Dell CFO David Kennedy, speaking at a Citi technology conference, laid out how the company goes about procuring components. He said:
“I think the conversation in the market is around supply access. So if you go back to -- let's go back 6-months ago, was there a few savvy customers who foresaw some of this and did some advanced purchasing to kind of get ahead of that game? Yes, there was.
But what we're now seeing is, if I pick an enterprise customer, they come forward I know they're buying history. If all of a sudden, they're looking to buy 4-years worth of equipment from me, I'm not in a position to fulfill that. Our job is to try and make sure we diversify it to as many customers as we can and solve as many customer needs as we can. But what we're doing now is entering into conversations about what are your supply needs and your infrastructure needs going out into year 2, year 3 and year 4. And our commitment that for those who want to partner with us, we'll give them that supply access and provide some guarantees that we can position that for them as we look out. Guarantee supply does not guarantee price. That's a specific differentiation. But that's what the market is looking for. It's that supply access.”

