For example, the company has been talking about how it wishes to grow its channel sales, but when it launched its On-Demand Desktop Streaming bundle, it cut the channel out. Now, for the week ahead, top Dell executives have called for a virtual "town hall" meeting with solution providers as it continues to push to have a new channel program in place by year's end.

Today, on a Sunday, Dell is announcing that it has selected one agency, WPP, to handle all of its advertising and marketing. It started 2007 with 800 agencies handling its messaging. Mark Jarvis, Dell's chief marketing officer, explains what's going on in a posting on Dell's corporate blog, in streamlining to one agency:

Dell is announcing today that it will partner with WPP who will join Dell to create a new global integrated marketing and communications agency.

Together with the WPP agency, Dell is creating a new marketing model designed to further propel Dell's growth. We've been calling this 'Project Da Vinci because we've been looking for the combination of artist and scientist—an agency that has both the creative horsepower and ability to measure the business impact of their work.

Among other things, Jarvis says there were a few rationales, including: "The rationale for one partner - - A "partner" is someone who works with you not for you. Shares your business goals and is invited into the heart of your marketing process. By combining our agencies we can invest in the long term, in the people and tools to unlock far greater results than a patchwork quilt.

Solution providers who attend the virtual town hall with Dell executives may want to keep that definition of partner front of mind. WPP, by the way, employs more than 100,000 public relations, advertising and marketing people, and owns firms including Blanc & Otus, Burson-Marsteller and Ogilvy and Mather.

That's a lot of people and organizations that, Dell believes, will rally around one cause and message. In large measure, it's also the thinking behind a new embrace of the channel and solution providers after 23 years of direct-led sales.