Dell Computer Corp unveils India plans

Neena Haridas in New Delhi

Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Computer Corp and one of the richest Americans, on Thursday rolled out his direct marketing strategy for the Indian market. India is now the 13th market for his company.

The $28.5-billion Dell Computer Corporation, a computer systems company and provider of Internet infrastructure, will now sell its products and support operations in India through India Direct 2000.

Michael Dell, on his first trip to India, said, "Dell will initially deal directly with customers in major cities and set up a call centre at Bangalore to cater to the Indian market."

Initially, Dell will concentrate on selling its products to the business houses. Says Dell, "Big MNCs and business houses are our prime market -- as is our strategy world over. We believe that India will contribute significantly to our revenues from the Asia-Pacific region."

In fact, Dell is already a well-known name in the Indian market as far as institutional markets are concerned. And we have been dealing with India -- in various capacities for a long time now. We have project -- in both software and hardware as well we have outsourcing from India as well, Dell said.

Customers could place their orders either through the company Web site or dial a toll free number, he said adding, this would help it to cut down distribution cost by 6 to 8 per cent, Chip Saunders, senior vice-president, Dell Computer Corporation, told newspersons on Thursday.

As of now, the units sold in the country come from Dell's Malaysian manufacturing plant, he said.

The company has already set up a wholly owned subsidiary in the country at a cost of $2.5 million and the call centre at Bangalore is expected to be operational by year-end.

In the last few years, the company had sold about 60,000 units in India, but expects a triple digit growth over the next two years, Saunders said.

Ron Goh, vice-president, Dell Computer Asia, said that the company plans to strengthen its service level and coverage by adding more service partners to the current arrangement with Tata Infotech, he said.

Goh said that the company was planning for local sourcing and merging of components, and working to virtually integrate the logistics provider into world-class supply-chain management system to enhance customer service quality.

He said that the company is in the process of tying up with various local companies for this purpose.

Dell said the products will be competitively priced as the price of components have been going down drastically. He also said, that he believes that the tariff structure, which is a problem right now, will go down eventually and the products will become much cheaper.

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