Dell – the darling of the x86 industry for the past two decades – has fallen on hard times and is now embarking on a campaign to deliver on a refocused corporate vision. Michael Dell reassumed the CEO role and began to lay out a three-point program for rejuvenating the company. One of the most important and far-reaching of these goals is his plan to establish Dell as a leading player in what he terms ‘the data center of the future’. This objective will require the vendor to greatly upgrade its intellectual property and services in a way that will not only create new revenue opportunities, but will also transform Dell into a premium brand in the enterprise – one that will allow it to be viewed as a trusted partner to enterprise customers and command premium pricing for its products.

Although Dell resumed his eponymous company’s CEO mantle only in late January, he has already outlined his plan for Dell to become a premier vendor in delivering the low-cost (as distinguished from the low-priced) data center of the future. This plan requires substantial new investments in proprietary intellectual property, new servers, greatly expanded services offerings and a new relationship-based, consultative, enterprise solutions-based sales capability. Even more daunting, it will require a veritable transformation in Dell’s corporate culture.

Table of contents

Dell’s key challenges

Redefine its enterprise value proposition
Re-craft its server line
Expand its enterprise services capabilities
Create a solutions-based sales organization

The need for a new Dell

Precepts of Dell’s emerging systems strategy

-On becoming a technology innovator

Establishing Dell as a trusted data center partner

Easy buying and deployment experiences
Becoming a solutions provider

Rethinking Dell’s server strategy

Dell’s server market position
Selectively matching competitive offerings
Server differentiation

Redefining enterprise services

Support services
Professional services

From box-pushing to solution-selling

Dell’s future in the systems market

Clock is ticking for Dell’s transformation

Table of figures

Figure 1 2006 strategic vendor ratings – servers and storage
Figure 2 2007 strategic vendor ratings – servers and storage
Figure 3 Re-engineering Dell
Figure 4 Dynamic Computing model