Greg Davis must really enjoy challenges. The president of Dell Canada Inc. has signed on to be vice-president of commercial channels for Dell Inc. and develop a channel business for the predominantly direct vendor.
He will move to the company’s head office in Round Rock, Tex. from the Canadian subsidiary office in Toronto and report to Paul Bell, Dell’s Americas senior vice-president.
This latest executive shuffle from Michael Dell is being viewed as the company’s first major channel development since its chairman and CEO proclaimed the direct model was a revolution and not a religion.
Michelle Warren, market analyst for InfoTech Research based in London, Ont., said she believes Davis has a lot of Dell experience in both Canada and the U.S. “He is good with challenges,” she said. “Greg can navigate the internal workings of Dell successfully. I suspect, while his actual hands-on dealings with the channel are limited (compared to Dell recruiting from the outside) he will be a good champion for the channel within Dell.”Warren added that the actual mandate from Dell himself to increase channel sales and relationships will be the toughest part of Davis’ new job.
“It will be a challenging role and he is going to have to strengthen the channel relationships quickly,” she said.
Harry Zarek, CEO of solution provider Compugen, told CDN in a previous interview that for Dell to be successful in attracting high profile resellers it would have to pass over lucrative named accounts to the channel.
In Michael Dell’s only Canadian briefing earlier this year, he did not indicate, when asked, that he was planning to do so.
In Davis’ new role, he will spearhead the development of a channel program. A leaked document indicates the partner benefits could include: deal registration, expanded back end rebates, a Dell authorized logo program, online training, education, demo units, financing, product road maps, and deal sharing with Dell’s direct sales force.
Davis does have some channel experience. Before joining Dell back in 1999, he worked at IBM as its director of North American channel sites and management unit.
In the past, Davis has said that channel sales would be complimentary to direct sales in Canada. He also said he believes that increasing channel margins would not be the course of action to attract more channel relationships.
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