the deal..it's simply not worth it for us to bother. Make our money in consulting fees. Hard to increase volume in todays economy.....clients striving to hold onto what they have. We're struggling to stay above 500k/yr in sales.

10% is a bit much, so long as I can make at least $1k off each server or storage appliance it is worth it to me, because I can make $1k a lot easier off a server sale then I can off a consult. $1k for me would be about 8 hours of billable labor, it takes me 15 minutes to generate a quote in my dell partner portal.

I also try and sell everything (even if we are buying at the same price as the end user) through our partner account. For instance I have a NPO that is replacing its 100 desktops 10 at a time with laptops over the next 10 months. So basically that is $15,000 a month in sales from them. Now our rates on laptops aren't that great yet, and therefore we make about $100 a laptop, which is less then 1 hour of my time, however it is still money towards my yearly goal, and as soon as I can break into the next rung, my discounts get even better.

$500 is hard I agree, however we have offered ourselves up to other companies we work with (other venders etc) to purchase through us given our discount. The way we work it is they give us a PDF printout from the dell consumer site of their configuration, then we quote them whatever our portal gives us +3-5%. These aren't high volume buyers, but every little bit counts
 
I agree that Dell is easiest to work with...for online configuring, and having custom orders made. However...their margins are awful! I've gotten up to 15% margin on higher end servers...so they will go higher than 6%, but it's usually under 10%.
.

The 3/6 percent thing is just the standard PartnerDirect pricing when you order straight off the partner site (useful for non-discountable Vostro/entry Optiplex/entry latitude machines). Any of the bigger/better stuff, it is best to get a quote directly from your rep because they can usually do quite a bit better. I've had 25% discounts on mid-range servers before.

For the small desktop/laptop stuff, I generally mark it up $75-$100 over my cost, regardless of what the dell.com price is. That is my fee for knowing what specs work best for them, handling the order process, and being the point of contact for any warranty needs.
 
10% is a bit much, so long as I can make at least $1k off each server or storage appliance it is worth it to me, because I can make $1k a lot easier off a server sale then I can off a consult. $1k for me would be about 8 hours of billable labor, it takes me 15 minutes to generate a quote in my dell partner portal.

You're swimming in some nicer projects than we've been able to grab. We're 125/hour also for billable rates, but our typical SMB client....the server itself will be in the 5-7k range. 10% of that being 500-700 bucks...less than 10%...say Dells typical offering lately...barely making 2-3 hundge. 60 days of tying up several thousand bucks..

The online sales portals of Dell and HP made it harder to quote servers...when joe average client can go online check prices himself. Years ago..was much easier...building a server remained hidden from the customer.
 
The 3/6 percent thing is just the standard PartnerDirect pricing when you order straight off the partner site (useful for non-discountable Vostro/entry Optiplex/entry latitude machines). Any of the bigger/better stuff, it is best to get a quote directly from your rep because they can usually do quite a bit better. I've had 25% discounts on mid-range servers before..

I never work from the site prices, I always customize the build..and submit the quote to my Dell sales rep, he gets back with a direct quote.
 
say Dells typical offering lately...barely making 2-3 hundge. 60 days of tying up several thousand bucks..

I would rather make $200-300 than nothing, but we generally don't have many server projects with a 60 day turnaround - 45 at the most, mostly 30.
 
I never work from the site prices, I always customize the build..and submit the quote to my Dell sales rep, he gets back with a direct quote.

That's exactly what I do, too - except for Vostro and entry Optiplex/Latitude, because the reps generally come back with the same exact prices on those.
 
Are we the only ones that require payment on delivery of hardware? We generally bill in 3 cycles for a project. Milestone 1 is hardware, we don't come on site until we have a check for the total cost of the hardware. Milestone 2 is halfway through the project (usually once the client is completely off the old servers) Milestone 3 being after the closeout meeting.

That way if we get shafted by a client at least we only gave away free labor, and not thousands in equipment we can't get back.

Also it sounds like our "SMB" projects are larger then the average SMB. With a few exceptions we are usually quoting servers that would be about $10k (before all the discounts and rebates) for our clients.
 
Odd that you would let the end user buy it at your premier pricing.

Dell Partner Direct isnt anything great it's 3% off Dell.com

You want premier pricing. Vostro the best you can do is partner. Rest of stuff premier. Deal machines same thing partner.

No reason client should get our pricing they aren't buying 250k a year for 5 years so they shouldn't get rewarded,
 
Yeolde step up sales. Or don't charge Dell discounts you will get burned on that at some point.
 
I gave up trying to get any margins on hardware and make my money on labor.
For a server I charge:
Technology plan/helping them order: $500
Then a flat rate for the server setup and per hour for workstation configuration.
 
There is no money to be made on hardware. Money is made on service. I prefer HP stuff, great warranty. Much better service then Dell, or maybe its that our Dell rep blows dogs.
 
See I've had horrible experience with HP hasn't even been American support the times I've called on server. I had one server not ours that the raid crashed, HP thought bad drive, sent one crashed again, we couldnt get the one production sbs server stable had to overnight a Dell outlet machine. HP repaired the server about 1month later.

We have had 3 Dell rep as we grew insoles. I know swarmed has a really good one as well
 
See I've had horrible experience with HP hasn't even been American support the times I've called on server. I had one server not ours that the raid crashed, HP thought bad drive, sent one crashed again, we couldnt get the one production sbs server stable had to overnight a Dell outlet machine. HP repaired the server about 1month later.

That sounds about the same as our recent experiences with HP. Dell isn't too much better in the over the phone support side, but at least when dell tells me they are shipping parts, the parts are here when they say, not HP where I have yet to get a part sooner then 5 days after they say it will be here.
 
Odd that you would let the end user buy it at your premier pricing.

Dell Partner Direct isnt anything great it's 3% off Dell.com

You want premier pricing. Vostro the best you can do is partner. Rest of stuff premier. Deal machines same thing partner.

No reason client should get our pricing they aren't buying 250k a year for 5 years so they shouldn't get rewarded,

Profit is profit. Just because its $5 in profit. I agree that if he keeps shooting himself in the foot. He'll run out of toes eventually.

Showin the customer some love once in awhile is fine. But bending over and showing them your hole so they can plunge it in for ya? Seems kinda silly to me.
 
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