Dell Sales/Technical Sales - A bit disappointed

[SHimmer45]

Spent last week talking with Dell after requesting a quote from a one of our supplies who provided a quote but also referred us to Dell to talk about our storage requirements.

Im not an expert on storage as such so was hoping to have a discussion with them about various options they could provide for "flexible storage" to replace some old Powervault NAS (i had been looking at NX series / Poweredge 730xd's)

 

so after a week of waiting and answering a couple of questions (how much disk space do you require / looking for SAN solution or DAS / how many users)

 

i get a quote back for an NX NAS which i had already done myself - i was kinda expecting them to provide a couple of options from the various products they offer

not just heres a NAS quote :/

i mean we dont do anything fancy for user folders and shared resources but just to punt a quote back seems very half arsed

[HTCPCP]

I always find dealing with dell a bit like giving yourself root canal with a chain saw, unless you have a good account manager.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't port my account manager when changing, and we got stuck with an account manager who's solution to anything is the most expensive possible - £2k for an i7 laptop with 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM? Seriously? I've already told you that we can buy off the shelf for £850!

 

Have to say I've recently got an account with HP and despite offering a bit less choice and customisation, they are brilliant for what we need. Still working on getting both Lenovo and VeryPC in here for a bit of variety!

[SHimmer45]

its just a little frustrating as i was looking for some insight in to what is on offer for storage and how it can be leveraged, its all well and good experimenting with things like storage spaces in a virtual machine to actually deploying it on live equipment (connecting up enclosures and the like if your using such things)

 

id love to purchase some equipment to test this kind of stuff but it is too expensive from a personally point of view

[Cache]

As above, a good account manager at Dell is a blessing to have. I had an issue earlier this year where my preferrered supplier was locked out of a bid process and by getting get hold of the account manager she managed to get it unlocked and sorted so that it was open to 3 bids again rather than restricted to 1. Dell also going through various restructures at the time, my account manager managed to keep putting the pressure on the technical guys when things occaisionally(regularly) fell silent.

 

I know you went to a reseller, but I always find it far easier to go through a reseller and get better pricing that way then Dell direct. It's also, normally, far less stressful and frustrating.

[FN-GM]

I buy via a reseller called Nviron. Can't recommend them enough. I am currently doing the same thing as you with a few schools and they are doing a great job.