Dell is looking to standardize its channel partner certification programs across all the geographies where it operates in an effort to simplify programs for partners and its own operations.

The move follows Dell's reorganization, announced at the end of 2008 and implemented in the first quarter of 2009, around four customer markets: large enterprise, the public sector, small and midsize businesses, and consumer. Soon after Dell announced the reorganization, it put its Americas channel chief, Greg Davis, in charge of channel operations globally.

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"Channel is my customer," Davis tells Channel Insider, in an update on Dell's recent channel efforts. "Our channels provide solutions to customers in three of the four business groups."

Dell currently counts about 49,000 channel partners globally and about 1,800 that are certified in one of the company's programs, Davis says. In the United States, Dell claims about 18,000 registered channel partners and 627 certified in the company's three certification programs—government, enterprise architecture and managed services.

Click here to read about the progress of Dell's PartnerDirect program.

A few months after Dell introduced its managed services program, about 147 of Dell's channel partners have achieved certification to offer Dell's managed services. Davis says about a dozen channel partners are reselling Dell-provided managed services on more of an agent model.

It pays to be a certified partner, according to Davis.

"We continue to see significant growth premiums for those partners," says Davis, who notes that on average those partners show six times the growth rate of registered partners.

In May, Dell held its second advisory council meeting in Europe. The meeting was attended by founder and CEO Michael Dell.

"We've made a commitment that we will standardize the enterprise architecture program on a global basis," says Davis. "We want to create a single PartnerDirect program so we can all leverage the benefits on a global basis."