Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (113939)	4/1/1999 11:12:00 PM
From: Naggrachi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Using your post to jump in. In trying to access a certain website, I get the following error message: >> Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d' Type mismatch: 'FormatCurrency'>> Keep in mind that I'm using IE 5.0. Thanks in advance. Zead

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (113939)	4/2/1999 6:42:00 AM
From: Bazmataz	Read Replies (8) \| Respond to of 176387

Well, I do own DELL, but here's another interesting DELL story to go along with my gigabuys story a few days ago... I bought a new laptop from DELL about a month ago - an Inspiron 7000 with the 15" screen - really beautiful... anyway, the screen had about 10 dead pixels upon delivery. I come to find out that DELL says that dead pixels are part of the industry standard and they initially wouldn't replace the screen. After having to argue with several customer support people, they agreed to swap out the box - just the chassis. They said they'd ship me a new one right away. Well, here it is, five customer service phone calls later, three weeks later, and NO chassis - haven't heard jack from DELL. Truth is, in my personal experience, they treat the individual buyer like crap. Guess I'll have to call them AGAIN today to find out what the hell is going on. Just thought anyone might be interested... Baz

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (113939)	4/2/1999 9:01:00 AM
From: D.J.Smyth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

kemble, all: 07:53 DJS IMF Official Sees Asian Economies Stabilized, Headed Toward Recov 07:53 DJS IMF Official Sees Asian Economies Stabilized, Headed Toward Recovery SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Asia is half-way along the road to overcoming its economic crisis, now that economies in the region have stabilized, said Hubert Neiss, director of the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific Department, on Friday. "The next task is recovery," Neiss said in an interview with CNBC Asia television, an affiliate of Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of this and other newswires. In related news, a World Bank conference on corporate recovery in Asia on Friday said closer attention to micro-level data would have forewarned of the region's economic crisis. Analysis of what went wrong in Asia has tended to focus on macroeconomic factors. Critics of the IMF's bailout programs in Thailand, for example, say its high interest rate policy to stabilize the baht led to many corporate failures. Delegates to the World Bank-sponsored meeting considered studies of nearly 4,000 Asian corporations from five countries, based on data stretching back to before the region plunged into turmoil in 1997. Government agencies from Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines carried out the studies with support from the World Bank. "Excess capacity was reflected in the pre-crisis data," Mari Pangestu, executive director of Indonesia's Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a news conference to mark the close of the three-day conference. She was referring to the huge oversupply that built up in many Asian economies during the high-growth years, while asset prices soared many times above real productive value. Pangestu said the general consensus among delegates was that high interest rates had starved viable companies across the region of funds for production. "In general, credit availability was an issue," she said. Thailand's Fiscal Policy Office, however, said in a report considered by the conference that "there was little evidence of a severe credit crunch" in the country. According to Thai companies surveyed, 78% said declines in revenue were the major source of liquidity problems. Fewer companies surveyed said insufficient supply of credit was a problem. Indonesia's Pangestu said policymakers must implement macroeconomic strategies to stimulate domestic demand, but must also pay attention to corporate and financial restructuring. "For corporate recovery to take place, it's not enough for one set of policies," she said. Meanwhile, Neiss said Indonesia lagged other countries in its progress toward recovery because its reform process was taking longer, and conceded that political instability there could slow the reforms further if it worsened. But he said the IMF was pleased with Indonesia's progress. Neiss expressed optimism on Japan, saying the government had taken very strong stimulus steps by easing monetary policy "almost to the limit," passing a large fiscal package and undertaking "impressive" reform of its banking system. He said there was a possibility that Japan would need to act again on the fiscal front late this year to prevent the fiscal stimulus from fading away. He also said it was conceivable that Japanese output this year would be slightly below last year's level. But he said he believed Japan's stimulus steps would "during this year produce recovery, and create the support for the recovery to continue." Eventually, the benefits of Japanese corporate restructuring will filter through to the economy, though this will take some time, he said. On Malaysia, Neiss said the government's policies were in line with the IMF's current judgment in many areas, including expansionary monetary and fiscal policy and restructuring of banks and corporations. He said the IMF remained skeptical of capital controls in general, but that in Malaysia's case, the controls appeared to have given it some "breathing room" to enact other reforms. Neiss strongly defended the IMF's record of policy guidance to Asian countries during the region's crisis, saying that while the IMF might have handled some specific areas better, with hindsight "our fundamental strategy would probably remain unchanged." Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 04/02 7:53a CST happy Easter to you and others.

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (113939)	4/2/1999 9:48:00 AM
From: Patrick E.McDaniel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Kemble, the stock market is closed but the Futures market indicates an upward bias when we get moving on Monday. cme.com Pat

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (113939)	4/2/1999 3:27:00 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

A Great Article on DELL from the latest Forbes ASAP.....FYI.... <<WHEN WALL STREET ANALYSTS talk about the success of Dell Computer, they inevitably cite a crucial decision Michael Dell made several years ago. Says Louis Miscioscia of Lehman Brothers, "Michael Dell gets a lot of credit, but I think his best move was bringing in people who were smarter than he was." Kevin Rollins, vice chairman of Dell Computer, is a case in point. Dell hired him in 1993 as a Bain consultant to study whether the direct sales model was the right strategy for the company. Rollins' research showed room for tremendous growth and no doubt played a part in his decision to join Dell full-time in April 1996. Today he shares the office of chief executive with Michael Dell and Morton Topfer. ASAP: What is it about the direct sales model and mass customization that has been difficult for competitors to replicate? Rollins: It's not as simple as just having a direct sales force. It's not as simple as just having a mass customization in-plant or manufacturing methodology. It's a whole series of things in the value chain: from the way we procure, the way we develop product, the way we order and have inventory levels, and manufacturer and service support. The entire value chain has to work together to make it efficient and effective. ASAP: What is the competition looking at? Rollins: So many of our competitors are really looking at our business and saying "Oh, it's the asset management model-seven days of inventory. That's what we're going to do," rather than looking at every one of 10 things and replicating those. ASAP: How does Dell stay dynamic? Rollins: When we see something changing, we say, "What is the data?" Data-driven analysis and order and discipline were what helped Dell figure out where it should be and where we are going. We've got 20% of our business today on the Internet. So how much do we want? We want all of it on the Internet. We want to push that as far as it can go. ASAP: What mechanisms do you have in place to make sure the next Internet doesn't sneak up on you? Rollins: We're scouring for anything that could come up and bite us. In fact, we ask ourselves all the time, "What is our greatest fear?" Whenever we find something, we try to figure out how we can embrace it. [An example is] services. And the delivery of a perfect product all the time. In our business, nobody does that very well. We see this huge gap between what we do and what we think the customer wants. Anybody who would come along and do any of those things better, faster, or in a new manner could maybe out-Dell Dell. So we are constantly paranoid. We believe what Andy [Grove] said kind of jokingly-only the paranoid survive. ASAP: So Dell isn't saying it has all the pieces in a row and the model is working fine? Rollins: We are challenging our people: "What if X went away? What if you had to cut your costs in half?" When we come up with the answers to those questions, we start developing little business models. If some look reasonable, we charter a team. ASAP: What drives the future of Dell? Rollins: We think we have four engines of growth: geographic expansion, product, the Internet, and services. Those are the core areas we're pushing for the company. —Interview by Rodes Fishburne >>