Oct. 7--Many people may know Dell as a computer company that outsources its customer service to India, but it also provides outsourcing services for other companies.

Dunnam spoke Thursday morning at St. Mary's University's 2005 Outsourcing Conference, which runs through Saturday at the Marriott Rivercenter. The conference features speakers from around the world talking about the global impact of outsourcing.

Dell focuses mainly on information technology needs, Dunnam said. It doesn't perform human resources outsourcing or provide programmers to create new software code for customers, she said. Instead, Dell works with a network of partners that can perform those tasks, she said.

Dell has been in the service business for 20 years, but five years ago it began providing outsourcing services for clients, Dunnam said. Dell has a goal of reaching $80 billion in annual revenue within a few years, up from $49.2 billion in fiscal 2005, and its services business is a big part of that growth, she said.

Dell is riding the trend of companies turning to outsourcing and in some cases going offshore for information technology and other business needs.

Outsourcing can save money, but three-fourths of Dell's clients report nonfinancial benefits such as increased productivity, better customer relationships and more time to focus on core business functions, Dunnam said. Companies do not want to outsource their entire operations, she said, but to maintain their own resources and intellectual capital to focus on their main business.

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