Dell Overhauls Support Services
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Dell is revamping its support-services offering as the company continues to battle shrinking growth in PC and server sales.
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(InfoWorld) - Dell has announced the availability of virtualisation services that aim to help enterprises draw up and implement their virtualisation plans -- and it'll help you choose from its own hardware and software portfolio too of course. The process starts with Dell's Virtualisation Readiness Assessment (VRA). The VRA provides companies with a way to evaluate the impact a virtual infrastructure will have on its data center, according to the company. Dell reckoned that the service indicates the potential financial savings of a virtual infrastructure and explains how a virtualized environment could improve server management, maximize uptime and streamline deployment, and enable a company to simplify and scale operations to meet present and future demands. Dell's partners in the initiative include VMware, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Novell/SuSE. Dell said it provides a number of other virtualisation services including 'health checks', infrastructure and migration workshops, as well as design and implementation services that include proof of concept testing prior to deployment. The aim, said Dell is to provide a single source for a tested and vendor-validated virtualized solution. The Texas company said its services division aims to provide an end-to end virtualisation solution that simplifies IT and helps its customers design, configure, test, migrate, and maintain their systems, as well as reap the benefits of virtualisation. Dell quoted four reference sites for its services. The first is Deelgemeente Ijsselmonde, a local authority in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The system Dell helped set up helps to deliver key community services to its surrounding population, via a consolidated server environment. The second reference site, said Dell, is Belgian consultancy ARCADIS which has implemented a SAN with a virtualized system that makes disaster recovery simpler and represents a step towards an efficient disaster recovery plan. Third, AZ Vesalius, a hospital in Belgium, is using a virtual server infrastructure to improve scalability to support the hospital's growth, according to Dell. And lastly, when the Marienhaus Klinikum Hospital in Germany needed a dependable IT Infrastructure for its 24/7 medical services, incorporating a back-up strategy for business continuity, it did so with the help of Dell's virtualisation services. "Increasingly, companies are looking for ways to make themselves more agile and competitive as well as create the most efficient IT infrastructure within the organization," said Dell's infrastructure consulting director Francois Argouges. "By managing and scaling resources as needed, organizations can continually refresh their IT infrastructure to support their dynamic business needs. Dell is committed to working with its customers and partners in order to deliver the most enhanced virtualisation solution on the market, backed up by industry leading support and services." The company also announced that it'll be unveiling a Vista migration service in autumn 2007.
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(InfoWorld) - In a bid to reassure nervous investorsÂ in the wake of a federal investigationÂ and aÂ battery recall, Dell executives have announced a corporate overhaul dubbed "Dell 2.0." The strategy calls for Dell to recover from slumping profits by making a series of basic changes, such as building factories closer to emerging markets, and putting more emphasis on industrial design, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Rollins said Tuesday in New York at Dell's annual Technology Day. "We've spent the last 22 years following the Dell business model, but as the marketplace changes, the needs and desires of our customers have also changed," Rollins said. "We are re-evaluating every aspect of our business model, from supply chain and design to customer service and support." Dell is suffering through a brutal stretch. The company announced on Monday that it would delay filing its quarterly Form 10-Q because an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had raised the possibility Dell might have to restate past quarterly earnings figures. And in August Dell worked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall 4.1 million laptop batteries with a defect that could cause them to overheat and possibly catch fire. Under its new plan, the company will form a team of 60 designers by the end of 2006, dedicated to improving the design and usability of Dell PCs instead of focusing solely on price and performance. And the company has already begun to move away from its centralized production model by building PC factories in emerging markets like Brazil, India and Central Europe, he said. In other aspects of the overhaul, Dell said in July it wouldÂ begin using consistently low prices instead of complex rebates, and said in June it would offer enterprise-scale IT management to midsize companies under a Platinum Plus services plan. The strategy extends to products, too. Under the new strategy, Dell will continue to design PCs with chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Until recently, Dell had used only Intel Corp. processors, but this week launched two AMD-powered desktops and plans to sell AMD-based servers by the end of 2006. Dell's transition to a two-processor company is harder than simply swapping chips, said Chief Technology Officer Kevin Kettler. As Dell engineers create AMD-based PCs, they face a host of challenges -- testing and evaluating the systems, creating a logistics plan to supply processors to factories worldwide, and fitting the new components into their supply chain management plans. "Any time you bring on a new vendor to introduce a major piece of silicon, there's a natural process of aligning the new technology with our products," Kettler said. "I personally have worked for seven years with AMD on Dell's behalf, driving Opteron technology into the server space. This is not a short term, one-product-and-out deal, but a long-term relationship." In another design-centric change, Dell will join Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. to use DisplayPort, an interface standard that enables high-speed, two-way communications between PCs and displays. The new specs were approved in May by a governing body called the Video Electronics Standards Association. Under current technology, engineers use graphics controllers inside PCs and TVs to send signals to either digital or analog monitors ranging from CRTs (cathode ray tubes) to LCDs (liquid crystal displays) and plasma screens. "Those interfaces all just evolved, so you need to do development over three different interfaces with a multitude of technologies, and you can't take advantage of shared resources," said Kettler. In contrast, the new standard will use PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express interface to forge a "direct drive" link between the PC and monitor, always keeping the information in digital format. That will allow designers to build displays with embedded cameras and microphones, and will also preserve digital rights management, ensuring that data flowing across the cable can be only displayed, not copied, Kettler said. Â
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Dell Inc. DELL.O Chairman Michael   Dell on Tuesday threw his support behind Chief Executive Kevin   Rollins and promised the computer maker was "working   diligently" to resolve its mounting problems.
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Dell announced a host of changes to its device lineup and introduced several new products in an effort to retake some of the ground it has lost in the consumer market, as well as make itself more attractive at retail.
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MIAMI - Dell Inc. introduced on Monday a new suite of desktop support services for small and medium size businesses (SMBs) designed for companies with overstretched IT staffs.
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InfoWorld - Dell Computer re-energized its enterprise-class blade server strategy on Monday, rolling out a new architecture that supports up to 10 servers in a seven-unit chassis that can fit into a standard-size rack.
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Dell will open a second call center in the Philippines early next year to provide additional tech support for its U.S. customers.
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PC maker Dell and software company Microsoft have formed a development partnership to improve the way customers manage systems across the enterprise.
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Tell your friends Those of you doubting Dell's commitment to improved customer service ought to have a look at how it's handling a gaming PC debacle.â¦
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Company details how it tackled a need to improve data flow and service levels by replacing aging legacy systems which had been in use for 12 years.
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By offering design improvements and bundling software and services like remote management, Dell is trying to get the focus off of price and is moving to build a new business model for the enterprise, one analyst says.
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SilverBack's service-delivery platform will be incorporated into the hardware vendor's operations to bolster Dell's IT services.
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Dell will supply PCs, managed services and application packaging services to Philips Electronics worldwide, the two companies said Thursday.
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Blog: Dell adds Vostro line to menu of laptops and desktops
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Dell has agreed to replace faulty laptop PC displays on nine models in response to customer complaints.
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Michael S. Dell has taken back the leadership of the computer company he founded, replacing Kevin B. Rollins.