Dell has grown from a small operation selling computers out of Michael Dell's college dorm room in 1984 to one of the world's largest computer companies. Austin, Texas-based Dell currently employs over 38,000 people worldwide and had revenues last year of approximately $32 billion.(dell.com) The only way to buy Dell computers is directly from the company. Through the direct business model, Dell offers in-person relationships with corporate and institutional customers; telephone and Internet purchasing (the latter now exceeding $18 million per day); customized computer systems; phone and online technical support; and next-day, on-site product service. Dell strives to effectively and efficiently use the power of the Internet to move its product. Removing the middleman and markups allows Dell to beat out former pc leaders Compaq and IBM. .
Dell generates about three-quarters of its sales from desktop and notebook PCs. Dell continues to be profitable making up to $361 million this year, while the rest of the industry reported loss $1.1 billion(Park, 2001) Dell understands customer service and can flawlessly turn that understanding into revenue using e-commerce. There is no doubt about this when we take a look at their success online. By end of 1999 Dell had profits of $40 million a day in online sales, roughly 43% of the company's total revenue. (Sheridan, 2000) With manufacturing facilities in each of its four worldwide operational regions: The Americas region, the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, the Asia-Pacific and Japan region, and the China region today its ranks among the largest 125 companies in the US in Internet sales alone. (Sheridan, 2000) Dell established its Web site (www.dell.com) seven years ago as an effective way to provide technical support to existing customers. It had no vision of it becoming the e-commerce warrior that it is today. Dell's goal was to maintain its customers by making them reliant on the service received from Dell.
