Dell Reorganizes; Operations Exec Cannon to Retire

The company also said its chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis, would leave Dell in the first quarter of 2009 but continue providing counsel as an outside consultant.

The move will focus on delivering "faster innovation and greater responsiveness," the Round Rock, Texas-based company said in a statement. A fourth customer segment, its consumer unit, had already been reorganized globally under senior vice president Ron Garriques, Dell said.

A Dell spokesman stopped short of providing specific details on how the moves would impact Dell's year-old channel strategy or structure. "We've just begun the process of organizing the people and practices into the global business units," the spokesman said. That will continue into the early part of 2009, he said. Under Dell's current channel structure in North America, the unit is led by Greg Davis as vice president of commercial channels and its channel efforts have touched on all three new business groups: enterprise, public and SMB.

Davis has reported to Paul Bell, president of Dell Americas; Bell will now take over as head of Dell's Public group.

The company said its Enterprise unit will be led by Steve Schuckenbrock, who has been Dell's CIO and president of global services. Its SMB group will be headed by Steve Felice, who has been president of Dell Asia-Pacific and Japan and based in Singapore.

While Dell has made strides in recovering from major stumbles from 2005 through 2007, its recovery has been notable if at times inconsistent - - including in its battle to win back market share it had lost to rival Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif. Dell was also among the first of major technology companies to say it was facing major weakness in sales as a result of the global economic downturn.

In a Q & A posted on its website, Dell said it was making the moves now to improve both its speed and global standardization of its product lines.

"Over the past 24 months we have significantly improved our competitiveness, reengineered our supply chain, broadened the product portfolio and introduced Dell to more people in more places than ever before," the company said. "Now, we're listening to customers and responding to their desire for faster innovation and globally standardized products and services. These changes will enable us to move with even greater agility to unleash innovation and respond to our customers' changing needs."

Cannon, a former IBM storage executive, joined Dell about two years ago from contract manufacturer Solectron where he had been CEO. In its statement, the company credited Cannon with transforming its supply chain and getting it back on a competitive track. Cannon will be replaced by Jeff Clarke, who has been head of Dell's Business Client Product Group, will become vice chairman of global operations.

Jarvis, who was charged with - - and credited by many with fixing - - what had been a blemished Dell image, will be replaced by Erin Nelson, who had been head of Dell's Europe, Middle East and Africa marketing unit.