According to Carter Lusher, chief IT analyst at Ovum, while the moves makes strategic sense for Dell, customers must address any potential disruption it may cause to their procurement plans: “Ovum recommends that CIOs need to asset the risk to their infrastructure and put into place plans should Dell’s radical hardware, software, and services shifts require changes to procurement plans.
“The implication of going private is that Dell is planning radical changes to its strategy and product roadmap. While the company might come out of this transition stronger with a product lineup that better meets the needs of businesses and public sector organizations, there will be uncertainty as to what products and services stay, get strengthen, or get eliminated.”
Lusher pointed out that disruption to procurement could be major as Dell is in the midst of a “wrenching transition” from a supplier of commodity hardware, mainly traditional PCs, to being a supplier of enterprise-grade IT infrastructure.
“Dell’s ambition is nothing less than offering the entire IT stack with supporting services. A significant risk likely to face Dell during this transition is that enterprises and public sector organisations cut back on their purchases until the dust settles,” Lusher said.
