Recent data released by Gartner and IDC has enforced the current message being driven by Dell to further increase its efforts, focus and manufacture of products and solutions, in and around the mobile arena.
Never before has the business case for the mobile worker been as strong as it is currently. And the message from Dell is that through clear understanding of your users` needs, effective implementation and use of tools and applications to support and manage your business, and the effective deployment of the right mobile solution, can assist in driving down the total cost of ownership of your hardware.
Says Ben McDonald, client product manager at Dell South Africa: "There is a rising trend in the industry by the purchasers of technology to buy notebooks over and above desktop computers. Recent IDC reports, which track sales cycles up to 2008, support this stating that in the next four years the number of notebooks sold is going to double, and take up 40% of the market of what desktops are today."
McDonald continues that the market is changing in that the number of users out of the office has increased sharply, as have those who spend 40% of their time `out of office` and 60% `in office`. By placing mobile technology in the hands of these workers, or "Corridor Warriors" as Gartner terms them, a company can increase output by lowering the amount of downtime.
There are a number of barriers as to why companies are still reticent to purchase notebook technology, and while some concerns are real, McDonald adds that some are still based purely on perception. One of the biggest reasons cited by IDC is that respondents feel they are still unnecessary, others feel that by not being able to control them through a fixed point on a network they pose a security risk, performance is still perceived to be a problem, price to a lesser degree, and finally the management of them is also perceived to be more difficult than those workers in the office.
"Dell has begun addressing them, not only in our philosophy but also through various products and services. The reality is that the way in which we work today is very different to the way we worked three to four years ago, the general workforce is being pushed to become more productive and a notebook is a tool to facilitate this," says McDonald.
Space is still a premium and the need to lower the cost of the square metre is a real one hence the growth of hotdesking and working from home. In the past notebooks were a luxury afforded only to the elite in the organisation, however, through increasing needs for productivity this is starting to change, performance issues are with the advent of new mobile specific technologies based more on perception than fact, and price has dropped significantly. If a travelling worker and a Corridor Warrior armed with a notebook can increase output by between one and two hours a week, the cost justifies itself within the first few months of purchase.
Gartner has a number of recommendations on how to lower the total cost of ownership for notebooks. The first of which is standardisation of models in turn reducing software and hardware maintenance, secondly deployment of the most "mobile friendly" operating system currently cited as Microsoft XP Professional SP2, thirdly a minimum warranty of three years with 24x7 geographical support in all areas and next business day service, and lastly effective management tools.
"Again it is by listening to this advice that we have structured our own offerings in accordance. Dell currently offers CFI or Custom Factory Integration where you can build specific hardware and software configurations based on a customer`s requirements," remarks McDonald.
"We currently stay up to date with the latest software offerings from all major vendors of which XP Professional SP2 is already a part of, our gold tech support service offers hardware and software 24x7 support. This can be upgraded to five years and in addition we offer a full suite of management tools preloaded with our Dell OpenManage application."
In addition to its strategy of technical excellence through product and the superior delivery of services catered to meet the growing and changing needs of users, Dell has also ensured it stays ahead of the technology trend and has compounded this with the announcement of three new products. The D410, D610 and D810 take the above concerns and quash them with the introduction of the latest in mobile technologies, designed to simplify the ownership of notebooks, make it more affordable, and in the long run justifiable.
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Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) is a premier provider of products and services required for customers worldwide to build their information technology and Internet infrastructures. Company revenue for the past four quarters totalled $47.3 billion. Dell, through its direct business model, designs, manufactures and customises products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained at www.dell.co.za.