Dell Computers (a): Field Service for Corporate Clients [Hbs 9-603-067]

Case dell Computers (A) Field Service for Corporate Clients HBS 9-603-067 1. What are the key challenges DELL should be concerned with as it enters the large graduated table innkeeper market? Support military table service in innkeeper market is more critical than in personal reckoner market, especially when the server is a large scale one, since a bother in server even for a short time could cause serious problem in the customers business. Having realized the importance, rivalrys such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM cut down their response time to enhance the smell of their back up service.Dell overly is extraordinarily committed to high- choice service, they proposed the response time as short as quartette hours. In order to accomplish their guaranteed lead time in extremely volatile situation, Dell has two big challenges. (1) They should train number of technicians for a high cost. Support service for servers can non be mainly depended on tender center or service websit e as Dell did for personal estimators. (2) They bedevil to keep their inventory higher than desired in their operating school of thought where they believed there is an inverse correlation between the amount of inventory and the step of information. . Should DELL outsource the four hour service level support or should DELL house the service with in-house resources? wherefore or wherefore not? Dell should provide the service with in-house resource if they are to seduce in the server market because it has been successful in personal computer market with the strategy of Dell direct model. The computer shapers strength in personal computer market was to get high character reference products and services tailored to meet customers needs.Potential corporate customers pass on consider purchasing Dells server tolerateing the same intimacy for servers. Just like Kapoor was wondering, the customers will not buy their servers, if the quality of Dells products and services were wo rse than its competitors. If Dell outsources the support service, the quality of service and products will decrease for two reasons. First, they cannot keep entire control oer the support service if they cannot train their own technicians.As the case says they value the have intercourse in customer interaction resulting in high quality of their service. They cannot expect the same thing from another guild who would do the service on behalf of Dell. Second, Dell has been able to improve the quality of its products by directly interacting with its clients and utilize the feedback from support service. If Dell loses the source of information or compromise the quality of information, the company will have difficulty to maintain its reputation in product quality.The information from the in-house support service will also help to keep its server parts inventory lean, given they can collapse estimate the needs of those parts with more accurate information. Of course the company could r educe training cost by outsourcing support service. However, the price picnic in server market is lower than in personal computer market since the potential problem that can be caused by severely support service and product is critically serious. Reliability is more fundamental than the cost or the price they could reduce by outsourcing and compromising the quality of their service and product. . If DELL outsources the service support, then should it use IBM as a vendor to provide the service support? Why or Why not? Dell should not use IBM as a supplier of the support service even if it decides to outsource the service. IBM may seem to be an attractive service provider because they are the one who can do the job the best. The company has more than 135,000 specialists in support service as well as long and extensive industry experience. However, IBM is a competitor in server market, the strongest one considering their market share.Even though IBM is willing to provide service to Dell, we cannot be sure that it will provide the same quality of service to Dells customers as to their customers. Furthermore, if IBM could interact with Dells customer frequently, there always is a chance for them to take the customers from Dell. The service provider could obtain critical information regarding Dells product, which could also be a cause for competitive loss for Dell. Again, Dell should not lose its opportunity to directly interact with their customer especially to their get through enemy in order to win in the market.