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Ask Michael (Dell) Forum

160 points posted to Dell Community by frankw 03/16/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**

Develop a community site to allow proponents and opponents of Dell to submit questions and suggestions to the Chairman. Replies can be at the discretion of Dell.


The Chairman, Michael Dell, was the person who initiated launching this site. Those of us at Dell know he reads it regulalry, often asking others in the company about ideas here or how fast we can move forward to implement certain things.

lindahewitt
03/16/07		 If we can't get the site moderator to blog and be more responsive, there is zero chance that we can get Michael Dell to do so. There have been a lot of constructive suggestions posted on this site, since 2-16-07 but these suggestions have been overrun by the over-the-top intimidation of the Linux - Open Source fanatics.

I was happy to see thse posts initially, but when I started to see some posters, posting 20 plus very similar articles, I begin to look at these posts differently. Then I saw where various blogs were encouraging people to come to this website and vote for Linux. IMO, some of these people created multiple identies, so that they could vote multiple times.

If it makes business sense for Dell, I think that it would be good, if Dell produces computers suitable for Linux or open source software.

However, I have been very frustrated because of the lack of a real two way conversation between Dell (site monitor or other representative) and the posters on this website. I read Dwight Silverman's blog at http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/ every day and Dwight is very responsive to questions and applicable issues.

Even fixing simple problems like not being able to post comments has yet to be fixed and this was reported almost 2 weeks ago.

If Dell wants to change the direction of Dell and its market share, then it needs to start being much more responsive. That means being real and carrying on a two way conversation. So long as Dell operates under a heirarchy which issues stone cold PR statements once a week, then most of the people here are not going to believe that Dell is changing its approach to the marketplace.
lindahewitt
03/16/07		 Not every article posted is going to get 110,000 votes but that doesn't mean that the artice with 110,000 votes is more valuable in terms of Dell's strategy. Articles receiving only a hundred or so votes may be even more valuable to Dell based on the quality of the content. A total vote count is only way to evaluate the various suggestions by posters. The quality of the content and its applicability to Dell's marketing strategy is another way to evaluate these suggestions.

I don't see any progress being made on consolidating the same suggestions and their associated vote counts. In fact, Dell has yet to define a process on how the various posters can help. However, it may turn out that it is not possible to have the various posters help with this effort because of the hidden agendas that they may deploy as part of the process..
frankw
03/17/07		 You're absolutely correct. While Ideastorm is a great idea, the inability to control how many times someone votes and inability maintain a two-way conversation will ultimately turn off people who are trying to add constructive suggestions. Instead, what you will get is a community that is overrun by a single fanatical group and everyone else will no longer be able to be heard over the cacophony. The cold PR statements are not a substitute for a live response because they have been thoroughly disinfected by the legal department such that there is absolutely no meaning left in the release.

As the community grows, it will get worse everyday, because they (Dell) will no longer be able to read all the responses and no longer be able to make sense out of what people are saying. In short, this is doomed to fail unless they can make significant changes to how this process is executed. By failure I simply mean that the great potential of this project will never be realized.
phubert
03/17/07		 Michael Dell,

I am convinced there are a range of issues facing your company today.

One is learning to partner with your employees ... worldwide.

As much as Americans would like U.S. support only, I believe we all know it is impossible for your company to maintain such a model.
Still, I believe it is VITAL for ANY company seeking long-term success to VALUE its employees, wherever they reside.

Another, relates to organizational issues... the structure of your product ordering websites, the complexity of the interfaces for your support staff on trouble calls (on a recent call, I mentioned this to a tech who responded that it had improved greatly already), the 'completeness' of your support databases (comments about what the 'service tag' shoud 'know').

I also recommended to you a consultant I would love to see the State of California use... Bob Lewis, President of IT Catalysts. If you would like what I believe to be VERY sound managerial analysis, give Bob a call... and don't shrink back. He's GOOD.

Another may be related to potential profit areas.

I think it should be clear that the best way to grow profit MARGINS is to move vigorously into SERVICES.

This is why I recommended MERGING with UNISYS... they already have a services structure in place.

Yes, I know very well that *I* have little comprehension of large scale business, shareholder issues, etc. So, I must admit I'm speaking out of complete ignorance when it comes to many of the complexities you face. And, I expect there would be some very definite issues of different corporate cultures and -CONTROL-. Not to mention that UNISYS might have VERY little interest, either!! Still, it SOUNDS like a promising option to me.

Still, the suggestion ABOUT Services, I believe is ENTIRELY valid and likely one you MUST consider.

One last suggestion I made was to create (or re-create) customer CONFIDENCE. (see link here: http://www.dellideastorm.com/article/show/65077 )


I believe your company STARTED with this. Isn't it about time to REGAIN it?

What are each of the areas which relate to customer confidence for each of the markets you serve, and how might your company meet the most important customer expectations?

Ask and answer those questions and I expect Dell would be on the way toward renewal.

Am I wrong on any of these??

Sincerely,

Paul Hubert
phubert
03/17/07		 A suggestion was also posted here: http://www.dellideastorm.com/article/show/65134<
wallyhorse
03/17/07		 I definitely like the idea of a separate forum specifically to ask questions to Mr. Dell OR perhaps have a thread for that here that is PINNED at the top of this forum for that purpose if the former is not possible.
jordann
03/24/07		 Why don't you just send him an email?
richard_b
07/20/07		 Changed status to **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**.
richard_b
07/20/07		 The Chairman, Michael Dell, was the person who initiated launching this site. Those of us at Dell know he reads it regulalry, often asking others in the company about ideas here or how fast we can move forward to implement certain things. So, while this is not a question and answer forum with the Chairman, it certainly is a forum for submitting suggestions
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