Dell's Channel Numbers Continue To Grow

As Dell's channel numbers continue to climb, so do the accolades for the company's executives and Partner Direct programs.

Fresh off being selected as one of CRN's Best Companies to Partner With , CRN has selected Greg Davis, Dell's vice president and general manager of global commercial channels, as its top Channel Sales Leader in this year's Top 100 Executives.

"We're very excited about that [Best Companies to Partner With recognition]. For a company like Dell to be rated with companies ahead of us that have been invested [in the channel] for 20 or 30 years is a significant accomplishment," Davis said.

But equally as impressive, Dell's global commercial channel business increased 24 percent in the third quarter compared to the year-ago quarter and sales from partners now represent 30 percent of all commercial revenue at Dell, said Davis.

Dell partners registered 58,000 deals globally in the third quarter, a 69-percent increase compared to the year-ago quarter. In the U.S., deal registrations increased 57 percent with about 70 percent of those registrations being approved, in line with historical trends, Davis said.

"It's a real strong indication of the trust that partners are building with Dell," he said.

During the third quarter, Dell completed the integration of its Force 10 Networks acquisition and now has about 140 partners with networking certifications, Davis said. "It's a good start, but we believe we'll be able to double that in the next 12 months," he said. "We're very excited to have the Force 10 team and products in our intellectual property as it pertains to the networking portfolio."

Meanwhile, Dell still has its eye on wooing more Hewlett-Packard PC VARs, even though HP has scrapped plans to shed its Personal Systems Group business, according to Davis.

"There's a set of partners we've had as acquisition targets and that we wanted to grow a more strategic relationship with those partners. They opened up doors to us in Q3. Previously it was a lot tougher. The disruption [around HP's PSG] put a lot of questions in partners' minds about the future of that relationship. That caused our phones to ring off the hook," Davis said.

The majority of Dell's channel business, especially in North America, is focused on enterprise and data center solutions, but the vendor recognizes that many of its partners also sell PCs and wants that business too, said Davis.

"We have a very straight forward strategy with partners. Regardless of what is happening with HP and other competitors, we are making great progress with the partner community," Davis said. "We're seeing great traction and I attribute that to a focus on ease of doing business, partner profitability and training. That's opened up a lot of doors within the partner community."

Next: Door Open For Dell

From a top-line perspective, it appears Dell's recruitment of PC VARs had minimal impact in the third quarter. Dell's desktop revenue fell 6 percent in the quarter and notebook PC revenue was down 2 percent compared to the year-over-year quarters.

But Dell's Davis counters that it takes far longer than a quarter to win over solution providers that have been tied to HP for years. And he feels that those VARs will still come, even if HP's PSG unit is more stable now.

"I don't think you can build a really strong channel business in one quarter and you can't erode one in one quarter either. The confusion and the way things have been handled [by HP] have opened up a lot of doors for us," Davis said. "The opportunity to sit down with partners that previously had not wanted to talk with Dell and give us the opportunity to talk with their sales teams is significant."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for HP noted that HP finished ahead of Dell in the Best Companies to Partner With list and that company has consistently demonstrated its commitment to the channel.

With active conversations with HP partners now underway, Davis admits that Dell now has to prove itself to win the business.

"The door was open and we ran through it and we're engaged with those partners and that's what we wanted to achieve. It's on us now to show great value. Winning and losing for the future is on how well we execute with those partners," Davis said.

It should be noted that Dell's primary channel focus still revolves around the data center, and the enterprise servers, storage and networking solutions that encompass it.

"We sell desktops and notebooks and we're proud of our end-to end solutions for the partner community. But the best way we add value is through data center solutions and we're winning there," Davis said.