204549 Dell , A Computer And Computer Related Products Company

Project 1:

Introduction:
Dell is an American company which deals with computer and computer related products, the company employs over 78,000 employees, this company is the second largest company in the computer industry while Compaq is the largest. The company was funded by Michael Dell in 1984 hence the name Dell.
Competitors:
The Dell Company faces major competition from other companies, this include Apple, Sun Microsystems, Gateway, Sony, Asus, Toshiba and Hewlett Packard which is also referred to as HP. All this companies are its competitors but HP is its major competitor, competition increased when HP merged with Compaq in the year 2006, this meant stiffer competition and the company lost its market position to become the second largest seller of computers and computer appliances.
Success of Dell:
Dell has succeeded in changing their products when a new technology emerges. This is followed by a well organised supply chain where products are offered in the market, for this reason therefore Dell has been successful due to their quick adoption to new technology that emerge in the production of computers and computer products.
Performance measures in the computer industry:
Performance measures are those indicators that help a company to define and measure the progress of the company, the computer industry has come up with benchmarks to measure performance, the Raw speed is one of benchmark used to measure performance in this industry, it is a measure from SPEC which stands for standard performance evaluation Corp, this benchmark measures the central processing unit, however this measure does not consider how fast data can be retrieved from the hard disk and this measure is complicated.
Another test checks the CPU integer performance. This means checking how the CPU handles simple tasks, the other measure is the SPECINT95 which checks how the product handles complex mathematics. Another performance measure is the graphic performance benchmark, it is aimed at measuring how fast computers will run graphic intensive applications, and the graphic performance measure is provided by the GPC which stands for Graphic performance committee.
Project two:
SWOT analysis:
Strengths:
Strength of the Dell company is that the company offer customised products to its consumers, the company products are built to order, the customer orders and he or she is shipped the product, for this reason therefore the customer gets what he or she wants, this is a strength through which the company is able to communicate with its customers and they are able to understand their needs which is a key to success in every business.
The Dell Company has some weaknesses where one of its weaknesses is that it highly depends on the suppliers of components. This makes it a weakness in that it depends on other companies to supply them with computer components instead of them producing their own computer components.

Opportunities:

There is a market potential in many regions in the world where Dell has not introduced its products, these markets especially are in china, India and Europe, and for this reason therefore this company has the potential to expand their market size in these regions where the company would experience an increase in the market area.
Another opportunity of this company is that it would be in a position to under price its competitor and in turn increase sales levels which will result into higher profits, for this reason therefore the company should invest more in discovery of new technology which will ensure that they are in a position to provide latest technology products at low prices to its customers.
Threats:
Currency fluctuations in countries which are outside the united states also pose a threat to the company, this fluctuations may lead the company to loose their earnings as customers order goods from outside the united states and the currency fluctuates.
Financial ratios:
The gross margin is a financial ratio that defines a companies amount of contribution toward its enterprise after payments of it production costs, the value of gross margin for Dell company is 18.71%, the gross margin is derived from revenue minus cost of goods sold divided by revenue then multiplied by a hundred.  The market capitalisation for Dell is 42.8 billion dollars while total shares outstanding are 2.2 billion, the earnings per share ration in this company is equal to 1.33.




















References:
Haim M. and Johannes Z. (1999) Survival of the Smartest: Managing Information, John Wiley and Sons publishers, New York
MSN market ratios (2008) Dell financial ratios, retrieved on 5th February
Dell official website (2008) About Dell, retrieved on 5th February




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