Dell Computer, the computing company with the supply engine that has channel companies constantly reinventing their businesses, has shared its focus on price, service and trustworthiness with ITWeb, ahead of an announcement on Monday.
Tony Bogatie, SA director, enterprise systems group, says Dell bases its future local sales and marketing direction in part on an International Data Corporation survey, conducted in the US among chief procurement officers and CIOs. The survey reveals price, product, service and support as the main buying criteria among US respondents.
"Fair price rates highest, accounting for 32% of the buying decision," Bogatie says. "Product, support and services come next, at 25%. The following is trustworthiness of the vendor (18%). We focus on these three areas together."
Other areas on which CIOs base their choice include an end-to-end range of offerings (8%), a local presence (7%), so-called "referencability" (3%), account management (2%) and company management (2%).
Lessons incorporated
"Dell`s message to the SA market is therefore that we will focus especially on the top three areas," he says. Dell is confident that it scores well in the other areas too.
The division operates in three technology areas of what it calls "standards-based computing". They are Intel servers, storage and networking - the latter being an area it is better known for in the States.
"A BMI/IDC report shows Dell is number two in SA in 2002 in the Intel server arena, with 20.7%," says Bogatie, formerly with Compaq. "Storage is booming, meaning our joint venture with EMC is delivering results, and we will look to grow networking in SA, where products are available, but have not actively been pushed."
Dell`s vision of standards-based computing further points to a wish to cement its partnerships with Microsoft, EMC, Veritas, Oracle and Intel at a local level.
Customer-oriented
Although the enterprise division is run as a sub-set of the SA subsidiary, Bogatie points out that it has dedicated lines of business, including pre-sales consulting, customer services and the like.
He says Dell has led the enterprise race in the US for six consecutive quarters, and SA is expected to follow in its footsteps.
The company`s South African go-to-market remains direct, with benefits to the customer including "the most efficient/cost-effective path to the end-user", a single point of accountability, customisability of assembly, a well-oiled supply chain and price benefits accruing from these.
Services
An internal survey has further revealed that customers expect IT departments to get on with their core activity, and not spend time repairing problems. They also want complete pre-loading and hardware configuration, end-user system installs and migration as well as leasing and asset recovery programmes.
To this end, Dell will offer customers what it terms Premier Enterprise Support, as well as installation services. The first service is split into support, starting from next-business-day response and ending with 24x7, four-hour response. The latter level can be customised in terms of on-site spares, engineers on hand, etc. Installation can either be a packaged service or encompass engineering rate services.
"Dell`s strategic directions are basically threefold," Bogatie sums up. "We will remain true to our core business, while focusing on enterprise product sales and services."
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