The company had, over the years, refined and improved its inventory-tracking capabilities and its procedures for operating with small inventories. In 1993, Dell had $2.6 billion in sales and $342 million in inventory. In fiscal year 1998, it had $12.3 billion in sales and $233 million in inventory—an inventory turn ratio of seven days. By comparison, Gateway, which also pursued a build-to-order strategy, had 1997 sales of $6.3 billion and inventories of $249 million—an inventory turn ratio of 14 days. Compaq had inventories of $1.57 billion at year-end 1997, and 1997 sales of $24.6 billion (thus turning its inventories about every 23 days). Dell's goal was to get its inventory turn down to three days before the year 2000.