by Michael Beach, Executive Director, Channel and Sales Operations, Dell Compellent — February 21, 2011

Every year, Everything Channel’s CRN recognizes the Channel Chiefs as leaders in creating effective channel programs for solution providers. Today, Brian Bell, our vice president of sales, was named a 2011 CRN Channel Chief, and we’re all very proud of this accomplishment! Brian’s placement on the list is the culmination of all the great work he and his team achieved in refining our channel program in 2010. This marks the second time Brian has been named to the list, and I was honored to be placed on the list in 2010.

Compellent employs a channel-assisted sales model, which focuses our channel team on working with VARs to identify and close deals. We consistently hear from our VARs that our channel-assisted sales model is among the best in the business. Our channel partners are the foundation of Compellent’s success, and together we generated record revenues in 2010.

Here are a few of our channel program highlights from 2010:

• The total number of Compellent users worldwide grew more than 56 percent to more than 2,500 in 2010. We couldn’t have reached this milestone without the dedication, expertise and loyalty of our channel partners.
• CRN named the Compellent Fluid Data solution the Top Midmarket Product of the Year for 2010.
• Two Compellent channel partners, Sonia St. Charles of Davenport Group and Terri McGrath of Insight, were named to CRN’s list of the Most Powerful Women in the Channel.
• Winslow Technology Group was named to the list of 2010 CRN Fast Growth 100 Award winners.
• We invested in a number of resources for our channel, including more comprehensive sales tools, a game-changing business intelligence system, training and certifications. .
• We initiated our Field First program, designed to inform and educate our channel partners on what’s ahead for Compellent.

These successes represent just a sample of the great work Brian’s team achieved while working hand-in-hand with our sales operations specialists, storage architects, solutions experts and others. But this award would be nothing without our channel partners believing in and putting their energy behind our Fluid Data solution. Looking to read more about Brian’s 2011 award win? Click here to read the full press release or check out CRN.com.