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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Van Winkle who wrote (144589)	10/14/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Mike, In the not too distant past, there were lots of statements about it being 'better' for Dell not to go the consumer route due to service issues, etc. Unless 'newbies' have gotten more technical now that Dell has made the consumer move <ggg>, I doubt very much that many of them will be using the web to solve tech issues. When the hardware/software does not work, they are going to pick up the phone and call tech support. Regards, John

To: Mike Van Winkle who wrote (144589)	10/14/1999 12:53:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Mike - I am very familiar with Deming's work, I did a lot of JIT development for General Motors in the late 70's and early 80's and got drilled on quality relentlessly. Even more when we started working with the Japanese (Kamatsu especially) who regarded Deming's work as the bible. Quality of construction, accuracy of configuration, and general attention to the customer's out-of-box experience are areas where DELL has no peer. But that does not change the inherent MTBF of the components used - there will be a certain number of failures per thousand boxes shipped no matter how well the QC is done. And it would cost more to build boxes that don't fail than to fix those problems - by a wide margin. BTW that's what killed CPQ in 1991, and why Rod Cannion got fired. CPQ built a box which worked first time, every time, which could be dropped 10 feet off a dock onto concrete and still run, which had gold flashed contacts and mil spec parts throughout. They were way more reliable than the competition and only about 50% more expensive. Guess what - customers didn't care. They figured better to save $1000 and take a chance that they would be the ones with no problems. And their chances were pretty good. And the vendor would fix it if they lost. This is not a new debate and the votes are already in. But however you read that, and whether you agree with me or not, it has nothing to do with revenue from enterprise services, which have nothing to do with fixing PCs, or with PC quality, and only a little to do with PCs at all.

To: Mike Van Winkle who wrote (144589)	10/14/1999 1:26:00 PM
From: D.J.Smyth	Respond to of 176387

wow, great posts today from Mr. Rude, Mike etal. "This optimism, as I see it, is tied to Dell's planned 50% cost reduction from their already stunning low manufacturing cost." this cost reduction is tied to projected future pricing models. Dell has accurately predicted the ASP for their systems for the past three years in-house and, with ongoing, new knowledge, has been able to project pricing models into the future. they have aggressive models and conservative models. MD's projection of 50% reduction was based on their conservative model (my thinking). which means that if the aggressive model holds, the reduction could be slightly more significant. these models take into account materials, material improvements, labor, synergy improvements, market shift, etc. complex. the major factor that would possibly alter their models are acts of God - or possibly a dumb a. analyst or two waving red flags (acts of God and analysts' statements are generally one and the same).