Dell reorganizes business sales units

Dell will reorganize its divisions focused on selling to business customers, with the new units focused on types of customers instead of geographic regions, the company announced Wednesday.

Instead of three business units focused on the Far East, the Americas and Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Dell will have a large enterprise unit, a public unit and a small and medium business unit. The changes will help Dell better respond to customer requests and give the company a global perspective instead of regionally run businesses, the company said in a press release.

"This puts us even closer than we are to our customers," said Dell spokesman David Frink.

Dell's consumer business is already organized on a global level and won't be affected by this reorganization, the company said.

"Customer requirements are increasingly being defined by how they use technology rather than where they use it," Michael Dell, the company's chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "That's why we won't let ourselves be limited by geographic boundaries in solving their needs."

Dell did not announce major changes in the size of its workforce as part of the reorganization. However, the company is "always looking for ways to improve our cost structure," Frink said.

The company did announce that Mike Cannon, president of global operations, will retire effective Jan. 31. Cannon will be succeeded by Jeff Clarke who, in addition to being head of Dell's Business Client Product Group, will become vice chairman for global operations. Cannon will serve as a consultant to Dell.

Also, Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis will leave Dell this fiscal quarter while remaining a consultant.

Dell has begun the reorganization process. The company plans to align its financial reporting with the new structure during the first half of Dell's fiscal-year 2010, which begins in February.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.