And, each of the four researchers will conduct analysis of four research areas namely new roles of CIO, IS Finance and Investment Management, IT project management and Legal Issues. The facts will be analysed and recommendations proposed to improve overall efficiency of the company. 1. 1 Background to the Company Dell is a worldwide information technology company that offers its customers a broad range of product and services provided either directly through Dell or through other distribution channels. They aim to provide technology solutions what are more proficient, available, and easier to manage. (Fundinguniverse. om, n. d. ) Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell. The business is based in the sole concept that by selling computers directly to the clients, they could reach a better understanding of their need and this more efficiently meet their customer needs by providing more suitable computing solutions. This concept, which implies a direct business model, eradicates retailers, thus saving superfluous cost and time and enables Dell to better understand their customer expectations. The direct model permits Dell to build every system in a way to offer every customer powerful, richly-configured systems at competitive prices.
The Research paper on Dell Inc. Company
... such as customer support and service as well as providing affordable personal computers. Our text explains, “The company held virtually ... no parts inventory. As a result, Dell made computers more quickly and cheaply ... his own computers. They explain the market share between Dell Inc. and competitors. They list problems of the corporation ...
Dell also bring the market latest technologies much more swiftly than companies with indirect distribution channels which are slow-moving. (Fundinguniverse. com, n. d. ) Having long maintained the title of world’s largest direct-sale computer vendor, Dell Inc. is now the leading seller in computer systems in the world, dominating 15 percent of the global market share. Dell markets desktop computers, notebook computers, network servers, workstations, handheld computers, monitors, printers, high-end storage products, and a variety of peripherals and software.
The company penetrated the consumer electronics arena, offering LCD televisions, projectors, and other products . (Fundinguniverse. com, n. d. ) Dell possesses six production facilities worldwide and they are located in Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Eldorado do Sul, Brazil; Limerick, Ireland; Penang, Malaysia; and Xiamen, China. (Fundinguniverse. com, n. d. ) Around 67 percent of Dell revenue originates from the United States, with 22 percent coming from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and the remaining 11 percent is accounted for from the Asia Pacific region. Fundinguniverse. com, n. d. ) Dell sell its products directly to consumers, small to large businesses, government agencies, and healthcare and educational institutions through dedicated sales representatives, telephone-based sales, and online via the company web site. (Fundinguniverse. com, n. d. ) Key Moments of Dell Inc. : 1984: Michael Dell founds Dell Computer Corporation. 1988: The Company goes public with 3. 5 million shares of company stock. 1991: Dell introduces its first notebook PC. 1993: Dell establishes subsidiaries in Australia and Japan. 996: The Company begins selling over the Internet. 1997: Dell introduces a line of workstations. 2001: The Company gains the leading share of the global PC market. 2003: Reflecting its widening interests, the company changes its name to Dell Inc. 2004: Michael Dell announces he will step down as CEO but remain chairman. 1. 2 Success Factors One of the main factors for Dell’s success is their flexibility in term of pricing. The main objective of Dell is to provide high-technology products to their customers while maintaining sustainable profit for the company.
Another factor is that Dell makes use of direct business model which enable them to acquire better understanding of their customers, hence providing them with customized products. Dell is known for its customizability, which provides them an advantage in the market, since different users have different requirement. Imagine, a product customized to one’s need, which an affordable pricing and that coming from a well-know brand. It’s a success guaranteed. 1. 3 SWOT analysis of DELL Dell is one of the world’s most excellent and most recognized trademark brands. So is it all a glowing portrait for dell.
The Business plan on Dell Company Background
... • Dell built computer on customer provided specifications. • Dell always keen to embed latest technology in its products. • It has a reliable support and service. • The company ... untapped markets. • Market penetration in education and Government markets. • Cost reduction in latest technology. • Partnership or acquiring of suppliers. • Dell has opportunity to sell computer ...
This SWOT analysis of Dell points out crack in protective covering of dell’s fortress. Strengths: DELL is the largest PC maker globally which is one of the best known brands in the world. It was firstly known as PC maker next offers on-site product service in a straight line to customer business model by using latest technology. Dell cuts out the retailer and supplies directly to the customers with extraordinarily low operating cost relative to profits. The company offer direct relationships to customers such as corporate and institutional customers with Dell’s direct model approach which allows roviding better-quality customer service before and after the sale. Each Dell system is built to gain customer’s specifications, reliability service and support. Furthermore, Dell offer customers powerful systems at competitive prices by possessing a very efficient procurement, manufacturing and distribution process by introduces the latest relevant technology compared to companies using the indirect distribution channels. Although dell is not a manufacturer it has total command of supply chain where their components are made by the suppliers and assembles the computers using relatively cheap labor.
Dell is boosting and expansion the fundamental ready for action compensation of the direct model by progressively more apply the efficiencies of the internet to its entire business and for keeping inventory cost low dell turns over inventory for an average of every six days. Weakness: Dell has a huge range of products and components which been supplied from various countries. They are well known as maker not creator which makes them not capable to switch suppliers on making a customized dell.
It can be said as dell has no retailer relationship or lacking in solid dealer and as well not using propriety technology. Their target market focus on the corporate and government institutional customers somehow does not involve of college student segment affected its ability to form relationships with educational institutions where have an effect on the sales revenue from educational institutions only counts 5% of the total sale. Even it is not designed for the home users where Dell’s direct method and customization approach posed problems because it does not use distribution channels for one.
The Essay on Information Technology 16
Information Technology Computers became an inseparable and important part of our everyday life. We use advantages of computer technologies in every sphere of our life. It is hard to believe that not so long ago such device as notebook was merely a science fiction fantasy. It is more important for us to use computer devices properly. We also need to learn what method of output and input would be ...
Dell’s product is custom-built according to their customers specifications and this might take some time to produce and it leads the customer to go for other brands. Opportunities: Dell introduces many new products to its range to moving towards diversification strategy. Customers are more knowledgeable about computer now more than ever where personal computers are becoming a must for all. Same customers who like to purchase a second computer will likely benefit dell’s custom-built because as their knowledge grows so do the requirements to research or use some additional features.
Dell interconnects with internet for greater opportunities by having their personal website to place orders or get information. Since dell has only virtual stores there is no need of retail stores for them to pile up in show rooms their ready stocks. The online stores surely make up for its absence where it is more suitable for customers to shop online than to actually drive to physical store to do purchase. Threats: Dell faces competitive challenge which exists in the PC market globally where new entrants to the market cause probable threats.
The threat become out-of-date is a lively reality in a computer business. With almost equality in cost the difference between rates among brands is getting smaller and these shows it is no longer an issue for a customer. Because customers can be easily chaos by different brands and might choose other brands instead of waiting for Dell’s customized computers. Although Dell’s Direct Model attracts customers because it saves cost but still other companies are able to offer computers at low costs as well, this could threaten Dell’s price-conscious growing customer base.
The competition will turn out to be stiffer in the process if the order slows down because Dell has the biggest share of the market this might affect the expansion rate of the computer industry in losing. To be able to continue holding a significant market share Dell has to work doubly hard to differentiate itself from its substitutes. 1. 4 Executive Summary The CIO part covers the responsibilities of being a CIO and their roles to run their business. The third part is about IT project management and it has been detailed to analyze the situation in Dell.
The Research paper on Calls Because The Voice Telephone Data Information Company
Introduction The following case study examines how increasingly; Information and Communication Technology are used within large public utilities. I will focus on observing a telecommunications company, particularly BT. In recent years the use of IT has become increasingly widespread. The usage of IT includes producing customer's bills, provision of the service information, and the actual provision ...
The final segment of this paper is title Legal Issues and all the legal issues pertaining to Information system are discussed. Facts and Case Studies are provided with the aim that better understanding of the legal aspects of the company will be reached. The facts are analaysed and recommendations provided. 2. 0 New roles of CIO 2. 1 Roles of CIO in IT business world The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a profession label for the head of information technology that are responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals within an organization.
The CIO has drawn closer to be outlook in many organizations as a solution provider put in together premeditated goals as the importance of information technology and system. The CIO in generally reports delegate technological decisions either to the chief financial officer or IT-centered organizations the chief executive officer or else to employees more familiar with details. A CIO’s part is to propose the information technology of an enterprise which needs to achieve its goals and then works within a budget to implement the plan.
The concerned tactics that a CIO needed to make out in mind is analyzed and rework on existing business processes with identifying and developing the capability to use new tools. Other than that, reshape the enterprise’s substantial infrastructure and network access by identifying and make the most of the enterprise’s acquaintance resources is also fraction of CIO’s liable. The CIO gets a feel for new technologies to spread out corporate technological capabilities of systems through the use of existing technologies.
Whereas, the accomplishment of the useful technology to raise information to be more user-friendliness and integrated systems management is handled by CIO as well. Such efforts will be join together with the Internet and the World Wide Web into both its long-term strategy and its immediate business plans by the CIOs. In short CIO is a trusted advisor generally for being in charge of every organizations or enterprises for processes and practices at the bottom of the flow of information. 2. 2 CIO Responsibilities The Chief Information Officer (CIO)’s position holds up several esponsibilities which been assigned by the nature of IT world. The most important duties which involve as part of the strategic planning process are to achieve performance goals that have been established for IRM with needed skills and to evaluate requirements for human resources on the topic of information. Furthermore, the CIO has to report to the Division head on progress made in improving IRM capability and to assess extent to which all managers at the agency meet those requirements besides developing the strategies and specific plans for hiring and training.
The Research paper on Management Operation Technology with Boeing Company Example part 1
Management Operation Technology-With Boeing company example (Computer-Aided Design and Boeing product development) The primary objective of this research paper is the exploration of advanced,non-deterministicaerospace system design methods and vehicle sizingtechnologies that areneeded to significantly increase the capabilities ofdesigners and systemsanalysts. In particular, this research is ...
Another huge household tasks of the CIOs are encourage useful and efficient design and operation of all major IRM processes for the agency including improvements to work processes. As well endow with recommendation and advices assistance to senior managers on IT acquisition and management plus build up, maintain, and smooth the progress of implementation of a sound and integrated IT architecture which means an integrated framework for evolving or maintain the existing IT and acquiring new IT to achieve the agency’s strategic goals and IRM goals.
These are the ten competency areas for the CIO which been redefined by the federal CIO council. Although it is simply a list which point up these region; includes the policies, strategic planning, performance and result-based management, process improvement, capital planning and investments, leadership management, technology assessment, security, architecture and acquisition. Consequently, the scope of the CIO’s competencies is extreme broad than expected by most individual is not a shame to be accepted.
It is almost impracticable to look forward to personnel to have all the skills to maintain with the latest technology and to manage the IT infrastructure of agency and gives guidance on decision making and planning phase. The wheel below shows the areas of the universally exemplified in the form of the ‘CIO Wheel:’ Figure 1: Federal CIO wheel 2. 3 Dell’s CIO Computer and tech giant Dell has appointed new Global CIO Adriana Karaboutis to fill the role who was previously vice president of IT at Dell supporting product groups, manufacturing, procurement and supply chain operations.
The Business plan on Customer Service Essay
Excellence in customer service is the objective of all organisations wishing to be successful. However, there is often a gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations. Organisations often fail to get close to their customers and correctly read their expectations. Customers expect certain things when they walk into a business, and those with the highest level ...
Ms. Adriana Karaboutis holds a B. S. in Computer Science and an M. S. in Electronics and Computer Control Systems from Wayne State University. She is a member of the Manufacturing Executive Leadership Board and a past president of the Michigan Council of Women in Technology. The CIO is responsible for continuing to drive Dell’s IT organization evolution from running an efficient and innovative global information by creating new breakthrough that gives technology advances for the company and its customers.
According to Brian Gladden Dell’s Chief Financial Officer, Adriana Karaboutis has led a transformation of Dell’s manufacturing operations, consolidate product offering system, and simplified the supply chain. These changes helped newly acquired companies transition rapidly and efficiently to be manage. “Andi has made a huge impact in her time at Dell, helping us to advance our strategy of becoming a comprehensive supplier of enterprise solutions and services,” “I know as our CIO she will play a critical role as we build on our successes to help Dell and our customers maximize IT productivity through our own powerful and flexible solutions. Brian Gladden said. 2. 4 BYOD- Dell CIO Adriana Karaboutis According to Adriana Karaboutis Dell’s Global CIO, says BYOD is aiming to create a highly mobile resourceful information environment for the company’s 103,300 employees. Dell is working to transform the company’s foundation based on hardware orders to be handling software and service offerings. The CIO is in the IT driver’s seat as Dell works to go forward from a being a hardware vendor to being a provider of end-to-end solutions for companies of all sizes.
The working environment has been rolled out from conveniences point of view to mobile such as work from home environment with their personal mobility devices. “We’ve focused on bring-your-own-device (BYOD) for mobility. What are the end users devices that our employees want to use and how do we deliver those things to them with highest security at the best cost to company with the best protections and access to data. ” “We rolled out the connected workplace for employees some time ago. We’ve gone from a facilities perspective to a mobile, work-from-home environment.
Our employees want mobility devices, they want consumerization, they want to have just as good an experience in the work environment as they do at home. ” Adriana Karaboutis said. 2. 5 CIO of other companies Innovation- Commonwealth Bank CIO Michael Harte According to Michael Harte CIO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, says innovation will keep on to be one of his top business priorities this year. The real innovation is not the technology but is about the creation of culture where regularly cooperate with each other and ideas are constantly being circulated by team members and community or customers.
Some of the Commonwealth Bank’s biggest innovations to date have been based on its real-time banking platform. “At the heart of all of these innovations is not the product itself, nor the technology behind it. It’s not just about providing the tools, it is about encouraging a culture. ” “Last year we held a week-long innovation festival internally in the bank, with seminars and interactive workshops to help our people better understand our customers’ needs so we can deliver to them new products and services. “Last year we also held our Unleashing Innovation initiative open to CommBank staff and selected university students for their ideas on how the latest technology and services can better help our customers. ” Michael Harte said. Cloud- ING Direct CIO Andrew Henderson According to Andrew Henderson CIO of ING Direct, says cloud is on the move with a major data centre transformation project following the company’s deployment of its private cloud or “Bank in a Box” scheme. The company has since developed more than 900 replicas of the bank across its private cloud.
It helped reduced overflow costs by 30 per cent and increase agility and capability. The private cloud supports self-service provisioning of virtualized replicas of channels, middleware, core banking, customer and bank data, application support, training and innovation lab practices. “Prior to ‘Bank in a Box’, we could take three months with 10 engineers and numerous infrastructure elements to create a replica of the bank to support a major project. ” “Now it takes 10 minutes, and the teams can have as many as they like.
Our recent launch of Living Super used over 60 replicas alone to deliver the new business faster and had a high impact on quality. ” Andrew Henderson said. Legacy transformation- Department of Defense CIO Dr Peter Lawrence According to Dr Peter Lawrence CIO of the Department of Defense, says defense department simplifying its core applications and introducing shared service agreements. It will terminate around 3000 complex legacy applications and replace them with Oracle’s database and middleware products.
The defense department provides human resources and payroll services to more than 100,000 full-time and reservist personnel by upgrading the existing Defense’s Oracle PeopleSoft application. “The project we are on at the moment is all about bringing a number of PeopleSoft HR systems onto one off-the-shelf version of PeopleSoft with minimal, if any customization,” “That will allow us to consolidate the number of Oracle databases we have around the place in the PeopleSoft space, let alone other opportunities that come along after that. Dr Peter Lawrence said. 2. 6 Influence of DELL Dell has give empower to countries, communities, customers and people everywhere to use technology to become conscious of their dreams. Dell management shares their opinion on solution technologies and their point of view on the pathway to the well-organized enterprise. Clientele trust dell on deliver technology solutions that help them do and achieve more from anywhere in the world. The symbol of hope on new economic has come up with the concept of an efficient business.
Due to the disproportionate spending on daily operation had slowed down the productivity gains even with dramatically increased productivity by IT over last two decades. Moreover, extracts hidden pools of resources and build shareholder value by an effective way is to increase efficiency. Other than these services dell is also helping to consistency and generalization into action with their customers. Their vital way of life is distribute targeted high-impact projects without the trappings of expensive consultants.
Furthermore Dell rapidly provides CIOs with proof-points to the broader business on how technology can be speed up without aggravate. Dell’s another service afford is remote infrastructure management and cloud-based software to automate costly tasks. Such products and services make possible customers to maximize uptime, costs, and flexibility. As the person in charge the CIO drives innovation through open architecture assures the best value by accelerating the move from high-cost proprietary system and mission-critical application for customers.
The Dell’s solution for the software company is by reducing high cost system ERP onto open-architected x86 solutions with Intel® Xeon® processors. Besides that dell has put into practice to advance effectiveness and save more by implementing technologies internally to reduce to bare bones, even out and automate its own formation. 2. 7 CIOs in future Wrapping up, the future looks thrilling for every ultramodern CIO. Each CIO will have to find the way to these active changes in the direction of meet the growing demands and expectations of the business with distinct improvements in enterprise efficiency.
The latest ground-breaking innovation like cloud computer includes full virtualized configuration, sustained modernization with mobility and modular service through always-on performance. There are few tendency intersect to create a significant workplace variation angle just for the right users perfectly. These are the future style of creating business mobility which is in rise of social media, work from home environments, emergence of new mobile devices, need for tech-skilled workers and changes in IT expectations.
With a new generation of knowledge end-user technology is increasingly becoming a talent employment which gives benefit for workers and the invested organization with innovative technology. 2. 8 Critical evaluation The CIOs of each and every organization should have fundamental talent such as leadership skills, communication skills, project management skill and etc. CIOs power is to play a massive role in every single organization where they are the proficient that influence the whole business to be succeeded or failure.
They are the head of the company that able to listen to their team members and come up with outline of business plan. The draw round plans will be negotiate-table by all the other members of different department internally and externally to be agreed on the proposals or been opposes. CIO dell is geared up to offer out their development process to all kind of enterprises which faces problem is succeeding their goals or objectives. Their vital service is the ability to listen, influence, negotiate, and provide what their customers require by exceeding their expectation in advance state.
Dell is currently being the large solution seeker for now and been successfully moving forwards to bring the services even broadly by implementing high-tech mobility excess and be the one which is up-to-date with the technology revolution and well maintained still. However, the needs of the consultation is depends on the individual who runs their business. 3. 0 IS Finance and Investment Management 3. 1 Introduction Dell Inc. offers an extensive range of products which include desktop personal computer (PC), storage, software and servers to highlight a few.
The core values are to simplify information technology for customers, offer customers choice, customers can purchase custom-built products and custom-tailored services and that they are committed to being environmentally responsible in all areas of business(United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2012).
Dell Inc. revenue for 2012 is $62. 1 billion, an increase of one percent from 2011. The market trends have seen a reduced demand for personal computers which has affected sales across the PC industry as well as competitors such as Hewlett Packard and Lenovo.
The increase in consumer drive for interactivity with the electronics through demonstrations has led to reduced purchases over the internet as well as over the phone. Dell has stamped its sales model behind connecting with the customer via communication channels and few third party outlets. Dell is currently battling to keep up with fierce competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung that are eroding its once steady market dominance. Investment management inside of Dell Inc. shall report on current performance with regards to leadership, productivity, efficient use of resources and management of long term costs.
Recommendations shall be weighed in to determine which can best ensure steady revenue and improved competitive advantage. 3. 2 Investment Management of Information Technology Enhanced by Leadership Michael Dell is the founder of Dell Computer Corporation (Dell Inc. ), in addition to this he is also the Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc. Michael Dell’s biography tells us how his captivation for eliminating redundant phases leads him to apply for a high school diploma at the time he was aneight year old third grader.
A newspaper advertisement read that after passing “one simple test”he would be eligible for a diploma (Dell & Fredman, 1999).
The New York Times review of his biography claimed that Dell Inc. was a cut above the rest in addition to being a resourceful player for an information technology company. Dell Inc. has weathered away many economic storms through the dynamic and practical leadership by Michael Dell. His visionary investment in a concept to cut out the middle man and sell computers directly to the customer has proven favourable whilst providing innovative and customer driven service.
The benefits derived from the move include a thirty – day money back guarantee in 1989, custom made web links for customers leading to $ 12 million sales per day during 1998(Dell & Fredman, 1999), after moving into social media platforms in less than a year Dell Inc. recorded $0. 5million in sales in 2008 through Twitterthen goes on to establish a business to business page over Facebook in 2009 and receives recognition for their social media influence by being ranked as the number one most social brand(Dell Malaysia, 2012).
3. Investment Management of Long Term Cost Related to Information Technology Dell Inc. presently holds third places as one of the world’sPC maker(Coyne, 2011).
Manufacturing is strategically distributed across six different locations, namely Austin, Texas since 1985 andNashville, Tennesseefrom 1999 which cater to North America; Eldorado do Sul, Brazil which serves South America since 1999; Limerick, Ireland in 1990 which distributes to Europe, Middle East and Africa; Penang, Malaysia from 1996 for Asia Pacific and Japan and Xiamen, China for China since 1998(Dell Malaysia, 2012).
The locations have been selected to optimize the build-to-order model and direct selling technique whilst reducing costs. Manufacturing in these different regions has also lead to avoidance of tariffs by the different regions which can lead to higher costs per unit. Government incentives such as lower income tax, government orders for products, tax breaks or even access to better infrastructure such as roads or water and electricity are motives for Dell Inc. to establish new factories over the years.
With each new factory innovative enhancements were made whilst older factories were also upgraded to the best possible standards. Closer proximity to markets reducesforeign exchange exposure, transport costs and allows for efficiency by minimisingproduction failings. Assuming one factory has a monopoly on supply and defects are observed after sales this would lead to higher recall volumes. Dell Inc. was the subject of a worldwide recall action in 2006 for over four million batterieswhich were manufactured by Sony, the cost was divided between the two companies to offer free replacements to affected customers.
Dell Inc. shipped a volume of twenty – two million units that year however only certain models were identified to be carrying the battery model such as Inspirion, Latitude, XPS and Dell Precision (Krazit & Kanellos, 2006).
It was estimated that only one million of the batteries where located outside of the United States and since the defect was associated with a Sony product the backlash for Dell Inc. about product inefficiency was silenced. Malaysia is also home to Dell Inc. ’s first global IT support center outside of the United States.
An additional 1,000 employees were brought in to the work in Cyberjaya with the responsibility of handling 24-hour IT support and maintenance (Agence France-Presse, 2007).
Industry analysts estimate that companies save from fifty to seventy-five percent by having overseas call centers (Whoriskey, 2008).
In an effort to maximise its efficiency Dell Inc. may have alienated consumers in America by routing their calls to overseas call centersalso available in Bangladesh, India or Manila. Tonal and accent barriers, lack of understanding during service calls, repetition are some of the complaints by the American public.
They prefer to deal with someone who speaks “American” (Whoriskey, 2008) however this service will not be free. Prejudice is one motivator being blamed for American customers not wanting to deal with overseas call centers however in the current economic climate and dwindling jobs even from home grown companies this move is seen as Un-American (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2007).
Dell Inc. ’s move to close their North Carolina plant was met with a lot of backlash. An estimated 900 jobs would be lost as well as revenues and incentives the State used to entice the company four years prior (Byrnes, 2009).
280million in grants and tax breaks were negotiated(Modine, 2009), which Dell Inc. has agreed to pay back in full after failing to live up to the agreed terms. Some of the conditions Dell Inc. promised to deliver on included investing $100 million in the plant as well as 1,500 jobs over five years(Modine, 2009).
One critical argument is that incentives which are brokered for multinational companies should be saved for small and medium size businesses which would in turn generate greater influence by adding to the enterprise and business customers Dell Inc. engages. Package incentives like the one Dell Inc. rokered are rarely available to growing businesses in the United States and with growing uncertainty fewer and fewer players shall be left for the regional market as debt, foreclosure, brain drain take effect. 3. 4 Efficient Use of Resources: Dell Inc. is alsoa green company that looks to take responsibility for its carbon footprint by making itself more flexible to recycling and using resources sparingly. It is estimated that only twelve percent of electrical appliances are being recycled(Pride & Ferrell, 2010).
They deliver environmentally conscious designs without skimmingon performance or reliability. Dell Inc. ractices a zero- carbon enterprise policy (Clover, 2007).
The Newsweek Green rankings have featured Dell in the top five for a consecutive four years running in the United States (Lear, 2012)based on a company’s environmental performance, policy and reputation. The green initiatives include customers recycle all old dell products or any other brands,banning e-waste to developing nations and reduce their impact at their industrial sites. The company gains material which it can reuse into developing alternative products and is able to recycle it efficiently. The use ofgreen packaging is renewable and recyclable lead to Dell Inc. aving $18 million which is equal to 20 million pounds of material (Lear, 2012).
To attract more participation into the recycle program dell offers free shipping and send maximum of five devices. 3. 5 Monitoring Cost in Dell Inc. Historically Dell’s core business has been the majour drive behind its growth with desktops and notebooks accounting for fifty-eight percent of its sales (Ricadela, 2009).
With changing trends in the personal computer purchaseswhich fell by twelve percent to $3 billion and a weakened spending by companies in the United States and European Dell has reported a shrinking market share and revenue (Gupta, 2012).
Net income was $475 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $893 million, or 49 cents a share, in the period a year earlier(The New York Times, 2012).
Dell Inc. is redirecting its focus tocommerce and the data center which caters to businesses which represent eighty-two percent equaling revenue of $12 million (Kalla, 2012).
Personal computers are volatile due to the incumbent smartphone and tablet devices which are more portable and have seen an increase in memory, performance and battery life. Kalla (2012) lists the benefits include the ability togenerate higher margins, price protection and face fewer competitors.
Business performance has been sluggish over the last quarter of 2012 due to the brokered agreement that is aimed at reducing United Sated public debt of over 11 trillion. Risks such as inflation, currency devaluation and further rise in unemployment are pending possibilities(Mutikani, 2013).
One guaranteed remedy by the federal government is to increase taxes and cut automatic spending(Kane, 2012).
Business and enterprises have adopted a “Let’s wait and see” outlook to further investments on their own information technology purchases until new findings are tabulated to take into account the changing fiscal structures.
Brian T. Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer announces that corporate consumer’s actions are being driven by the uncertainty in the United States economy and held no real insight if the short term spending pattern would hold for Dell Inc. (The New York Times, 2012; Ricadela, 2009).
3. 6 Productivity and Efficiency across Dell Inc. Efficiency in departments is directly related to the productivity of each employee in line with Dell Inc. ’s business strategy. Dell Inc. uccumbed to layoffs across its offices with over 8,800 certain to be let go more were sure to follow (LaMonica, 2008) in an effort to cut costs this is one strategy which is practiced. Jasmine Begum, Dell Malaysia spokeswoman announced that out of its own 4,500 employees(Lee & Kim, 2009), 700 or 16 percent shall be let go from their Penang plant with compensation through a voluntary separation schemeas well as career counselling and outplacement services(Inquirer, 2009).
The workforce would not be let go quietly as they retorted to pranks on the Dell website (Smith, 2009) as seen in figure 1. Figure 1 Prices for products on Dell. om during price prank(Smith, 2009) Figure 2 Prices for products on Dell. com during price prank (Smith, 2009) Dell Inc. is not without redemption as many reviews by past employees show as illustrated below: Figure 3 Aggregate Review of Dell Inc. (Indeed, 2013) Figure 3 represent an aggregate review of job satisfaction based on 403 current and past employees from Dell. Employees agree that Dell Inc. is a great employer, has opportunities for learning as well as a gym, healthcare and allows for risk taking. The negatives include bureaucracy in top management, long hours and a competitive nature which can be stressful.
A former Senior Manager from Austin, Texas branch referred to lack of ethics and integrity as a setback amongst senior leadership. He claims that performance reviews are altered after management has signed even though it is not supported by management(Indeed, 2013).
Companies with a reduced work force are face with the challenge of meeting demand with limited manpower. Every company needs to define their competitive edge or risk losing relevance. Employees experience more stress, unpaid overtime, greater workload, increased responsibility as well as fear of being retrenched in future corporate planning decisions.
Dell Inc. cut jobs to reduce cost of their computers and other products in hopes of attracting customers. Felix Chou, director for global business process improvement at Dell Inc. explains how with a reduced work for of 34,400 people it was able to increase sales during the recession in 2001(Altman, 2002).
The team decided to opt for automating it’s selling even further and simplifying sales. However this business strategy is taking its toll on employees with many calling in sick just so they can take a day of. Dell Inc. nly has four days’ worth of stock whilst competitors can have 28 days by HP or 20 days by IBM (Hitt et al. , 2008) which meant more work efficiency was needed to produce the same volume as when employees were above 40,000 strong. Dell Inc. invested in the redesigned of its computers to simplify assembly and combined technological innovations gathered from other industries. Mr Chou describes how a new smaller plant was built in Austin, Texas which employed half of its previous capacity is able to assemble more computers per hour than the previous factory and shipping them directly to consumers (Altman, 2002).
. 7 Make or Buy, Dell Inc. Diversifies its Information Technology Dell Inc. has bought up a number of companies since 2006, Figure 4 lists the acquisitions that have taken place since then and how they are to be incorporated into Dell Inc. ’s business model. Figure 4 Acquisitions by Dell since 2006 (Hick, 2013) The current strategy is to move away from PC’s and into data centers and corporate software services. The acquisitions like SecureWorks or SonicWall that develop on security products paramount to business privacy.
Their target includes small and medium sized businesses who would like to expand to more corporate computing at affordable prices supported by well-defined customer support mentioned Brian Gladden (De La Merced & Hardy, 2013) Dell Inc. , a publically listed company on the NASDAQ and Hong Kong Stock Exchangehas announced it shall be going back to being a private company (De La Merced & Hardy, 2013).
Michael Dell is gambling his portion of the company including $700 million of his own personal fortune that he shall be able to turn around the performance of his brainchild company.
The $24 billion shall gain Dell an increase of $15 billion in new debt (De La Merced & Hardy, 2013)with little sign that it shall reclaim pole position or redefine the technological era amidst a dynamic technology industry that’s responsible for destabilizing its business. 3. 8 Conclusion Dell Inc. is a company with great potential outside of the PC market. Its move towards small and medium size businesses and enterprise businesses shall allow for it to make the most of its 82 percent revenue stream. The new arrangement announced in 2013 to buy back Dell Inc. rom public shares is a noteworthy one and shall allow for greater autonomy in an increasingly competitive global market. A shortcoming is Dell’s inability to extend its American repertoire behind one of its key business markets namely the United States. Brand ambassadors such as football players, celebrities and others are known to enhance all American brands. Dell should follow suit after Blackberry and announce a reputable global creative director and sport its next advertising portfolio behind a blockbuster movie like Avengers or Iron Man where cult like followings for theses franchises have led to increased ales of brands also closely associated with them. Michael Dell’s leadership is undeniable however in this rapid market his leadership has also attributed to Dell Inc. gaining a reputation as a slow entrant into emergent technologies. Through his leadership market shares of PC, servers have seen declines based on many parameters. His actions to gamble with his company are reckless because the probability of failure is equal to success and he may not want to step down if the time comes to it because Dell Inc. is more than just a company to him.
His personal involvement may lead to clouded judgment and internal inefficiencies which are yet to be revealed in the coming years. 4. 0 IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project management is a process that involves of planning, initiation, execution, and controlling to make a project a success. IT project management can be known as an approach that involves few methodologies. These methodologies begin with planning process. It leads a project from the very beginning to the end of the project by finishing it successfully according to the predicted result. The project manager is involved in this whole IT project management.
To ensure the success of the planned project, the project manager should be knowledgeable enough to guide the team in making the project a success. This should oblige the five phases which are the initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. System development life cycle model is also being used in the IT project management to ensure that the project is a success. It also ensures that the project satisfies each requirement that is involved. It also can be used by guiding the project using few methods. The methods are like waterfall method, joint application development, spiral model and rapid application model.
The project is being planned and also observed by using a Gantt chart and Pert Chart. The project manager comes under the section of Customer Service and Support. In Dell Malaysia, their ultimate measure of success is the customer satisfaction. So, this is why the customer service and support professional’s takes part a major role in providing the success of the organization. Dell Malaysia provides global talent management program to the people to develop someone who can carry on the business strategy and also meet the customer needs. The last few years, their system and processes catapult into the Fortune 50 as an industry leader.
Their teams are being selected by developing talent imperatives, identifying mission critical jobs, forecasting talent, assessing and calibrating, identifying development actions, reporting and also making success plans. 41 SCOPE MANAGEMENT Scope is known as a major path that is able to lead a project to its success. A particular array of drivers or events can directly or indirectly affect or threaten the project scope. If there is any changes that are being implemented on the scope, it would provide convenience. The scope changes can be taken place in anytime during the process of conducting the project limiting to the due date.
This is per requested by a particular end user or the project team leader. The scope management of the Dell Systems Management has grown in this built years. It is done with many ways. The Dell Malaysia markets specified brand names. They don’t focus on the laptops. They have many other variations than the laptop. 4. 2 OBJECTIVE MANAGEMENT The objective management in Dell Malaysia have been a spearheading the lean manufacturing idea in the personal computer area. The LNS Research says that the Dell Malaysia shift in their strategy. Their main objective is to make computers. A very much qualified computers for the public to use. . 3 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The resource management involves the full customer control, direct attached storage, flexible management services. 4. 4 RISK MANAGEMENT Risk is known as a destructive to a project and the risk can happen during and also after the project is successfully done. They have backups to backup the valuable information. Data management and data protection They maintain several single-source or limited-source supplier relationships, because multiple sources are not always available or because the relations are advantageous to us due to performance, quality, support, delivery, apacity, or price considerations. If the supply of a critical single- or limited-source product or part is delayed or curtailed, they may not be able to ship the related product in desired quantities, configurations, or in a timely manner. Even where multiple sources of supply are accessible, qualification of the choice suppliers and establishment of trustworthy supplies could result in delays and a possible loss of sales, which could harm our operating results. They obtain many of their products and all of our components from third-party vendors, many of which are located outside of the U.
S. In addition, significant portion of the products we sell are now assembled by contract manufacturers, primarily in various parts of Asia. A significant concentration of this outsourced manufacturing is currently performed by only a few of our contract manufacturers, often in single locations. They sell components to these contracts manufacturers and generate large non-trade accounts receivables, an arrangement that presents a risk of uncollectibility if the financial condition of a contract manufacturer should deteriorate. 4. 5 BUDGET MANAGEMENT
To manage budget, there are 4 methods than can be known to continually forecast the budget. To avoid the budget from running out from the estimated value, the budget that has been made has to be monitored frequently. Other than that, there should be always a regular forecast on the resource usage. Resource usage are such as the numbers of developers that can be involved in the processed project and the number of the resources that would be needed to ensure the project is completed on time. Besides that, there should always be communication between the low level and high level management on the changes or differences on the budget.
The team also should always be informed on the budget and also the budget forecast. By doing so, the developers can always watch the development cost and can always try to keep the cost within the quoted budget. Then, is to manage the scope thoroughly by ensuring the scope and requirement at the very beginning of the project. This is to ensure that the budget of the suggested project can be controlled. It also can be avoided in such situation where the scope has to be changed or even costing more and over budgeting. 46 time management Time management also known as project scheduling.
This part of the project is done by the project manager. The project manager needs to prepare the right amount of useful time to complete the project successfully. This can be done by doing a Gantt chart or Pert Chart. A Gantt chart can be used to measure the progress of each project task and also the whole project. It can be done by knowing the percentage of the effort, percentage complete and also the percentage of duration complete. By using the Gantt chart, the project manager of the project will be able to supervise the individual progress.
In the Gantt chart view, the project manager will be able to supervise the improvement of effort done by looking at the progress bar that would be in the color blue to show the progress indication. This is a method to push the whole team in ensuring the project is done on time and also would be able to deliver to the particular client within the given time limit. 4. 7 DELL OUTSOURCING It is combined skilled professionals, industry best practices, computerized tools and proven methodologies to maximize the information technology investments and create an IT environment that’s competent, useful and scalable.
All of their IT Outsourcing Services are underpinned by a standardized service management that delivers high levels of consistency and obviousness. They have proven delivery model that ensures consistent, efficient service delivery across the globe and is constantly refined to meet the changing needs of their customers. 4. 8 DATABASE MANAGEMENT The Dell Malaysia database involves understanding of the business requirements of the organization and carefully influential what is necessary for current and outlook growth. Once the database mass has been carefully predictable, the size of the original hardware must be determined.
The Dell Oracle Database Advisor tool assists customers with Oracle database sizing. It accomplish the making of a solution stack by collecting customers’ input based on known business necessities such as database size, number of users, I/Os per second (IOPS) and output expectations. Outputs from the advisor tool recommend a pattern that has been fully tested and validated by the Dell Database Solutions Engineering team. The optional solution covers a comprehensive set of components — including servers, storage arrays, switches and software supported by Dell. 4. 9 Analysis
Project management is used to ensure the project is done without any problems. It is handled by the project managers. The IT project management is to handle the IT projects. They are many aspects in the IT project management. They are scope management, risk management, resource management, outsourcing, time management and so. The Dell Malaysia has most of it. It has other common factor with other companies. These factors are important to understand the assignment. 5. 0 Legal Issues When focusing on the IT side of legal issues in any company, Intellectual Property Rights are usually the main focus.
Intellectual Property encompasses Copyrights, Patents Trademarks and Trade Secrets. Dell Malaysia being a part of Dell Inc. will benefit of most protection that Dell Inc. ’s head office benefits of. Big companies, such as Dell Inc. itself, are often prey to lawsuits. Disgruntled employees, discrimination cases, immigration audits, intellectual property issues and dissatisfied customers among others are the five main legal issues affecting global companies. (Sun, n. d. ) In this scenario, the legal issues that will be focused on will mostly Intellectual Property issues, as well as, after sales services issues.
Dell Malaysia itself has never been subjected to any lawsuits, on the other hand Dell Inc. has been involved in multiple lawsuits, ranging from patent lawsuits to dissatisfied customer suing the for faulty goods delivered. 5. 1 Patent Patent is a form of protection that provides a person or a legal entity with the exclusive right to make or use or sell a concept of invention and prohibit others from doing the same for the duration of the patent. (myipo. gov, n. d. ) As of February 2012, Dell owned over 3,449 Patents worldwide and has an additional of 1,660 pending patent applications.
Dell claimed patents and pending patents cover both current and possible future computer system products, manufacturing processes, and related technologies. Dell licenses their patented inventions to other companies. Dell has entered a multitude of intellectual property licensing and cross-licensing agreements and, entered into various software licensing agreements with other companies. (Dell Inc. , 2012) Dell applied for over a 150 patents in Malaysia, of which only 37 of have been granted, and they are listed below. Title| Application No. | Date of Grant|
