Dell computer india

Investment arm to reinforce PC division

Cochin, India - Dell Computer Corp. has announced that it is setting up a wholly owned subsidiary in the southern city of Bangalore to begin direct sales and support operations in India.

It plans to set up the subsidiary in India by November and to start direct sales and support operations in major cities in India.

"With a $50 billion computer and Internet-service market being projected in India by 2008 we are just in time to enter this country," said Chip Saunders, president, Asia Pacific/Japan and senior vice president for Dell. "By direct selling, we will be able to extend all the benefits of our business models to

Indian customers in customization, latest relevant technology, price for performance as well as excellent service support."

The company is not ruling out the possibility of setting up a manufacturing unit in India, Saunders said. "We will revisit the market at a later time and see whether to manufacture our computers here or not," he said. "The company is also exploring the possibility for local sourcing and local merging of components," Saunders said.

Through the subsidiary Dell would be offering its full range of Optiplex desktops, Latitude notebooks, PowerEdge servers, Precision workstations and PowerVault storage products.

"While our initial focus will be on Dell global customers, large national corporations, government agencies, educational institutions and software developers, we will also review infrastructure requirements to support home and small-business customers in (the) future" Saunders said.

Dell has a service partnership with Tata Infotech through which Dell will offer business services and operate spare parts depots in six out of Infotech's 11 centers across the country. The company also has an agreement with Infosys for technological support.

Dell will also bring Dell Ventures, its strategic investment arm, to India. "We would be looking at making key investments in select Indian companies through Dell Ventures, the business group at Dell responsible for strategic investment activity. This is part of our global strategy to make equity investments that support Dell's business initiatives, often opening the door to new technologies, services and customer markets." Sanders said.

Elaborating on the investments, Saunders said, "Dell Ventures is interested in companies with innovative solutions in areas such as e-commerce, personalization, Internet infrastructure and Internet appliances. In the services sector, we would be interested in companies with new products or processes that increase end-user satisfaction and productivity while lowering the total cost of ownership for customers of all types." The company's Asia/Pacific operations, contributing 8 percent of Dell's revenues, cover 14 countries including China, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Dell recently received Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval for up to $2.5 million of the initial investment. The company expects that direct sales operations would take off by early next year.