The new DELL

Dell enjoyed its supply chain excellence based direct selling model for many years. This year it has started selling PC's through Wal Mart and Sam's Club stores. This would be a new ball game for Dell, a game that Dell's competitors' (HP and Acer) have been experts at.

Dell is trying to target retail consumers and is faced with its first bout of problems. Rising customer service costs, maintaining dealer relations, rising product complaints (because of higher product variety), etc.

The article (link pasted below) does not point out solutions, only highlights the problems.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1799