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To: otter who wrote (17650)	2/19/1998 10:07:00 AM
From: Ramsey Su	Respond to of 97611

Ray, those were great questions. I have been wondering about what the new CPQ is going to be. Is it no longer a box maker that execute extremely well? If it is going to be like an IBM, is the new growth rate going to be dn to possibly the single digit level? What are they really gaining from DEC, slower growth and more competition? Looking at DELL, CPQ and GTW in the first tier, IBM and HWP in the second tier (by tier I mean recent PC news), both tiers are reporting excellent growth. DELL and CPQ are both saying that they are growing a few times faster than the industry rate. IDC predicts a mid to high teens growth rate for PCs. Something doesn't add up. Ramsey

To: otter who wrote (17650)	2/19/1998 1:14:00 PM
From: WeisbrichA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Ray, Your questions sound familiar. They are smoldering embers resulting from fires that started about post #14866. Hope you can get your bellows to re-ignite interest in topic of CPQ/DEC merger. Bellows work best with long slow strokes not many short ones. Most people on this thread have already BTDT. In the early part of your post you brought in a perspective from the real world of IS. My comments from the consultant(sales) side: 1. DEC users are VERY happy in general with DEC. Not a lot of chance to replace DEC. 2. DEC also has resellers for most of its product line. 3. DEC has a sleeper in Alpha/NT Server. Compaq may, with proper use of channels, dominate the large scale server market well before Merced arrives. Follow this: dutlbcz.lr.tudelft.nl RW

To: otter who wrote (17650)	2/20/1998 12:48:00 AM
From: Obewon	Respond to of 97611

Excellent post Ray! At least one other here recognizes the bigger picture than the current Dell vs CPQ discussion that has gone on the past couple of days. Don't have time currently to answer (or at least give my "opinion" to your questions. Look for it later unless someone else posts what I would've said before I get to it. OB

To: otter who wrote (17650)	2/20/1998 1:30:00 AM
From: Obewon	Respond to of 97611

Ray, The main answer to your question is that the two companies don't overlap very much. Get rid of DEC's consumer PC business (about 3-5% of its sales) and all the remaining overlap is in the mid range enterprise market. The consumer market will continue to be "serviced" through reseller channels while the mid-to upper enterprise markets will be direct sales. Even Dell doesn't catch its enterprise customers through the phone or Internet. For the big sales, a company has to pitch its wares in person. With the increasing complexity of computer systems and the increasing shortage of talented people able to maintain corporate networks, bundling service is a must to capture these accounts. Now I believe that someone posted that approximately 20% of Dell's large accounts are serviced by DEC currently. This was possible since Dell and DEC's markets overlap even less than CPQ's and DEC's. Now Dell is in a pickle since it must find a new servicer of its accounts (or must start its own servicing business) to stay competitive. (Unisys might be a good candidate at this point.) Comparing CPQ to IBM is difficult currently because they haven't been at each others throats like Dell and CPQ. (I laugh at IBM's feeble efforts in the comsumer market: I have much more respect for their corporate sales arm.) Recently IBM has shown signs that it realizes that it must try to compete and is slowly bringing itself back from the brink. It remains to be seen whether it can change rapidly enough to keep up. OB