Eric Arcese is Reimagining Partner Marketing: Driving Transformational Growth
The Renaissance Is Real
Eric Arcese, Vice President of Global Partner Marketing at Dell Technologies, is optimistic about Dell’s future, noting that Dell is not just revisiting partner marketing—it is reimagining it. “We’ve always known our work was essential to the partner ecosystem,” he says, “but now there’s a real reckoning across tech: you can’t drive transformational outcomes without a robust partner ecosystem.”
With over 70% of the projected $5.44 trillion global tech spend in 2025 flowing through partners (per Canalys1), the math and momentum speak for themselves. “On average, it takes seven partners to deliver a transformational outcome,” Arcese notes. “Customers want partners they trust, and partner marketers tell the story of how we can collectively realize the promise of technology in this new world order of AI.”
Escaping the Island
Arcese uses his favorite analogy to describe the “traditional” company mindset: imagining if partner marketers were sequestered on an island separate from “mainland” marketing. “It’s peaceful, it’s beautiful, it’s sunny, the water’s warm and the tropical life can be grand—you feel like you’re doing something special,” he says. “But if a problem arises, you're on your own.”
Arcese’s solution? Getting off the island and leveraging the infrastructure of “mainland” marketing to make sure every marketer in the company understands the massive value of partners. Arcese’s goal is to ensure every marketer—not just those in partner marketing — understands how to champion Dell’s partner story. “We need the full weight of the marketing machine behind our ecosystem,” he says. “Approximately half of Dell’s revenue flows through partners2. As the market leader, partners are imperative to our long-term success.”
He believes the partner marketing function for all companies must evolve beyond a silo to demystify its purpose. “You don’t need a PhD to understand our partner business,” he says. “Everyone in marketing should understand our indirect go-to-market motion.”
The Framework: Simple. Predictable. Profitable.
Arcese is reviving a core Dell mantra - one he believes is more relevant than ever.
- Simple: “We are simplifying our messaging and portfolio so partners can navigate it easily.”
- Predictable: “We want partners to know what to expect when they engage with us. Remove friction, build accountability, and stay consistent across every transaction.”
- Profitable: “We are creating an environment where partners can deliver their own unique value with our client solutions and data center portfolio.”
This clarity is what enables Dell to align with sales and its broader partner program. While Arcese didn’t reveal specific KPIs, he made it clear: the partner motion is deeply embedded into how Dell plans, measures, and executes its go-to-market.
Strategic Alliances are critically important to make the magic of AI real
For Dell, partner marketing isn’t just messaging support—it’s central to co-sell and co-market execution. Arcese calls out the importance of joint efforts with strategic alliance partners like NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Red Hat, Nutanix and Microsoft to win in today’s AI-driven landscape.
At the heart of this strategy is the Dell AI Factory, Dell’s approach to help accelerate AI innovation in organizations of all sizes. It comprises a portfolio of products, solutions and services optimized for AI workloads, giving customers access to the industry’s broadest AI portfolio and Dell’s open ecosystem of partners to create AI applications tailored to their needs.
Arcese notes, “Our partners play a critical role of stitching the gaps of that topology together so we can realize the fruits of AI and jointly deliver customer outcomes across every vertical we serve.”
But coordinating multiple partners in a go-to-market plan takes acumen. “It gets complex quickly,” he admits. That’s why marketing must function as both a strategist and messaging integrator—ensuring clarity amid complexity and keeping all players aligned around customer outcomes.
Sustaining Momentum with Partners
Partner engagement was a recurring topic in a recent series of roundtables led by Spur Reply, and Arcese agrees it’s a top priority for Dell. He notes, “The goalposts move constantly. What worked last year may not cut it this year. That’s why our global partner listening posts and feedback loop are so important. We need to understand what partners of every size are facing in this dynamic market and ensure we’re adapting the way we engage with our partners.”
Shared Ownership, Shared Success
When asked who owns enablement at Dell, Arcese offers a diplomatic—but honest—answer. “Ultimately, everyone owns enablement, and no one is off the hook. Everyone is accountable.”
From sales to product, from L&E to marketing, everyone has a role to play in enabling the partner ecosystem. “Our team doesn’t outsource that responsibility—we embrace it,” he says. “Because when partners fully position the strength of our full portfolio – when they are ‘All In’ - we win.”
And for a company with Dell’s stature — holding #1 industry positions3 across the technology landscape, including client business, workstations, displays, servers, external storage and HCI, consistent enablement isn’t just nice to have. It’s mission-critical.
Always Evolving
Arcese, a Dell veteran since 1997, is energized by the ever-changing nature of the business. “Tech never sits still,” he says. “That’s what makes this job fun—you’re never done, and you’re never ‘fully simple, perfectly predictable, or maximally profitable.’”
The same applies to partner marketing. It’s not a finished product—it’s a journey. “We’re not just trying to tell a story,” Arcese concludes. “We’re trying to shape an experience. And when the entire company rallies behind the partner motion, that’s when things start to really move. And I’ve never been more excited about the role we play.”
Dina O’Mara on Disrupting the Sea of Sameness in Partner Marketing
In today’s complex, digitally driven, partner-powered world, partner marketing is no longer the “stepchild at the table.” It’s front and center—and increasingly responsible for driving real revenue. Dina O’Mara, Global Partner Marketing Director at Intel, believes we’re in the middle of a new era—one where partner marketing is not only exemplary but required to modernize go-to-market strategies, build buying networks, and deliver measurable qualified pipeline.
From AI-powered signals to revenue accountability, Dina shares how Intel is embracing new, go-to-market frameworks and platforms for its partner marketing strategy to drive value across the entire ecosystem.
The New Go-To-Market Reality
Call it a renaissance or a revolution—Dina sees this moment as a critical inflection point.
“Modernized marketing means truly redefining what go-to-market is,” she says. That starts with getting crystal clear on two foundational pillars: your “Better Together” value proposition with partners, and a differentiated product value proposition.
But understanding your story isn’t enough. Today’s marketing must connect to a vastly different buying landscape.
As Dina puts it, “The buying network now includes an average of 12 decision makers.” Success4 hinges on intercepting the right personas, at the right time, with the right message—and that means knowing what they’re researching and their propensity to purchase before engaging.
Signal Intelligence and the Role of AI
The heart of one of Intel’s partner marketing programs is a signal-driven engine that captures and activates intent data across the buyer journey. “With so much AI-generated content flooding the market, it's not about doing more. It's about doing smarter,” says Dina. Intel’s approach uses tools like Informa Tech Target to capture real-time buyer network signals—search terms, intent keywords, and buyer research behavior—and maps that back to the broader sales motion.
She emphasizes a simple but powerful mindset shift: “If using AI, don’t use AI to just use AI. Use AI as a team member, to help meet business objectives.”
This intelligence enables sellers to expand their footprint, engage more influencers in the buying group, and close more deals. It’s a far cry from the spray-and-pray marketing of the past.
Metrics That Matter: From Awareness to Revenue
Dina’s philosophy is clear: if it doesn’t drive revenue, it doesn’t matter.
“We are absolutely delivering confirmed, validated opportunities to sales,” she says. “I can calculate the pipeline I’ve generated and show the opportunities that this partner marketing program has brought to the front door.”
This end-to-end alignment means Intel’s partner marketing program isn’t just a campaign—it aims to measure the impact all the way through to closed business. That requires tight integration with sales, partners, and a shared set of KPIs, and accountability on all sides.
And with enablement being a key component of the go-to-market partner strategy, she even echoes Forrester’s terminology shift—from sales enablement to revenue enablement. “We’re not just creating qualified opportunities we’re driving outcomes,” she says.
Lifecycle Engagement and Intercept Moments
Another evolution in this partner marketing program approach is recognizing that the journey doesn’t end at purchase.
From renewals to upsell and cross-sell opportunities, Dina’s team is focused on what she calls “intercept moments”—key customer milestones that signal readiness for another conversation. That might be a contract renewal, a usage spike, or even a dip in engagement. With the right signals, marketing can nudge the partner and customer at just the right time.
“We’re working toward connected workflows and a unified data estate,” she explains. “That’s how you unlock these intercept opportunities.”
This is modern lifecycle marketing—not just partner-led demand gen, but an always-on approach to helping partners guide customers through their full digital transformation.
Ecosystem-Driven by Design
Intel’s business model is inherently partner-led—touching OEMs, CSPs, ISVs, distributors, and every layer of the tech stack. It’s not just go-to-market with partners—it’s go-to-market through, with and because of partners.
That makes partner experience a critical priority.
“We take a holistic approach,” Dina explains. “We have our Intel Partner Alliance, with training, enablement, points, and rewards. We have a full MDF system. And we’re evolving how partners engage across the journey—not just at campaign launch, but throughout the relationship.”
Part of that evolution includes a more integrated view of enablement. “Go-to-market strategies often forget training,” she adds. “But that’s a huge miss. Partners need to be equipped with not just content, but knowledge and tools.”
Marketplaces, Touchpoints, and Breaking Silos
With many ISVs now seeing 50–60% of revenue coming through hyperscaler marketplaces, Dina confirms that cloud marketplaces are a key route to market. “They’re absolutely part of our GTM motion,” she says, particularly in support of ISV partners building on Intel-powered platforms.
But technology alone isn’t enough.
Dina is adamant that one of the industry’s biggest challenges is structural: silos. “Too often, GTM frameworks are fragmented. Sales here. Partner here. Marketing over there,” she says. “We need to act and operationalize as one body.”
That requires a connected journey—not just for customers, but for partners and internal teams alike.
What Keeps Her Up at Night
Every executive has a mental checklist of what must go right. For Dina, two things rise to the top:
- Revenue accountability: “My go-to-market plan only has value if it delivers revenue. That means confirmed opportunities, validated pipeline, and alignment with sales. That’s what keeps me up at night.”
- Disrupting the sea of sameness: In a world drowning in content, Dina wants Intel’s partner marketing to stand out—not with fluff, but with relevance. “We need to shine a light. Add a spark. Help customers see how we’re different, and how we solve real problems with real partners.”
The Final Word: The Modern Partner Marketer
As we wrapped our conversation, Dina summed up what partner marketing must become: smarter, bolder, and more accountable. No longer a peripheral function, partner marketing is becoming the connective tissue of a modern go-to-market engine—one built on data, driven by collaboration, and focused on outcomes.
Or, as she puts it: “We’re here to break silos, disrupt sameness, and drive business growth with/to/through partners for customer success. That’s the mission."
1 Source: Canalys and Omdia estimates, Global IT Opportunity, November 2024
2 For the past 4 quarters through Q1 FY26, partners contributed to approximately 50% of Dell Technologies net revenue.
3 Source: Client PC & upsell revenue statistic calculated by Dell Technologies primarily by utilizing other PC OEMs’ financial public filings, as of Q1 FY26; Workstations (Units) - IDC WW Quarterly Workstation Tracker CY25Q1 using data for 1Q25; PC Monitors (Units) - IDC WW Quarterly Monitor Tracker CY25Q1 using data for 1Q25 Server (Units) - IDC WW Quarterly Server Tracker CY24Q4 using data for 4Q24; External Storage (Revenue) - IDC WW Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker CY24Q4 using data for 4Q24; PBBA – IDC WW Purpose-Built Backup Appliance (PBBA) (Revenue) CY24Q4 using data for 4Q24; Hyperconverged Systems (HCI) (Revenue) - IDC WW Quarterly Converged Systems Tracker CY24Q4 using data for 4Q24.
4 Source: 2024 Media Consumption Survey Highlights, Enterprise Strategy Group, TechTarget.
