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Computer-maker Dell has laid off 28 employees in its Lincoln, Nebraska office, according to a news report by The Lincoln Journal Star. Dell would not confirm the number of employees, but Dell employees contacted by the Journal Star confirmed the number at 28 on July 27.
The layoffs appear to be part of workforce reduction effort as Dell assumes the assets and businesses owned by Perot Systems, an IT services company Dell purchased in 2009 for $4 billion. The interesting issue here is whether Dell, a traditional consumer play in pc hardware, can be a good services company with its Perot acquisition. It certainly opens up more in the enterprise space to sell servers, but can it be a competitive consulting and professional services company? Can it play ball with the big boys of EDS/HP, Microsoft and IBM? Time will tell.
One thing is for sure: The company is not letting go of its consumer focus yet. In April, word got out that Dell was going deeper in to the smartphone device market and some think it’s a smart play. I’m kind of feeling the market is crowded, but you can’t blame a company like Dell for going after an emerging space. If you want to be able to bundle hardware and services together in the enterprise, it will not hurt to get users accustomed to a Dell smartphone sooner rather than later.
In June, the company delved in to some of the details of that device play.
But as far as Lincoln office, here’s the skinny (from the Journal Star):
“As recently as February, the company said it had 900 people working in Lincoln and was hiring 150 engineers and network technicians to complete outfitting of its operations in Lincoln.Those positions were supposed to be paid an average salary of $50,000.”The recent addition of Dell Services’ Infrastructure Solutions division to our Lincoln team created an overall increase of our workforce in Lincoln,” Dekelbaum said in the e-mail. “Lincoln remains a key component of Dell Services’ global operations.”“
Maybe those second quarter earnings due next month will look better with some shaved off headcount from the IT services division? Probably.