Slide Show: Dell's Jump Into The Channel

Welcome to the face of the new Dell Partner Program. Here's the first page of the Deal Registration portal Dell unveils today, allowing partners to track opportunities, view deal status and check their accounts with Dell.

It is also the technology foundation to the wall that Dell promises will keep its direct sales organization from viewing partner data.

Only Dell's sales partner team should have access to a solution provider's account information. This example shows data fields that are actually blocked and kept secret from Dell's direct sales group.

Solution providers that register or obtain certification status with Dell's partner program will gain the right to display a Dell partner logo -- something that Dell executives say they have heard is a request from some in the channel.

Dell's sales and market share have been under pressure for at least two years, as it has lost its Number 1 market share position to rival Hewlett-Packard. HP's market share gains, at Dell's expense, have continued through the most recent calendar quarter according to numbers provided by iSuppli.

In an interview with Channelweb, Greg Davis, Dell's vice president and general manager of channels for its Americas group, said he will be the man who takes responsibility for working to head off conflicts between Dell's direct and channel sales organizations. He says Dell direct reps have already handed his team 1,000 accounts that they want to hand off to new Dell channel partners.

Earlier this year, Michael Dell told employees in an internal e-mail that the company's direct sales model was not a "religion."

And while solution providers continue to say they have many questions that need answering before Dell can convert them, Dell told financial analysts last week that channel partners may be happy to have Dell to use to play against HP.

"Many are quite excited to have the only full-line alternative to our major competitor out there," he said.