Tale of two computer buyers: Sprint and Black & Decker
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When Sprint Communications Co. began a
five-month evaluation of its computing needs
late last year, it looked hard at products and
services from the two Texas personal
computer giants, Compaq Computer Corp. and Dell Computer Corp.
The long-distance and Internet-access provider based in Kansas City,
Mo., had used Compaq's computers for more than 10 years, said Lorin
Olsen, Sprint's senior manager of enterprise network services. But a few
years ago, it began updating the desktops with Dell's.
At stake in this year's contract, which would extend almost three years,
were tens of thousands of desktops and notebooks and hundreds of
servers.
Dell and Compaq fight aggressively for such accounts and aren't shy
about trumpeting their victories. Dell has alerted the press -- and
investors -- to its sales victories with increasing frequency.
In a week's time recently, Dell announced sales to Sara Lee Corp. and
FTD.
Dell won the Sprint account, Olsen said, because it offered comparable
computers at lower prices and was more flexible about meeting the
needs of Sprint, a company with $15 billion in revenues and more than
16 million customers.
"Dell was much more willing to partner with Sprint than Compaq was at
the time," he said. "Compaq was still trying to leverage a premium price
for what are becoming commodity components," he said.
But a $2 billion unit of Black & Decker Corp. was willing to pay the
higher cost for Compaq equipment.
The company's North American Power Tools Group already owned
computers made by Compaq and Digital Equipment Corp., which
Compaq acquired this year. Moreover, Black & Decker was concerned
about abandoning its Unix-based system that supports functions that
must continue to keep the business going, said Will Kostelecky, director
of operations for the North American unit.
Windows NT, Microsoft Corp.'s most powerful operating system that is
steadily eating away at the Unix market, still can't be trusted with the
most vital, demanding functions, he said.
"All the transaction-processing system was Unix, all the hardware was
Digital," he said. "I'm waiting for NT to support a terabyte of data."
Analysts agree that DEC's Alpha chip and Unix systems will provide
Compaq an edge in the high-end server business, at least until an
industrial-strength Windows NT is released.
That is not expected until 2000 or beyond.
In the meantime, the Black & Decker division will buy dozens of
Compaq servers and hundreds of desktops, Kostelecky said. |
