Davenport Group Welcomes Ferrin Hardy to Their Team of Customer Development Representatives
St. Paul, MN - December 6, 2017
“Ferrin’s ability to listen to customers, identify the right solution, and develop a lasting relationship will help Davenport Group continue to take care of our people,” said Brandon Cole, Director of Sales.
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Micah Jorgensen Joins Davenport Group's Team of Customer Development Representatives
St. Paul, MN - November 30, 2017
“Micah’s skill set with Dell EMC products and services makes him a valuable asset to our new team of Customer Development Representatives,” said Brandon Cole, Director of Sales. “We’re thrilled to have his technical experience and his customer service expertise in our organization.”
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Davenport Group Welcomes Kimberly Abrams as New Customer Development Representative
St. Paul, MN - November 28, 2017
“Kimberly’s technical certifications and extensive experience with Dell EMC means that she’ll be able to help out at Davenport Group right away,” said Brandon Cole, Director of Sales.
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Davenport Group Hires Alison Williams as New Customer Development Representative
St. Paul, MN - November 14, 2017
“Alison’s extensive experience with Dell EMC teams and products will help us grow our productive relationship with our partner,” said Brandon Cole, Director of Sales.
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Chris Baker Joins Davenport Group's Team of Senior Systems Engineers
St. Paul, MN - October 17, 2017
Mr. Baker will be a valuable addition to a growing team of Senior Systems Engineers. As Davenport Group adds capabilities with EMC solutions, Mr. Baker’s vast industry knowledge will be essential to the deployment, migration, and support of the infrastructure equipment at Davenport Group customer sites.
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Davenport Group Welcomes Ryan McCleary to the Team as Their New Project Manager
St. Paul, MN - October 10, 2017
“Ryan’s project management skill set and industry knowledge will help Davenport Group stay on track as we work to bring the best solutions to our customers,” said Alex Bauer, Vice President of Operations and Engineering.
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Davenport Group Hires David Stabler as New IT Systems Administrator
St. Paul, MN - September 25, 2017
His technical skills, comprehensive training, and hardware knowledge will make him a valuable asset. Mr. Stabler’s work will ensure that Davenport Group can continue to focus on going above and beyond to meet the needs of their customers.
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Davenport Group Named to 2017 CRN Fast Growth 150 List
St. Paul, MN - August 8, 2017
“To be recognized by CRN is truly an honor,” said Sonia St. Charles, CEO, Davenport Group. “This is a confirmation of the commitment we have made to our customers and how we develop innovative solutions together."
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Davenport Group Welcomes Alex Bauer, New Vice President of Engineering and Operations
St. Paul, MN - August 1, 2017
“We are looking to expand our portfolio of service offerings as we continue to grow the company,” said Sonia St. Charles, Chief Executive Officer of Davenport Group. “Alex’s proven record of driving superior business results and leading transformations make him the absolute right fit for this role. We are more than pleased to welcome him to Davenport Group.”
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Sonia St. Charles on Trusting Your Instincts and the Myth of the Work-Life Balance
CRN - May 23, 2017 - By Matt Brown
"Sonia St. Charles grew up in a central Tennessee town so small that its residents were outnumbered by her first class at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. From there, though, St. Charles held a series of executive positions in human resources at companies like Deluxe Corp. and Paper Direct, and ran her own consulting firm before founding St. Paul, Minn.-based Davenport Group in 2001 with her husband, Paul Clifford.
The decision to form Davenport came from the couple's desire to get away from the constant travel their former jobs required, and St. Charles' desire to take ownership of her career. 'I was very successful in HR, but I got frustrated because I was executing other people's ideas. Davenport has been my petri dish of doing it the way I want to and seeing what the impact is."
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Dell North America Sales Chief: 'Winning in Both Consumer and Commercial PCs' is Key'
CRN - May 10, 2017 - By Matt Brown
"We're data center focused, but last year our No. 1 product was client," St. Charles said. "We don't lead with client ever, but when a customer says, "Hey, can we buy our laptops from you?" We want them to keep thinking of us for that purchasing cycle. It's good for us, it's good for them, and it's become a significant part of our business."
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Partners Marketing Push: Dell EMC Arms Partners with New MDF Resources
CRN - May 9, 2017 - By Matt Brown
"It's huge," said Sonia St. Charles, CEO of Davenport Group, a national solution provider based in St. Paul, Minn. "By putting all of this into one place with quite a bit of collateral materials and resources, it makes it much easier for partners to go and find. It's a really smart strategy."
The institute "allows you to tap into their knowledge and really understand what best practices are," she said. "Whether it's me or a millennial, we all come at it very differently. It's good to have a standard approach to how we go about social media and get the benefit of Dell's experience over the years."
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Michael Dell to Partners: "Enormous Cross-Selling Opportunities for You"
CRN - May 8, 2017 - By Matt Brown
"We're getting a lot of positive traction right now cross-selling," Johnson said. "The opportunity to start introducing products like Isilon, or Unity, that's where we are seeing the largest opportunity. Over the years, we've had the opportunity to bring on a lot of net-new clients. What this acquisition has meant for us is the ability to go back in and have a whole new discussion with them. That for us is a major, major push to stay with those clients and to introduce them to the EMC portfolio. It's about making sure our customers are aware of the breadth of services and products the organization brings together. "
Partners: Dell EMC Program Is A Channel Game-Changer, Puts Heat on Cisco, HPE
CRN - February 8, 2017 - By Matt Brown
Sonia St. Charles, CEO of the Davenport Group, a St. Paul, Minn.-based solution provider that sits on the vendor's partner advisory board, said she sees only upside to the new program even for smaller partners like Davenport Group. "We hadn't anticipated that the rebate program would be nearly this rich, and I hadn't conceived that they'd be able to level the playing field between a company my size and a much larger EMC solution provider."
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Dell EMC Launches Historic New Integrated Partner Program
Dell EMC - February 8, 2017 - Julie Quattro
"The Dell EMC partner program is a win-win for partners and allows us to continue to focus on growing our business," said Sonia St. Charles, CEO, Davenport Group. "The transparency and accessibility to a host of products and services focused all around the data center allows us to address multiple customer challenges and increases our earning potential with multiple paths to achieve tier status."
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Dell EMC Channel Unification Effort Gets Under Way
The Channel Insider - February 8, 2017 - By Mike Vizard
"Nevertheless, Dell EMC has included provisions in its program that make it easier for smaller partners to participate at higher levels of the channel program if they sell Dell EMC technologies exclusively."
"We were pleasantly surprised by that," said Sonia St. Charles, CEO of the Davenport Group. "We think there is a huge opportunity for Dell EMC in the market."
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Simple. Predictable. Profitable. New Dell EMC Partner Program
Dell EMC - February 8, 2017 - By Laura Pevehouse
"The great thing is that it will not change our day-to-day operations. We will continue to focus on adding net new customers and helping our existing customers enable their businesses with great technology knowing that Dell EMC has our back," said Sonia St. Charles, CEO, Davenport Group.
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Dell EMC Partner Program Officially Launches with Aggressive Incentives
The Var Guy - February 8, 2017 - By Kris Blackmon
The new program lives up to its marketing promises of being simple, predictable and profitable. A Dell partner since 2008, St. Charles said that while the previous Dell program was very robust and generously rewarded sales activity focused on their storage, server and network products, its level of complexity was frustrating.
"It was difficult to accurately predict your rebate level," she said. "Dell EMC did a great job of listening to their channel partners and designing a program that addressed all of our concerns."
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CRN Exclusive: Dell EMC Commits $150M to Incentives, Stresses New Business, Exclusivity in New Program
CRN - January 24, 2017 - By Matt Brown
"What we heard this morning was positive – a positive move toward leveling the playing field. Overall, I'm optimistic," St. Charles said. "My concern is that this will be good for EMC partners and not have so much impact on the Dell partners. The size of partners that have come over from EMC versus traditional Dell, the math doesn't come out in our favor. It's going to be in the details. "
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