First Article A Blog powered by Dell OEM Solutions

As we’ve been discussing in this series, the most efficient OEM companies save money by leveraging the right product warranties and service partnerships—a key advantage given how important cash can be to a business and its ability to seize new opportunities.

But what leads some companies to make the “right” decisions while others do not? Based on insights gained through more than a decade of experience, Dell OEM Solutions identified six attributes or characteristics shared by many highly efficient OEM companies. These companies capitalize on being focused, agile, differentiated, responsive, flexible, and the final attribute to explore here—scalable.

One of the key strengths of efficient OEMs is the ability to quickly scale support operations through reliable third-party service relationships.

Sometimes rapid success can catch an OEM off guard when it comes to provisioning for customer support. Support service requirements can grow exponentially as products gain traction and sales take off. Under these circumstances, how can an OEM grow efficiently, profitably, and with minimum risk?

Many successful OEMs grow efficiently by tapping into as much outsourcing support as they need at each step of the way. For example, it is entirely feasible for an OEM with just a single U.S. support location to serve customers worldwide. The OEM’s U.S. operators can dispatch a Dell part and an engineer on-site in China—or anywhere the company’s growth takes it.

Efficient OEMs can also grow profitably by working with Dell, because warranty cost is built into each Dell box and remains static and predictable as the OEM scales. For example, there is no additional cost for increased use of services such as Dell Online Self Dispatch as the volume of support increases.

Using partner support services can mitigate the risk inherent in expansion by limiting the capital and human resources that OEMs must invest in expansion efforts. OEMs can leverage the Dell network instead of hiring additional technicians themselves and rely on Dell knowledge and experience to smooth the way into new countries. They can hand off the complexity of warehousing and supplying parts as part of the Dell service contract. These OEMs also have a single point of accountability to troubleshoot hardware problems as they grow—someone that understands their businesses and end-user requirements.

• “Because we ultimately planned to sell the Xdream around the world, we needed a partner with a global presence that could provide distribution and warranty support services wherever we sell the product…We estimate that we are saving 30 percent of our per-unit costs by sourcing and supporting products in each geographic region through Dell OEM Solutions.” Paddy Murray, President, Trixter North America

So when you put all six attributes of efficient OEMs together, it adds up to being smart about customer support—knowing when to use managed services instead of putting more demands on in-house tech support teams, and understanding that resources saved through an effective customer service partnership can be funneled back into core product innovation.

Start strengthening your customer relationships with a support-smart service infrastructure today. Dell OEM Solutions is ready to work up front or behind the scenes for your solution, helping you to showcase and extend your value to your customers.

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Learn how to capitalize on the attributes of efficient OEMs by downloading this free white paper, “Six attributes of efficient OEMs” now.

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