Back in the day…
Before the internet got Mosaic.
Before the Latitude had a cd-rom drive.
Before Dell left the green building in the Arboretum.
Before Multimedia had anything to do with computers.
Before Dell went public.
Before John Medica redesigned the Latitude and continued the laptop design evolution he began at Apple.
Before SicolaMartin had an interactive department.
Before Macromedia Director (then called MotionWorks) and LONG before Flash.
Before the Neville Brothers played Dell's Christmas party.
Before Michael was married.
Before anything other than deer ran upon the hilltop in Westlake.
I had a dream. And Apple was part of that dream. And Dell was a MAJOR part of that dream.
At SicolaMartin I was able to lead a series of projects that ultimately set up a independent interactive development group SicolaMartin Interactive and help my team to have a shot at designing Dell.com version 1.0! I recall frequently drawing the "cloud" that represented the World Wide Web as we described it. And then scribbling out a site map after site map on whiteboards until the team organized around a concept of the DELL UNIVERSE.
As I was a bit fanatical at the time, reading New Media Magazine, Wired and other cutting edge "multimedia" magazines, and I distinctly remember reading the term "electronic commerce" for the first time. This is about the time us advertising folks were talking about "interactive television" as the next big thing. Nobody knew what "electronic commerce" or "interactive television" was, but for those of us trying to sell the dream it was a frontier that we were willing to forge into with abandon.
And the first time I wrote "electronic commerce" on the whiteboarded site map, I was grilled to explain what I meant. And try as I might, I could not adequately explain what was going to happen when people from around the world started using credit cards to order computers, or anything else they might want.
No one believed. (Mind you this was before Amazon was even a concept. And Amazon would lose billions of dollars over the next 5 years trying to prove that "e-commerce" was REAL and that it would eventually be a major force in retail.) I could not articulate that vision of the future. And the SALES PLANET was erased from the DELL UNIVERSE before it was presented to anyone at Dell.
Of course the rest is history. Dell Computer Corporation built a new logo with the E turned funny, broke ground on a new campus east of the highway in Round Rock and began selling computers over the internet. And in 1996 Dell delivered on a promise known as “e-commerce.”
In 2007 I once again took my place on Dell’s leading edge electronic commerce team, Dell Global Online. This time on the client side, as we ad folks call it when you work for “the company” and not “the agency.”
Thanks again MSD, glad to be back on your team! And even more thanks to CB who snapped me up for her eBusiness Consultant group and brought me home.
[UPDATE: It just occurred to me that I did not get to meet Michael Dell during any of the 20 or so meetings I had with his executives during the course of this project. And flash forward to today, I have only seen Michael Dell twice while working at Dell for nearly two years. Both times he was presenting to an all-hands meeting with hundreds of us in the audience. And though I have commented on his facebook page and taken good care of his "little green garden" I have not had any direct contact with him.
Except that one time, at the first Comdex after we had completed DMW. Michael was presenting to the large volume Dell customers or Platinum Customers. And I was there to make sure nothing went wrong with his demo of DMW.
So he ran through the cd-rom and there were no screens of death. I could not have been more proud at that moment, more proud of the team that had built something innovative and new. And TS the owner of the agency was beaming as well. I almost imagined him nodding to me in approval, but I'm not sure that happened.
And when he was done, Michael Dell took questions from the audience.
Now, remember this is the year the first Dell Latitude was released. John Medica had just engineered Dell's notebook computer to work more like a mac, by moving the keys to the back of the keyboard thus giving all of us the palm rest we know and love. Prior to Apple's first second entry into the notebook computer market, all keys were at the front of the keyboard. [insert historical pic here - nah, go google it yourself]
So I was beaming and feeling pretty full of myself. And something in me wanted to show off or take my bow/acceptance speech. So I stood up and patiently waited for Michael to call on me. I could hardly stand it. The DMW intro screen was still projected on the screen behind him, about 20 feet across the back of the stage.
And here's what I asked. "Mr. Dell, when do you think Dell's notebook computers will begin offering multimedia features?" I don't really know what I was hoping to prove, or if I was trying to show up the man, but it was a real question that had been burning in me and our entire development team as we were trying to get the Dell laptop to run video and audio from an external Sony cd-rom drive and external Sony speakers. Apple was also the first multimedia-ready notebook with built in sound and a cd-rom drive.
And Mr. Dell's answer was simple and direct. "When the business customer starts asking for multimedia, I think we will consider it."
That was it! The one encounter with Michael S Dell. After 6 months of work and a huge surge in adrenaline, it was over. I didn't mention Apple, I didn't mention John Medica, I didn't mention the Apple Developer cd-rom that was the source of inspiration for the DMW project. I just wanted to know…
About 9 months later, Dell introduced the first Latitude with "multimedia capabilities." I was long gone from SicolaMartin and Dell by that time and happily typing away on my Apple Powerbook 165.]
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/dell-history-update
Dell History on Wikipedia.
+++ update, Michael says he read this post and liked it +++
[this image was lost during the site migration. it will be recovered and replaced as soon as possible.]
micheal dell says thanks for the memories
