a tornado ripping through part of the U.S. Midwest. Dell
could contact a hospital in that area about setting up a command center of its own to track health information for
patients who are injured by the tornado. To assist the hospital during that emergency, Dell could pull computers off its
factory floor and fly those machines and a team of engineers
to the hospital to set them up.
To coordinate emergency response, Dell would have to
work with its network of third-party service providers. The
command center plays a key role in scenarios like this one
and other, everyday events because it enables data integra-
tion between Dell’s information systems and those of its
service partners. That’s critical, Sturr says. “When you oper-
ate a heavily outsourced facility, you want visibility into
what happens inside your partners’ [operations].”
There also have to be flawless exchanges of information
when multiple parties are involved in providing service,
often in extremely short order. “There have to be real-time
data feeds to make command centers work,” says Sturr.
PROACTIVE SUPPORT
The global command centers have enhanced Dell’s customer service in a number of ways. For one thing, they
enable a swifter response to customers’ service needs. For
another, they help to ensure that routine service calls and
emergencies alike are addressed through the most effective
processes. In fact, Sturr says, Dell sees the command centers
as centralizing “a process-assurance capability that acts as a
day-to-day process-orchestration engine.” The centers’
expertise has also allowed Dell to better prepare and mobilize information technology resources to support large-scale customer events such as political summits and sports
competitions.
More importantly, perhaps, the command centers make it
possible for Dell to reach out and help customers prepare
for disruptions, delays, and other problems that are outside
the computer maker’s control. “When there’s a disruption in
the supply chain, we can notify customers proactively,” says
Sturr. “For example, if there’s bad weather in the Midwest,
parts won’t get delivered because planes aren’t flying.
Customers want to hear from us first and not [learn about
it] the next day. Customer communication is the single most
important thing we do.”
Along with enhanced customer service, the centers have
increased supply chain efficiency through better coordina-
tion with outside vendors and reduced operational costs in
Dell’s parts supply operation, thus improving the company’s
overall competitiveness and profitability.
“We’ve realized significant improvements in our overall
on-time-performance metric, and the process improvements driven from within the global command centers have
saved Dell millions of dollars,” Sturr says. “But the most
unique advantage is the [centers’] ability to work across all
the functional segments of our supply chain and act as a
mortar that seamlessly unites each of those segments.” ;
