Amazon.com selects Dell OptiPlex as computing standard

The leading online retailer, Amazon.com, has selected Dell`s OptiPlex corporate PC line as its desktop computing standard.

In addition to standardizing on the direct computer company`s award-winning OptiPlex desktops, the online retailer of videos, music and books, will also purchase Dell Latitude notebook PCs and Dell Precision WorkStations. It will deploy the Dell systems by the end of this year. Dell`s products were chosen after a competitive review of offerings from top-tier computer manufacturers, and will be used throughout Amazon.com`s administrative and support operations.

"Amazon.com and Dell share an obsession with providing the best customer experience possible," says Jamie Marra, director of production services at Amazon.com. "For Dell, it goes beyond delivering rock-solid desktop machines. Dell takes full accountability for meeting our needs in a timely manner, and we are confident that we will receive the kind of value and unparalleled service that we give our own customers."

"Amazon.com is experiencing a period of phenomenal growth, something we are familiar with here at Dell," says Glenn Jones, marketing manager of Dell South Africa. "With that growth, comes a vast set of complex needs that we can solve. Stable and reliable products, award-winning services such as Premier Pages, and Dell`s ability to mass customize through our DellPlus program have turned Amazon.com, already a business partner, into a customer."

DellPlus, Dell`s custom factory integration service, provides factory-installed solutions ranging from hardware and software integration to asset data and support services. DellPlus also offers high levels of customization, expert assistance and project management from initial system design to final delivery and installation.

Dell also has created an Amazon.com Premier Page to provide one-stop access to purchase history information, order status and help-desk support. Premier Pages are customized, password-protected Web sites that Dell creates for business and institutional customers. More than 19,000 customer-specific Premier Pages currently are hosted through Dell`s Web site at www.dell.com.

In March, Dell and Amazon.com announced a strategic agreement to offer linked Web sites and to provide customized content for Amazon.com and Dell customers. The links reside in the checkout sections of the respective sites and lead to co-branded Dell and Amazon.com home pages. The sites recognize and welcome customers to the full www.amazon.com and www.dell.com online experience. The Dell Web site is the world`s highest volume Microsoft Windows NT-based Internet commerce site, with online sales of US$18 million per day.

The agreement with Amazon.com is one of several recent contracts that have helped propel Dell to a leadership position in the U.S. business marketplace. In the first quarter of this year, industry research firm ZD InfoBeads, ranked Dell No. 1 in the small and medium business market; as well as the market-share leader in total PC shipments to U.S. businesses.