Quick, what now famous delivery company started their official operations in 1973 with 14 small aircraft delivering 186 packages? Need another clue? In 1965, Yale University undergraduate Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper that invented what the shipping industry would become. That’s right, the young Mr. Smith never dreamed that on a fateful night eight years later, his company, Federal Express would make history.
And the cornerstone of his vision? A centralized hub for distribution across the country, around the world. I think about Mr. Smith’s model a lot.
Dell’s point of view on deployment services is to do as much of the work as possible in a centralized fashion. In our factory we prepare PCs for use prior to shipping to the customer, minimizing the amount of desk-side work and reducing employee downtime during the transition. Now that more companies have adopted Microsoft’s Systems Center Configuration Manager, (SCCM) the opportunity to shift deployment tasks to the factory is greater than ever before.
And so, last month we launched a new deployment service called Dell Connected Configuration. With this new service, we extend your network into our facilities through a dedicated server and a secure VPN connection. This gives you the control to perform all your configuration tasks including imaging, customizing BIOS settings, hard drive encryption, and domain join centrally, before your new systems ever leave the factory. In fact, by the time your employees receive their new systems, their PCs have already been on the corporate network. It’s like having your own dedicated configuration center.
Mr. Smith, our hat is off to you. It’s been 50 years since you turned in that truly revolutionary economics term paper. Hope that imitation, in one form or another, is the most sincere form of flattery.
Here is a short video on the topic.
You can also visit our website or drop by the Lifecycle Services booth at Dell World to learn how Dell Connected Configuration can make deployment easier for you.
