TBR to Cover Dell Services in Its Professional Services Business Quarterly Benchmark; Dell Looks to Bring Its Recipe for Success to the IT Services Market

Business Wire, July 24, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

HAMPTON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 2002

Technology Business Research announces coverage of Dell Services in its Professional Services Business Quarterly competitive benchmark, which ranks the top companies in the IT services industry. Dell plans on expanding its capabilities in services outside of hardware maintenance, which makes up the majority of its $3.1 billion in annual services revenue. Services represented 10% of sales in FY02, which ended in February.

According to PSBQ Director Humberto Andrade, "Dell Services is not a top-20 IT services company in terms of revenue; however, Dell has been in this position before with regard to PCs. I believe Dell will do much to realize its goal of moving up the IT services value chain by aggressively pursuing an acquisition strategy and by commoditizing services to improve scale and repeatability, which most firms have not been very successful at doing."

Currently, two-thirds of the revenue from Dell Professional Services is hardware support, which is considered to be the bottom rung in IT services. Dell has outlined its plans to make acquisitions in application development and strategy consulting. More specifically, the company is focused on acquiring U.S. companies in specific niches (e.g., government, storage services, etc.), with plans for expanding abroad to come later.

Dell Services is also concentrating on new go-to-market alliances, which are a significant aspect of many successful IT services firms' strategy. IBM employs channel partners to access the SMB market and Accenture leverages its network of partners to offer new technologies to its top clients.

The expansion into higher-value IT services will not be an easy task because the industry is facing its toughest environment in decades, but Dell executives remain optimistic about their chances. In addition, Dell has an impressive track record in regard to executing its strategies and commoditizing technology products.

PSBQ provides up-to-date information on the performance and strategies for the leading management consulting, strategy consulting, IT implementation and IT outsourcing companies. Coverage includes the following: IBM Global Services (NYSE:IBM), Electronic Data Systems (NYSE:EDS), Accenture (NYSE:ACN), HP Services (NYSE:HWP), Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE:ACS), Cap Gemini Ernst &Young (CAC:CAPP.PA), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC), Deloitte Consulting, KPMG Consulting (NASDAQ: KCIN), McKinsey & Co., PwC Consulting and Unisys (NYSE: UIS). Dell Services (NASDAQ: DELL) reports will be available from calendar 3Q02 on.

PSBQ reports provide a company assessment by covering corporate strategies, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, financials, resource management and go-to-market-strategies. This information enables end users, partners and competitors to compare performance levels of professional services companies to make crucial purchasing decisions and strategic assessments. Quarterly metrics discern each company's performance in comparison to industry leaders, allowing the reader to understand the dynamics facing the marketplace through an unbiased metric-based benchmark examination. TBR publishes a five-page "Initial Response" report within 24 to 48 hours of financial results, followed by a 20- to 25-page report later in the quarter.

Complete reports are available to accredited journalists.

For more information, please visit TBR's Web site at www.tbri.com, or contact: