September, 2008

This is my fourth post on this topic. Update: 9-30-2010: I just published details regarding the NVIDIA class action settlement . For the latest information, please refer to that post. Below is a paragraph excerpt from it. To centralize the discussion on this topic, I've closed the comments on this thread. Please go to the updated post to comment. Clicking on the image below will also take you there. Since I first blogged about this back in July , I’ve received many comments from...

I thought we should add a little something to the chatter about Apple today. Take a look at this to see how the Latitude E4200 compares to the MacBook Air .

Hi, I’m Debbie Davenport and I work with the team that is helping to make chat support available globally for most Dell products. Let’s start with a definition. Chat means a lot of things, but I’m referring to online support variety. Here’s how the Wikipedia dictionary defines chat: To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network , as if having a face-to-face conversation. That is an accurate description of the kind of interaction...

To help its small and medium business (SMB) customers fully harness the power of social media to reach and serve their customers, Dell today launched on Facebook an innovative community and guide series: “ Social Media for Small Business .” Social media among SMBs is skyrocketing. Bob Pearson, Dell vice president of communities and conversations, today will discuss in his breakout session at the Inc. 500/5000 conference in Washington, D.C., that there are more than 885,000 small-business...

Occasionally you come across an event that joins business benefit, social networking, and fun. I have found one for this year that stands out- SWOMfest . SWOMfest is a conference and party for the members and friends of the Society for Word of Mouth (SWOM), the social network dedicated to helping companies and brands build word of mouth into the DNA of their organizations. About two months ago I joined SWOM - free, my kinda price tag :). I was at an event in Dallas and heard Jackie Huba (one of...

Since we launched our new Vostro systems last week, I've been meeting with customers and analysts like Gartner and IDC to get their feedback and to talk about product design features. Overall, they agree with our assessment of customer need and are very positive about our channel expansion, affordable products and service flexibility (with more carry-in locations). This launch is an illustration of our continued focus on listening to customers. Plus, customers like the way the products look!...

Today we are introducing the Dell Student Union as part of the Direct2Dell family. It is a blog for college students who want to talk directly to Dell team members involved in the recruting and internship process at our company. To learn more about it, take a look at my introductory blog post there. For future reference, you can access the blog at www.direct2dell.com/studentunion . And if you think you'll be interested in subscribing to the main Dell Student Union RSS feed , you can click...

The Computer Equipment Recycling Program became effective in the State of Texas on September 1st. This bi-partisan law, spearheaded by Austin Democratic Senator Kirk Watson and Houston Republican Representative Dennis Bonnen , unanimously passed by the Texas legislature last year and implemented by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, is a progressive e-cycling law that will create additional computer recycling options for consumers. In short, the new law requires any company selling...

Yesterday I had the chance to speak at the E-Scrap conference held this year in Phoenix. This is one of the leading events held annually that focuses on the issues of electronics recycling. Dell is always eager to engage in forums like E-Scrap that bring together the manufacturing, recycling, non-profit and government influencers of recycling programs and policies. My comments yesterday were largely on both our commitment to responsible recycling and how we manage our programs and on what we’ve...

I was recently asked to speak at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo (VW08) in Los Angeles as part of a panel on virtual worlds in the workplace. One of my fellow panelists from PricewaterhouseCoopers was interviewed on CNBC while there. It was a great opportunity not only to share what Dell is doing, but also to listen and learn from many leaders in the field. One of them, Reuben Steiger, noted in his presentation that virtual worlds and their sister industries are coming closer and closer...

Yesterday TechCrunch held a panel discussion in Austin on the importance and history of grassroot campaigns on the web that featured perspectives from a diverse group of panelists. I was excited to be an invited member of the panel and more interested to hear the directions a topic like “grassroot campaigns on the web” could travel (politics, social causes, commerce, and entertainment). I was not disappointed. The conversation started with current presidential campaigns, then moving...

Back in June, CNET's Rich Brown published a post on Crave where he featured a Q&A in regards to issues customers had been discussing regarding the XPS 630. The next day, Russell Thompson blogged about the XPS 630 and LightFX . Just to make sure interested customers are aware of the latest information, Chris M. recently published an updated XPS 630 FAQ over at the Dell Community Forum .

Earlier this year, I blogged about the importance of publicly-available programs and resources that help companies measure and reduce their CO2 output. Put simply, the more transparent we are about our baseline and progress, the more we can compare and contrast and learn from one another. Earlier today, the Carbon Disclosure Project , a not-for-profit organization representing 385 investors with more than $57 trillion in assets under management, released its sixth annual report analyzing the progress...

We’ve recently been named to the Working Mother 2008 100 Best Companies . We’re honored because Working Mother is known as the premier source for celebrating America’s family-friendly leaders. In fact, Carol Evans, CEO and Founder of Working Mother Media, had to say this about Dell: “In this sluggish economy, many employers are controlling costs by cutting back on family-friendly policies—but not the 2008 Working Mother 100 Best Companies. From flextime and telecommuting...

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest advocacy group for , ***, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) equality, announced the results of their 2009 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) scores. We’re thrilled to report that Dell has received a perfect score of 100 for the fifth year in a row. Dell’s commitment to GLBT equality is a critical component of our diversity and inclusion efforts. Here at Dell, “inclusion” spans not only differences in race, gender and sexual...

One way to create buzz around your small business is through your Web site. But, in order to drive traffic to the site, it’s important to have a strong search engine optimization ( SEO ) strategy in place. By having your site ranked higher on search engine results pages, the more likely you are to increase company visibility. The big question, however, is how? Earlier this month, we gave you five tips on how to improve your SEO . Now, here are a few recommendations on getting started: ...

In the last 2 weeks, we’ve had 2 major product announcements: the new Vostro products for emerging markets and the much anticipated launch of the Inspiron Mini . I was also delinquent in updating the status of ideas around the new Precision Mobile Workstations that launched in conjunction with the Latitude a few weeks ago, so I have included those here as well! Vostro: Let’s look first at ideas related to the new Vostro. These systems are being made primarily for emerging markets...

Today is the first day of the premier international conference on , ***, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) issues in the workplace, and this year’s event is being held in Austin. The Out & Equal's Annual Workplace Summit is designed to help participants develop strategies for a powerful demonstration of commitment to equality in the workplace. In fact, Dell employees were influential in attracting the Summit to Austin this year. For many years, Dell has been an Out and Equal workplace...

As a small business, having an IT department isn’t always conceivable. So, oftentimes small businesses are left to their own devices when preparing for or recovering from a disaster . Thinking ahead and considering all possible scenarios, it’s important for small businesses to anticipate what might go wrong and what can be done to minimize the damage and recover valuable data. It can be as simple as having a soft copy and hard copy of your information. Here’s some valuable insight...

Today we announced results of Dell-commissioned research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in London that shows unmistakably what we hear from customers: Managers in the world's fast-growing emerging economies place a very high value on information and communications technology (ICT), in particular on how it benefits operating efficiency. However, those same customers are seeing obstacles to their ability to get and use technology most effectively-the high cost of equipment and services...

A few hours ago in London, Michael spoke at the Economist Emerging Markets Summit 2008 and discussed Dell’s focus on emerging countries. As part of his comments he announced our new corporate giving strategy, and I’m excited to share some details with you. Dell has a strong foundation of making a positive difference in the communities where we live and work. And we’re going to build on that foundation. First, we’re intending to ramp our corporate giving to the level of...

Social media continues to change how we communicate, especially when it comes to business. It’s no longer a matter of emailing or calling, individuals and companies are communicating through images, status updates , blogs , video blogs (Vlogs), podcasts , and discussions boards. To provide insight and help its SMB customers fully harness the power of social media to reach and serve their customers, Dell and Facebook today launched a one-of-a-kind community and guide series “Social...

Tomorrow’s episode of We Means Business features Poka Dott , a lackluster party store in need of a huge update. For a preview, check out the video here . In addition to finding out how the team makes-over the business, viewers will be able to chat with Katie Linendoll (via Twitter ). Katie will be on Twitter from 9a.m.-10a.m. CST tweeting about some of the behind the scenes antics and answering questions about the show. You can follow Katie’s tweets @ Katie_Techie and track all the...

We recently hit a historic mark on IdeaStorm - 10,000 ideas! I want to take a moment first and foremost to thank the entire community for all the input - ideas, votes, comments and conversations! We launched this site to provide a public avenue for people to give us their ideas and vote on what Dell should be doing. Obviously, you have a lot of input for us and we absolutely appreciate it! Let’s start by taking a little trip down memory lane… IdeaStorm History: February 16,...

For those who missed it, I broke my 2 week (or fortnightly) update cycle last week with a post to mark our 10,000 th idea. In that post, I commented on the fact we have implemented or partially implemented 2% of the ideas. And this week, winoffice posted the idea that Dell, you need to implement more than 2% of ideas. We also had an idea from dika to Review all Ideas . Last month, winoffice also posted the increasingly popular idea: When you choose not to implement an idea, explain why . And I know...