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

To: The Phoenix who wrote (60900)	8/25/1998 6:34:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Gary, I have a question for you. You can answer in a pm if you want. Do you have any experience with any company that has attempted to implement a client/server database ERP package (most notably Sap) and the resulting hit (affect) on the business? I ask this because people that have gone though this generally understand that there are companies that spend YEARS trying to automate complex business processes and can't - and with the Dell model if you cant do this then you have no business. Sure it shouldnt be impossible to go live on Sap, but it IS for many companies isnt it? SUN has been trying to come up on Oracle apps for 5 YEARS!!! Why is that? If Sun tried to truly duplicate the Dell model tomorrow, there would be no way they could, for the same reason they cant come up on Oracle. (They probably dont have a clear automatable biz process is my guess, but Im not sure). I dont understand why you dont know this. Everybody has been moaning and groaning about ERP implementations for 4 years now. Some comapanies have gone out of business because of it. Michelle

To: The Phoenix who wrote (60900)	8/25/1998 7:13:00 PM
From: jhg_in_kc	Respond to of 176387

gary, your views are valuable to the thread. Skeptcism is always healthier for investing than being in blindlylove with a stock. Bear in mind before you came here there were any number of rude and insulting bears calling Dell a piece of s**t and worse. Plus they thrived by spreading fears and slander about the company. Have you read the Harvard Business Review Dell interview. Sure Dell's business model can MAYBE be repeated but at this late stage it would cost an entrant huge, huge sums of money to get started and provide real competition. That's one barrier to entry. There may be no one willing to do this. In fact I'm surprised that someone didn't start competing this way wthin the first year that dell began. Another is that by that point in time Dell would be doing it better. This is a very competitive company. Plus the longer Dell has no BTO compeition, the harder it will be for a BTO competitor to answer the charge that they are not second rate, since Dell pioneered the model. I asked many of the same questions as you did but didn't get into such an argumenative stance. I was skeptical too. Now I only wish I'd found Dell two years earlier The only thing that can slow the growth of Dell is if businesses, corportions and government don't need to buy as many PCs or replace old ones as frequently so as to read the newest killer applications. Or if some other device (Internet appliance) becomes a major alternative to the PC. BUt this would hurt Gateway much more than Dell. Another threat is of course world wide deflation. But that affects all stocks not just Dell. Dell has said that risks collect around inventory assets and around debt(recievables). Dell has virtually zero inventory and has the use of customers' and suppliers' money for an average of seven days before it pays anyone anything. Mke Dell has discoverd a nearly flawless way to sell computers. Nobody can match this efficiency unless they do just that match it. But it's almost too late for the competition to try in my opinion. I am still studying Cisco and learning networking terminolgy. I think CSCO could be huge but I have to understand the business better before I buy. I am ovverweighted in Dell in my portfolio simply because it has so dramattically outperformed all other stocks I own. jhg

To: The Phoenix who wrote (60900)	8/25/1998 7:34:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Apparantly I rate zero on you metered response scale, because when you say: I began my conversation here asking what makes DELL unique and gives the company a unique market position. Given that they purchase components (PCB's) and assemble these into JIT delivery for fullfilment to the Fortune 500 companies, what is it that keeps competitors from emulating this approach. If someone can answer this in such a way as to demonstrate that the CPQ's, IBM's and HP's haven't a chance of either emulating it or bettering it then once again I'll be convinced. I and others on this thread explained to you at length why the existing competitors cannot copy Dell's business plan. I referred you to Michelle Harris to explain to you the difficulties in implementing a successful SCM system which overlays and ERP system. But you didn't even acknowledge the information. So you created the fiction that you questions have gone unanswered, since you go on to say: Up to now the response I've seen was "why haven't they done it then?; they're morons/buffoons; they can't copy DELL's model - no one can." I'm sorry, these are not, in my eyes, solid cases for DELL's business model; nor were the ones I restated above. Again, they appear to me to be repeatable. I'm sorry, Gary, but your vision is opportunistic. You saw what you want to see and ignored the rest. And rather than looking at the evidence and reaching a conclusion from the data, you choose to draw your conclusion first and try to get the data to conform to your prejudices. The saddest part about this is that only you will end up being the poorer for it. TTFN, CTC

To: The Phoenix who wrote (60900)	8/25/1998 10:18:00 PM
From: SecularBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Gary, nice curveball. Weren't you uninterested in DELL, and going to move on? What's keeping you around? <???> LoD P.S. I like how you tried to blame your attitude on me. What a sham! Ha!

To: The Phoenix who wrote (60900)	8/25/1998 11:42:00 PM
From: Xplorer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Gary, These other companies cannot emulate Dell because what Dell does is a way of life. That is to say that without full commitment by the CEO, the VP,s, management,and everyone else who works there, it flat will not work!!! I don't know how many companies I've seen where Dell's business approach and practice would never get off the ground. Most of management is unwilling to apply this "way of life" approach to their business plan. When hey do, it doesn't work because they themselves have no idea just how much commitment they must make. The way of thinking must change, sometimes in a dramatic fashion. Look at how many companies fail to achieve the real goals of ISO 9000. They spend $25,000 to $100,000 and 15,000 to 25,000 man hours to be approved, then just treat it as a obstacle to overcome. They never view it as a tool to use to improve the bottom line but just an operating expense. I find it refreshing to see a company actually make a plan like theirs work. Steve.