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Recommended: Dell strategy history
Dell's Solution for The Y2K Bug
The company in which we choose to perform an analysis concerning the Y2K problem is Dell Computer Corporation. We were able to find many outstanding measurements that Dell has taken to make their computer hardware and software compliant for the year 2000. We also found how Dell is helping their employees and most importantly, their customers in dealing with the Y2K problem.
Before we move on, we would like to give you a quick preview of Dell's background, the type of computers Dells has to offer and how the Y2K bug will affect their production line. We will also discuss the type of software Dell has to offer with each customer’s purchase, and how each software purchase has a chance of being affected by the Y2K bug.
Through this report we will also discuss the five steps which Dell Recommend. These steps will help Dell and its customers prepare for the Y2K millenium, and will help avoid any major downtime within the company.
The Y2K problem is a big issue to Dell and many other small or large business owners, and how the Y2K problem can paralyze the world when the year 2000 arrives. In other words, what needs to be done, and how do we prevent this problem from hurting our economy and our communications technology. The most important question in every ones mind is what to do to solve the Y2K problem. This will be discussed in detail.
Michael S. Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation in 1984. Its main headquarters is located in Round Rock, Texas and is the leading direct computer system company in the United States. Dell’s viewpoint in the computer industry was to bypass the middleman who adds little value to the product. Its main focus is to sell custom-built PCs directly to the end-use...
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...software patches. Therefore, one solution is implemented primarily in the BIOS, by modifying the Power-on Self Test designed to make sure the correct date is passed to operating system when retrieving the date information from the BIOS. Another solution is implementing a “Patch” program that corrects the RTC date through BIOS calls.
Achieving the Year 2000 compliance is dependent on many factors, some of which are not completely within the computer company’s control. Various computer firms have broken their process into various steps, which are the following; Awareness, Assessment, Renovation, Validation, and Implementation for IT Applications End User Supported Applications, Infrastructure, Business Partners and Embedded Devices. Up to this point all of these steps have been successfully completed and it has been through testing from December 1998 thru 1999.
Michael Dell founded Dell Computer in 1984 and grew it into one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. Dell Computer’s success resulted in Michael Dell being the highlighted as “youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company” (Krames, 2003, p.58). Michael Dell’s guiding principle is to focus on the customer. This principle routinely guided his leadership decisions including computer design and development decisions, the organizational structure of the company and in how Dell Computer used the Internet.
In the end, there were very few problems, and none of them were computer related. A nuclear energy facility in Ishikawa, Japan, had some of its radiation equipment fail, but backup facilities ensured there was no threat to the public. The U.S. detected missile launches in Russia and attributed that to the Y2K bug. But the missile launches were planned ahead of time as part of Russias conflict in its republic of Chechnya. (Y2K Bug). As expected by Melisa, not much happened. “It just seemed like overnight, it went back to normal everyday activity“ (Allen). After the stroke of midnight, and nothing happening, all the chaos cesed. There was no after effect of Y2K on the Maritz workers other than the difficulty of having to learn how to write the year 2000 instead of 1999 on all of the paperwork (Allen). When asked if it still affects her today, Melisa responded with a simple “no, not at
...ctioned, communicated, and performed their daily activities. In doing this however, they must stay on top of other competitors by creating new innovative ways to attract the consumers. Some had a long history while others had a short one. Some were provided great feature while others didn’t do so well in this area. One thing is for certain, each operating system provided a use for many consumers that helped not only in the personal lives of many but also within the business world. As we see the history shows that once upon a time what began as a way to for businesses to operate has now turned into a way that people communicate. Technology continues to grow and advance and with that waiting to see what the future holds is a mystery but I’m certain that it will be world of amazement especially seeing where operating systems have come from to where they are currently.
Problem Statement: In 2003, Zara's CIO must decide whether to upgrade the retailer's IT infrastructure and capabilities. At the time of the case, the company relies on an out-of-date operating system for its store terminals and has no full-time network in place across stores. Despite these limitations, however, Zara's parent company, Inditex, has built an extraordinarily well-performing value chain that is by far the most responsive in the industry. Therefore the major problem to the company is to decide whether it has to upgrade the present system and by doing so, risking the reliability they have with the current system or to continue with the present DOS based system which will not be compatible for future changes or improvements.
Hardware, software, support and maintenance costs grow each year with multiple systems in each local region running different types of software and hardware. The application and hardware support teams are larger than could be possible with one integrated solution.
In 1984, Michael Dell invested $1,000 in start-up capital to register his business as Dell Computer Corporation, which was known as PC's Limited. The company becomes the first in the industry to sell directly to end-users by passing the dominant system of using computers resellers to sell mass-produced computers. Dell Computer also pioneers the industry first thirty-day money back guarantee. It became the cornerstone of Dell's commitment to expand its service offerings, superior customer satisfaction, and the industries first on site service program. It also established its first international subsidiary in the United Kingdom, and raised $30 million in its initial public offering.
Speaking about the business model of Dell, it has ability to remain on the higher end of the scale for a particular time period. Dell has business model, which primarily focuses on direct selling line of attack. It in a straight line supplies the PCs to the regulars. It does not believe in intermediary, retailers for the business practices. Undeniably, this gives them an edge to serve customer well. Nevertheless, it understood the importance of retailers and start offering products on the premises of retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and so on. Next, Dell administration is certain of the exclusive business of PCs. As time goes on, however, observing the
New Years Eve of 1999 was an exciting time for a large group of people around the globe, moving into the new millennium. It also was a time of paranoia for an equal amount of people. The advent of personal computer use was blooming around this time, and so were a large number of misinformed people who were not understanding of their computers internal programming. The year 2000 problem, shortened to Y2K, was the problem of using two-digit dates in a large number of software, instead of four digits. The fear was, on January 1st 2000, a large number of software and services would stop working because of this programming error. The Y2K problem was a significant event in recent history, an event that was overhyped by the media and had little impact on everyday operations, due to the work of the programmers.
Dell made the bold decision in 1994 to eliminate their products from retail stores and focused on mail order customers. In 1996 Dell began selling through their website as well. By eliminating the retail store presence Dell was able to reduce costs, reduce inventory, and maximize profit. Dell utilized a built to order system that allowed customers to specify exactly what they did and did not want on their Dell computer. Dell's just in time inventory system lowered inventory to 6 days and storage costs were saved.
Regardless of the company's past success, Dell is affected by two current trends in e-commerce, says Forrester analyst Carrie Johnson. And only one of these trends works in the PC giant's favor.
The intent of this paper is to provide a background of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system development, including when it was developed, how the development process was management, what needs this specific operating systems was developed to respond to in the Information Technologies market. This paper will also analyze the correlation of Information Technologies and Microsoft's Windows Vista position.
Sadly, many people refuse to face the onslaught of computer technology. A 1994 survey conducted by Dell Computers indicated the 55% of Americans are phobic or resistant to computers (Column). In addition, many important people, including CEOÕs of major companies, are rumored to be computer illiterate (Column). The former CEO of IBM even admitted to never using a computer (Column). Fortunately, PC’s are becoming more and more user friendly as the technology improves. Fewer errors, less maintenance and quicker functioning should encourage many reluctant people to finally step into the new era.
Dell’s initial competitive strategy, when it was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, was to focus mainly on differentiation. Its strategy was to sell customised personal computer systems directly to customers, which was a rapidly emerging market at that time (1). This was done by targeting second-time customers, those that already understand computers and know what they wanted. Meanwhile other companies at the time was selling “’plain brown wrapper’ computers” (2). By offering customisations, Dell gained a better understanding of customers’ needs and wants. This helped the organisation position itself differently against the more popular brands, such as Compaq and IBM.
Moreover, over time the company will lose its capability of extending service support to customers. This weakness can be exploited by the competitors who can enter the market with better service support and in turn eat the market share of Dell away.
“The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention,” is a theory that is approved by multiple famous authors. The theories main points are valuable and the theory should be looked upon more seriously. In Thomas Friedman’s essay, “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention,” he gives examples of how global supply chains would be constructive to promoting world peace. Friedman feels that if everyone is an ally to each other in some shape or form, then no one will want to engage in war. Madeline Albright would agree with Friedman’s theory according to her writings in “Faith and Diplomacy.” Albright felt that religion should play a factor in the diplomatic system of America, in order for us to maintain some kind of peace with other nations. Friedman and Albright both were looking for a solution to world peace. Albright would agree with this theory from the religious perspective. Appiah argued that an ideal global citizen would be essential to America, in his essays “Making conversation” and “The Primacy of Practice.” Appiah felt that people must have an understanding of each other in order to get along with each other. Both Appiah and Albright would agree with “The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention.” “The Dell Theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain”(Friedman 125).