Old economy; new economy; new, new economy...it's all pretty much the same to Dell Computer. The company's online sales last year were more than five times that of dot-com poster child Amazon, and as far back as 1996, the build-to-order computer company was using the Web to reach consumers and business customers directly. Dell's basic business model then, as now, assumed that eliminating the middleman is good for both itself and its customers, and that inventory is a bad word that can be expunged by online selling. "We understand the power of leveraging technology," says Dell CIO Randy Mott.

It's hard to argue with that. Last year, the company averaged more than $50 million a day, or $18.3 billion all told, in sales of goods and services over the Internet. The Web sales accounted for more than half of Dell's total sales, which grew 26% since the previous year. The company's $2.3 billion in earnings last year certainly owe a debt to E-business.

None of that means Dell.com is standing still. Last year, Dell unveiled online tools to bolster its E-commerce capabilities. A new processing system lets customers qualify themselves for extended-payment plans in a matter of seconds. Dell also launched a suite of online services to speed up product delivery and simplify ongoing support, management, and maintenance of its PC and server products. Dell can now remotely develop, validate, and maintain the hard-drive images of its business customers.

And Premier Dell.com, which replaced Dell's Premium Pages Service for high-volume customers, now features more product-customization options, a streamlined software- and peripheral-ordering process, and a new navigation structure, which Dell says makes it easier for customers to find exactly what they want in seconds. In the past, customers had to fill out lengthy forms to purchase products. Now, they can create online accounts, which automatically supply information about them after they log in to purchase products. They also can log in to the site to check order status and find out exactly when their systems will be delivered.

Dell.com

Traffic: 500 million page views (second quarter)

2000 Revenue: $18.3 billion online; $31.9 billion online and offline

Business goals: To use technology and automation to lower cost of sales and customer service, allowing Dell to be PC-industry price leader

Competitors: Compaq, Gateway, IBM

Strengths: Simple, clean interface is easy to navigate; users can easily mix and match components; if Dell makes it, customers can purchase it on the site

Weaknesses: Dell has introduced more clutter intended to steer consumers to systems that feature high-margin add-ons with core components that are less than state-of-the-art

Dell officials say the constant upgrades to Dell.com are necessary because IT buyers are continually looking to simplify the purchasing process. "Our customers are always in search of better information about the systems they've bought, better reporting capabilities for service histories and inventory information, and better ways to buy," says Mott, who joined the company in 1999 from Wal-Mart Stores.

This year, Dell added features that let online business shoppers compare system features side by side. A shopper can add products to a comparison chart, and can refer to it throughout the session. "It's a better and easier experience," says Mott.

Dell.com is cleanly presented and easy to navigate, with products logically organized. Building a custom system configuration is relatively simple: A customer simply chooses system options from a series of drop-down menus, and the click of a button updates the system's price to reflect the choices. While the site doesn't have a live-chat feature, it offers a link that triggers a phone call from a service rep. For visitors who prefer to call the company themselves, Dell displays its toll-free numbers freely across the site.

Customers are protected by Dell's secure-shopping guarantee, under which Dell will assume the $50 liability that most credit cards charge customers in the event of unauthorized transactions. Dell does not sell or provide customers' information to third parties without their consent.

Yet Dell's Web presence has its limitations--particularly when it comes to high-end sales. Since the Web lacks technology to let users "kick the tires," vendors that have larger direct-sales forces than Dell, such as IBM, could enjoy an advantage in competing for high-end business.

Right now, though, Dell's ability to directly sell and fulfill orders on the Web is what's allowing it to thrive in the cutthroat PC industry, where average selling prices have fallen 19%. "Dell can adjust pricing almost on an hourly basis, they're that tight," says Technology Business Research analyst Brooks Gray, and that makes for quick reactions to competitors' moves. Dell's Web presence, says Mott, "is a key enabler in a tight economy.

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