News Briefs
(February 2003)
Dell sees record revenue in Q3 2002
ROUND ROCK, TEXAS—Customers selected DellTM standards-based computer products and services in increasing numbers in the fiscal third quarter of 2002, pushing the company to record shipments and revenue and a higher rate of profitability.
Dell's 28 percent year-over-year rise in overall product shipments compared with a 2 percent increase for the rest of the industry. Company server volumes were 24 percent higher, nearly five times the rate for the rest of the industry. Revenue from Dell enterprise products—servers, storage systems, network switches, and workstations—was up a combined 27 percent.
For the third quarter ended November 1, total revenue was $9.1 billion, up 22 percent from last year in an industry where sales have otherwise been flat or down. Dell's earnings per share reached 21 cents, 31 percent higher. Company revenue and per-share earnings were consistent with increased guidance that Dell provided October 1. Dell has met or exceeded initial guidance to investors for seven consecutive quarters.
Dell awarded SAP Pinnacle Award for exemplary customer satisfaction, support
BRAY, IRELAND—Companies running SAP® business software solutions have ranked Dell first in overall satisfaction and support, according to results of a customer survey by SAP announced in October 2002.
Dell received the SAP Pinnacle Award for Excellence, a prestigious award given to SAP Software and Technology Partners who have excelled in developing the partnership with SAP, and have provided the highest quality products, solutions, and services to joint customers. This recognition is the result of a survey of SAP customers that ranked Dell ahead of more than 1,000 partners, giving Dell the highest satisfaction marks in all categories.
With thousands of SAP installations globally, Dell helps customers accelerate and simplify their deployments through its efficient build-to-order process, comprehensive services, and SAP competency centres. Dell established the centres to provide customers access to resources for SAP solution architecture planning, sizing, implementation guidelines, and best practices to ease in the deployment of SAP solutions on DellTM PowerEdgeTM servers.
Dell ships first in family of server blades
ROUND ROCK, TEXAS—In November 2002, Dell began shipping the DellTM PowerEdgeTM 1655MC, an innovative server blade that packages the performance of as many as 12 Intel® Pentium® III processors with simplified server deployment and management software. The server takes up just 51/4 inches (3U)-reducing cables by up to 80 percent and lowering consumed rack space by nearly 50 percent. It is suitable for large server farms, server consolidation projects, thin-client computing, and high-performance computing clusters.
The first in Dell's broad modular server line, the PowerEdge 1655MC consists of an enclosure with six dual-processor server blades, SCSI hard disk drives with integrated hardware RAID, hot-plug redundant power supplies and cooling fans, an integrated management card, and redundant Ethernet switches.
The single enclosure lowers hardware expenses associated with comparable dual-processor, 1U rack servers by up to 30 percent because components, such as power supplies, cooling fans, management cards, and network switches, are shared across the six server blades.
Latin American customers choose Dell|EMC storage systems
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—One year after Dell and EMC announced their strategic relationship, more Latin American customers are choosing to implement Dell|EMC storage area network (SAN) systems to meet business-critical information storage needs. The Dell|EMC systems offer customers low cost of ownership, flexibility, service and support, and ease of installation.
In today's economic environment, enterprise customers in Latin America are looking for value-added systems that can save them money by making it easy to standardize and expand as their businesses do. Some of those customers include Mexico-Dinamica S.A. de C.V., Venezuela-Petrolera Ameriven S.A., and Brazil-Rede TV.
U.S. consumers choose Dell as no. 1 provider of PCs, servers
AUSTIN, TEXAS—Calendar fourth-quarter data from Personal Computer Quarterly Statistics United States, a report from industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc., indicate that more consumers in the United States bought computers from Dell than any other brand, making it America's favorite computer company at home and work.
Dell attributes the milestone to working directly with consumers who prefer ordering custom-configured computer technology and who enjoy a one-to-one relationship with a company that understands their unique requirements.
Another report from Gartner—United States Growth Fuels Worldwide Server Market Shipments—also showed that more U.S. customers purchase standards-based servers from Dell than from any other company.
Dell and U.S. Marines announce mammoth computer acquisitions
AUSTIN, TEXAS—Dell and the United States Marine Corps announced one of the largest acquisitions of computers ever by the Marine Corps, including more than 60,000 DellTM OptiPlexTM desktop and Dell LatitudeTM notebook computers. The systems are part of the Marine Corps' Enterprise Sustainment Initiative, announced earlier in 2002.
Many of the Dell Latitude notebooks are planned for use by Marine Corps combat troops, replacing older, outdated systems with some of the latest portable computer technology available.
The announcement allows the Marine Corps to update its worldwide information technology infrastructure prior to the arrival of systems from the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) project, while remaining consistent with the products included in that program. Working in conjunction with EDS, the prime contractor for NMCI, the Marines will be able to integrate systems delivered under the Enterprise Sustainment Initiative into the NMCI program.
Dell debuts point-of-sale offering for retail industry
ROUND ROCK, TEXAS—Dell has formally introduced a standards-based point-of-sale (POS) offering that will enable medium-size to large retailers to more economically manage their businesses. Dell provides technology and services to 19 of the top 20 U.S. retailers.
Dell's retail program matches industry-leading DellTM desktops, servers, storage, and networking products and services with leading peripherals appropriate for each retail customer. A typical Dell POS configuration includes a Dell OptiPlexTM desktop, a flat panel or CRT display with standard or touch screen, keyboard with programmable keys, barcode scanner, thermal receipt printer, and cash drawer.
