Daren Thomas, general manager and vice president of Dell’s storage business sat down in theCube at the Dell Storage Forum today, and discussed several key elements to his company and storage market.

Among the first things Thomas emphasized were service, support and public image. He stated that when talking to customers it is important to ask questions that identify their needs, terms of scale and usage, rather than building out a company profile. He noted, more than once, that Dell’s sales personnel are trained to do exactly that.

Feedback is also a priority, according to him, saying that Dell is managing a lot of info from customers on what they want and what they think. Sales and support as well as other factors make up a level of service which became something like a hallmark for Dell, Thomas continued, and then said the same about Equal Logic and Compellent. The integration of these trademarks with Dell proved to be good for business.

In addition to just posting marketing, the acquisition of these two companies added a lot to Dell’s infrastructure offerings portfolio. One example is the electronics giant’s strategy, which also encompasses a wide SMB business. Dell, as brought up during the interview, has been dubbed by some as the IBM for SMB. Thomas exemplified that it’s all about delivering value based on market demand, such as Dell’s the pre-installation and leasing offers.

Elaborating further on his company’s outward strategy and development plans, he mentioned what he called crystallized thinking. According to the storage exec, Dell is approaching innovation from a pretty broad point of view, trying to make the entire system more efficient and get it to perform based on the customer’s requirements.


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