Dell Promotes Davis To Global Channel Chief

The Round Rock, Tex.-based hardware vendor has named Davis as its vice president and general manager of global channels. The move comes as part of a major reorganization unveiled just over a week ago.

Davis, who has led Dell's fledging North American channel strategy as vice president and general manager of Americas Channel Group since August 2007, will now oversee the vendor's indirect sales efforts worldwide.

Until now, Dell has been operating without a global channel chief, even though it has channel partners around the world. But with a global partner base that encompasses 140 countries and has swelled to more than 36,000 solution providers, including 20,000 outside of North America, the time has come to name one, Davis said.

"It's an opportunity to take further advantage of tools on a global basis and leverage consistency and efficiencies," said Davis. "And globalizing things is a great opportunity to save on costs. There will be a great benefit and opportunity to do that for our partner base."

Steve Seaforth, director of business development at Advanced Office Systems, a solution provider in Branford, Conn., said the move would be good for Dell and its channel partners.

"[Davis is] a good advocate for Dell," Seaforth said, lauding him for his consistent message to partners.

It is unclear whether Dell will name someone to succeed Davis as Americas channel chief. Davis declined to comment on who would replace him -- or even if there would be a replacement, noting that Dell will disclose its plans "in the next couple weeks."

The same goes for organizational and reporting structure changes that could happen with his promotion, including to whom Davis himself will report. Davis currently reports to Paul Bell, president of Dell Americas, who took charge of Dell's Public group as part of last month's reorganization.

However, Davis was adamant that the channel program Dell partners have come to know recently would remain intact. In fact, Davis believes that by shifting his focus globally -- something he said the Dell partner advisory council pushed for last November -- the company will reinforce the image it has created.

"I think our commitment [to partners] will increase," said Davis. "We work really hard every day to deliver upon our commitment."

The commitment to the channel Davis refers to involves talking to and listening to partners, and taking their feedback into account when considering where to focus his efforts.

"I'd rather do a few things that our partners want, do them well and get them right, rather than try to do everything," Davis said. "We'll stay consistent to that. And we'll stay consistent to that globally."

Partners can still expect a single point of contact at Dell and continued support from the computer manufacturer's field sales teams. Vertical market support will continue and the partner portal will still act as an important tool for Dell partners.

Dell on New Year's Eve revealed plans for a major reorganization that impacted three customer segments -- Enterprise, Public and SMB. In addition to naming Bell as head of its public sector business, Dell appointed Steve Schuckenbrock, formerly Dell's CIO and president of global services, to lead its Enterprise unit, and Steve Felice, formerly president of Dell Asia-Pacific and Japan, to head its SMB group.

As part of the changes, Mike Cannon, president of operations, plans to retire at the end of January with a $10 million severance package. In addition, Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis is leaving this quarter.

Scott Campbell contributed to this article.