Dell continues Cloud push with Infobird alliance

PC manufacturer Dell will partner Chinese Cloud-based contact centre provider Infobird as part of a bid to offer more high-margin services.

Dell has signed up a Chinese Cloud-based contact centre provider as part of a bid to offer more high-margin services.

The move into the Chinese market follows a similar international pact made by the PC vendor with CRM software-as-a-service supplier Salesforce.com in October 2009. It forms part of Dell’s new long-term strategy to generate growth from three key new markets – cloud computing, wireless and channels.

The company’s aim over the next 10 years is to transform itself into a service provider on the recommendations of management consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group, in order to counteract increasing competition and dwindling margins in its existing core markets.

The alliance will see the vendor working with Chinese service supplier Infobird to jointly target small-to-medium businesses (SMB) in China, of which Chinese research firm Analysys International reckons there are 42 million, less than 10% of which currently undertake ecommerce.

Such poor provision is despite the fact that the country now has 380 million internet users, 87.9 million of which shop online. This figure, according to Analysys, is growing at a rate of 38.9% per annum.

The deal will initially involve Dell’s telesales staff pitching Infobird’s Qitongbao call centre, customer and sales management applications to its installed SMB customer base in China. But it is also expected to cover other customer-related areas over time as Infobird expands the breadth of its service offerings.

Infobird anticipates that the arrangement will boost its revenues by 50%.