Michael Dell

By Steven Burke
, CRN
4:38 PM EST Fri. Dec. 12, 2003


When Michael Dell became the 69th executive inducted into the 2003 CRN Industry Hall of Fame, the entrepreneur who has done more to make computer products affordable than anyone else on the planet set down his view of the channel. "When you think about it, Dell is actually a channel, too," the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Computer said in his acceptance speech before several thousand solution providers. "So we are one of you. . . . We sell to customers. We serve customers. And in fact, even though we are a bit different, we work with a number of you. And we value those partnerships and want to continue those relationships."

For Dell, building those relationships with customers, suppliers and the channel began 19 years ago, when the painfully shy biology major filled his University of Texas dorm room with stacks of computer parts. Dell recalls that those computer parts were "trying to tell me something." Well, he listened and has since built a $40 billion company, which forever changed the way computer products worldwide are made,it takes Dell only five hours to build a system to order,as well as distributed, priced and sold. The company has refined build-to-order manufacturing into a science, reshaping the competitive landscape for solution providers and makers of all kinds of computing products and services.

Ralph Szygenda, CIO of General Mo]]>"/>
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