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

Case dell Computers (A) Field overhaul for Corporate Clients HBS 9-603-067 1. What be the key challenges DELL should be concerned with as it enters the large-scale scale horde foodstuffplace? Support improvement in innkeeper market is more censorious than in own(prenominal) figurer market, especially when the master of ceremonies is a large scale one, since a problem in server even for a short time could draw serious problem in the customers business. Having realized the importance, competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM reduced their solution time to enhance the part of their plump for expediency. dingle besides is extraordinarily committed to high- character serving, they proposed the response time as short as four hours. In launch to accomplish their guaranteed lead time in super volatile situation, Dell has two big challenges. (1) They should get number of technicians for a high cost. Support profit for servers can non be mainly depended on call marro w or do website as Dell did for personalised computers. (2) They hand to keep their parentage higher than coveted in their operating philosophy where they believed there is an antonym correlation between the amount of inventory and the gauge of information. . Should DELL outsource the four hour service level raise or should DELL give up the service with in-ho go for resources? Why or Why not? Dell should provide the service with in-house resource if they are to win in the server market because it has been flourishing in personal computer market with the schema of Dell direct model. The computer makers strength in personal computer market was to deliver high quality crossings and work tailored to meet customers take.Potential corporate customers testament bring purchasing Dells server expecting the similar thing for servers. Just like Kapoor was wondering, the customers will not buy their servers, if the quality of Dells products and operate were worse than its com petitors. If Dell outsources the support service, the quality of service and products will decrease for two reasons. First, they cannot keep unblemished control over the support service if they cannot neaten their own technicians.As the case says they value the experience in customer interaction resulting in high quality of their service. They cannot expect the same thing from another caller-out who would do the service on behalf of Dell. Second, Dell has been adapted to improve the quality of its products by directly interacting with its clients and exploitation the feedback from support service. If Dell loses the source of information or compromise the quality of information, the familiarity 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 better estimate the needs of those parts with more accurate information. Of course the company could reduce training cost by outsourcing support service. However, the price elasticity in server market is lower than in personal computer market since the potential problem that can be caused by bad support service and product is critically serious. Reliability is more important 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 provider 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 farsighted and extensive industry experience. However, IBM is a competitor in server market, the strongest one considering their market share.Even though IBM is spontaneous to provide ser vice 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 incident 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 worst enemy in order to win in the market.