Dell Inc. has been so wrapped up in recovering from a bruising fight to go private and evading sympathy and criticism for its under-performing computer manufacturing business that people almost forgot about the rest of the company.
That may explain the sudden attention to Dell’s services and venture units, for example, which have been on a roll, as the company pointed out in news releases from its recent Dell World events in Austin, Texas, featuring cloud computing and software deals, among other things.
Dell Services has a big operation in Lincoln at the Nebraska Technology Park.
At last count, more than a year ago, when Dell was recruiting for 100 new people, there were about 750 people working there in two different fields. One is insurance services, acting as a third-party administrator in the insurance industry to service primarily life and annuity business for insurance companies. The Dell people do customer service, transaction processing, claims processing, enrollments and other functions.
Dell also has an Infrastructure Solutions team in Lincoln, performing IT functions such as service desk, server administration and network administration.
Typically, Dell won’t talk about employment numbers. But it did make some eye-opening statements last week that appear to bear on local operations.
“As a result of Dell’s innovative approach to Third Party Administration, the company has won more than 10 multi-million, multi-year contracts in the last 18 months from top insurance providers in North America and successful delivery of customer projects have helped Dell’s customers win awards from industry analysts in three of the last four years, further securing Dell’s position as a leading Third Party Administrator in North America.”
The company wouldn’t say if that means more jobs in Lincoln, but a check of the company’s website showed 27 openings listed for Lincoln, about a dozen new ones since Dec. 1.
Dell also said it is launching a “claims transformational framework” that it said allows insurers to improve customer service while delivering significant cost savings. “Initial customer results include double-digit percentage improvements across all parameters — number of claims being filed online, savings in claims processing, and reduction in claims cycle time,” Dell said.
Corie Pierce, spokeswoman for the services unit in Round Rock, Texas, said the company continues to see growth across regions and units.
Later last week, Forbes added Dell to its list of biggest privately held companies, at No. 3.