ewolf, OT *** EMC
Business Week had an article not long ago saying that EMC is now toning down the arrogance. businessweek.com
excerpt
Business Week: September 10, 2001
Department: Information Technology: Storage
Headline: EMC Dishes Out a Little More TLC
Deck: As times get tough, the hard-driving data-storage outfit has been softening its sales approach
Byline: By Faith Keenan in Hopkinton, Mass.
Kurt Wong never read EMC Corp.'s sales bids from front to back. The data- storage outfit's typical 50-page pitch was so much longer than other bids that Wong, director of storage engineering at Visa International, would skip to the last page, to the price, which was always two to three times as high as the lowest bid. When EMC (EMC) realized that Wong was ignoring its marketing spiel, it started burying the figure in the middle of the proposals. Even more irritating was the accompanying arrogance. "It was a take-it-or-leave-it attitude without directly saying so. Like: `You're stupid if you don't take this,"' says Wong. Still, take it Wong did. At that time, EMC was miles ahead of its rivals in storage technology.
Not anymore. Competitors IBM (IBM) and Hitachi Data Systems are offering storage systems that are just as good as EMC's. And customers are only too happy to switch to rivals that can offer reliable storage for a reasonable price--without the high-handed attitude. Wong, for instance, bought storage from IBM last year for the first time in several years. Big Blue now supplies about 25% of his storage systems, up from next to nothing a year ago, while EMC's share has dropped from 80% last year to 60%. Hannaford Brothers Co., a supermarket chain in Scarborough, Me., bought from IBM in December for the first time in eight years. "[It] was less expensive, had better performance, and was easier to manage," says Bill Homa, Hannaford's chief information officer. "[EMC is] facing real competition for the first time in years."<
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