(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com Feb. 8.)

Partners of Dell EMC are relishing the profit potential in front of them now that the company has unwrapped its new partner program.

Partners said the Dell EMC profit-packed program puts the $74 billion behemoth into the same heavyweight class as channel stalwarts Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Fred Traversi, president and CEO of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Rolta AdvizeX Technologies, No. 91 on the CRN SP500, one of just 10 EMC Platinum partners in the country, said the new program packs more profit margin potential upside than any other channel program in the industry.

"This program is greater than anything we could have possibly imagined," said Traversi. "To say I was surprised is an understatement. I was shocked at the amount of added profitability for an EMC partner. It is not small. It is very big. I just can't emphasize enough how incredibly strong a financial program this is compared to the old EMC program. It is a 50 percent improvement in our profit margins. This program is now fully competitive with more upside than any program in the industry."

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Dell EMC has a slew of stackable incentives aimed at getting partners to sell the full portfolio of products from client devices to hyper-converged offerings and the full array of storage, server, and networking products integrated into a full solution.

The program packs a whopping 20 percent potential payout on storage products including hyper-converged products like VxRail, VxRack and Dell XC Nutanix. The company is also driving aggressive stackable benefits for both server and clients with respective payouts as high as 15 percent for servers and 8 percent for client systems.

"Dell EMC has been very clear what it takes to get to the upside," said Traversi. "If you sell across the Dell EMC portfolio this program is unusually profitable."

The "single biggest upside" in the program is centered on new business incentives aimed at driving partners to work hand in hand to go to market with the Dell EMC team to drive net new accounts, said Traversi.

"This program is clearly going to force people to reevaluate how they more forward in the marketplace," said Traversi. "Of course, if you are a partner with a strong Cisco business or HPE business it will not be a simple business decision to make. The question is which OEM do you go to battle with for the next new logo for you and that OEM? This program makes it more attractive to beat the other OEM competition with Dell EMC. For those people willing to put in that hard effort, there is a huge reward for doing that."

Traversi praised Byrne and Dell EMC Senior Vice President Global Channel Sales Gregg Ambulos for driving a program that delivers strong channel engagement with the Dell EMC sales force. "The program will have a significant impact on our ability to work with the Dell EMC field," he said. "That is significant. It's a strong step forward."

Partners said the biggest immediate impact from the breakthrough program will be added pressure on storage and server vendors without the same financial muscle of Dell EMC such as NetApp or Pure Storage.