Honoring Intel's Dallman

Earlier this year, Seneca and other members of Intel&s key channel advisory group approached Dallman with a problem. They believed the substandard nature of certain notebook components such as chassis available to system builders was hurting their ability to compete with tier-one vendors.

Dallman listened and, in turn, escalated the issue to Intel CEO Paul Otellini. “That was a big win, and in the next six months we will see some other great rewards from that,” said Doug Phillips, Seneca&s vice president of products and solutions. “Now everyone gets laptop [chassis] comparable to tier one.”

Intel&s advisory team had expected Dallman to help, but few realized he would move that request to the top of the food chain. And Dallman&s intervention paid off: As Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel begins transitioning to its Napa notebook platform later this year, it has pledged to level the playing field when it comes to access to barebones components.

Phillips said Dallman&s consistent attentiveness to partners& needs is one of his key strengths as a channel program manager. “He is very involved in listening to Premier Providers and to what Intel needs to change,” Phillips said.

It was that kind of dedication that led the CMP Channel Group to recognize Dallman with its first groupwide Channel Executive of the Year award. Presented at the group&s recent XChange &05 conference, the award recognizes Dallman&s commitment to partners, his longtime tenure within Intel&s channel organization and his success in winning support from third-party business allies.

Dallman was selected from a pool of nominees reviewed by the CMP Channel Group, which encompasses CRN, VARBusiness, ChannelWeb, The Institute For Partner Development and the XChange conferences. Among the criteria used to evaluate candidates were partner satisfaction, the strategic importance of the channel to his or her company, the executive&s standing within their organization and the nominee&s ability to drive demonstrable change.

Among his many achievements, Dallman, a 20-year Intel veteran, was recently responsible for restructuring Intel&s channel program membership benefits, overhauling its marketing approach and training requirements, and embracing VARs that weren&t necessarily involved in building systems. He also helped establish the vendor&s burgeoning Digital Home channel focus.

More recently, Dallman&s focus has been the whitebook issue. “That&s something we haven&t stopped working on and will work even harder on next year,” he said.

To that end, Intel is working to improve component availability and standardization, so that system builders and integrators will have access to interchangeable parts. Dallman has pledged to ensure that they have immediate access to CPUs when Intel switches to its Napa mobile platform.

His ability to follow through on these promises lies in his knack for getting other vendors to work with him. For example, Intel is working with other OEMs to standardize interoperable parts. Expected first are hard drives, optical drives and screens. But in the future, Dallman would like to see a full range of interchangeable parts for notebooks.

“We did a really great job getting a lot of mobile notebook products into channel at competitive prices,” he said. “One of the things I&m hearing back now is there are new barriers. All products tend to be customized, and you can&t swap pieces between manufacturers.”

Though Dallman frequently stays up late working on issues such as these—he&s known for his late-night e-mails—he still manages to find some time to himself. He spends some of that time off at a small vacation house in Mexico where he snorkels, fishes, rides bikes and walks his dog, aptly named Cabo.

Back at home, Dallman said he exercises four to five times per week. But work is never far away: He has figured out a way to use his BlackBerry while still keeping his balance on the treadmill. “It&s pretty comical,” Dallman said.

But perhaps that&s not too out of the ordinary for someone whose career requires balancing the needs of Intel and its OEM partners with the needs of the vital channel on which they thrive.