PC Retail

As far as I'm aware, details of Dell's plans have not yet been released, so its a bit difficult to comment on them. (Let's hear what they have to say next week). But the power of Dell's brand can't be ignored and I think many resellers will want to profit from the company's marketing - provided that they don't have to sign away their independence and flexibility, and provided there is solid assurance that their customers won't be stolen by Dell's direct activities.

Any PC Retail reader who would like to attend the conference in Warrington on the 19th where this will be one of the many "Issues" being covered, should email [email protected]

The problem being with the Ingress of Dell into the reseller market is as Keith has mentioned, the fact the we may be able to sell them but to what cost.

What margin are we looking at 5% ???? 7% ???? and the REAL chance of the software that dell include in there systems to catch our own client bases that we have built up over the years.

I would suggest that this is a very careful step that people should be treading... PC World Tech guys service, that i have done work with complained when one of the customers that i did repairs for them used my company for memory for there machine... saying i had stolen there customer !!! wait there this was a customer that had been on our books for 4 years and just bought a pc from them..... so will dell do a similar thing.... will you go onto a black list from dell if you sell them upgrades .... everyone knows how much dell increase there prices for things such a floppy drives etc !!

Its a wait and see on this i beleive but a very wary one !!

Julian Goffin
Just PC's
Kent

I like many others who deal with Dell as a Reseller, await to hear of their plans. Unlike Keith I take with a pinch of salt any promises of Direct not approaching customers. Dell will look after Channel sales whilst they have to. If they can sell Direct or through retail partners, they will. There are already sections of the Dell product set that are isolated from Channel e.g. Vostro. This is fine where a product market is not overlapping, but where specs are identical or better than the more expensive counterparts, it's impossible to compete. Why would Dell care, so long as the end-user buys a Dell, where it comes from is of little concern. They should be thoughtful, as when they snub a previously loyal sales channel who need to look for alternatives, they will not be easily inticed back.

I've been 'reselling' Dells for over a year now.
They give me discounts of at least 10% sometimes more.
The carriage is usually waved. Which at �50 needs to be!
I have found the discounts and service better than anywhere else in distribution.
So far the benefits have outweighed any 'worries' I had to start with.

Dell are not wholesaling. They are direct bulk selling to a select chosen few such as the PCWord parent group and to Tescos. Dell are not setting up a full scale reseller network and you resellers out there are not going to be offered any discount on the price Tesco will be buying at. Dell are NOT selling via the traditional distribution networks and you will not have any new opportunities.
You will be selling your HP and ACER and Granny and Grandad will be buying a Dell laptop with their frozen peas. This is essential strategy as entry level computers drop in price quickly towards that of a Texus Instrument calculator.
Dell's main advertising is on cheap products which make Dell look like a cheap supplier of cheaply made products so the products will sell well in a cheap supermarket.

Dell are 'Box movers' always have been, always will be. they will sell to anybody weather it's the channel or direct. there is now way that I will be selling them because they will have their contact details plastered all over windows, when you click on the support tool. what happens when it goers wrong in 13,14,15 months time and your valued customer brings it back to you for a new PSU only to find that it will only take a DELL psu at a vastly inflated price, it's you that looks bad for selling it, not DELL - I blame them for battering the market already and i dont think this time "we shhould join them" just because "we cant beat them" because if you sell to businesses and they a registered, DELL will contact them directly in the future for business, because they're in business. - it happens all the time - just like everybody else - an example - I sell a symantec anti - virus solution for a networkj with 25 clients - nice little earner - 6 weeks before the subscription expires, symantec contacts the end user to renew with them - bypassing me !!, Lesson is: when you get your customers - keep them a closly guarded secret and as far as registrations are concerned - make sure that you are the end user !!

I have been selling Dell to many of my business customers for sometime, I simply let the customer choose the machine and add a 10% handling charge, I also charge for setting them up.

The customers seem quite happy to pay the handling charge.

If I sell channel machines, I will want basic machines without all the 30 day symantec and other rubbish on the machines, so I do not have to take it off.

I think that all Dell will achieve by putting their products into the channel in a more formal way is a further dilution of their once highly successful direct selling model. The very fact that Dell has chosen DSGi says a great deal to me about where they are aiming their channel strategy given it was only last week that their property director warned that they were moving away from bricks and mortar to the internet. Brigantia Computer Experts throughout the UK already help people who have Dell products in the same way they help other vendors products that do not support the Indie channel through the buying groups such as us, NBG and Integra/COG. I suspect that we might in the short term see more work as a result of this move but my feeling is that it will be just a shuffling of the cards in a very crowded pack.

I think that the vendors that Brigantia Computer Expert members and other Indies should be supporting are those that have a true channel focus and I would point at Lenovo currently as deserving our close attention. My advise would be to eulogize about vendors that are channel supportive and who through distributors like Westcoast, Enta and Ingram have reliable well priced products. Use all opportunities involving repairs and upgrades to Dell and other non supportive vendors as up sell and refresh opportunities. Each week we hear more and more from or members about SMBs in particular saying to them that they would rather pay a little more for the hardware to get the reliable, honest and reasonably priced 24/7 support from their local Brigantia Computer Expert member. Given each Brigantia member looks after on average 400 such SMBs that says quite something as we currently have 1250+ branches nationally.

Dell have every right to sell thru whosoever they choose. Just as we all are. At NASCR we require our members, to abide by our Code of Ethics, & so achieve a high level of customer satisfaction. A satisified customer, is a repeat customer. Look upon this as an opportunity, which of us independants, is unable to offer a high standard of service, at reasonable cost, so, more Dell's sold, means more repairs & upgrades.

Well, the strategy revealed by Dell at the PCA's Conference last week certainly showed a company that is determined to sell through resellers. And its quite logical really: American companies are driven by results - they NEED to report growth to their investors. Dell has grown all that it can in the direct channel, therefore its future growth (in volume) has to come from the indirect channel. I'm sure there will be full coverage of all that Dell had to say in the next issue of PC Retail, Andrew Wooden and Ben Furfie were both in the audience.

The impression that I got from the resellers before the presentation was that quite a few of the were sceptical, to say the least. They all came out of it very impressed; but we'll all admit, I'm sure, that talk is cheap; we therefore look forward to Dell coming back to our conference in October and seeing if they've managed to "walk the walk".

Oh what wonders Dell have done for the Industry...

Ruined everything we have worked for for the last 20 years...

This is a last ditch attempt to save this company from failure..

Let them fail as far as I am concerned...

The only channel Dell should be in is between the UK and France..