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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dulane U. Ponder who wrote (13973)	1/19/1998 4:31:00 PM
From: Satyr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

For what it's worth I saw this ans thought I'd post it By Lisa DiCarlo January 16, 1998 2:20pm PC Week For reseller-driven PC makers, the road to build-to-order has been a long and difficult one. PC makers, including Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Personal Computer Co., have over the past 18 months embraced plans for more real-time BTO models as a way to reduce inventories and cut cost. But, as Compaq and HP have found, executing on- channel configuration and assembly programs is not as simple as direct marketer Dell Computer Corp. might make it look. "Compaq has not met their inventory goals, and that's the equivalent of saying you underperformed in implementing BTO," said Mark Specker, an analyst at SoundView Financial Group, in San Francisco. According to Specker, Compaq Chief Financial Officer Earl Mason told Wall Street the Houston-based company would have about three weeks of inventory by the end of 1997. However, analysts estimated that number to be five weeks. "They're sitting on a substantial [amount of] enterprise options and laptops and a fair amount of Deskpro 166MHz systems," Specker said. Compaq officials, citing a quiet period before the company's earnings announcement this Wednesday, declined to comment. HP executives in Palo Alto, Calif., said the challenges posed by the different distribution and fulfillment models are not trivial. "It's more complex and it takes longer to get anything done," said Jim McDonnell, group marketing manager for Personal Information Products at HP. "Behavioral patterns change, as well as internal roles and responsibilities." Compaq and HP have already spent about 18 months planning their strategies, and it may be another 18 months before inventory and cost goals are realized, analysts said. What do you think??