Dell names NZ manager in bid to boost sales

Mike Hill. Photo / Supplied

Global computer giant Dell has appointed a new country manager for New Zealand and charged him with boosting sales of its corporate hardware into Government departments and the country's larger businesses.

Auckland-based Mike Hill will oversee Dell's New Zealand business for two of the four sectors the company focuses on: large enterprises and the public sector.

The other two pillars of Dell's business in New Zealand - the consumer and small-to-medium business markets - are run by Australian-based managers.

One of those managers in Sydney is Hill's predecessor in the New Zealand country manager's role, Deborah Harrigan, who moved to Australia in June after her promotion to general manager of Dell's small-to-medium business division for Australia and New Zealand.

Hill arrives in the company's top New Zealand role as Dell begins a shake-up of the way it sells its servers, PCs and other hardware to local business customers.

Last month Dell announced that rather than selling its products directly to businesses customers, it would begin dealing more through third-party IT suppliers who would on-sell its equipment.

This "channel" approach brings the New Zealand operation into line with the way the company works in the business market in a growing number of countries, including Australia.

Hill said that as a result of the new approach - through the launch of what Dell calls its PartnerDirect programme - his focus would be on developing the company's "partner strategy" to bolster Dell's share of the business IT market.

"You will see over the next few months a move by Dell to embrace a partner model in New Zealand where we, with those partners, will build much more value around the Dell infrastructure," Hill said.

"I'd like to think over the next six to nine months the market sees Dell as operating a little differently, being a bit more visible."

Hill was executive strategist with Auckland business consultancy Virtuoso Group and has worked for HP, Compaq and IBM.