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He quit school at 19 to be able "to compete with IBM." And now, American Michael Dell’s company is competing head-on with the giants in computer manufacturing, and even leads the pack in some parts of the globe.

Dell Computers emerged as the number one brand in workstations in the Asia-Pacific last year, grabbing 28.8 percent of the market, according to research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).

In the Philippines, Dell also occupied the top position in the branded workstation market, with 74.7 percent.

Rajnish Arora, IDC’s manager for servers and workstation research for the region, said Dell’s success in the market was the result of its well-defined strategy to aggressively pursue new opportunities.

"Dell offers competitive pricing to customers and has reduced the time to market new technologies," Arora said.

Dell also led in the commercial desktop arena last year through its Optiplex line, a small mini-tower computer whose parts are attached with buttons, not screws, thus allowing easy modifications.

IDC said Dell obviously knew what customers wanted, thus it offered products which could easily be altered based on the customers’ needs.

Customer-focused

Since he put up his company, Michael Dell, the longest serving company CEO in the IT world, already knew what he wanted to do: Focus on the needs and wants of customers to be able to survive and grow.

To maintain costs at the minimum, he sold computers directly to customers. He didn’t have a showroom or dealers, and he sold his products over the phone. In fact, he even sold them from his dorm room.

Dell pioneered the toll-free technical support hotline, now an industry standard. Through the hotline, customers could seek help for any problem they might encounter.

No wonder Dell has grown so big in such a short time. Its revenues skyrocketed from $6 million in 1984, its first year, to $546 million in 1991. Its earnings for the past four quarters totaled $32.6 billion.

Dell entered selected markets in the Asia-Pacific in 1993, starting with Japan and Australia. Its direct sales staffers currently serve 13 countries in the region, and its 36 distributors mind the market in 20 other nations.

It maintains a sprawling manufacturing plant in Penang, Malaysia and in Xiamen, China. Its customers still order directly from the company and receive their computers within seven to 10 days.

Innovative products

But what probably made Dell’s company big was its quest for innovation.

Its Optiplex line, for example, which was developed for companies with their own networks, had reaped various awards, ranging from the CNET Editor’s Choice to Computerworld’s Best Desktop prize.

Its Precision workstations, on the other hand, have been tagged as one of the best PCs in the world. These computers are ideally suited for complex applications such as 3D design and software development.

Dell also has its PowerEdge network servers which it introduced in 1996. This server runs the company’s website, www.dell.com, and various high-volume e-commerce sites on the Internet.

And Dell also has a line of notebook computers — the Latitude — which continues to be among the best-selling brands in the world because of durability and reliability.

One Dell executive said the company learns vital lessons from customers each day, and it uses these lessons in developing its products.

"Each and every system we deliver to our customers are custom-built to every customer’s requirements," the executive said. "This has been the company’s business model since its birth, and this has kept us growing through the years."