Dell (dotted as DELL ) is an American multinational computer technology company based in Round Rock, Texas, USA that develops, sells, repairs and supports computers and products related and service. Named eponymously after its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technology companies in the world, employing over 103,300 people in America and around the world.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players and electronics made by other manufacturers. The company is renowned for innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce, particularly direct sales models and a "build-to-order" or "configure to order" approach to manufacturing - delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. Dell is a pure hardware vendor for most of its existence, but with the acquisition of Perot Systems in 2009, Dell entered the market for IT services. The company has since carried out additional acquisitions in storage systems and networks, with the aim of expanding their portfolio from offering computers only to provide complete solutions for enterprise customers.
Dell is listed at number 51 on the Fortune 500 list until 2014. After becoming private in 2013, the new nature of confidential financial information prevents companies from ranking by Fortune. By 2015, it is the third largest PC vendor in the world after Lenovo and HP. Dell is currently the # 1 PC monitor sender in the world. Dell is the sixth largest company in Texas with total revenue, according to Fortune magazine. It is the second largest non-oil company in Texas - behind AT & amp; T - and the largest company in the Greater Austin area. It is a public company (NASDAQ: DELL), as well as components of NASDAQ-100 and S & amp; P 500, until it is taken personally in a leveraged purchase that closes on October 30, 2013.
Video Dell
Histori
Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell invented the Dell Computer Corporation, which at the time was doing business as PC's Limited while a University of Texas student at Austin. The dormitory headquarters company sells IBM PC compatible computers made from stock components. Dell dropped out of school to focus fully on his new business, after earning $ 1,000 in capital expansion from his family. In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, Turbo PC, which sold for $ 795. PC's Limited advertises its system in a national computer magazine for direct sale to consumers and custom assembled every unit ordered in accordance with option option. The company grossed more than $ 73 million in its first year of operation.
In 1986, Michael Dell brought Lee Walker, a 51-year-old venture capitalist, as president and chief operating officer, to serve as Dell's mentor and apply Dell's ideas to grow the company. Walker also played a role in recruiting members to the board of directors when the company went public in 1988. Walker retired in 1990 due to health, and Michael Dell hired Morton Meyerson, former CEO and president of Electronic Data Systems to transform companies from fast-developing medium companies into companies billions of dollars.
The company dropped the name of PC Limited in 1987 to become Dell Computer Corporation and began to grow globally. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $ 30 million to $ 80 million from the initial public offering of June 22 from 3.5 million shares at $ 8.50 per share. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporation on the list of the world's 500 largest companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of the Fortune 500 company ever.
In 1993, to complete its own direct sales channel, Dell plans to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which will bring in an additional $ 125 million in annual revenue. Bain Consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to withdraw from this deal, believing that they will become money losers in the long run. The margin at the retail was very slim and Dell left the retailer channel in 1994. Rollins will soon join Dell full-time and eventually become President and CEO of the company.
Growth in the 1990s and early 2000s
Initially, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to higher costs and very low profit margins in sales to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site launched in 1996 and 1997. While the average selling price of the industry for individuals went down, Dell went up, as buyers of second and third computers wanted a sophisticated computer with many features and did not require much technical support to choose Dell. Dell finds opportunities among PC-savvy individuals who love the convenience of buying directly, customizing their PCs with their capabilities, and delivering them within a few days. In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the domestic market and introducing product lines designed specifically for individual users.
From 1997 to 2004, Dell enjoyed steady growth and gained market share from competitors even during the industry downturn. During the same period, competing PC vendors such as Compaq, Gateway, IBM, Packard Bell, and AST Research fought and eventually left the market or purchased. Dell outperformed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999. Operating costs accounted for only 10 percent of Dell's revenues of $ 35 billion in 2002, compared with 21 percent of revenue in Hewlett-Packard, 25 percent at Gateway, and 46 percent in Cisco. In 2002, when Compaq merged with Hewlett Packard (fourth-place PC maker), the newly combined Hewlett Packard took the top spot but struggled and Dell soon regained its lead. Dell grew the fastest in the early 2000s.
Dell achieved and maintained the 1st rank in terms of PC reliability and customer service/technical support, according to Consumer Reports, year after year, during the mid to late 90s to 2001 just before Windows XP released.
In 1996, Dell began selling computers through its website.
In the mid-1990s, Dell expanded beyond desktop and laptop computers by selling servers, starting with low-end servers. The three major server providers at the time were IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Compaq, many of which were based on proprietary technology, such as IBM Power4 microprocessors or proprietary versions of Unix operating systems. Dell's new PowerEdge servers do not require a huge investment in proprietary technology, because they run Microsoft Windows NT on Intel chips, and can be built cheaper than their competitors. As a result, Dell's revenue, almost non-existent in 1994, accounted for 13 percent of total revenues in 1998. Three years later, Dell granted Compaq the top provider of Intel-based servers, with 31 percent of the market. Dell's first acquisition occurred in 1999 with the purchase of ConvergeNet Technologies for $ 332 million, after Dell failed to develop a home storage system; The elegant yet complex ConvergeNet technology does not match the Dell commodity manufacturer's business model, forcing Dell to write down the entire acquisition value.
In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Chairman and CEO Michael Dell has repeatedly blocked the efforts of President and COO Kevin Rollins to reduce the company's heavy reliance on PCs, which Rollins wants to repair by acquiring EMC Corporation.
In 2003, the company was named only "Dell Inc." to recognize the expansion of the company outside the computer.
In 2004, Michael Dell resigned as CEO while retaining the Chairman's position, handing over CEO titles to Kevin Rollins, who has been President and COO since 2001. Despite no longer holding a CEO title, Dell basically acts as de facto co-CEO. with Rollins.
Under Rollins, Dell began to loosen its relationship with Microsoft and Intel, the two companies responsible for Dell's dominance in the PC business. During that time, Dell acquired Alienware, which introduced several new items to Dell products, including AMD microprocessors. To prevent cross-market products, Dell continues to run Alienware as a separate entity, but it is still a wholly owned subsidiary.
Disappointment
In 2005, while revenues and sales continued to rise, sales growth slowed, and the company's shares lost 25% of its value in that year. In June 2006, shares traded around $ 25 USD which fell 40% from July 2005 - the high water mark of the company in the post-dotcom era.
Slower sales growth has been attributed to the maturing PC market, which is 66% of Dell's sales, and analysts suggest that Dell is required to make inroads into non-PC business segments such as storage, services and servers. Dell's price advantage is related to its ultra-slim manufacturing for desktop PCs, but this is becoming less important as savings become more difficult to find within the enterprise supply chain, and as competitors like Hewlett-Packard and Acer make their PC manufacturing operations more efficient to fit Dell , weakening Dell's traditional price differentiation. Throughout the PC industry, falling prices along with a corresponding increase in performance means that Dell has fewer opportunities to increase sales to their customers (a tantalizing strategy to encourage buyers to improve processors or memory). As a result, companies sell more cheap PCs than before, which erodes profit margins. The laptop segment has become the fastest-growing PC market, but Dell is producing low-cost notebooks in China like other PC manufacturers that eliminate Dell's cost of production costs, plus Dell's dependability on Internet sales which means losing notebook sales in big box stores. CNET suggests that Dell is caught up in the increasing commoditization of high volume low-margin computers, which prevents it from offering the more appealing devices consumers demand.
Despite plans for expansion into global territories and other product segments, Dell relies heavily on the US corporate PC market, as desktop PCs sold to commercial and corporate customers account for 32 percent of revenues, 85 percent of revenues coming from business, and Sixty four percent of revenue came from North and South America, according to the third quarter of 2006. US desktop PC shipments shrank, and the corporate PC market that bought PCs in the increasing cycle largely decided to stop buying the new system. The last cycle began around 2002, three years or more after the company started buying PCs ahead of perceived Y2K problems, and enterprise clients were not expected to upgrade again until extensive testing of Microsoft Windows Vista (expected in early 2007), putting the next upgraded cycle around 2008. Highly dependent on PCs, Dell has to cut prices to increase sales volume, while demanding deep cuts from suppliers.
Dell has long been trapped by its direct sales model. Consumers have been a major driver of PC sales in recent years, but there is a decline in consumers who buy PCs over the Web or on the phone, as more and more are visiting consumer electronics retail stores to try out devices first. Dell's rivals in the PC, HP, Gateway and Acer industries, have a long retail presence and are well prepared to take advantage of consumer shifts. Lack of retail presence hinders Dell's efforts to offer consumer electronics such as flat-screen TVs and MP3 players. Dell responded by experimenting with mall kiosks, plus quasi-retail stores in Texas and New York.
Dell has a reputation as a company that relies on supply chain efficiency to sell established technologies at low prices, instead of being an innovator. In the mid-2000s many analysts sought innovating companies as the next source of growth in the technology sector. Dell's low expenditure on R & amp; D relative to revenue (compared to IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Apple Inc.) - which works well in the commodified PC market - preventing it from making breakthroughs into more profitable segments, such as MP3 players and mobile devices later. Increased spending on R & amp; D will reduce the operating margin emphasized by the company. Dell has worked well with a PC-focused horizontal organization when the computing industry moved into horizontal mix-and-match layers in the 1980s, but by mid-2000 the industry switched to a vertically integrated pile to deliver complete IT solutions and Dell lags far behind competitors such as Hewlett Packard and Oracle.
Dell's reputation for poor customer service, since 2002, has been exacerbated when moving call centers abroad and as it grows beyond its technical support infrastructure, it gets an increased spotlight on the Web. The original Dell model was known for high customer satisfaction when the PC sold thousands but in the 2000s, the company could not justify the level of service when computers in the same lineup sold for hundreds. Rollins responded by diverting Dick Hunter from head of manufacturing to head of customer service. Hunter, who notes that DNA cutting costs Dell "is blocking," aims to reduce call transfer times and have call center representatives resolve questions in a single call. In 2006, Dell spent $ 100 million in just a few months to fix this, and launched DellConnect to answer customer questions faster. In July 2006, the company started Direct2Dell's blog, and then in February 2007, Michael Dell launched IdeaStorm.com, asking for advice from customers including selling Linux computers and reducing promotional "bloatware" on PCs. This initiative successfully cut negative blog posts from 49% to 22%, as well as reducing the prominent "Dell Hell" in internet search engines.
There is also criticism that Dell uses the wrong components for its PCs, especially the 11.8 million OptiPlex desktop computers that were sold to businesses and governments from May 2003 through July 2005, suffering from bad capacitors made by a company called Nichicon. The battery recall in August 2006, as a result of Dell's burning laptop pose much negative attention to the company though later, Sony was found responsible for damaged batteries.
The year 2006 marked the first year of Dell's growth slower than the PC industry as a whole. In the fourth quarter of 2006, Dell lost its title as the largest PC manufacturer to rival Hewlett Packard whose Personal Systems Group was excited thanks to a restructuring initiated by their CEO Mark Hurd.
After four of the five quarterly earnings reports were below expectations, Rollin resigned as President and CEO on January 31, 2007 and founder Michael Dell took over the role of CEO again.
Dell 2.0 and streamlining
Dell announced a change campaign called "Dell 2.0," reducing the number of employees and diversifying its products. While the chairman of the board after releasing his CEO position, Michael Dell still had significant input in the company during Rollins years as CEO. With the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw a direct change in operations, the exodus of many senior vice presidents and new personnel brought in from outside the company. Michael Dell announced a number of initiatives and plans (part of the "Dell 2.0" initiative) to improve the company's financial performance. This includes the removal of 2006 bonuses for employees with multiple discretionary awards, a reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Michael Dell from 20 to 12, and reducing "bureaucracy". Jim Schneider retired as CFO and was replaced by Donald Carty, as the company was under SEC investigation for his accounting practices.
On April 23, 2008, Dell announced the closure of one of Canada's largest call centers in Kanata, Ontario, ending around 1100 employees, with 500 of effective redundancies in place, and with official closures from the center scheduled for the summer. The call center was opened in 2006 after the city of Ottawa won an offer to host. Less than a year later, Dell plans to double its workforce to nearly 3,000 workers adding new buildings. The plan is reversed, as the high Canadian dollar makes Ottawa staff relatively expensive, as well as part of Dell's turnaround, which involves moving the call-center work abroad to cut costs. The company also announced the closing of its offices in Edmonton, Alberta, losing 900 jobs. Overall, Dell announced the end of about 8,800 jobs in 2007-2008 - 10% of its workforce.
In the late 2000s, Dell's "configuration for ordering" approach - individual PC shipments configured to customer specifications from US facilities are no longer as efficient or competing with high-volume Asian contract manufacturers as PCs become a powerful low-cost commodity. Dell closed the factory that manufactures desktop computers for the North American market, including Mort Topfer Manufacturing Center in Austin, Texas (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999) in 2008 and early 2009, respectively. The desktop production plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received an incentive of US $ 280 million from the state and opened in 2005 but ceased operations in November 2010. Dell's contract with the state required them to repay incentives for failing to comply with the terms, and they sold plant North Carolina to Herbalife. Much of the work that was done in Dell's factory in the US was transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's overseas factories. The Miami, Florida, facility of Alienware subsidiary remains operational, while Dell continues to produce its most profitable (server of its products) in Austin, Texas. On January 8, 2009, Dell announced the closure of its plant in Limerick, Ireland, with the loss of 1,900 jobs and the transfer of production to its plant in? in Poland.
The release of Apple iPad tablet computers had a negative impact on Dell and other major PC vendors, as consumers shifted from desktop and laptop PCs. Dell's own mobility division has not been successful with developing smartphones or tablets, whether running Windows or Google Android. Dell Streak is a commercial and critical failure because of its outdated OS, many bugs, and low-resolution screens. InfoWorld suggests that Dell and other OEMs see tablets as a short and low-term investment opportunity running Google Android, an approach that ignores the user interface and fails to gain long-term market traction with consumers. Dell has responded by pushing upscale PCs, such as the XPS line of notebooks, which do not compete with Apple iPad and Kindle Fire tablets. The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers over PC drives Dell's consumer segment to operating losses in Q3 2012. In December 2012, Dell experienced its first drop in holiday sales in five years, despite the introduction of Windows 8.
In the shrinking PC industry, Dell continues to lose market share, as it drops below Lenovo in 2011 to fall to number three in the world. Dell and fellow American contemporary Hewlett Packard are under pressure from Asian PC manufacturers Lenovo, Asus, and Acer, all of which have lower manufacturing costs and are willing to accept lower profit margins. In addition, while Asian PC vendors have improved their quality and design, for example Lenovo ThinkPad series winning corporate customers from Dell laptops, Dell customer service and reputation has slipped. Dell remains the second most profitable PC vendor, taking 13 percent of operating profit in the PC industry during Q4 2012, behind Apple Inc.'s Macintosh which took 45 percent, seven percent in Hewlett Packard, six percent in Lenovo and Asus, and one percent for Acer.
Dell has been trying to keep pace with the declining PC business, which still accounts for half of its revenue and generates stable cash flow, expanding into the enterprise market with servers, networks, software, and services. This avoids many of the abductions of acquisitions and management turnarounds that hit its main rival Hewlett Packard. Dell has also managed some success in leveraging its high-touch direct sales legacy to build close relationships and design solutions for its clients. Despite spending $ 13 billion on acquisitions to diversify its portfolio outside of hardware, the company can not convince the market that it can grow or transform in the post-PC world, as it continues to experience a decline in earnings and share prices. Dell's market share in the previous corporate segment is a "trench" against rivals, but this is no longer a problem as sales and profits have fallen dramatically.
purchase 2013
After weeks of hearsay, which began around January 11, 2013, Dell announced on February 5, 2013 that it had reached a 24.4 billion dollar purchase agreement, which would wipe out its shares from the NASDAQ and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and make it private.. Reuters reports that Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, aided by a $ 2 billion loan from Microsoft, will acquire a public share at $ 13.65 each. The $ 24.4 billion purchase is projected as the largest leveraged purchase supported by private equity since the 2007 financial crisis. It is also the largest ever technology purchase, surpassing the purchase of 2006 from Freescale Semiconductor for $ 17.5 billion.
Dell founder Michael Dell said the February offer "I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and members of our team". Dell rival Lenovo reacts to the purchase, saying "the financial actions of some of our traditional competitors will not substantially change our outlook".
In March 2013, the Blackstone Group and Carl Icahn expressed interest in buying Dell. In April 2013, Blackstone withdrew their offer, arguing that business worsened. Other private equity firms such as TRC & amp; Co. and TPG Capital refused to make an alternative bid for Dell, citing unpredictable market for personal computers and competitive pressures, so that "wide open bidding war" never materialized. Analysts say that the biggest challenge facing Silver Lake is finding an "exit strategy" to profit from its investment, which will happen when the company will hold an IPO to go public again, and one warns "But even if you can get $ 25bn in corporate value for Dell , it takes years to get out. "
In May 2013, Dell joined his council in choosing his bid. In the following August, he reached an agreement with a special committee on the board for $ 13.88 ($ 13.75 price increase plus 13 cents per share dividend), as well as changes to the voting rules. The $ 13.88 cash offer (plus a dividend of $ 0.08 per share for the third fiscal quarter) was received on September 12 and closed on October 30, 2013, ending 25 years running Dell as a public company.
After purchase, the new Dell personally offers the Voluntary Separation Program which is expected to reduce the workforce by up to seven percent. Receipts for the program are exceeding expectations that Dell may be forced to hire new staff to make up for losses.
On November 19, 2015, Dell, alongside ARM Holdings, Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interest and development in fog computing.
Maps Dell
Acquisitions
Acquisition of EMC
On October 12, 2015, Dell announced its intention to acquire software company and storage company EMC Corporation. At $ 67 billion, it has been labeled "the acquisition of high-value technology in history". This acquisition was completed on September 7, 2016
This announcement came two years after Dell Inc. returning to private ownership, claiming that he faces a bleak prospect and will take several years out of the public eye to rebuild his business. It is estimated that the value of the company has doubled since then. EMC is being pressured by Elliott Management, a hedge fund that owns 2.2% of EMC shares, to reorganize their unusual "Federation" structures, where the EMC division is effectively run as an independent company. Elliott argues that this structure greatly underestimates EMC II EMC II core storage business, and that increasing competition between EMC II and VMware products is confusing the market and hampering both companies. The Wall Street Journal estimates that by 2014, Dell will have $ 27.3 revenue Ã, billion of personal computers and $ 8.9bn from servers, while EMC has $ 16.5 bn from EMC II, $ 1 billion from RSA Security, $ 6bn from VMware, and $ 230 Ã, million from Pivotal Software. EMC has about 80 percent of VMware's stock. The proposed acquisition will keep VMware as a separate company, which is held through new stock tracking, while other parts of EMC will be launched to Dell. After the acquisition closes, Dell will reissue quarterly financial results, after stopping this to become private in 2013.
This combined business is expected to tackle the market for large-scale architecture, converged infrastructure, and private cloud computing, playing for EMC and Dell strengths. Commentators have questioned the deal, with FBR Capital Markets saying that although it makes "tons of sense" for Dell, it is "a nightmare scenario that will lack strategic synergy" for EMC. Fortune says there's a lot for Dell to love in EMC's portfolio, but "is that all enough to justify tens of billions of dollars for the entire package? Probably not." The Register reported William Blair & amp; The company that the merger will "blow up the current IT chess board", forcing other IT infrastructure vendors to restructure to achieve scale and vertical integration. VMware's stock value dropped 10% after the announcement, valuing the deal at around $ 63-64bn rather than the initially reported $ 67bn.
The main investors supporting deals other than Dell are Temasek Holdings and Silver Lake Partners from Singapore.
Dell's offer will remain open for 60 days where EMC may seek other possible buyers, but this is not possible: Hewlett-Packard (potentially more suited to EMC) is preoccupied with its own split, and the deal has been welcomed by Elliott Management and chairman EMC Joe Tucci.
On September 7, 2016, Dell Inc. completing a $ 60 billion deal to acquire EMC Corp., the largest technology merger in history.
The new company, Dell Technologies, employs about 140,000 people worldwide and will maintain operations in Hopkinton, Mass., Where EMC is located. With $ 74 billion in revenue, Dell Technologies is the world's largest private technology company.
Dell Facilities
The Dell headquarters is located in Round Rock, Texas. In 2013 the company employs some 14,000 people in central Texas and is the largest private company in the region, which has 2,100,000 square feet (200,000m 2 ) space. In 1999 nearly half of the Round Rock city's general funds came from sales taxes generated from Dell's headquarters.
Dell previously had its headquarters in the Arboretum complex north of Austin, Texas. In 1989 Dell occupied 127,000 square feet (11,800m 2 ) at the Arboretum complex. In 1990, Dell had 1,200 employees at its headquarters. In 1993, Dell sent documents to Round Rock officials, entitled "Dell Computer Corporate Headquarters, Round Rock, Texas, May 1993 Design Scheme." Despite the archiving, during that year the company said that it would not move its headquarters. In 1994, Dell announced that it was moving most of its employees out of the Arboretum, but it would continue to occupy the upper floors of the Arboretum and that the company's official headquarters address would continue to be an Arboretum. The upper floor continues to hold the Dell boardroom, demonstration center, and visitor meeting room. Less than a month before August 29, 1994 Dell shifted 1,100 customer support and telephone sales employees to Round Rock. The Dell lease at Arboretum has been scheduled to end in 1994.
In 1996, Dell moved its headquarters to Round Rock. In January 1996 3,500 people were still working at Dell's headquarters at the moment. A Round Rock headquarters building, Round Rock 3, has space for 6,400 employees and is scheduled for completion in November 1996. In 1998 Dell announced that it will add two buildings to the Round Rock complex, adding 1,600,000 square feet (150,000m < > 2 ) office space to the complex.
In 2000, Dell announced it would lease a space of 80,000 square feet (7.400 m 2 ) at the Las Cimas office complex in Travis County, Texas, between Austin and West Lake Hills, to accommodate the company's executive offices and offices company center. 100 senior executives were scheduled to work in the building at the end of 2000. In January 2001, the company leased space at Las Cimas 2, located along the Loop 360. Las Cimas 2 housed Dell executives, investment operations, and corporate functions. Dell also has options for 138,000 square feet (12,800m 2 ) space in Las Cimas 3. After a slowdown in the business required reducing its employees and production capacity, Dell decided to lease its office in two buildings in the Las office complex Cimas. In 2002 Dell announced that it plans to lease space to other tenants; the company plans to move its headquarters back to Round Rock after the tenant is secured. In 2003, Dell moved its headquarters back to Round Rock. It leased all of Las Cimas I and II, totaling 312,000 square feet (29,000 m 2 ), for about a period of seven years after 2003. In that year about 100,000 square feet (9,300 square feet) Ã, m 2 ) from that space is absorbed by the new subtenant.
In 2008, Dell shifted resources from Round Rock headquarters to more environmentally friendly, with 60% of TXU Energy wind farms' total energy and 40% coming from the Austin TPA community from the Waste-operated gas-to-waste plant Management, Inc.
The Dell facility in the United States is located in Austin, Texas; Plano, Texas; Nashua, New Hampshire; Nashville, Tennessee; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Peoria, Illinois; Hillsboro, Oregon (Portland area); Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Eden Prairie, Minnesota (Dell Compellent); Bowling Green, Kentucky; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Miami, Florida. Facilities located overseas including Penang, Malaysia; Xiamen, China; Bracknell, England; Manila, Philippines Chennai, India; Hyderabad, India; Noida, India; Hortolandia and Porto Alegre, Brazil; Bratislava, Slovakia; ? ÃÆ'³d ?, Poland; Panama City, Panama; Dublin and Limerick, Ireland; Casablanca, Morocco, and Montpellier, France.
The US and India are the only countries that have all of Dell's business functions and provide global support: research and development, manufacturing, finance, analysis, and customer service.
Manufacturing
From the very beginning, Dell operated as a pioneer in the "configuration to order" approach to manufacturing - delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers at that time sent large orders to intermediaries every three months.
To minimize delays between purchases and shipments, Dell has a general policy of making its products close to its customers. It is also possible to implement a just-in-time manufacturing approach (JIT), which minimizes inventory costs. Low inventory is another sign of Dell's business model - a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very quickly.
Dell's manufacturing process includes assembly, software installation, functional testing (including "burn-in"), and quality control. Throughout most of the company's history, Dell manufactures in-house desktop machines and contracts out the manufacture of basic notebooks for in-house configuration. The company's approach has changed, as cited in the 2006 Annual Report, which states, "We are continuing to expand the use of genuine manufacturing design partnerships and making outsourcing relationships." The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2008 that "Dell has approached the contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their factories. In the late 2000s, Dell's "configuration for ordering" approach - individual PC shipments configured to customer specifications from US facilities are no longer as efficient or competing with high-volume Asian contract manufacturers as PCs become a powerful low-cost commodity.
The assembly of desktop computers for the North American market previously took place at Dell's plant in Austin, Texas (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999), which had been closed in 2008 and early 2009, respectively. The plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina received $ 280 million USD in incentives from the state and opened in 2005, but ceased operations in November 2010, and Dell's contract with the state required them to pay back incentives for failing to meet the requirements. Much of the work that was done in Dell's factory in the US was transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's overseas factories. The Miami, Florida facility of Alienware subsidiary remains operational, while Dell continues to produce its most profitable (server of its products) in Austin, Texas.
Dell collects computers for the EMEA market at the Limerick facility in the Republic of Ireland, and once employs about 4,500 people in the country. Dell started manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and later became Ireland's largest freight exporter and the second largest company and foreign investor. On January 8, 2009, Dell announced that it would move all of Dell's manufacturing in Limerick to Dell's new factory in the Polish city? ÃÆ'³d? in January 2010. EU officials said they will investigate a EUR52.7 million aid package used by the Polish government to pull Dell away from Ireland. European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990) and EMF3 are part of the Raheen Industrial Estate near Limerick. EMF2 (formerly a Wang facility, later occupied by Flextronics, located in Castletroy) was closed in 2002, and Dell Inc. has combined production into EMF3 (EMF1 now only contains offices). Subsidies from the Polish government kept Dell for a long time. After ending assembly at the Limerick plant, the Cherrywood Technology Campus in Dublin is the largest Dell office in the republic with over 1200 people in sales (mainly UK & Ireland), support (corporate support for EMEA) and research and development for cloud computing, but none again manufacturing except a subsidiary of Alienware Dell, which manufactures PCs at the Athlone plant in Ireland. Whether this facility will remain in Ireland is uncertain. EMF4 Construction in? ÃÆ'³d ?, Poland has begun: Dell started production there in the fall of 2007.
Dell opened a factory in Penang, Malaysia in 1995, and in Xiamen, China in 1999. This facility serves the Asian market and assembles 95% of Dell notebooks. Dell Inc. has invested about $ 60 million in a new manufacturing unit in Chennai, India, to support its product sales in the Indian subcontinent. Indian-made products bear the sign of "Made in India". In 2007, the Chennai facility has a target of producing 400,000 desktop PCs, and plans to imagine starting to produce notebook PCs and other products in the second half of 2007.
Dell moved the desktop and PowerEdge server manufacture to the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul factory opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazil in 2007.
Products
Scope and brand
Corporations market certain brand names to different market segments.
The Business/Corporate class represents a brand in which the company's ads emphasize the long life cycle, reliability, and serviceability. These brands include:
- OptiPlex (desktop office computer system)
- Dimensions (home desktop computer system)
- Vostro (office/small business desktop and notebook system)
- n Series (desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed)
- Latitude (business-focused notebook)
- Precision (high-performance workstation and notebook system),
- PowerEdge (business server)
- PowerVault (built-in and built-in storage)
- Force10 (network switch)
- PowerConnect (network switch)
- Dell Compellent (storage area network)
- EqualLogic (enterprise-class SAN iSCSI)
- Dell EMR (electronic medical record)
The Home Office class/Dell Customer emphasizes value, performance, and upgrades. These brands include:
- Inspiron (budget desktop and notebook computers)
- XPS (desktop and high-end notebook computers)
- Alienware (high performance gaming system)
- Venue (Android/Windows Tablet)
Class Peripherals Dell includes USB keys, LCD televisions, and printers; Dell monitors include LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTVs and monitors. Dell UltraSharp is further a brand of high-end monitors.
Dell's service and support brands include Dell Solution Station (extended domestic support service, formerly "Dell on Call"), Dell Support Center (extended support services abroad) Dell Business Support (commercial service contracts that provide industry certified technicians with lower call volume than normal queues), Dell Everdream Desktop Management ("Software as a Service" remote management -desktop, originally a SaaS company founded by Elon Musk's cousin, Lyndon Rive, purchased by Dell in 2007), and Your Tech Team (line of support available to home users who bought their system either through the site the Dell web or through Dell phone centers).
Stop products and brands including Axim (PDA, discontinued April 9, 2007), Dimensions (desktop and small office computers, discontinued in July 2007), Dell Digital Jukebox (MP3 player discontinued August 2006), Dell PowerApp (application-based server) and Dell Optiplex (desktop computers and towers previously supported to run server and desktop operating systems).
Security
Dell Foundation Services
Also in November 2015, a researcher found that customers with diagnostic programs, Dell Foundation Services can be digitally tracked using unique service mark numbers assigned to them by the program. This is possible even if customers enable private browsing and delete their browser cookies. Ars Technica recommends that Dell customers uninstall the program until it is resolved.
Commercial aspects
Organization
The board consists of nine directors. Michael Dell, founder of the company, served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Other board members include Don Carty, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl, and Sam Nunn. Shareholders elect nine board members at meetings, and council members who do not get a majority vote must submit a resignation to the council, which will then choose whether to accept resignation or not. The board of directors typically forms five committees that have oversight of specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which deals with accounting issues, including audits and reporting; The Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; The Finance Committee, which handles financial issues such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; The Governance and Nomination Committee, which handles corporate issues (including board nominations); and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which tries to prevent corporate practices from violating antitrust laws.
The company's day-to-day operations are run by the Global Executive Management Committee, which sets the strategic direction. Dell has a senior regional vice president for countries other than the United States, including David Marmonti for EMEA and Stephen J. Felice for Asia/Japan. In 2007, other officers included Martin Garvin (senior vice president for procurement worldwide) and Susan Sheskey (vice president and Chief Information Officer).
Marketing
Dell ads have appeared in several media types including television, internet, magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Some of Dell Inc's marketing strategies include lowering prices at any time of the year, free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and free shipping to drive more sales and prevent competitors. In 2006, Dell slashed prices in an effort to maintain a 19.2% market share. It also cut profit margins by more than half, from 8.7 to 4.3 percent. To maintain its low price, Dell continues to receive most of its product purchases over the Internet and over the telephone network, and moves its customer service division to India and El Salvador.
The popular US television and print advertising campaign of the early 2000s featured actor Ben Curtis who played the role of "Steven", a mischievous blond young man who came to help to buy a computer. Every television ad usually ends with Steven's catch phrase: "Dude, you'll get Dell!"
The next ad campaign featured apprentices at Dell headquarters (with Curtis characters appearing in a small cameo at the end of one of the first ads in this special campaign).
In 2007, Dell changed the US advertising agency from BBDO to Working Mother Media. In July 2007, Dell released a new ad created by Working Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines. Ads show music from Flaming Lips and Devo are reshaped primarily to record songs in "Work It Out" ads. Also in 2007, Dell started using the slogan "Yours is here" to say that it customizes the computer to fit the customer's needs.
Starting in 2011, Dell began hosting a conference in Austin, Texas at the Austin Convention Center titled "Dell World". This event features new technologies and services provided by Dell and Dell partners. In 2011, the event was held 12-14 October. In 2012, the event is held December 11-13. In 2013, the event was held 11-13 December.
Dell partner program
At the end of 2007, Dell Inc. announced that it plans to expand its program to value-added retailers (VAR), giving it the official name of "Dell Partner Direct" and the new Web Site.
Dell India has started its Online E-commerce website with its Dell Partners www.compuindia.com GNG Electronics Pvt Ltd is referred to as Dell Express Ship Affiliate (DESA). The main purpose is to reduce delivery time. Customers who visit the official site of Dell India are given the option to purchase online which will then be transferred to the affiliate website of compuindia.com.
Global Analytics
Dell also operates a captive analytics division that supports pricing, web analytics, and supply chain operations. DGA operates as a single, centralized entity with a global view of Dell's business activities. The company supports more than 500 internal customers worldwide and has created a measurable impact of more than $ 500 million.
Criticisms of laptop security marketing
In 2008, Dell received press coverage on claims of having the safest laptop in the world, in particular, the Latitude D630 and Latitude D830. At the request of Lenovo, the National Advertising Division (US) evaluated the claim, and reported that Dell did not have enough evidence to back it up.
Retail
Dell first opened their retail store in India.
United States
In the early 1990s, Dell sold its products through Best Buy, Costco and Sam's Club stores in the United States. Dell stopped this practice in 1994, citing low profit margins in business, exclusively distributing through direct sales models for the next decade. In 2003, Dell briefly sold the product at the Sears store in the US. In 2007, Dell began shipping its products to major retailers in the US once again, starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. Staples, the largest office supplies retailer in the US, and Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the US, became Dell's retail partners later in the year.
Newsstand
Starting in 2002, Dell opened a kiosk location in the United States to allow customers to check the product before purchasing it directly from the company. Starting in 2005, Dell expanded its kiosk locations to include shopping centers across Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. On January 30, 2008, Dell announced it would close all 140 kiosks in the US due to expansion to retail stores.
On June 3, 2010, Dell has also closed all of its mall stalls in Australia.
NorthPark Service Center
In 2006, Dell Inc. opened a full store, 3,000 square feet (280 m 2 ) in the area, at the NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas. It operates retail outlets seven days a week to display about 36 models, including PCs and televisions. As in kiosks, customers can only see demonstration computers and order through agents. Dell then sends items purchased as if the customer had ordered by phone or over the Internet.
In addition to displaying products, the store also supports on-site and unsecured warranties ("Dell Solution Station"). Services offered include repairing computer video cards and removing spyware from hard drives.
On February 14, 2008, Dell closed the Service Center at the Dallas NorthPark store and dismissed all technical staff there.
Retail stores
By the end of February 2008, Dell products were shipped to one of Canada's largest office supplies retailer, Staples Business Depot. In April 2008, Future Shop and Best Buy started bringing some Dell products, such as desktops, laptops, printers, and monitors.
Because some buyers in certain markets show a reluctance to buy technology products over the phone or the Internet, Dell has opened retail operations in several countries in Central Europe and Russia. In April 2007, Dell opened a retail store in Budapest. In October of the same year, Dell opened a retail store in Moscow.
In the UK, Trocadero's flagship store HMV has been selling Dell XPS PCs since December 2007. Starting January 2008, DSGi stores in the UK have sold Dell products (in particular, via Currys and PC World stores). As of 2008, Tesco's large supermarket chain has sold Dell laptops and desktops at various outlets in the UK.
In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with the office supply chain, Officeworks (part of the Coles Group), to store some modified models in the desktop range and Inspiron notebooks. These models have slightly different model numbers, but almost replicates are available from the Dell Store. Dell continued its retailing drive in the Australian market in partnership with Harris Technology (another part of the Coles Group) in November of that year. In addition, Dell expanded its retail distribution in Australia through an agreement with a discounted electric retailer, The Good Guys, known as "Slashing Prices". Dell agreed to distribute both desktop and notebook brands, including Studio and XPS systems by the end of 2008. Dell and Dick Smith Electronics (owned by Woolworths Limited) reached an agreement to expand within the Smith Smith 400 stores across Australia and New Zealand in May 2009 (1 year since Officeworks - owned by Coles Group - reached agreement). Resellers agree to distribute a range of Inspiron and Studio notebooks, with a minimal Desktop Studio from the Dell range. In 2009, Dell continued to run and operate its kiosks in 18 shopping centers across Australia. On March 31, 2010, Dell announced to an Australian Kiosk employee that they closed the Australian/New Zealand Dell kiosk program.
In Germany, Dell sells selected smartphones and notebooks through Media Markt and Saturn, as well as several shopping sites.
Competition
Dell's main competitors include Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Asus, Lenovo, IBM, MSI, Panasonic with Toughbook, Samsung and Apple series. Dell and its subsidiaries, Alienware, compete in the fan market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (HP subsidiary), and other manufacturers. In the second quarter of 2006, Dell had between 18% and 19% personal computer market share worldwide, compared to HP with about 15%.
In late 2006, Dell lost its lead in the PC business to Hewlett-Packard. Both Gartner and IDC estimate that in the third quarter of 2006, HP sent more units worldwide than Dell. Dell's 3.6% growth blanched compared to HP's 15% growth over the same period. The problem worsened in the fourth quarter, when Gartner estimates that PC shipments of Dell decreased 8.9% (compared to 23.9% HP growth). As a result, by the end of 2006 Dell's overall PC market share reached 13.9% (compared to HP 17.4%).
IDC reports that Dell lost more server market share than one of the top four competitors in the arena. The Q4 Q4 2006 estimate shows Dell server market share of 8.1%, down from 9.5% in the previous year. This represents an 8.8% loss year on year, especially for EMC and IBM competitors.
Partner with EMC
The Dell/EMC brand applies only to products generated from Dell's partnership with EMC Corporation. In some cases, Dell and EMC jointly designed the product. Other cases involve Dell-powered EMC products - generally medium-sized storage systems, such as fiber channels and iSCSI storage area networks. The relationship also promotes and sells OEM versions of backup, recovery, replication and archiving software.
On December 9, 2008, Dell and EMC announced a multi-year extension, through 2013, from their strategic partnership that began in 2001. In addition, Dell plans to expand its product range by adding EMC Celerra NX4 storage systems to the Dell/EMC family portfolio from networked storage systems, as well as partnering on a new line of de-duplication products as part of its TierDisk data storage device.
On October 17, 2011, Dell officially discontinued the resale of all EMC storage products, ending the partnership for 10 years 2 years early.
Environmental recordings
Dell is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its global activity by 40% by 2015, with fiscal year 2008 as the base year. It is listed in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics that prints a number of leading electronics manufacturers according to their policies on sustainability, climate and energy and how their products are green. In November 2011, Dell ranked 2 of 15 registered electronics manufacturers (increasing its score to 5.1 from 4.9, earned it in the previous rankings from October 2010).
Dell is the first company to publicly declare a timeline for the removal of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFR), which is planned to be discontinued at the end of 2009. This revised this commitment and now aims to remove toxins by the end of 2011 but only in its computing products. In March 2010, Greenpeace activists protested at Dell's offices in Bangalore, Amsterdam and Copenhagen asking Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell to 'get rid of toxins' and claimed that Dell's aspiration to be 'the greenest technology company on the planet' was 'hypocritical'. Dell has launched its first truly PVC-free and BFR product with G-Series (G2210 and G2410) monitors in 2009.
In its 2012 development report related to conflict minerals, the Project Simply rated Dell the eighth highest of 24 consumer electronics companies.
Green Initiative
Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to build product recycling purposes (in 2004) and complete the implementation of its global consumer recycling program in 2006. On February 6, 2007, the National Recycling Coalition awarded Dell "Recycling" Work "in recognition of efforts to promote producer responsibility.On July 19, 2007, Dell announced that it had exceeded its target of working to achieve its multi-year goal of recovering 275 million pounds of computer equipment in 2009. The company reported a recovery of 78 million pounds (nearly 40,000 tonnes ) IT equipment from customers in 2006, an increase of 93 percent from 2005, and 12.4 percent of equipment sold by Dell seven years earlier.
On June 5, 2007, Dell set a goal to become a green technology company on Earth for the long term. The company launched a zero-carbon initiative that includes:
- reduces Dell's carbon intensity by 15 percent by 2012
- requires major suppliers to report carbon emissions data during quarterly business reviews
- partner with customers to create "the greenest PC on the planet"
- expanded the company's carbon-offsetting program, "Planting Trees for Me"
The company introduced the term "The Re-Generation" during a round table in London commemorating World Environment Day 2007. "The Re-Generation" refers to people of all ages around the world who want to make a difference in improving the world's environment. Dell also talked about plans to take the lead in setting environmental standards for the technology industry and maintaining that leadership in the future.
Dell reports its environmental performance in its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report that follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocol. The 2008 CSR report of Dell is classed as "Application Level B" as "reviewed by GRI".
The Company aims to reduce the impact of the external environment through the evolution of energy-efficient products, as well as reduce its direct operational impact through energy efficiency programs. The internal energy efficiency program reportedly saved the company more than $ 3 million per year in energy cost savings. The company's largest internal energy-efficiency component comes via PC power management: the company expects to save $ 1.8 million in energy costs through the use of specialized energy management software on 50,000 PC networks.
Criticism
In the 1990s, Dell switched from using ATX and PSU motherboards to use boards and power supplies with mechanically identical but different connectors. This means customers who want to upgrade their hardware must replace parts with rare parts that are compatible with Dell and not the most commonly available parts. While motherboard power connections returned to industry standards in 2003, Dell continued to keep secret about pin-out their motherboards for peripherals (such as MMC readers and power on/off switches and LEDs).
In 2005, complaints about Dell increased more than doubled to 1,533, after profits grew 52% that year.
In 2006, Dell acknowledged that there was a problem with customer service. Problems include call transfer over 45% call and long waiting time. The Dell Blog details the answer: "We spent over $ 100 million - and a lot of blood, sweat and tears from talented people - to fix this." Later in the year, the company increased its spending on customer service to $ 150 million. Despite significant investment in this space, Dell continues to face public scrutiny even with its own corporate website littered with complaints related to the process of escalating the issue.
On August 17, 2007, Dell Inc. announced that after an internal investigation of its accounting practices, Dell will restate and reduce earnings from 2003 to the first quarter of 2007 for a total of between $ 50 million and $ 150 million, or 2 cents to 7 cents per share. The investigation, commenced in November 2006, resulted from concerns raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission on certain documents and information submitted by Dell Inc. It is suspected that Dell did not disclose the huge exclusivity payments received from Intel as it agreed not to buy processors from competing AMD manufacturers. In 2010 Dell finally paid $ 100 million to settle the SEC fraud allegations. Michael Dell and other executives also paid fines and suffered other sanctions, without recognizing or denying the allegations.
In July 2009, Dell apologized after withdrawing the anger of the Taiwan Consumer Protection Commission for twice refusing to honor the flood of orders against the very low prices offered on its website in Taiwan. In the first example, Dell offers a 19 "LCD panel for $ 15. In the second example, Dell offers its Latitude E4300 notebook at NT $ 18,558 (US $ 580), 70% lower than the usual NT $ 60,900 (US $ 1900) On the E4300, rather than honoring discounts with significant losses, the company withdrew orders and offered vouchers of up to NT $ 20,000 (US $ 625) subscribers in compensation.Customer rights authorities in Taiwan fined Dell NT $ 1 million (US $ 31250) for rights violations Many consumers are suing companies for unfair compensation A court in southern Taiwan ordered the company to deliver 18 laptops and 76 flat panel monitors to 31 consumers for NT $ 490,000 (US $ 15,120), less than a third of the normal price.The court said the show can hardly be regarded as a mistake, because prestigious companies say the company misjudged its product twice on the Taiwan website within 3 weeks.
After Michael Dell made a 24.4 billion dollar purchase bid in August 2013, shareholder activist Carl Icahn sued the company and its board in an effort to thwart the offer and promote its upcoming offer.
See also
- List of computer system manufacturers
- List of ownership of Dell
- Configurator
- Bulk customization
References
Further reading
External links
- Official website ( Mobile )
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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