Dell

Dell Type Public NASDAQ: Dell HKEX: 4331 S&P 500 Component Industry Computer Systems Computer Peripherals Computer Software IT consulting IT services Founded Austin, Texas November 4, 1984 Founder(s) Michael Dell Headquarters 1 Dell Way Round Rock, Texas, U.S.[1] Area served Worldwide Key people Michael Dell(Chairman & CEO) Products Desktops;Servers;Notebooks;Netbooks;Peripherals Printers;Televisions;Scanners;Storage;Smart Phones Employees 105,000 (2011) Dell Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce. History Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created PCs Limited while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. 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. The company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation" in 1988 and began expanding globally—first in Ireland. In 1996, Dell began selling computers via its web site, and in 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Dell's first acquisition occurred in 1999 with the purchase of Converge Net Technologies. In 2003, the company was rebranded as simply "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers. Lackluster performance, however, in its lower-end computer business prompted Michael Dell to take on the role of CEO again. The founder announced a change campaign called "Dell 2.0," reducing headcount and diversifying the company's product offerings. In 2009, Dell acquired Perot Systems, a technology services and outsourcing company founded by H. Ross Perot. On September 21, 2009, Dell announced its intent to acquire Perot Systems (based in Plano, Texas) in a reported $3.9 billion deal. In addition, it provided a variety of business process outsourcing services, including claims processing and call center operations. On August 16, 2010, Dell announced its intent to acquire the data storage company 3PAR. On September 2, 2010 Hewlett-Packard offered $33 a share, which Dell declined to match. Dell Facilities Dell's headquarters are located in Round Rock, Texas. The company previously had its headquarters in the Arboretum complex in northern Austin, Texas. By 1996 Dell was moving its headquarters to Round Rock. As of January 1996 3,500 people still worked at the then-current Dell headquarters. After a slowdown in business required reducing employees and production capacity, Dell decided to sublease its offices in two buildings in the Las Cimas office complex. Products Scope and brands Dell's tagline 'Yours is Here', as seen at their Mall of Asia branch Pasay City, Philippines The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments. Their Business/Corporate class represent brand where the company advertises emphasizes long life-cycles, reliability, and serviceability. Such brands include: · 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 (business-focused notebooks) · Precision (workstation systems and high-performance notebooks), · PowerEdge (business servers) · PowerVault (direct-attach and network-attached storage) · PowerConnect (network switches) · Dell/EMC (storage area networks) · EqualLogic (enterprise class iSCSI SANs) Dell's Home Office/Consumer class emphasizes value, performance, and expandability. These brands include: · 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 (high-performance gaming systems) · Adamo (high-end luxury laptop) Dell's Peripherals class includes USB keydrives, LCD televisions, and printers; Dell monitors includes LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitors. Dell UltraSharp is further a high-end brand of monitors. Dell service and support brands include the Dell Solution Station. Manufacturing From its early beginnings, Dell operated as 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. 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. Dell's desktop plant in Austin, Texas was shut down in 2008. It closed its desktop manufacturing in Lebanon in early 2009. Dell assembles computers for the EMEA market at Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, and employs about 4,500 people in that country. Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and foreign investor. Dell opened plants in Penang, Malaysia in 1995 and in Xiamen, China in 1999. Dell moved desktop and Power Edge server manufacturing for the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazil in 2007.[50] Green initiatives 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 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 reports its environmental performance in an annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report that follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocol. The company aims to reduce its external environmental impact through energy-efficient evolution of products, and also reduce its direct operational impact through energy-efficiency programmers. 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/ Return-to-Base or Collect and Return Services; (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; (4) Platinum Plus support provides additional benefits to Gold Support; (5) two-hour on-site support, offered in select cities. Dell's Consumer division offers 24x7 phones based and online troubleshooting rather than only during business hours in certain markets such as the United States and Canada. Dell also offers collaborative support with many third-party software vendors. For Dell-Certified 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. Dell has several unique aspects of its support program. Commercial aspects Organization A board of directors of nine people runs the company. Michael Dell, the founder of the company, serves on the board. 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/Japan. 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. A subsequent advertising campaign featured interns at Dell headquarters. 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 began using the slogan "Yours is here" to say that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements. Criticisms of Dell's marketing of laptop security In 2008, Dell received press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure laptops, specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830. 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. Starting in 2005, Dell expanded kiosk locations to include shopping malls across Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. 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. 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. Retail around the world As of the end of February 2008[update], 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 subset of Dell products, such as certain desktops, laptops, printers, and monitors. 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, HMV's flagship Trocadero store has sold Dell XPS PCs since December 2007. From January 2008 the UK stores of DSGi have sold Dell products. As of 2008, the large supermarket-chain Tesco has sold Dell laptops and desktops in outlets throughout the UK. Education K12 Market There have been many different definitions to the "Intelligent Classroom" over the last 10 years. Dell Corporation has been a leader for years and has had several different versions of the “Intelligent Classroom”. Other corporations and products have included other definitions. If implemented correctly, Media Rich Curriculum (MRC) is now the center piece of the classroom rather than the technology. Video Distribution on a local area network requires these key features: A properly designed network and video distribution equipment. Competition Dell's major competitors include Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Asus, Lenovo, IBM, Samsung, and Sun Microsystems. In late 2006[update], 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[dead link] worldwide than did Dell. IDC reported that Dell lost more server market share than any of the top four competitors in that arena. Partnership with EMC The Dell/EMC brand applies solely to products that result from Dell's partnership with EMC Corporation. The relationship also promotes and sells OEM versions of backup, recovery, replication and archiving software. Environmental record Dell was the first company to publicly state a timeline for the elimination of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominates flame retardants (BFRs), which it planned to phase out by the end of 2009. 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. However, company practice in this respect changed in 2003. In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service. 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. 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 court said the event could hardly be regarded as mistakes, as the prestigious firm said the company mispriced its products twice in Taiwanese website within 3 weeks. PAGE 9