Disclosure: I have been recognized as a Dell EMC Elect member for the past three years
Mark Browne recently joined our weekly CTO Ambassador Tech Talk to update the team on the new Dell EMC Elect program. For those of you inside the Dell EMC firewall a recording of the presentation is available here. The Dell EMC Elect program recognizes IT professionals and subject matter experts whose opinion is trusted and valued by the enterprise IT community. The Dell EMC Elect members provide independent product and services information that includes their experiences working with Dell EMC products. Most often their information is shared via their social media platform (i.e. personal blogs, Facebook, and Twitter). We believe that a large majority of our customers turn to people they know and respect for referrals above any other source so it is important that we enable this enterprise IT influencer community.
The Dell EMC program enables the Dell EMC Elect influencer community by providing access to Dell EMC thought leaders, early access information for new product and services launches, and opportunities to provide feedback our strategy and plans. This elevated level of access creates symbiotic relationship between IT influencers, Dell EMC, and our customers. The Dell EMC Elect membership benefits from the opportunity to understand our strategy and learn about our newest products and features so they have time to compose their opinions so they can be shared as soon after general availability as possible. As respected experts by the IT community their opinions help the IT community make more informed buying decisions.
Identifying the Dell EMC influencers from across the globe is a challenge Mark discussed. Each December there is an open nomination process where nominations for the Dell EMC Elect recognition can be submitted by anyone. This year there were 600 nominations and 153 people were selected for the Dell EMC Elect recognition by a team of Dell EMC Elect governors that evaluated their influence, knowledge, and previous contributions to the enterprise IT community on behalf of Dell EMC. The Dell EMC Elect come from a variety of backgrounds including Customers, Partners, Employee's, and Independent. It is a global community with representatives from North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific & Japan, and Latin America. A complete list of the Dell EMC Elect member is available here and there is a list of the Elect member under the @DellEMC twitter handle. You can follow the Dell EMC Elect chatter on Twitter by filtering on the hashtag #dellemcelect and on their Dell EMC community network page here. As Mark pointed out it is not too early to start thinking about people you will nominate for 2018 Dell EMC Elect recognition. The nomination process will start in December and be announced on Twitter with the #DellEMCElect hashtag and the community network page.
IT professionals are relying more and more on respected industry peers for advice. It is critical for suppliers like Dell EMC to engage with these influencers so they have the information and access to make informed recommendations. Equally important is the feedback the influencer community shares about products, solutions, partnership, and support. I think the Dell EMC Elect program does an excellent job facilitating two-way collaboration with the IT influencer community. I would encourage you to get to know the Dell EMC Elect members. They are all easy to find on social media and most IT industry conferences. They are a great resource for you.
