Victor and thread -
Hot off the presses (also link to the webcast and full text)
Compaq CEO Outlines New Opportunities for Company During COMDEX Keynote Speech
Eckhard Pfeiffer Touts Customer Choice Business Model and Leadership in Enterprise and Consumer Segments
LAS VEGAS, Nov. 16, 1998 Building on his vision of a New World of Computing, Compaq President and CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer outlined new areas of opportunity for the company during his keynote address today at COMDEX Fall ‘98. In particular, Pfeiffer covered three major points: the transformation of Compaq from a PC company to a strategic IT partner; the company's expanded approach to customers through its Customer Choice business model; and how the company is helping both enterprise customers and consumers take advantage of the New World of Computing.
The following are highlights from Pfeiffer's COMDEX keynote remarks. The complete webcast of his speech and the text of the speech are available at: compaq.com.
The Transformation of Compaq
Pfeiffer discussed how Compaq has reinvented itself, particularly leveraging the acquisitions and integration of Digital and Tandem. He emphasized that Compaq is the global PC leader and intends to grow its position while it has fast become an enterprise computing company offering web enabled solutions to any company, of any size, on a global scale.
'We are no longer just a vendor of boxes. Today we are a strategic IT partner with the account expertise solutions experience and service capabilities necessary to help customers solve the most complex IT problems,' Pfeiffer said.
Pfeiffer explained that as a customer-driven company, Compaq will own the relationship with its customers and will be accountable for meeting customers needs. He cited that Compaq has 10,000 sales and 29,000 service and support professionals around the globe. 'We have transformed Compaq from a PC company to a global IT company with strengths and capabilities that no PC-only company can match,' he said.
Compaq Customer Choice Model
Leveraging Compaq's announcement last week that it will directly sell products, services and solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, Pfeiffer further explained that Compaq is doing more than embracing the direct model 'it is extending beyond direct with a business approach focused on Customer Choice.'
According to Pfeiffer, Customer Choice means Compaq provides products, services and solutions to its customers the way they want, when they want and where they want, at purchase and lease prices equal to or below direct PC vendors.
'With Customer Choice, we create a customer relationship model that is superior to any of our competitors, one that enables our customers to do business with Compaq the way they choose to do business. We have created a value proposition . . . that is based on much more than just selling and shipping PCs direct,' Pfeiffer said.
The model is working as sales of the newly introduced Prosignia line are double the forecast; calls to Compaq's DirectPlus are up 120-percent since the announcement; and every order taken and approved for credit has been shipped in less than five business days.
The ideal PC sales and fulfillment model is becoming clear, and it is based on a combination of direct and indirect, he said. 'We are confident that it is the winning model for Compaq and our customers,' Pfeiffer said.
Enterprise Technologies in the Next Millenium
Underscoring its leadership in the enterprise, Pfeiffer reaffirmed Compaq's focus in the key areas which the company believes will define the new world of internetworked computing in the 21st Century: Windows NT, UNIX, 64-bit computing, storage and the Internet.
Pfeiffer highlighted Compaq's work with Microsoft to increase the availability and scaleability of Windows NT Server. Together both companies will adapt key technologies such as clustering and systems management for Digital UNIX, OpenVMS and Tandem's NonStop Kernel, and incorporate them in future releases of NT. Compaq will continue working with Microsoft to make Digital UNIX the most Window NT-friendly UNIX on the market.
Pfeiffer also reinforced Compaq's commitment to 64-bit computing through continued development of Alpha technology as well as support for Intel's Merced.
Consumers in the New World: Networked Home
Pfeiffer outlined Compaq's goal for the consumer market. 'Compaq's long-term goal is simple: to be the preferred brand in the networked digital home,' Pfeiffer said.
'We envision a home with two advanced digital gateways -- a data gateway represented by the PC and optimized for the next generation of Internet content, and a video gateway optimized for the next wave of entertainment,' he said.
Pfeiffer also detailed Compaq's latest consumer products and initiatives, including the world's first broadband Internet PC with an integrated 1.5 megabit digital modem, which provides Internet connections up to 25 times faster than 56K modems. Compaq also announced a new 'Triple Play' broadband Internet access program that spans three high speed communications technologies (cable, DSL and satellite), the most comprehensive strategy to provide U.S. consumers with the widest choice of high-speed connections to the Internet.
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