Inside Track: Compellent sale to Dell fetching more state jobs

CEO Phil Soran predicted that his Compellent data-storage company, unlike most acquisitions of minnows by whales, would work for Compellent after its $800 million acquisition last winter by huge computer maker Dell Inc.

Soran, now president of Dell Compellent, has been right so far.

Compellent, which had more than 550 employees at the time of the deal last February, has hired an additional 300 people this year, the majority based in Minnesota. It has leased 40,000 square feet of office space in Edina for client support and training, in addition to its two-building campus in Eden Prairie.

"We're going to start moving into the additional space this fall," Soran said last week from a sales call in Louisville, Ky. "We told Dell that Minneapolis has the talent to grow the system and we are hiring engineers, sales, client support, marketing ... good-paying jobs, mostly in [the] Minneapolis [area]."

Two factors are driving Dell Compellent's storage business: data storage is not an option for most companies and Compellent's products have featured innovative customized, modular storage that stores less-used data on slower, lower-cost disks, and also lowers energy usage.

"Also, we're now Dell storage," Soran added. "They used to be a reseller of other people's storage. We have a great product, great IP [intellectual property], and we're rolling that into one of the best technology sales forces in the world. Dell is helping us fuel our growth."

Soran said Compellent storage sales, about $150 million in 2010, are nearly doubling every quarter this year. The company has added 700 companies so far in 2011, more than it added in 2010.

"Our sales pipeline [of expected orders] is up four times since the acquisition," Soran said.

Soran, 55, is a veteran technology sales executive who quit a job as middle-school math teacher to join IBM 30 years ago, He joined with two computer scientists to start and sell Xiotech in the 1990s, and launched Compellent in 2002. It went public in 2007.

It's been a record year for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, which expects to build or renovate more than 60 houses and townhouses in the Twin Cities area this year, making the nonprofit one of the five biggest homebuilders in a still-soft market.

On Monday, Carlson Cos. CEO Hubert Joly and other volunteers will raise the wall on another energy-efficient house, this one at 2210 Irving Av. N. in the Minneapolis neighborhood that was devastated by the May tornado.

Habitat, which often partners with companies, volunteers and home buyers who earn sweat equity through their labor, has built 226 "Energy Star-qualified" homes in Minnesota, ranking it fourth in the state in that category.

The advantages of hiring workers with disabilities will be shared with 350 area businesspeople at a luncheon sponsored by nonprofit Opportunity Partners and the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 1 at the Doubletree Park Place in St. Louis Park.

Opportunity Partners, which serves 1,700 people with disabilities annually through employment, training and residential programs, will recognize General Mills, Graco, Lunds and Byerly's, and Whole Foods Market for advancing work opportunities for these citizens. More information is available at www.celebrateopportunity.eventbrite.com