Dell Technologies points to partner network for sales success

Dell building

Dell Technologies has credited its partner network with helping to boost profits by 15% in its latest quarter.

The company generated $21.9 billion in revenue during the final quarter of its 2018 fiscal year – a record for the organisation. This led to an operating profit of $2.1 billion – a year-on-year increase of 15%.

The world's largest privately-owned technology business also reported bright results for its enterprise-focused business units, including its infrastructure services group (ISG) and client services group (CSG) units, as well as VMware. However, revenues for its storage unit - largely EMC's storage product lines - dropped 11% year-on-year to $4.2 billion.

In an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha, CFO Tom Sweet said: "The teams did a good job on integration, and we're seeing strong coordination across the entire Dell Technologies family. This collaboration is paying off with better-than-expected revenue synergies and strong customer acceptance of our broad solutions portfolio.

"We increased our global coverage by investing significantly in our sales team and channel programme, and we've made changes in the Infrastructure Solutions Group."

On the storage decline, Sweet claimed: "But for the first time since the transaction closed, storage demand grew year-over-year. One of the drivers behind the variance between demand and reported results is due to deferred revenue primarily related to maintenance and our flexible consumption models."

Jeff Clarke, the company's vice chairman of products and technologies, added: "It's clear the Dell Technologies' value proposition of leading the digital, IT, security and workforce transformation is resonating with customers, partners and industry analysts. We recognise that we have some areas that need focus, and we are working to improve as we move into [financial year 2019]."

The news comes after research house Gartner's latest figures last week showed that Dell EMC dominated server revenues at the end of 2017, hogging nearly 20% of the market.

Dell has confirmed it's seeking to once again become a public company, rumoured to be doing so in order to offset debt incurred with the acquisition of EMC, and is looking at how it could list on the stock market again, possibly by selling itself to subsidiary VMware.

Full results for Dell Technologies' fiscal 2018 year will be published at the end of the month.

Jane McCallion
Deputy Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's deputy editor, specializing in cloud computing, cyber security, data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Deputy Editor, she held the role of Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialise in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.