Dell UK Reviews

Pros

if you have a family, it's hard to find another company who doesn't just accomodate your needs, but dictates a flexible work environment and work life balance. thimbs up for Dell.

Cons

Not the best salary, and internal progression is slow. Far better to arive at the role and salary you want, than to try and work your way through the ranks. Thumbs down.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

good work climate,
great testing facilities

Cons

Awkward commute to and from the facility

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention and listen to the people.

Pros

For the right "type" of person there are excellent opportunities to develop

Cons

Senior management has a habit of heading teams with managers just because they have done a good job in another part of the business, rather than considering the team and if the manager actually has the correct transferable skills. This has been known to wreck perfectly functioning teams in some places.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the people who understand the job before making rash decisions.

Pros

fair employer equal opportunity and good promotions for best workers. You have lots of opportunity to travel and they encourage to take up trainings

Cons

some times we have to do the routine work that we have been doing for months. you are never free and are loaded

Advice to Senior Management

i am not in such high position to give out advice for dell. I still have to gain lots of experience before i reach so

Pros

International big brand, looks good on CV

Cons

Poor compensation for sales people.

Advice to Senior Management

a

Pros

Has an open work culture and reasonable flexibility in working schedules. HR responsiveness is better than most other competitors in the domain.

Cons

Salary not very competitive especially when comapring Dell Services (the offshore component - formerly Perot Systems) to the Dell US. Limited growth prospects offshore if one wants to stick to the technical track.

Advice to Senior Management

Handling Client engagements when promoting software services and solutions is not the same as that when selling hardware. Often, a lot of up-front effort is needed before a prospect materializes. Recognize this fact and incorporate the feedback provided by people who have been doing this handling in the past into all engagement strategies.

Pros

Even as a contractor, there is so much scope for contributing to functional areas beyond your own core expertise. Managers encourage innovation, empower and trust (where deserved). They're also open to alternative ways of working, which in my case resulted in living 200 miles away from the office and as long as put the hours in and got the job done, could plan my day around current surf conditions!

Cons

As with all corporations, there are challenges associated with process and due course, and was getting worse when I left. Also, there was too much emphasis in "we're one big family" - or maybe the ethos surrounding this, born in the US, didn't travel to the UK very well.

Advice to Senior Management

Dell still has a lot of dead weight at all levels; management stuck in the past and old school tie mentalities. A few more redundancy and streamlining cycles should go a long way to sorting that out.

Also, the good managers still subscribed to the traditional hierarchical approach. You may be managers, but really you're just another person doing a different type of job than your team members. Show respect, get respect. And that applies to everyone.

Pros

Great Products, Good Benefits and Generally good people. Attitude to flexible working is great and the company is well lead at a Senior (IE US ) level .

Cons

Dont expect middle managers to support You , they are all driving spreadsheets and Focusing on the "Number " , not though at all is given to Sales Strategy, developing the business and how to achieve Business Objectives. Just Go Do it is the Mantra . Expect to be reorganised every six months with the associated Politics and Upheaval . Good people leave through sheer exhaustion whilst the dead wood remains

Advice to Senior Management

Take a step back and understand what the business needs to grow and achieve its aims . Above all listen to the people who work for you , they know everything that needs to be fixed and how to do it efficiently. Stop wasting millions of dollars on pointless initiatives, whilst penny pinching at a trivial level EG Making people pay for the Coffee Machine (At that point I knew it was time to go ) . This is a great company , so start behaving professionally and make it better

Pros

Stable company, worldwide presence, brand recognition, great products.

Cons

No encouragement or interaction from staff, entire business based on spreadsheets, no CRM, shortsighted sales staff and management. Terrible services organisation, will never be a solutions organisation due to relying on shifting "units" as driven by managers of spreadsheets and not of people. Not able to hold on to key staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Turn your sales organisation into forward thinking, dynamic technical individuals instead of relying on price and bullying to make sales.

Pros

solid product training at the beggining. Decent presales support representatives assisting sales team. Good training on IT hardware on IT storage, servers, virtualization in general. Good commission on high margin deals/sales won...

Cons

extreemly high load of admin yet this role was positioned to me as senior. Had worked in a previous company ( at an equivalent level ) there was a much more structured set up of data on clients which was accurate & was a starting point from which to profile a given enterprise for opportunity, Zero realistic marketing support - eBlasts sent to contacts often moved on from company, inaccurate / non decision making + even in some cases deceased! A very rective 'quotey' type of sales job. If you are lucky your a/c base will hit its own target. If you are not, you could be superman with the portfolio you get & not make target. Had to work with an internal sales trainer who was used to coaching v. junior level sales staff ( from the exponential growth of Dell days ) & was winging it, personally clashed with him which 'blemished' my image on next line manager I had to work with . Had 3 sales managers in 12 months ! . Managers r under a lot of pressure themselves & primarily 'bean count' but are nice people. List RRP's on the quoting systems were way higher than in the market price / web price. So even using say 40% discount in some cases appeared in the eyes of the buyer as just an 20% or so discount...what a mess. The new channel team also is eating up the old 'direct' install base...it's easier for a VAR/ISV/Reseller to sell Dell kit to an exisiting 'dell house' /hardware install base than say againsts competitie HP/IBM kit. this too could be a real challenge. It's a roll of the dice with the place. The recruiter there had genuine hopes for me,despite the fact that I only lasted a year in the company & the fact that she is there 10years + in the Dublin / Cherrywood + Bray sites, she had no clue on the massive adminstrative nature of the job. Usually excellent sales representatives are crap secretaries. Join a Dell / HP / IBM reseller instead ! Had to work on Multiple systems but I beleive now it is all on Salesforce.com

Advice to Senior Management

Take genuine time to understand the past experience of new employees. Please help them adjust to the role..