What do you do if you're a manufacturer that has spent the best part of three decades perfecting supply chain logistics and front-line support only to discover that, in the post-PC world, your skills are no longer in such high demand? Either you ignore the problem and hope things get back to normal some day, or you start diversifying fast.
Fortunately, it's the latter course of action that has been going on at Dell over recent months. The company has made no less than 15 acquisitions in the past two years, and while it hasn't really spoken publicly about the grand plan behind its ongoing spending spree, a look at the businesses it has purchased leaves little to guess at.
From thin client specialist WYSE to network security vendor SonicWALL via management services developer Quest, Dell's purchases put it on the same trajectory as other hardware rivals like IBM, Cisco and - to a lesser extent - HP. It's looking to move away from a core business of PC and laptop building to a future based on enterprise applications, software-as-a-service and cloud-based applications.
Just this week, for example, general manager and executive director Ben Roscoe told tech Web site The Register that Dell's storage division was working on new services that utilise the speed of flash-based memory for server-based applications. The purpose, he suggested, was to help blue chip clients migrate to the cloud without sacrificing IT performance.
Many of the software technologies picked up by Dell have been packaged together and relaunched as Dell Active Infrastructure, which launches properly in the US next month under the tagline 'Sell the future, today'. It's a strong portfolio of offerings for resellers to pick up on, with a credible brand behind it.
And analysts like it. A recent Gartner report on the company's activities recommended that it be shortlisted alongside the likes of Cisco for system integration, and urged corporates to "change the way you have engaged with Dell historically.
"Dell has launched a serious campaign to gain the recognition and credibility as a system vendor on a level it has not yet achieved," the authors comment. "It has taken a corporate manifesto, coupled with aggressive new hiring and more than a dozen targeted acquisitions that expand reach and credibility."
Product manager for Dell at Tarsus Technologies, Othelo Vieira, thinks the firm's new strategy makes it one to watch over the next 12 months.
"We're only just seeing the very start of what's to come from Dell," Vieira explains, "Now that the groundwork has been done, expect new products and launches that really establish Dell as a leader in cloud services."
Lest you think all this is a far cry from the reliable and often imaginative PC line-up Dell is still best known for, don't fear. The company has revamped everything from its high-end consumer XPS Ultrabooks to the business-oriented Latitude 10 with its 18-hour battery life to run on Windows 8. It's also including tutorial videos on every new Windows 8 machine to help users adapt to Microsoft's vastly different OS.
From touch-sensitive laptop/tablet hybrids to ultra-high bandwidth WiGig wireless networking and genuine expertise with hosted and cloud services, the new-look Dell is looking very versatile and highly likeable for business and consumer clients alike.
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