Greg -
I have actually heard CPQ execs say just that - "we do it and no one notices, they do it and skyrockets go off".
But the last part of your post is part of the reason - people expect that DELL will do things in an exciting and different way, and often times better. That's why DELL is the best "fast follower" in the business. They rarely do a half-baked launch of anything, and this is no exception. It is a well thought out offering with many innovative features.
But to answer your questions - yes, the offerings from HP, IBM and CPQ all are fully automated, including the ability to remotely power down and reboot the machine if needed. The whole boot process is observable from the remote monitoring site, not just the running system. These companies (along with other key players) defined standards for web based management back in 1996, then each created their own package. They all do pre-failure analysis, call-home monitoring, hardware and firmware management, and a host of other things. The link back to the supplier on parts delivery is a neat DELL twist and gets at a sore spot with some customers (particularly IBM's) about "repair by replacment" service. The percent service on-line is a no-brainer since in another year there will be almost no other kind of service in enterprise accounts - all of the new products use web hosted administration and service as the primary method.
p.s. - another difference is that the others all "roll thier own" while DELL appears to be working more closely with MSFT on this. That could have big payback down the road, and also fits DELL's leveraged development model. |
