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IIM - LUCKNOW
CASE STUDY

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About the category
l SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) are often considered the ‘lifeline of the world economy’ and are
increasingly seen as critical for any business success. In the global slowdown, while the SMBs were
seriously impacted early on, they are also likely to bounce back sooner and start showing a recovery.
l According to AMI-Partners, 1/3rd of the global SMBs are located in Asia Pacific – out of which Chinese,
Korean and Indian SMBs make up more than 50% of the Asia Pacific spending. India has about 7.6 million
small and medium businesses that are propelling India towards economic and social development.
l Today, an ever increasing number of SMBs are realising the value that technology adoption has to offer.
From using technology to engage with customers, to streamlining processes to even positioning it as a
differentiating tool vis-à-vis their competitors – SMBs are looking for holistic solutions and guidance.
l A relatively late entrant in the SMB IT space, Dell underwent a reorganization to create four customer-
centric verticals – Large Enterprise, SMB, Public (Government, PSU’s & Education) and Consumer (Home
market).
(Dell defines SMB as: 1-99 employees as Small Business & 100- 499 employees as Medium Business)
About the trend
l With the number of SMBs increasing across the world – and in India – the spend on IT is also witnessing a
surge.
l According to IDC, total SMB spending is expected to grow from $510.7 billion in 2008 to $675.1 billion in
2013. The hardware spend among SMBs in India is pegged at US$ 3.25 bn.
Although a late entrant in the SMB space, Dell SMB India market shares – as per IDC estimates for Q2 CY09
was pegged at 5.2%, growing from a market share of 4.6% in Q1. Dell SMB showed a QoQ growth of 26%.
l As a key strategic focus for the growth of Dell in India, and as part of its SMB strategy, Dell launched SMB-
specific products – a dedicated SMB brand for PCs as well as Storage and servers to meet their needs.
Simultaneously, it reorganized its famous direct distribution strategy to now begin selling through the
channel as well -creating a robust channel program reaching out to almost 200 cities. Dell also launched its
first ever SMB brand campaign (anywhere in the world) - the “Take Your Own Path” campaign, directed
towards today’s entrepreneurial owners of India’s small and medium businesses. The campaign – first
launched in India and now taken to a global platform - celebrated the successful Indian business heroes,
showcasing a remarkable list of achievers across different fields. The company recently launched its global
Small Business excellence awards in India that offers Indian entrepreneurs an opportunity to win up to US$
25,000 in Dell solutions and an opportunity to meet Michael Dell.
Project Objective
l SMBs in India are increasingly looking at IT enablement – a tool that will help them streamline processes,
save time and costs and reach out to customers effectively
l Indian SMBs don’t have an IT person -- let alone a department-- and are therefore looking for an IT partner, a
vendor that can not provide them with the relevant hardware, but also services, support and IT consultancy
that can address their IT queries
l Dell was traditionally seen as purely hardware vendor rather than a total “solutions” provider. However as a
part of its global transformation in the last couple of years, Dell has increasingly increased its portfolio of
offerings to position itself as a total “solutions provider offering right technology at the right price” rather than
just the PC/ storage/ server boxes.
l This would mean a mix of addressing hardware needs as well as providing differentiating services, support
and relevant consulting, including on new hot technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing.
l Having created the right ecosystem of products & solutions offerings for SMBs as well as an aspirational
SMB brand campaign, we would need recommendations on how to position Dell as a total solutions
provider and not just a box-seller -especially in view of entrenched competition that has long been seen as a
provider of hardware plus services solutions. The challenge is to both correctly identify the kind of services/
solutions support that the SMBs are looking for and to illustrate how Dell can position itself in this space.
Expected Methodology
l Primary research through direct engagement with SMB owners/ IT staff of SMBs, if necessary through
verticals and SMB cluster based identification
l Secondary research through industry reports by analysts, consultancy firms and SMB industry
associations.
l Study marketing strategies of existing IT hardware and services players in the market, targeting SMBs.
Expected Output
l Building a list of product attributes, IT services & consultancy desired by Indian SMBs seeking an IT partner
l Detailed Marketing strategy for gaining significant marketing share in the next 2 years and position Dell as an
‘IT Solutions provider’.
l What are the various value propositions that can be offered to an SMB looking to choose Dell as an IT
solutions provider?
Risks None
Success Criteria
l Quality and depth of the research/ market understanding.
l Relevance, novelty and feasibility of ideas proposed.
l Impact: Students to justify their plan in measurable terms.
Mentor within the organization
l Minari Shah - Head of Corp Communications, Dell, SMB, Asia Pacific, Japan.
Email: minari_shah@Dell.com