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Dell Inc. ( , ) is a multinational technology corporation that develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. Based in Round Rock, Texasmarker, Dell employs more than 76,500 people worldwide .

Dell grew during the 1980s and 1990s to become (for a time) the largest seller of PCs and servers. it held the second spot in computer-sales within the industry behind Hewlett-Packard. The company currently sells personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players and other electronics built by other manufacturers.

In 2006, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 25th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list, 8th on its annual "Top 20" list of the most-admired companies in the United States. In 2007 Dell ranked 34th and 8th respectively on the equivalent lists for the year. A 2006 publication identified Dell as one of 38 high-performance companies in the S&P 500 which had consistently out-performed the market over the previous 15 years.

History



Background and origins

While a student at the University of Texas at Austinmarker in 1984, Michael Dell founded the company as PC's Limited with capital of $1000. Operating from Michael Dell's off-campus dormitory room at Dobie Centermarker, the startup aimed to sell IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components. Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling personal computer-systems directly to customers, PC's Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs. Michael Dell dropped out of school in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $300,000 in expansion-capital from his family.

In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design — the "Turbo PC", sold for US$795 — which contained an Intel 8088-compatible processor running at a speed of 8 MHz. PC's Limited advertised the systems in national computer-magazines for sale directly to consumers, and custom-assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. This offered buyers prices lower than those of retail brands, but with greater convenience than assembling the components themselves. Although not the first company to use this model, PC's Limited became one of the first to succeed with it. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.

The company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation" in 1988. In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site-service programs in order to compensate for the lack of local retailers prepared to act as service centers. Also in 1987, the company set up its first operations in Irelandmarker; eleven more international operations followed within the next four years. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share.In 1990, Dell Computer Corporation tried selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest companies.

In 1996, Dell began selling computers via its web site.

In 2002, Dell attempted to expand by tapping into the multimedia and home-entertainment markets with the introduction of televisions, handhelds, and digital audio players. Dell has also produced Dell-brand printers for home and small-office use.

In 2003, at the annual company meeting, the stockholders approved changing the company name to "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers.

In 2004, the company announced that it would build a new assembly-plant near Winston-Salemmarker, North Carolinamarker; the city and county provided Dell with $37.2 million in incentive packages; the state provided approximately $250 million in incentives and tax breaks. In July, Michael Dell stepped aside as Chief Executive Officer while retaining his position as Chairman of the Board. Kevin Rollins, who had held a number of executive posts at Dell, became the new CEO.

In 2005, the share of sales coming from international markets increased, as revealed in the company's press releases for the first two quarters of its fiscal 2005 year. In February 2005 Dell appeared in first place in a ranking of the "Most Admired Companies" published by Fortune magazine. In November 2005 BusinessWeek magazine published an article titled "It's Bad to Worse at Dell" about shortfalls in projected earnings and sales, with a worse-than-predicted third-quarter financial performance — a bad omen for a company that had routinely underestimated its earnings. Dell acknowledged that faulty capacitors on the motherboards of the Optiplex GX270 and GX280 had already cost the company $300 million. The CEO, Kevin Rollins, attributed the bad performance partially to Dell's focus on low-end PCs.

In 2006, Dell purchased the computer hardware manufacturer Alienware. Dell Inc.'s plan anticipated Alienware continuing to operate independently under its existing management. Alienware expected to benefit from Dell's efficient manufacturing system.

On January 31, 2007, Kevin B. Rollins, CEO of the company since 2004, resigned as both CEO and as a director, and Michael Dell resumed his former role as CEO. Investors and many shareholders had called for Rollins' resignation because of poor company performance. At the same time, the company announced that, for the fourth time in five quarters, earnings would fail to reach consensus analyst-estimates.

In February 2007 Dell became the subject of formal investigations by the US SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The company has not formally filed financial reports for either the third or fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits have arisen in the wake of its financial performance. Dell Inc's lack of formal financial disclosure would normally subject the company to de-listing from the NASDAQ,but the exchange has granted Dell a waiver, allowing the stock to trade normally.

On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report which showed gross sales of $14.4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down 33%. Net earnings would have declined even more if not for the effects of eliminated employee bonuses, which accounted for six cents per share. NASDAQ extended the company's deadline for filing financials to May 4.

In Sept 2009- Dells Studio XPS line of computer experienced long delays in shipping, with some costumers waiting over 7 weeks or more from their computers. As of December 1st, 2009 many of those laptops have still not been shipped. Customer support has given no conclusive answers for the delays as reported on dells own community blog. The Federal Trade Commission has stated over the phone that the best course of action against the companies behavior is to call and file a report. The more reports, the sooner the FTC will start an investigation into the matter.

Dell and AMD

When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some Alienware systems had AMD chips. On August 17, 2006, a Dell press-release stated that starting in September, Dell Dimension desktop computers would have AMDmarker processors and that later in the year Dell would release a two-socket, quad-processor server using AMD Opteron chips, moving away from Dell's tradition of only offering Intelmarker processors in Dell PCs.

CNet's News.com on August 17, 2006 cited Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins as attributing the move to AMD processors to cost-advantage and to AMD technology. AMD's senior VP in commercial business, Marty Seyer, stated: "Dell's wider embrace of AMD processor-based offerings is a win for Dell, for the industry and most importantly for Dell customers."

On October 23, 2006, Dell announced new AMD-based servers — the PowerEdge 6950 and the PowerEdge SC1435.

On November 1, 2006, Dell's website began offering notebooks based on AMD processors (the Inspiron 1501 with a display) with the choice of a single-core MK-36 processor, dual-core Turion X2 chips or Mobile Sempron.

Dell and desktop Linux

First attempt (2000)

In 1998 Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEM) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest"Possibly coincidentally, Dell started offering Linux notebook systems which "cost no more than their Windows 98 counterparts" in 2000, and soon expanded, with Dell becoming "the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line"However, by early 2001 Dell had "disbanded its Linux business unit."

The reason(s) for such a quick reversal remain the subject of debate. Court documents accused Microsoft of coercing OEMs to drop Linux:

Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin described his plan of retaliation and coercion to shut down competition from Linux: "I am thinking of hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti-Linux actions" and will "further try to restrict source code deliveries where possible and be less gracious when interpreting agreements — again without being obvious about it," continuing "this will be a delicate dance"


While in a 2003 interview Michael Dell denied that Microsoft pressured Dell Inc. into doing an about-face with regard to desktop Linux, citing a lack of sales: "unfortunately the desktop Linux market didn't develop in volume. It's more of a server opportunity" but adding: "We continue to offer Linux on the desktop and there is nothing else to say."However, a 2004 report noted that Dell no longer offered pre-installed desktop Linux:

So what does it mean "factory installed Linux"? If you want Dell to install Linux for you, first add on $119. But here is the annoying part. They won't send you a computer with Linux pre-installed. They sell you the computer and the boxes of software on the side, and then they make an appointment to send you someone who comes to your house or business and installs it there.


Ubuntu on Dell systems



On February 26, 2007 Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Dell indicated that Novell's SUSE Linux would appear first.However, Dell on February 27, 2007 announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it (Dell) had no plans to sell systems pre-installed with Linux in the near future.On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead. On April 18, 2007 a report appeared suggesting that Michael Dell used Ubuntu on one of his home systems.On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution.On May 24, 2007, Dell started selling models with Ubuntu Linux 7.04 pre-installed: a laptop, a budget computer, and a high-end PC.

On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems (the new Dell Inspiron desktops and laptops). After the IdeaStorm site supported extending the bundles beyond the US market, Dell later announced more international marketing. On August 7, 2007, Dell officially announced that it would offer one notebook and one desktop in the UK, France and Germany with Ubuntu "pre-installed". At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed".On November 30, 2007 Dell reported shipping 40,000 Ubuntu PCs.On January 24, 2008 Dell in Germany, Spain, UK and France launched a second laptop, a XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 7.10, for 849 euro or GBP 599 upwards.On February 18, 2008, Dell announced that the Inspiron 1525 would have Ubuntu as an optional operating system.On February 22, 2008 Dell announced plans to sell Ubuntu in Canadamarker and in Latin AmericaFrom September 16, 2008, Dell has shipped both Dell Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP Home versions of the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12. Dell ships the Inspiron Mini laptops with Ubuntu version 8.04.

Personnel

On January 31, 2007 Michael Dell returned to the company as CEO. As chairman of the board, Michael Dell had had significant input into the company's operations during Rollins' years as CEO. However with the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw immediate changes 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. These include elimination of 2006 bonuses for employees with some discretionary awards, reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Michael Dell from 20 to 12, and reduction of "bureaucracy."

On April 23, 2008, Dell announced the closure of one of its biggest Canadian call-centers in Kanata, Ontariomarker — terminating approximately 1100 employees, with 500 of those redundancies effective on the spot, and with the official closure of the center scheduled for the summer. The call-center had opened in 2006 after the city of Ottawamarker won a bid to host it. Less than a year later, Dell Inc planned to double its workforce to nearly 3,000 workers and to add a new building. Journalists cited a high Canadian dollar and suggested high pay-rates as among the reasons for the cuts.The company had also announced the shutdown of its Edmonton, Albertamarker office, losing 900 jobs. In total, Dell announced the ending of about 8,800 jobs in 2007-2008 — 10% of its workforce. On January 8, 2009 Dell announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland with the loss of 1,900 jobs and the transfer of production to its plant in Poland.

Products

Scope and brands

The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments:
  • Business/Corporate class: including OptiPlex, Latitude, and Precision, where the company's advertising emphasizes long life-cycles, reliability and serviceability:
* OptiPlex - office desktop computer systems
* Vostro - office/small business desktop and notebook systems
* n Series - desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed
* Latitude - commercially-focused notebooks
* Precision - workstation systems and high-performance notebooks. (Some of them including Linux pre-installed.)
* PowerEdge - business server
* PowerVault - direct-attach and some network-attached storage (NAS)
* PowerConnect - network switches
* Dell/EMC - storage area networks (SANs)
* EqualLogic - enterprise class iSCSI SANs


  • Home Office/Consumer class: including Inspiron and XPS brands, emphasizing value, performance and expandability:
* Dimension (discontinued) - consumer desktop systems.
* Inspiron - budget desktop and notebook computers.
* Studio - mainstream desktop and laptop computers.
* XPS - high-end desktop and notebook computers.
* Studio XPS - high-end design-focus of XPS systems and extreme multimedia capability
* Alienware (XPS Extreme) - high-performance gaming systems rivaling HP's gaming division, VoodooPC
* Adamo - high-end luxury laptop to compete with the MacBook Air


* Dell monitors LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitor
* UltraSharp - high-end brand of monitors
  • Services and support:
* Dell On Call - extended support services (mainly for the removal of spyware and computer viruses)
* Dell Support Center - extended support services (similar to "Dell On Call") for customers in the EMEA. The Solution Centers also support hardware for customers outside of warranty.
* Dell Business Support - a commercial service-contract that provides an industry-certified technician with a lower call-volume than in normal queues; it covers hardware- and some software-support.
* Dell Everdream Desktop Management - "Software as a Service" remote-desktop management. Lyndon Rive, Elon Musk and other partners sold Everdream to Dell.
* Your Tech Team - a support-queue available to home users who purchased their systems either through Dell's website or through Dell phone-centers. These customers gain access to a specialized queue. Customers can request a technician with whom they have worked previously, and the technicians can troubleshoot a wider range of problems — including some that would fall under the "Dell on Call" category. Data backup and virus removal remain out-of-scope for this queue.


Dell also offers Red Hat and SUSE Linux for servers; as well as "bare-bones" computers without pre-installed software (available on n Series by default and by request on XPS and Inspiron systems) at significantly lower prices. Due to Dell's licensing contract with Microsoft, Dell allegedly cannot offer those systems on its website and customers have to request them explicitly. (Dell does offer those systems via its web site). Dell has to ship such systems with a FreeDOS disk included in the box and must issue a so-called "Windows refund" or a merchandise credit after sale of the system at the "regular" retail price.
  • Discontinued products/brands:
* Axim - PDA using Microsoft's Windows Mobile (discontinued on April 9, 2007)
* Dimension - home and "small office, home office" desktop computers (discontinued July 2007; replaced by Inspiron and Vostro desktops)
* Dell Digital Jukebox - MP3 players (discontinued August 2006)
* Dell PowerApp - application-based servers
* Dell Omniplex - 486- and Pentium-based desktop and tower computers previously supported to run server and desktop operating systems.


Manufacturing

In the 1980s Dell became a pioneer in the “configure to order” approach to manufacturing – delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis.

To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of manufacturing its products close to its customers. This also allows for implementing a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs. Low inventory is another signature of the Dell business model – a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very rapidly.

Dell’s manufacturing process covers assembly, software installation, functional testing (including "burn-in"), and quality control. Throughout most of the company’s history, Dell manufactured desktop machines in-house and contracted out manufacturing of base notebooks for configuration in-house.However, the company's approach appears to have started to change. The 2006 Annual Report states “we are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.” The Wall Street Journal reported in September, 2008 that “Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their plants.

Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market takes place at Dell plants in Austin, Texasmarker (original location), Lebanon TNmarker (opened in 1999), Winston-Salem NCmarker (opened in 2005) and at the Miami, Florida facility of its Alienware subsidiary. Dell servers come from Austin, TX.

Dell's desktop plant in Austin, Texas was shut down in 2008. It closed its desktop manufacturing in Labanon TN in early 2009. The last major U.S. plant in North Carolina is scheduled to close in January, 2010. It marks the end for most of Dell's personal computer manufacturing in the United States. It's expected that most of the work carried out in North Carolina will be transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia, though Dell said some of the work will move to its own factories overseas.

Dell assembles computers for the EMEA market at Limerickmarker in the Republic of Irelandmarker, and employs about 4,500 people in that country. Dell began manufacturing in Limerickmarker in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and foreign investor. On January 8, 2009, Dell announced that it would move all Dell manufacturing in Limerick to Dell's new plant in the Polish city of Łódźmarker by January 2010.European Union officials said they would investigate a €52.7million aid package the Polishmarker government used to attract Dell away from Ireland. European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990) and EMF3 form part of the Raheen Industrial Estatemarker near Limerick. EMF2 (previously a Wang facility, later occupied by Flextronics, situated in Castletroy) closed in 2002, and Dell Inc has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now contains only offices).Dell’s Alienware subsidiary also manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland plant. Construction of EMF4 in Łódźmarker, Polandmarker has : Dell started production there in autumn 2007.

Dell opened plants in Penang, Malaysiamarker in 1995, and in Xiamen, Chinamarker in 1999. These facilities serve the Asian market and assemble 95% of Dell notebooks. Dell Inc has invested an estimated $60 million in a new manufacturing unit in Chennaimarker, India, to support the sales of its products in the Indian subcontinent. Indian-made products will bear the "Made in India" mark. In 2007 the Chennai facility had the target of producing 400,000 desktop PCs, and plans envisaged it starting to produce notebook PCs and other products in the second half of 2007.

Dell moved desktop and PowerEdge server manufacturing for the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazilmarker in 2007.

Dell's plants



Technical support

Dell routes technical support queries according to component-type and to the level of support purchased. Dell Inc brands its service agreements at five levels for their business customers:

  1. Basic support provides business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support.
  2. Silver support provides 24×7 telephone support and 4-hour on-site support after telephone-based troubleshooting.
  3. Gold support provides additional benefits over and above Silver support, including: customer-declared severity; priority access to support; expedited escalation of support; 4-hour on-site support in parallel with telephone-support.
  4. Platinum Plus support provides additional benefits to Gold Support, including: performance benchmarking; real-time tracking; custom planning and reporting; a dedicated technical account-manager.
  5. 2-hour on-site support, offered in some cities: mostly limited to major metropolitan areas.


Dell's Consumer division offers 24x7 phone based and online troubleshooting rather than only during business hours. Gold Technical support is not offered for customers purchasing through the consumer department, and neither is Same-Day Onsite response.

On February 4, 2008 Dell launched a revamped services-and-support scheme for businesses named "ProSupport", offering customers more options to tailor services to fit their needs. Rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, Dell has put together packages of options for each category of its customers: small and medium-sized businesse, large businesses, government, education, and health-care- and life-sciences.

Dell now offers separate support options for IT staff and for non-IT professionals. For the latter, the company offers "how-to" support for software applications, such as Microsoft Office. Dell also offers collaborative support with many third-party software vendors. For IT departments, Dell offers "fast-track dispatch" of parts and labor and access to a crisis-center to handle major outages, virus-attacks, or problems caused by natural disasters.

Besides offering response-options for handling problems, Dell has launched "Proactive Maintenance", which offers assessment and recommendations for updating drivers and firmware and for the application of customer-approved patches and system-updates. Dell also offers assessment-services for storage area networks, as well as for Dell's computing hardware.

The new offerings replace Dell's tiered services-structure in which customers could choose from a variety of service levels, such as platinum, gold, or silver. The latest system takes a more customizable approach to support.

"Service Tags"

Dell associates what it calls a Service Tag, a unique alpha-numeric identifier, with most of its products — this resembles a serial number. The Service Tag number, represented in base 36, has a length of five or seven characters. Software can read the Service Tag in a computer's DMI table. Monitors bought as part of a computer system get support via the Service Tag of the computer. Monitors bought separately get support via the Dell Order Number or via the monitor's serial number.

Dell links its Service Tags to Express Service Codes, usually found together with the service tag on a sticker physically attached to a system. Computer-owners can usually find this tag on the bottom of laptops; or on the side or on the back of the computer tower of desktops. The Express Service Code, a purely numerical conversion of the service tag, serves for use in Dell's trunkline for routing a customer to the appropriate phone-technician. Dell's technical support for consumers requires the customer to enter in their Express Service Code into their touch-tone phone and if they do not provide it when prompted customers will experience increased hold-time before reaching a support-representative.

DellConnect

The DellConnect program, a remote-access tool, gives technicians within Dell Support the ability to access customer computers from a remote location for troubleshooting purposes. By using this tool, support technicians can analyze the configuration of a computer system, view and edit its files and software environment, view and comment on the screen, or take control of the computer system (with the customer's approval) to carry out troubleshooting.

As of 2007 Dell Inc replaced its proprietary remote-access tool with the newer DellConnect 2.0 manufactured by Citrix — a Dell-branded GoToAssist. After reaching the website, customers simply run this software, which can permit a support technician to view and work on their computer from a remote location; including the ability to reboot the computer remotely and continuing the same session, to share clipboards, and to redirect customers to a specific website.

World-wide technical support

Dell redirects calls from the Americas, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to its Customer Contact Centers to Indiamarker. support-lines for enterprise customers continue to function in the United States.

In the Asia-Pacific region Dell provides customer support from Muntinlupa Citymarker, Pasay Citymarker and Quezon Citymarker, Philippinesmarker; Cyberjayamarker and Penangmarker, Malaysiamarker; and Xiamenmarker and Dalian, Chinamarker.

In India, Dell has customer support centers in the northern cities of Gurgaonmarker and Mohalimarker; and in the southern cities of Hyderabadmarker and Bangaloremarker.

On October 15, Dell sold its Dell El Salvador facilities to Stream Global Services to continue providing support to Spanish-speaking US Customers and to Latin American customers.

In 2006 The New York Times published a review of the company's situation in an article by David Pogue. Pogue lamented the difficulties customers face when attempting to reach tech-support by phone. "When you are ready to MAKE THE CALL", he wrote, "go to the bathroom, take an aspirin, get a book or crossword, stock up on water and nibbles (preferably ones with high sugar content and no nutritional value; Twinkies are good)".

On March 21, 2009 Dell announced that it would sell its Pasaymarker call center at SM Mall of Asiamarker to Teleperformance for an undisclosed amount in a bid to "increase the efficiency of its business and provide better value for customers". the site still provides the same support for Dell, but under Teleperformance management.

Canada

On January 31, 2008 Dell announced that it would close its call center in Edmontonmarker, Albertamarker effective May 2, 2008, laying off over 900 workers and abandoning the sweetheart-deal it had agreed to with the city of Edmonton.

The company closed its Ottawamarker call center in July 2008, eliminating 1,100 jobs in the process. It kept 100 sales people, but left no support centers in Canadamarker.

USA

Dell plans to close its call center in Twin Falls, Idaho, in Jan 2010, eliminating 500 jobs in the process. It had employed 670 in 2007. Dell located to Twin Falls in 2002 and received millions in incentives from Idaho State public funds and Twin falls City treasury to locate in Twin Falls. Twin Falls sold $2.9 million in bonds to buy the building for Dell, and the State funded the training and recruiting of employees.

Some workers told The Times-News they were stunned and angry, but all asked that their names not be used because the company had threatened to take away severance pay if they commented to the media.The city's Urban Renewal Agency, its Chamber of Commerce and Idaho chipped in $1.5 million to upgrade a former grocery store and its telecommunications equipment to lure the call center. Twin Falls also agreed to pay $68,000 annually to lease an offsite parking lot built for Dell employees.

Commercial aspects

Traditional business-model

Traditionally, Dell has sold all its products — whether to end-use consumers or to corporate customers — using a direct-sales model via the Internet and the telephone-network. Dell maintains a negative cash conversion cycle (CCC) through use of this model: in other words, Dell Inc. receives payment for the products before it has to pay for the materials. Dell also practices just-in-time (JIT) inventory-management, profiting from its attendant benefits. Dell's JIT approach utilizes the "pull" system by building computers only after customers place orders and by requesting materials from suppliers as needed. In this way Dell mirrors Toyota by following Toyota Way Principle #3 ("Use 'pull' systems to avoid overproduction"). Since the days of the original dominance of telephone-ordering, the Internet has significantly enhanced Dell’s business model, making it easier for customers and potential customers to contact Dell directly. This model also has enabled Dell to provide very customizable systems at an affordable rate, since Dell's manufacturing arm builds specifically for each customer. Other computer-manufacturers, including Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, have attempted to adapt similar business-models, but due to timing and/or retail-channel pressures they have not achieved the same results as Dell.

A Dell executive writes:

Analysts say : They (Dell) have a negative 44 days CCC, which means that their sales are converted in hard cash 45 days BEFORE the sale.


I say : They have a negative 44 days CCC, which means that their sales are converted in hard cash 45 days BEFORE Dell needs to pay for purchase invoices to vendors.


Dell has also sold at retail, as explained below in the "Marketing" section.

Organization

A board of directors of nine people runs the company. Michael Dell, the founder of the company, serves on the board. Other board members include Don Carty, William Gray, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl, Michael A. Miles, and Sam Nunn. Shareholders elect the nine board members at meetings, and those board members who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. The board of directors usually sets up five committees which have oversight over specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues, including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters (including nomination of the board); and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.

The corporate structure and management of Dell extends beyond the board of directors. The Dell Global Executive Management Committee sets strategic directions. Dell has regional senior vice-presidents for countries other than the United States, including David Marmonti for EMEA and Stephen J. Felice for Asia/Japanmarker. , other officers included Martin Garvin (senior vice president for worldwide procurement) and Susan E. Sheskey (vice president and chief information officer).

Marketing

Dell advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet, magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Some of Dell Inc's marketing strategies include lowering prices at all times of the year, offering free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and offering free shipping in order to encourage more sales and to stave off competitors. In 2006, Dell cut its prices in an effort to maintain its 19.2% market share. However, this also cut profit-margins by more than half, from 8.7 to 4.3 percent. To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone network, and to move its customer-care division to Indiamarker and El Salvadormarker.

A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early 2000s featured the actor Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a lightly mischievous blond-haired kid who came to the assistance of bereft computer purchasers. Each television advertisement usually ended with Steven's catch-phrase: "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!"

A subsequent advertising campaign featured interns at Dell headquarters (with Curtis' character appearing in a small cameo at the end of one of the first commercials in this particular campaign).

A Dell advertising campaign for the XPS line of gaming computers featured in print in the September 2006 issue of Wired. It used as a tagline the common term in Internet and gamer slang: "FTW", meaning "For The Win". However, Dell Inc. soon dropped the campaign.

In the first-person shooter game F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, several computers visible on desks within the game have recognizable Dell XPS model characteristics, sometimes even including the Dell logo on the monitors.

In 2007 Dell switched advertising agencies in the US from BBDO to Mother. In July 2007, Dell released new advertising created by Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines. The ads featured music from the Flaming Lips and Devo who re-formed especially to record the song in the ad "Work it Out".

Dell recently began using the slogan "Yours is here" to show that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements.

Criticisms of Dell's marketing of laptop security

 Dell has received a lot of press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure notebooks, specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830.


According to a (U.S.) National Advertising Division (NAD) report released in late June 2008, Dell did not have enough evidence to support its claim as maker of the "world's most secure laptops"within its marketing campaign. Lenovo filed the complaint to NAD accusing Dell of making unverified claims.

Most of the criticism made by NAD relates to data encryption, both disk-encryption software and disk-encryption hardware, used in Dell's commercial notebooks. Dell uses hardware-based full disk encryption and software-based full disk encryption from third-party vendors such as Seagate Technology.

"Although NAD determined that the advertiser could truthfully advertise its position as the first in the industry to combine these particular third-party components in creating secure systems for large businesses, NAD observed the distinction between the security provided to the individual computers and the security provided to a large network of computers.""Since not all of the components of the FDE Encryption Solution are equally relevant for all sizes of business, NAD recommended the advertiser make this distinction to the extent it intends to make broad security claims.""On the basis of the evidence in the record, NAD determined that advertiser demonstrated that it offered features of computer security that were both unique and meaningful to consumers."

The market expects laptops with full disk encryption to have data-at-rest (DAR) protection, but they remain vulnerable to cold boot attack, a type of side-channel attack, which takes advantage of data remanence"However, it also determined that the broad claim "World's Most Secure" was not adequately supported and was appropriately discontinued."

Dell voluntarily discontinued the "world's most secure laptops" advertisement after the announcement of the NAD investigation.

Dell's original claimincluded:

"The industry-first solution delivers improved performance versus software-based encryption and automated compliance reports so customers are confident that encryption is enabled." "'Dell is at the forefront of laptop security because it ranks as a top concern for customers in an environment where more data is produced by an increasingly mobile work force,' said Margaret Franco, director, Dell Product Group. 'The industry-first solution we’re announcing today adds to our multi-pronged approach to security that delivers an ironclad assurance of protection.'”


Dell kiosks



Starting in 2002, Dell opened kiosk locations in shopping malls across the United States in order to give personal service to customers who preferred this method of shopping to using the Internet or the telephone-system. Despite the added expense, prices at the kiosks match or beat prices available through other retail channels. Starting in 2005, Dell expanded kiosk locations to include shopping malls across Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kongmarker.

On January 30, 2008 Dell shut down all 140 kiosks in the US due to expansion into retail stores such as Wal-Martmarker, Best Buy, and Staples all over the world .

Dell stores in the United States of America

In 2006 Dell Inc. opened one full store, in area, at NorthPark Centermarker in Dallas, Texasmarker. It operates the retail outlet seven days a week to display about 36 models, including PCs and televisions. As at the kiosks, customers can only see demonstration-computers and place orders through agents. Dell then delivers purchased items just as if the customer had placed the order by phone or over the Internet.

Dell Inc planned to use the Dallas store to house about three times as many products as it displayed in more than 160 kiosks in malls and airports. In addition to showcasing products, the stores also support on-site warranties and non-warranty service ("Dell on Call"). Services offered include repairing computer video-cards and removing spyware from hard drives.

On February 14, 2008, Dell closed the Service Center in its Dallas NorthPark store and laid off all the technical staff there.

Dell Partner Program

In late 2007 Dell Inc announced that it planned to expand its program to value-added resellers (VARs), giving it the official name of "Dell Partner Direct" and a new website [15097]. Dell Inc realized that this program, once a small factor in Dell Inc sales, had become a growing sector of its business and it desired to leverage this growing outlet for its products. It promised VARs who joined this program increased discounts on product and the ability to use the Dell name and logo in their marketing efforts. ConnectU became an early member of the program.

The overall success of this program — as a new development for Dell Inc — remains unclear .

Retail in the United States

In the early 1990s Dell also 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 on the business. In 2003, Dell briefly sold products in Sears stores in the U.S. In 2007, Dell started shipping its products to major retailers in the U.S. once again, starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Martmarker. Staples, the largest office-supply retailer in the U.S., and Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the U.S., became Dell retail partners later that same year.

Retail in Canada

, Dell products shipped to one of the largest office-supply retailers in Canada, Staples Business Depot. In April 2008, Future Shop and Best Buy began carrying a sub-set of Dell products, such as certain desktops, laptops, printers, and monitors.


Direct retail in Central Europe and in Russia

Since some shoppers in certain markets show reluctance to purchase technological products through the phone or the Internet, Dell has looked into opening retail operations in some countries. In April 2007, Dell opened a retail store in Budapestmarker. In October of the same year, Dell opened a retail store in Moscowmarker.

Retail in the UK

Since December 2007 HMV's flagship Trocaderomarker store has sold Dell XPS PCs. From January 2008 the UK stores of DSGi have sold Dell products (in particular, through Currys and PC World stores). As of 2008, the large supermarket-chain Tescomarker has sold Dell laptops and desktops in outlets throughout the UK.

Retail in Australia

In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with office supply chain, Officeworks (part of Coles Group), to stock a few modified models in the Inspiron desktop and notebook range. These models have slightly different model numbers, but almost replicate the ones available from the Dell Store. Dell continued its retail push in the Australian market with its partnership with Harris Technology (another part of Coles Group) in November of the same year.

In late 2008 Dell expanded its retail distributions in Australia through an agreement with discount electrical retailer, The Good Guys, known for "Slashing Prices". Dell agreed to distribute a variety of makes of both desktops and notebooks, including Studio and XPS systems.

In May 2009 (1 year since Officeworks — owned by Coles Group — reached a deal), Dell and Dick Smith Electronics (owned by Woolworths Limited) reached an agreement to expand within Dick Smith's 400 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. The retailer has agreed to distribute a variety of Inspiron and Studio notebooks, with minimal Studio desktops from the Dell range.

 Dell continues to run and operate its various kiosks in 18 shopping centres throughout Australia.


Competition

Dell's major competitors include Applemarker, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Samsung, Sun Microsystems, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Toshiba and Asus. Dell and its subsidiary, Alienware, compete in the enthusiast market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (a subsidiary of HP), and other manufacturers. In the second quarter of 2006 Dell had between 18% and 19% share of the worldwide personal computer market, compared to HP with roughly 15%.

, Dell lost its lead in the PC-business to Hewlett-Packard. Both Gartner and IDC estimated that in the third quarter of 2006, HP shipped  more units worldwide than did Dell. Dell's 3.6% growth paled in comparison to HP's 15% growth during the same period. The problem got worse in the fourth quarter, when Gartner  estimated that Dell PC shipments declined 8.9% (versus HP's 23.9% growth). As a result, at the end of 2006 Dell's overall PC market-share stood at 13.9% (versus HP's 17.4%).


IDC reported that Dell lost more server market share than any of the top four competitors in that arena. IDC's Q4 2006 estimates show Dell's share of the server market at 8.1%, down from 9.5% in the previous year. This represents a 8.8% loss year-over-year, primarily to competitors EMC and IBM.

Partnership with EMC

The Dell/EMC brand applies solely to products that result from Dell's partnership with EMC Corporation. In some cases Dell and EMC jointly design such products; other cases involve EMC products for which Dell will provide support — generally midrange storage systems, such as fibre channel and iSCSI storage area networks. The relationship also promotes and sells OEM verions of backup, recovery, replication and archiving software.

Dell and EMC have announced the multi-year extension, through 2013, of their strategic partnership that began in 2001. In addition, Dell plans to expand its product line-up by adding the EMC Celerra NX4 storage system to the portfolio of Dell/EMC family of networked storage systems, as well as partnering on a new line of de-duplication products as part of its TierDisk family of data-storage device.

Environmental record

Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to establish a product-recycling goal (in 2004) and completed the implementation of its global consumer recycling-program in 2006.On February 6, 2007, the National Recycling Coalition awarded Dell its "Recycling Works" award for efforts to promote producer responsibility.On July 19, 2007, Dell announced that it had exceeded targets in working to achieve a multi-year goal of recovering 275 million pounds of computer equipment by 2009.The company reported the recovery of 78 million pounds (nearly 40,000 tons) of IT equipment from customers in 2006, a 93-percent increase over 2005; and 12.4% of the equipment Dell sold seven years earlier.

On June 5, 2007 Dell set a goal of becoming the greenest technology company on Earth for the long term. The company launched a zero-carbon initiative that includes:
  1. reducing Dell's carbon intensity by 15 percent by 2012
  2. requiring primary suppliers to report carbon emissions data during quarterly business reviews
  3. partnering with customers to build the "greenest PC on the planet"
  4. expanding the company's carbon-offsetting program, "Plant a Tree for Me".


The company introduced the term "The Re-Generation" during a round table in London commemorating 2007 World Environment Day. "The Re-Generation" refers to people of all ages throughout 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 an environmental standard for the "technology industry" and maintaining that leadership in the future.

Environmental Performance Reporting

Dell reports its environmental performance in an annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report which follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocol. Dell's 2008 CSR report ranked as "Application Level B" as "checked by GRI".

Energy Efficiency

The company aims to reduce its external environmental impact through energy-efficient design of products, and also reduce its direct operational impact through energy-efficiency programmes. Internal energy-efficiency programmes reportedly save the company more than $3 million annually in energy-cost savings. The largest component of the company's internal energy-efficiency savings comes through PC power management: the company expects to save $1.8 million in energy costs through using specialised energy-management software on a network of 50,000 PCs.

Lawsuits and other legal action

  • In 1997 Håkan Lans sued Dell for infringement of his color-graphics display patent, U.S. patent no. 4,303,986. Dell won the case because Lans did not have any ownership interest in the patent, having assigned it to a corporation that he owned.
  • In 2005, Dell began the construction of a facility in Winston-Salemmarker, North Carolinamarker. Many claims emerged that Dell had used unfair practices to obtain huge incentives. Dell Inc. fought a lawsuit which the court system later dismissed.
  • In October 2005, Dell filed a lawsuit in a Paris court to sue Minorcamarker-based independent website-designer Paul Dell of "Dellimages" for engaging in "parasitism and unfair competition". This related to his company website "DellWebsites".
  • On January 31, 2007, some shareholders filed a lawsuit accusing Dell and Intel of conspiring, and accusing Dell executives (including Michael Dell) of backdating options and of propped financial reports. Specific allegations claimed that:
    • Dell had received kickbacks from Intel to maintain Intel exclusivity
    • Dell had used the funds to prop up its sales-figures
    • Dell reduced the period and scope of its warranties and cut corners on manufacturing and testing in order to funnel additional funds to sales; causing the stock-price to inflate to around $40 per share
    • once stock-prices had peaked, several Dell executives, including Michael Dell, sold massive amounts of their personal stock-holdings to benefit from the artificially inflated stock-price
  • On February 8, 2007, seven current and former workers at a call-center in Roseburgmarker, Oregonmarker sued the computer-maker, saying the company worked its sales rep "off the clock", failed to provide proper rest-breaks and improperly recorded their lunch-periods. Moves have begun to turn the case into a class action. Dell suddenly closed down the facility at Roseburg, Oregon on August 2, 2007. The facility had consisted of computer and electronics sales-agents and of customer-service representatives.
  • In March 2007 an article titled "Computer Giant Faces Consumer Lawsuit Consumers Allege They Didn't Get the Tech Support They Paid For" appeared on an ABC News website. "Part of the suit claims that though Dell gave the impression of an "award-winning service" available to consumers "24 hours a day, seven days a week", consumers faced "nightmarish obstacles" to get help and technical service for their computers. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said that New York had received 700 complaints about Dell — more than the number of complaints for any other related subject.
  • In May 2007, Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Dell for "false advertising and deceptive business practices, including offering misleading financing, and failing to honor rebates, warranties and service contracts". [15098] Dell spokesman Bob Pearson portrayed the lawsuit as based on only a small portion of Dell's customers and as in no way reflecting the way the company treats its customers. Dell's hardware-warranty contract says that customers must troubleshoot over the phone — including possibly opening the computer — before Dell will send a technical service provider to replace a part. On May 27, 2008, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi required Dell to clarify its financing and warranty criteria, saying the computer maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt-collection practices. Parties have filed more than 1,000 additional complaints with the attorney general's office since the initial filing of the lawsuit in May 2007.
  • On December 5, 2007, Typhoon Touch Technologies filed a lawsuit naming Dell inc. along with other defendants, and alleging patent-violations over Dell's use of touchscreen technology.


  • On June 25, 2009, Dell made a major pricing error on its Taiwan web page, labeling all of Dell's product around $30 to $220 lower or higher than the intended price. Dell spent 8 hours responding to this error. Dell announced that in consequence customers submitted about 140,000 orders for monitors and notebooks to Dell Taiwan . After a week, the company apologized for the error. Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission suggested that due to pricing error Dell should at least sell each customer one product at the contract price, and then offer a discount on the additional orders. However, Dell refused to comply and continues in discussions with Taiwan's authorities .


  • On July 5, 2009, following the previous incident, Dell again suffered from a pricing error in Taiwan. Dell labeled its Latitude E4300 laptop PCs (then normally priced at $2,101.34 in Taiwan, $1,450 in the U.S.A. and in Hong Kong) for sale at $563.40 on its online sales page for 8 hours, according to Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission . After notification by a reporter, Dell responded to this error 6 hours later after netting around 40,000 orders of the product. The company suspended its online sales for three days to fix the system. Dell apologized for the errors and offered $600 dated coupons on this product to people who had purchased computers at misprinted prices. However, the Taiwan Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) claimed it "cannot accept" such a response, because even if customers use the coupons, the price would still exceed the market price in Taiwan and other countries. The Commission suspected Dell of using pricing-errors as a advertisement or of collecting customer information in an illegal way . Two weeks later, a judge froze Dell's bank account for two days, suspecting the whole incident a fraud. This affected Dell's financial flow with its business partners. On July 29, 2009, the CPC fined Dell $30,000 because Dell did not establish its bona fides with its customers on this issue. The CPC stated "If Dell wouldn't have the agreement with the customers within two weeks, the company will not only be suspended its business in Taiwan but also penalized $45,000 each day" .


SEC investigation

On August 17, 2007, Dell Inc announced that after an internal investigation into its accounting practices it would restate and reduce earnings from 2003 through to the first quarter of 2007 by a total amount of between $50 million and $150 million, or 2 cents to 7 cents per share. The investigation, begun in November 2006, resulted from concerns raised by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over some documents and information that Dell Inc. had submitted.

Criticism

In the 1990s Dell switched from using primarily ATX motherboards and PSU to using boards and power-supplies with mechanically identical but differently wired connectors. This meant customers wishing to upgrade their hardware would have to replace parts with scarce Dell-compatible parts instead of commonly available parts. However, company practice in this respect changed in 2003.

In 2005, complaints about Dell more than doubled to 1,533, after earnings grew 52% that year.

In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service. Issues included call-transfersof more than 45% of calls and long wait-times. Dell's blog detailed the response: "We’re spending more than a $100 million — and a lot of blood, sweat and tears of talented people — to fix this." Later in the year, the company increased its spending on customer service to $150 million.

In May, 2008 the New York Supreme Court ruled that Dell and Dell Financial Services "engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices". The relevant lawsuit aimed primarily to highlight and seek restitution for a lack of technical support given to customers by Dell. The court plans to hold further proceedings to determine how much money Dell has to pay out to customers and how much profit Dell made unlawfully, in New York.

Mergers and acquisitions

 Dell Inc has acquired ten companies (eight of them based in the United States), purchased stakes in four companies, and divested two companies. Dell has not released the financial details for most of these mergers and acquisitions.


Dell's first acquisition involved ConvergeNet Technologies: on September 8, 1999. The company acquired Alienware, a specialty computer-desktop manufacturer, on May 8, 2006 for an undisclosed sum and integrated its technology into the company's high-end product lines. The acquisition of Alienware introduced several new items to Dell products, including Advanced Micro Devicesmarker (AMD) microprocessors; all of Dell's previous CPUs had come from Intelmarker. To prevent cross-market products, Dell continues to run Alienware as a separate entity but still a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company acquired EqualLogic on January 28, 2008 to gain a foothold in the iSCSI storage market. Because Dell already had an efficient manufacturing process, integrating EqualLogic's products into the company drove manufacturing prices down.

From 1999 to 2000, Dell purchased stakes in four companies. It also divested two companies, in 2000 and 2008, selling parts of the company to other companies. Dell's largest acquisition was New Hampshiremarker-based EqualLogic in January 2008 for $1.4 billion. The company made the most acquisitions in any one year in 2008 with three: EqualLogic, The Networked Storage Company, and MessageOne. On September 21, 2009 Dell announced its intent to acquire Perot Systems (based in Plano, Texasmarker) in a reported $3.9 billion deal.

Acquisitions

Date Company Business Country Value (USD) References
ConvergeNet Technologies Data storage $
NetSage Software $
Plural Ecommerce information —
Alienware Computer desktops —
ACS Information technology —
SilverBack Technologies, Inc. Network Monitoring —
ASAP Software Express Information technology $
Everdream Software —
EqualLogic Storage area networks $
The Networked Storage Company Information provider —
MessageOne Office software management $
Perot Systems IT Services Provider $


Stakes

Date Company Business Country Value (USD) References
NaviSite Internet service provider —
Com2001.com Internet community software —
Fast Search & Transfer Enterprise search $
Netyear Group Consulting —


Divestitures

Date Acquirer Target company Target business Acquirer country Value (USD) References
Finali NetSage Help software —
Stream Global Services Contact Centre-San Salvador Manufacturing —


  1. CNN.com
  2. Mark L. Frigo, Belvard E. Needles and Marian Powers: "Strategy and Integrated Financial Ratio Performance Measures: Further Evidence of the Financial Performance Scorecard and High Performance Companies". Studies in Managerial and Financial Accounting Volume 16, (2006).
  3. Dell.com
  4. Frequently Asked Questions
  5. Dell reveals SEC investigation, says Q2 profit down 51%
  6. Dell Returns to CEO Role at PC Maker - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au
  7. Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest
  8. NASDAQ Sends Dell, Novell Delisting Notices - Hardware - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness
  9. Dell Buys Time From Nasdaq On Delisting - Hardware - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness
  10. Dell's Dejection - TheStreet.com
  11. press-release
  12. Product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news - CNET
  13. iTWire - Dell says all aboard for Linux PCs
  14. Ideas In Action
  15. Ubuntu on Two New Inspirons; Update from the Linux Live Expert Forum - Direct2Dell
  16. Linux for Consumers in the U.K. France, and Germany; Dell/Red Hat Solutions & More - Direct2Dell
  17. http://www.dell.com/home/laptops#subcats=&navla=51800~0~1932545&navidc=LT:%20Operating%20System&navValc=Ubuntu%20Linux&a=51800~0~1932545&page=1
  18. Dell Precision Open-Source Workstations with Linux
  19. Dell Everdream Desktop Management
  20. Dell.com
  21. Direct2Dell.com
  22. Dedrick and Kraemer: "Market Making in the PC Industry", Personal Computing Industry Center, 2007.
  23. Kraemer and Dedrick: "Dell Computer: Organization of a Global Production Network", Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations, 2002.
  24. Company Annual Reports, various years.
  25. Scheck, J: "Dell Plans to Sell Factories in Effort to Cut Costs", Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2008.
  26. 1,900 jobs lost at Dell in Limerick. RTÉ New Report - January 8, 2009
  27. EU to investigate Dell aid package. RTÉ New Report - January 8, 2009
  28. NY Transfer - Since 1985, All the News That Doesn't Fit
  29. Dell Announces Manufacturing Facility In Poland To Serve Growing Central And Eastern European Markets
  30. Dell Starts Manufacturing Servers in Brazil
  31. http://www.statesman.com/search/content//business/stories/technology/2009/10/08/1008dellmap.html
  32. EET India article on Dell
  33. Dell support levels
  34. Dell Launches Global Business Center In Malaysia
  35. How to Survive a Tech Support Call - New York Times
  36. Dell.com
  37. Canada.com
  38. Dell.com
  39. http://www.idahobusinessreview.com/archive.htm/2009/09/11/Dell-to-close-Twin-Falls-call-center
  40. http://magicvalley.com
  41. http://www.crn.com/hardware/193300259
  42. Michael Dell Sees India Playing a Key Role in the Online World
  43. Dell Scolded for Laptop Ads
  44. Dell's Claim as World's Most Secure Commercial Laptops?
  45. National Advertising Division News - Dell, Lenovo Participate in NAD Forum
  46. Dell Delivers the World's Most Secure Commercial Laptops
  47. (registration required)
  48. World News, Business News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com
  49. Dell/EMC products
  50. Dell First US Computer Company to Commit to a Global Recycling Goal
  51. - National Recycling Coalition
  52. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070719/tx_dell_recycling.html?.v=1
  53. http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2007/2007_07_19_rr_001?c=us&l=en&s=corp Dell Inc.
  54. Dell 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Section "GRI Performance Indicators Index" http://i.dell.com/sites/content/corporate/environment/en/Documents/Dell%20Corporate%20Responsibility%20Report%202008.pdf
  55. http://www.biodiversityscience.org/xp/CELB/news-events/press_releases/080608.xml
  56. How Dell Does IT: Energy Efficiency, Dell Cuts energy costs by up to 40% with a new power management plan http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/casestudies/en/emea/eu/fy2008_q3_id688?c=us&l=en&s=gen
  57. Dell on Dell: Energy Efficiency Case Study http://www.1e.com/download/whitepapers/688_2007_dellondellenergy_79991399.pdf
  58. U.S. patent no. , Data Processing system and apparatus for color graphics display, Dec. 1, 1981
  59. "Dell Delivers Computer Assembly Plant to North Carolina", an advisory from Industrialinfo.com
  60. The Register: Sci/Tech News for the World
  61. "Dell wins incentives lawsuit"
  62. OregonLive.com: At Work
  63. newsreview.info - Serving Roseburg & Douglas County, Oregon - News
  64. ABC News: Dell Sued Over Shoddy Tech Support
  65. Fox News
  66. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, Captioned Typhoon Touch Technologies, Inc. and Nova Mobility Systems, Inc. v. Motion Computing, Inc. and Dell, Inc., Civil Action No. 6:07cv546. Online copy of filing
  67. InformIT: Dell proprietary (non-standard) ATX design > Dell proprietary (non-standard) ATX design
  68. Mueller, Scott. Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 13ed, Indianapolis: Que Publications, 2002, ISBN 0789725428, and subsequent editions
  69. Dell Spiffs Up Its Service
  70. No Magic Wands For Customer Service - Direct2Dell - The Official Dell blog
  71. The challenge ahead for Dell - September 18, 2006
  72. Attorney General's office wins major suit against Dell, Office of New York State Attorney General Andrew M Cuomo
  73. Dell to buy Perot Systems for $3.9 billion
  74. Dell Inc. acquired SilverBack Technologies, Inc. .
  75. ASAP Software Express was acquired from Corporate Express.
  76. Dell acquired a 4.9% interest in NaviSite.


See also



References

  1. CNN.com
  2. Mark L. Frigo, Belvard E. Needles and Marian Powers: "Strategy and Integrated Financial Ratio Performance Measures: Further Evidence of the Financial Performance Scorecard and High Performance Companies". Studies in Managerial and Financial Accounting Volume 16, (2006).
  3. Dell.com
  4. Frequently Asked Questions
  5. Dell reveals SEC investigation, says Q2 profit down 51%
  6. Dell Returns to CEO Role at PC Maker - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au
  7. Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest
  8. NASDAQ Sends Dell, Novell Delisting Notices - Hardware - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness
  9. Dell Buys Time From Nasdaq On Delisting - Hardware - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness
  10. Dell's Dejection - TheStreet.com
  11. press-release
  12. Product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news - CNET
  13. iTWire - Dell says all aboard for Linux PCs
  14. Ideas In Action
  15. Ubuntu on Two New Inspirons; Update from the Linux Live Expert Forum - Direct2Dell
  16. Linux for Consumers in the U.K. France, and Germany; Dell/Red Hat Solutions & More - Direct2Dell
  17. http://www.dell.com/home/laptops#subcats=&navla=51800~0~1932545&navidc=LT:%20Operating%20System&navValc=Ubuntu%20Linux&a=51800~0~1932545&page=1
  18. Dell Precision Open-Source Workstations with Linux
  19. Dell Everdream Desktop Management
  20. Dell.com
  21. Direct2Dell.com
  22. Dedrick and Kraemer: "Market Making in the PC Industry", Personal Computing Industry Center, 2007.
  23. Kraemer and Dedrick: "Dell Computer: Organization of a Global Production Network", Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations, 2002.
  24. Company Annual Reports, various years.
  25. Scheck, J: "Dell Plans to Sell Factories in Effort to Cut Costs", Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2008.
  26. 1,900 jobs lost at Dell in Limerick. RTÉ New Report - January 8, 2009
  27. EU to investigate Dell aid package. RTÉ New Report - January 8, 2009
  28. NY Transfer - Since 1985, All the News That Doesn't Fit
  29. Dell Announces Manufacturing Facility In Poland To Serve Growing Central And Eastern European Markets
  30. Dell Starts Manufacturing Servers in Brazil
  31. http://www.statesman.com/search/content//business/stories/technology/2009/10/08/1008dellmap.html
  32. EET India article on Dell
  33. Dell support levels
  34. Dell Launches Global Business Center In Malaysia
  35. How to Survive a Tech Support Call - New York Times
  36. Dell.com
  37. Canada.com
  38. Dell.com
  39. http://www.idahobusinessreview.com/archive.htm/2009/09/11/Dell-to-close-Twin-Falls-call-center
  40. http://magicvalley.com
  41. http://www.crn.com/hardware/193300259
  42. Michael Dell Sees India Playing a Key Role in the Online World
  43. Dell Scolded for Laptop Ads
  44. Dell's Claim as World's Most Secure Commercial Laptops?
  45. National Advertising Division News - Dell, Lenovo Participate in NAD Forum
  46. Dell Delivers the World's Most Secure Commercial Laptops
  47. (registration required)
  48. World News, Business News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com
  49. Dell/EMC products
  50. Dell First US Computer Company to Commit to a Global Recycling Goal
  51. - National Recycling Coalition
  52. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070719/tx_dell_recycling.html?.v=1
  53. http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2007/2007_07_19_rr_001?c=us&l=en&s=corp Dell Inc.
  54. Dell 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Section "GRI Performance Indicators Index" http://i.dell.com/sites/content/corporate/environment/en/Documents/Dell%20Corporate%20Responsibility%20Report%202008.pdf
  55. http://www.biodiversityscience.org/xp/CELB/news-events/press_releases/080608.xml
  56. How Dell Does IT: Energy Efficiency, Dell Cuts energy costs by up to 40% with a new power management plan http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/casestudies/en/emea/eu/fy2008_q3_id688?c=us&l=en&s=gen
  57. Dell on Dell: Energy Efficiency Case Study http://www.1e.com/download/whitepapers/688_2007_dellondellenergy_79991399.pdf
  58. U.S. patent no. , Data Processing system and apparatus for color graphics display, Dec. 1, 1981
  59. "Dell Delivers Computer Assembly Plant to North Carolina", an advisory from Industrialinfo.com
  60. The Register: Sci/Tech News for the World
  61. "Dell wins incentives lawsuit"
  62. OregonLive.com: At Work
  63. newsreview.info - Serving Roseburg & Douglas County, Oregon - News
  64. ABC News: Dell Sued Over Shoddy Tech Support
  65. Fox News
  66. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, Captioned Typhoon Touch Technologies, Inc. and Nova Mobility Systems, Inc. v. Motion Computing, Inc. and Dell, Inc., Civil Action No. 6:07cv546. Online copy of filing
  67. InformIT: Dell proprietary (non-standard) ATX design > Dell proprietary (non-standard) ATX design
  68. Mueller, Scott. Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 13ed, Indianapolis: Que Publications, 2002, ISBN 0789725428, and subsequent editions
  69. Dell Spiffs Up Its Service
  70. No Magic Wands For Customer Service - Direct2Dell - The Official Dell blog
  71. The challenge ahead for Dell - September 18, 2006
  72. Attorney General's office wins major suit against Dell, Office of New York State Attorney General Andrew M Cuomo
  73. Dell to buy Perot Systems for $3.9 billion
  74. Dell Inc. acquired SilverBack Technologies, Inc. .
  75. ASAP Software Express was acquired from Corporate Express.
  76. Dell acquired a 4.9% interest in NaviSite.


Further reading



External links




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