A SENIOR executive at Dell has insisted the computer giant has become more agile and able to plan for the medium to long term since returning to private hands.
Michael Dell regained control of the company he founded after successfully staging a buyout with global technology firm Silver Lake Partners in October.
And Aongus Hegarty, the company's president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the reprivatisation has restored passion and entrepreneurial spirit to the business.
Speaking in Glasgow on the day Dell marked its 30th birthday, Mr Hegarty said: "One of the things for us in being a private company now is the agility and speed at which we can make decisions and move quickly.
"We're also not tied any longer to a quarterly reporting cycle.
"We can make decisions in the short term that aren't just short-term focused - they can be more medium to long term."
Mr Hegarty said the switch has instilled more "energy, passion and entrepreneurial risk-taking" into the business, declaring it has led to an "acceleration in business performance" in Scotland and across Europe.
He added: "You can see that as well too in IDC (International Data Corporation) data.
"We've been continuously taking share in client, growing our serving business, growing our broader data centre business and in services and software we have continued to invest and grow as well."
More broadly, Mr Hegarty noted that Dell has acquired a series of software firms in the last two to three years which has boosted its expertise in areas such as security and systems management.
He said the recent acquisition of StatSoft had particularly boosted its capability in business intelligence and data analytics.
The firm also recently launched Dell Financial Services in western Europe to allow customers to acquire systems from Dell up front and pay the IT company back over an agreed period .
Mr Hegarty said the finance model comes as many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to find access to growth capital hard to come by.
He noted: "It's not unique either to Scotland or the UK - I would say it is a common challenge across Europe. We believe that it was important for us to have this capability core to our business.
"That's why we applied for a bank licence and put in place all of the financial services capabilities and made it core to our business and the solutions we provide to our customers."
Meanwhile, Mr Hegarty said Dell's 600-strong team in Glasgow were counting the days until the Commonwealth Games kicks off in Glasgow.
Dell is one of the main corporate sponsors of the event as the sole supplier of "end to end" IT solutions to the Games.
Noting yesterday there were just 77 days until the event begins, Mr Hegarty said: "We have been in Scotland for over 10 years now.
"Our team are extremely proud to be associated and directly involved [with the Games].
"We have very much integrated the Games over the last 12-plus months into our organisation [and] into our operations."
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