Dell Computer Corporation, the largest of the computer makers and the only one to have truly mastered the "buy direct'' strategy, is cornering the Bermuda market with full force after a year of placing advertisements for their machines.

So intent is Dell on saturating the Bermuda market with their product, it is even advertising locally prices that include duty and shipping costs.

And now with a customised website for every country in the world -- for Bermuda, an improvement over the former Spanish-language website assigned to the entire Latin American region -- more and more customers are going online to buy their Dells.

Point, click and ship -- and voila n, a computer arrives on the doorstep via DHL between four and 14 days later.

Bermuda Microsystems is the local agent for Dell.

An industrial building on Midsea Lane in Pembroke houses technicians, store rooms, but no retail outlet.

That's because buying a Dell is not like buying any other computer.

Dells are built to order, whether bought on the Internet, on the phone or face-to-face with a dealer like BMS.

With a streamlined inventory system and few warehouses, Dell has built a cost-efficient business strategy that few have emulated.

You might have thought that Dell's strategy to cut out the middle man by selling to consumers over the Internet would be the fatal blow to BMS, a company already servicing an industry that is likely to see a shakeout of manufacturers soon.

Yet it has been anything but.

BMS President Philip Cooper said that Dell's explosive growth in the market has translated into increased sales for the company, despite "buy direct'' strategies -- not to mention the increased number of computers that come in for servicing.

"I think a lot of people think that Dell is in competition with BMS, but that's really not the case,'' said Mr. Cooper.

That's because BMS and Dell share a relationship that seems unusual in an industry where middlemen seem only to produce higher prices.

BMS has, in fact, teamed up with Dell to fill in the gaps the multinational corporation leaves behind.

They help push the name, develop relationships with Bermuda's corporate customers and service computers locally when things -- as they sometimes do -- go wrong.

Though BMS has never traditionally targeted the home user, buying a Dell before the Internet would have probably required a visit to BMS to order a machine. Mr. Cooper admitted that BMS had lost those home and small business users to the Internet -- a substantial figure, as the number of machines serviced indicates -- but the company had seen continued growth in corporate sales and service.

Dell divides its customers in two -- the home and small office consumer, or transactional business and the relationship business, comprising high-volume corporate customers.

It is the "relationship'' side that it wants BMS to focus on.

"It's not just delivering a box -- we need to provide full-blown service,'' said Mr. Cooper.

"A big company doesn't just want to FedEx servers in here and say `drop them there' -- they need to be planned.

"In Bermuda ... people are still a lot happier to do it face to face.

"They understand that the pricing is basically the same whether it's on the Internet or through us. "It doesn't matter how they buy it.'' The Internet has made BMS "accountable'' for its prices -- Mr. Cooper describes it as a "real equaliser''.

"We can't say we're going to be thirty percent more than what's on the Internet,'' he said.

When it sells to a customer, BMS's profit lies between a computer's sale price, which is comparable to what one pays if the computer was purchased direct, and the volume discount BMS is entitled to.

But the direct selling strategy -- whether over the Internet or by phone -- that has worked so well for home users is now being slowly introduced to the corporate market.

Yet Mr. Cooper remains confident that what the company loses on the sales side of the business will be picked up by service and consulting fees.

"It's getting tight on the margins, but we're picking it up with the service.

"What it will come down to is the ability for us to service clients.

"They require our added value and our regular engagement with the customer,'' he said.

"We work with a lot of big clients here.

"They want us to get new accounts.'' Regular engagement with the customer, in the words of one Dell rep, means "sales animals out on the street moving Dell gear''. Dell has been on the up for quite some time in the computer market, and it wants BMS to help drive that growth even further.

"They rationalise the distributors out there because they're trying to drive the growth of the Dell product,'' said Mr. Cooper. And he believes that the relationship is to BMS's competitive advantage, with gross sales over the past two years that "have never been stronger''.

But it seems that BMS is an isolated scenario whose teamed relationship with their manufacturer is unique, especially in Bermuda.

Bermuda Computer Services, the local agent for IBM, blamed direct sales over the Internet for a $180,000 loss experienced during the last fiscal year.

And other companies, like Gateway Systems Ltd., have not been so quick to adopt a synchronous relationship with their manufacturer.

Like Dell, Gateway computers are built to order, but currently take between two and a half and four weeks to get here.

Computers bought over the Internet arrive somewhat faster, but they cannot be serviced locally, although the two companies are currently negotiating a service relationship.

A company sales manager even said that he did not really see the Internet as a threat to the company at this time, despite noticeable price differences -- which he said were justified by the convenience of purchasing a computer in Bermuda.

Business is booming: BMS's Hoda Hassan surveys the stock in one of the company's Midsea Lane storerooms.

www.dell.com/bm: The customised website for Bermuda allows customers to point, click and have a Dell shipped to them within two weeks.