Dell channel sales now account for one third of Dell's commercial sales, about $20 billion, including 60 percent of the company's software business  and two thirds of the company's federal government business. "It is only going up," Dell promised. "And there is no upper limit."

Dell, in fact,  said it could be "relatively soon" when the company is deriving the majority of its sales from channel partners. "It wouldn't surprise me if we reach the halfway point relatively soon," he said. "We are embracing the channel in even more significant ways. Distribution is another example. We didn't initially embrace distribution. We now have Ingram, Tech Data, Synnex. The whole channel program is growing."

Among the channel gains Dell has made are a doubling of the number of IBM partners that have signed up with Dell as IBM completed the sale of its low-end x86 server business to Chinese computer giant Lenovo for $2.3 billion.

Dell said the problem with that deal is that Lenovo is sitting on the sidelines in the fastest growth part of the server market: the converged and hyper converged infrastructure market.

"The game has changed," he said, pointing to Dell's fully converged infrastructure offering including an OEM deal with hyper converged high flyer Nutanix.

Lenovo is also attempting to complete and integrate the $2.91 billion acquisition of smartphone maker Motorola mobility from Google. That deal faces almost insurmountable odds in the intensely competitive smartphone market where companies have lost billions of dollars, said Dell.

"There are some really nice products there that are losing enormous sums of money," he said. "That is the game they have entered. We'll see how it goes."

Dell said his company has no interest in playing in the smartphone market. "We are not going there," he said. "That is an extremely tough business."

Dell said he views the channel as much a part of its DNA as Dell  direct. "When we started (in 2007) it was a program, now as a $20 billion plus business, a substantial part of our revenue and even more substantial part of our absolute growth we are integrating channel in everything we do," he said.

Solution providers attending the BoB conference agreed. They said they see Dell as a channel power that has become a trusted partner.

Rory Sanchez, CEO of SLPowers, a Dell solution provider based in West Palm Beach, Florida, said Dell has achieved a level of trust as a partner that is unmatched by other long time channel companies.

One sign of that commitment is SLPowers' status as a Dell GEO services partner providing services on behalf of Dell. "Four years ago if someone said Dell is going to be your number one vendor, I would have said you are smoking something," he said. "The Dell direct team is being incented with a 1.2 times sales quota lift to put things through partners and work with us. We are leading with Dell."

Sanchez said his team meets regularly with Dell direct sales reps to grow the business. "From our perspective, Dell has nailed it, they have created an excellent partner program. The number one thing we have got going for us is we trust Dell, a company that not too long ago we did not trust. We trust Dell not to go around us, but to make us part of the transaction. We feel very comfortable bringing Dell in, way more comfortable than other vendors, and our Dell business is up double digits."
 

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