Well Dell has extended again the final closing of it’s Winston-Salem plant, why do we say Winston-Salem anyway considering where it’s located but I digress. Anyway most likely due to labor issues in Mexico Dell has decided to keep the plant open allowing some 400 employees per The Journal to keep getting those paychecks. I say per The Journal because the reports I have put that number a good bit less but that’s all rumor.

Recent labor events in Mexico and problems with PC Electronics component maker Foxconn are likely the cause for this extension.

This is a reprint or repost from an article by Amy Babinchak of ThirdTier who granted permission for this reprint.

“Dell Inc. will spend $3.9 billion for the technology services company Perot Systems Corp. in an attempt to expand beyond the PC business”

“Dell’s purchase of MessageOne, coming on the heels of its acquisition of EqualLogic in November, may signal that the manufacturer is looking to build its own storage brand…”

“Dell Computer has acquired privately-held Plural Inc., a Web application development and services company…”

“Dell has completed the acquisition of Everdream, a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for remote-service management, providing Dell with an expanded presence in the rapidly growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-enabled managed services market….”

I could go on and on posting news snippets from the last two years that demonstrate Dell’s progress out of its core business of providing great PC’s and Servers to businesses. Dell has purchased 10 companies all of which have nothing to do with making a good computer for you.

Dell has also reduced the sales and support for partners like Harbor Computer Services. Whereas, we used to have a team at Dell that was dedicated to helping us get you the best configuration for the specific needs of your business, we no longer have that team. Support for business sales is dismal and is moving in the direction of Dell’s customers support – off shore and disinterested.

Recently Dell moved it’s assembly plant from Texas to Mexico. With this move, Dell is no longer able to provide shipping time estimates for custom products. Our customers have experienced month long wait times and this unfortunately isn’t something that Dell intends to fix. It in in fact part of their plan to move away from providing custom computers for business needs.

Given the problems we have been experiencing, coupled with the news that Dell is moving its focus away from building great PC’s and Servers, we have decided to begin the move away from using Dell products. After significant research and agonizing over loosing a long term supplier, we have made our selection. We have been a HUGE Dell fan in the past, so this decision was not taken lightly or quickly – it has in fact been somewhat painful.

Our new preferred partner is Equus. Equus is an American business with 100% of its assembly, support and service in the USA. They build computers from Intel components. They are Intel’s 7th largest customer. They have been in business for 21 years. They are employee owned. They have an office in Novi and are headquartered in Minneapolis. We are confident that we have found the right hardware supplier. 

Building computers is what Equus does. Support partners like Harbor Computer Services is all that their support department does. They are good at what they do and have been well respected in the industry for many years.

We hope that you will move along with us in the transition from Dell to Equus. We will still be able to obtain Dell equipment for you, but we no longer feel confident in recommending them as the preferred solution. Ted, Diana and Amy can answer any questions and address concerns that you may have. Change is difficult and uneasy but sometimes necessary. This is one of those cases.

Word is Dell will keep the Winston-Salem plant open for a few more months allowing around 400 workers a little more breathing room. No further information is out there as of yet but I’m sure we will see local leaders take all the credit somehow.

Dell has informed the state that it believes it met the requirements during it’s years of operating in North Carolina and will not repay those monies. Governor Bev Purdue and other state representatives have said Dell would be forced to repay all the incentive money they were given however Dell has claimed some $6 million is covered in the agreements and will not be repaid. The Governor’s Office has released a “corrected” statement saying Dell may be able to keep some North Carolina taxpayer money.

So Mayor Joines has told Dell he expects them to repay some 26.5 Million Dollars in direct payments and expenses linked to bring Dell to North Carolina and in theory it appears Dell has agreed in their reply letter. Of course this does not include any of the cost associated with road projects completed for Dell, wine and dines that surely took place, travel by city and county officials, etc, etc.

This is pretty sad to see Dell charge two different prices for the same product or service.

On the Dell Business site go select a Dell Inspiron 15 and at a base price of $659 it cost $100 to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional from Windows 7 Home Premium:

If however you select a Vostro 220 based priced at $419 and want to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional it’s $70. The difference is the Vostro runs x86 or a 32 bit OS and the Inpiron x64 or a 64 bit OS for which Microsoft does not charge a difference.

In what was repeated over and over by every news source in the state Governor Bev Perdue was quoted as saying she expected Dell to pay back every “red cent” when in fact she never said that but rather she would “will go to bed every night hoping to get every red cent back that Dell has received.” Slight difference in the two which is neither here or there as the Governor now understands this is not the case and Dell will pay back on 1.5 Million of the 8 Million or more the state gave away. Of course this just refers to the money the state gave away and not the millions both Winston-Salem and Forsyth County handed over.

Governor Perdue may need to wake up to the real world.

More news to follow but yes folks it’s all over, that Boondoggle, multi-million dollar tax give away is closing it’s doors!

Here’s the follow-up. Dell will lay off 600 workers by next month with the remaining workers to be laid on January. The number Dell cites is 935 total however some dispute there are that many employees currently at the plant. Frank Miller, Vice President for Public Business Unit Supply Chain, was quoted as saying Dell will meet all agreements it had in place with North Carolina, Forsyth County and Winston-Salem which should be interesting to see since the bulk of the agreement was to employ some 1,700 workers which it never did. There was at least $37 million in incentives directly given to Dell to locate in North Carolina not to mention the millions of hidden cost in road construction, rezoning, and such.

“The opening of this facility means hundreds of hardworking North Carolinians now have good jobs that bring better benefits and better skills to the transitioning Piedmont Triad economy,” said Gov. Easley. “In addition, the Dell project will provide more than $700 million in net revenue over 20 years to our state. This project makes good economic sense for North Carolina and we are proud to have such a well-respected global company in our state.” October 2005

Oh well just one more giant tax giveaway to private business. Of course this will certainly result in changes to the FedEx Hub plans which have already been pushed back in terms of it’s staffing. The loss of another 900 jobs on top of the 300 from PACE Airlines really spells out the trend for North Carolina employment which at this point is already above 10.8% and one of the highest in the nation.

On a brighter note Winston-Salem has released some of the 50 pages of documents associated with the tax payer funded baseball park so Billy Prim will get his nearly $50 million dollar stadium which he said would not cost the tax payers a dime.