The Philippine Star

Dell targets growth as end-to-end solutions provider

- KAP MACEDA AGUILA The STAR,

Consumer demand accounted for 25 percent of Dell EMC Philippine­s' business in 2017, with the balance attributed to enterprise spending. Despite the figure, consumer share actually reflects health, according to Ronnie Latinazo, country general manager of the Hop kin ton, Massachuse­tts headquarte­red multinatio­nal corporatio­n that sells data storage, informatio­n security, virtualiza­tion, analytics, cloud computing and other products and services. In an exclusive interview with

Latinazo said the consumer segment of its business has “grown by a lot in the last few years. It wasn’t as big a contributo­r for us… now we definitely see our consumer line as a major growth engine for us.”

Latinazo said this as Dell debuted here a trio of new Inspiron 7000 products: the Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 (P63,490) and laptop (P51,990) with new eighth-generation Intel core processors, and new Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop (P73,990). In a release, the firm said “these new innovation­s demonstrat­e Dell’s commitment to providing the best audio and visual computing, virtual reality (VR) and gaming experience­s for consumers.”

Dell Philippine­s consumer head Jay Ranola said: “Our new devices showcase Dell’s leadership in innovation across personal computing, gaming and virtual reality… The beautiful new Inspiron laptops and 2-in-1 include some of the best designs with incredible visual experience­s, exceptiona­l performanc­e and support to match.”

For Latinazo, the most recent rollout is an indicator of Dell’s aggressive foray in the segment, particular­ly as this one obviously targets holiday spending power. “That’s the reason we’ve been introducin­g innovative products in the local market, and we hope to continue to do that to further our growth here,” he stressed.

Still, the executive maintained Dell is interested in growing other aspects of the business. “I think the pie is big enough to grow in all areas – from the server line to the storage, to networking, then consumer,” continued Latinazo. “There are seven brands (with Dell) and each one is a key brand for us all targeted in different areas of the market… we are unique in a sense that we are one of the few players who still continue to be positioned in the end-to-end as an infrastruc­ture provider.”

Even as this latitude of offerings is typically more attractive to enterprise customers, Latinazo opined that the demarcatio­n line between this and the consumer segment is blurring. “If we look at IT, there are several areas,” he declared. “There’s an IT transforma­tion side; there’s also the security transforma­tion side, and workforce transforma­tion. You will see that companies are trying to adjust to the changing times, habits, and lifestyle of the workforce.

“Consumers and employees are more mobile,” he observed. “As soon as they wake up in the morning, they go into social media. Today, work is no longer a place to be in. It’s more a mindset… A lot of employees are bringing their own devices. It’s no longer about companies providing those devices. It could be a mobile phone, laptop, or desktop at home – and companies need to support all that to increase the productivi­ty of employees.”

Indonesia-based Elizabeth Pabunag of Dell EMC’s regional office said that the company still does a lot of work to “help customers realize that IT infrastruc­ture needs to change,” and involves itself in “conversati­ons in different industries.”

Again, this all ties in with the company’s push to sell its complete and comprehens­ive suite of products and services wherever and whenever customers – consumer or enterprise – need them.

 ??  ?? Dell executives pose with new Inspiron 7000 Series devices. (From left) marketing head Charlz Adano, corporate communicat­ions for Indonesia and Philippine­s Elizabeth Pabunag, consumer business head Jay Ranola, country general manager Ronnie Latinazo...
Dell executives pose with new Inspiron 7000 Series devices. (From left) marketing head Charlz Adano, corporate communicat­ions for Indonesia and Philippine­s Elizabeth Pabunag, consumer business head Jay Ranola, country general manager Ronnie Latinazo...

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