30 Minute Interview

“IT services will be a big part of our strategy”

Sameer Garde, Country General Manager, Dell India spoke to Nivedan Prakash about the company’s acquisition of Perot Systems and how it is going to help in the long run

Sameer Garde

The acquisition of Perot Systems buttresses Dell’s position in the services business. How do you expect the acquisition to help Dell in this area?

The acquisition of Perot Systems combines Dell’s global reach and significant services business with Perot Systems’ services portfolio to deliver broader enterprise services to more customers worldwide. We would have a larger pie to address with this acquisition.

As a single larger entity, we expand our commercial IT solutions by leveraging Perot Systems’ enterprise services across a broad customer base that spans multi-national and large corporations, government, health-care, educational institutions, and SMBs around the globe.

Does this mean that Dell is diversifying from its core PC and server business?

This is a critical acquisition in Dell’s strategy to transform itself–IT services will be a big part of our strategy and this acquisition gives us a great scalable IT services asset, with tremendous capabilities and potential to grow our business further.

What would be the impact of this acquisition on your declining revenues?

Dell’s Q2 FY10 results showed improved business performance with product shipments, revenues, operating income, gross margin and earnings all being higher on a sequential basis, while the company continued to reduce operating costs. Our shipments rose by 10% and our revenues increased by 3% from the previous quarter amid stabilizing spending on information technology. Meanwhile, the combined revenue from servers and storage was up by 7% sequentially.

The announcement of the Perot Systems acquisition is overwhelmingly about strong, complementary capabilities, with additional opportunities for efficiencies. Revenue synergy opportunities include services sales-process integration, globalization of Perot Systems’ business through Dell’s global reach and an acceleration of Perot Systems growth with Dell’s direct sales team.

What can customers expect from this synergy?

Dell brings direct access to a broad, global customer base, most of whom represent a fresh opportunity for Perot Systems. Together, Dell and Perot Systems will offer customers more choices, advanced solutions and expanded services capabilities. The acquisition also positions Dell for renewed growth and fuller entry into segments in which Perot Systems is strong.

In a statement, Dell has said that ‘together we will lead the trend toward configurable, modular services and next-generation services delivery’? Please comment.

Perot Systems’ expertise in infrastructure and operations, business processes, application development services and deep relationships in commercial and public sectors, strongly complements Dell’s existing services offerings and global customer relationships. With a proven record of working together, this will allow us to architect a ‘services supply chain’ as well as deliver ‘IT-as-a-service’ infrastructure integrating hardware through modular services. Together, we will look to accelerate Global Service Delivery.

Do you see wireless connectivity and longer battery life driving notebook shipments going forward?

We see wireless connectivity as a key trend driving notebook sales as people demand technology that allows connectivity anywhere, anytime. For instance, the Latitude E series connect wirelessly in five different ways. Dell’s conversations with its customers have revealed the demand for greater mobility and longer battery life. This feedback was incorporated in the Latitude E series with 19-hour battery life–the only product in the market to offer such transcontinental battery life. Dell sees a charger-free workday as the trend for the digital nomads of today who demand all day computing.

Keeping in mind, customers’ changing preferences and increasing demand for a seamless ‘always-on’ wireless broadband experience, Dell has recently announced its partnership with MTNL to provide 3G pre-paid mobile broadband data package with national roaming facility to tap into the fast growing always-on-the-move, always connected population and provide connectivity to a large number of online applications on the go.

Can you shed some light on Dell’s ProSupport Mobility Services? How is it going to help the Indian SMB segment?

In our dialogue with SMBs across the world, we found out that IT downtime was one of their primary concerns. Dell’s ProSupport services model broke away from the traditional industry mould of break-fix to ensure that an SMB’s specific needs were catered to. Recognizing that many SMBs do not have an IT help desk, ProSupport for these companies is designed for the end-user and offers help on hardware as well as the more popular applications.

The recently announced Dell ProSupport Mobility Services is a suite of modular asset and data protection services which are designed to protect PCs as well as the critical data stored on them. For instance, it not only helps track a stolen or lost notebook remotely as soon as that unit connects to the Internet, but it also offers the service of remote data deletion on that notebook for data protection. It offers access, security and support to ensure high availability of IT resources, which in turn is imperative for SMBs to run their business profitably and productively.

Dell’s Services are highly customizable in order to meet an individual customer’s needs, and are also affordable. These Web-based services are affordable, reliable, and easy to turn up or down based on the customer’s specific needs.