A late entrant to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) in India, Lenovo is wooing customers by offering industry-specific laptops and desktops. Machines will be loaded with software, which will be unique for each sector. Only six months ago, it started its focus on SMBs to catch up with competitors such as Acer and Hewlett-Packard.

For example, a machine will have software only for stock brokers or hotels. In the past, all the machines coming out of the factory were common and then necessary software will be loaded by customers.

Mr Rajiv Rao, Director, SMB, Lenovo India, said the requirement of different companies in the same sector is similar. Hence, it makes sense to sell machines with software in-built for that particular sector, he told Business Line .

The US-based $21-billion personal technology company in India has tied up with a vendor to provide in-built software in its machines for the financial service sector. There will be similar tie ups for the hotel, hospitality, auto and animation sectors, he said. Many times, stock brokers may end up paying for software that they may not use at all. However, Lenovo's software vendor will provide the right software and by default put it in a particular model to be made available only to stock brokers. “Through this, we will sell more machines to the broking community.”

Today, Lenovo has a 5 per cent market share (just desktops and notebooks) in the SMB. According to the research firm IDC, the total SMB market per quarter for notebooks and desktops was nine lakh units.

“Two quarters ago, we had a 1.7 per cent market share among SMBs and increased the share to 3.8 next quarter and then to 5 per cent. Every quarter, we have doubled the market share. If we were able to sustain this, we would have the opportunity to become number one in two years,” he said.

Challenge

Mr Rao said that earlier Lenovo India used to go a client saying its machine will cost Rs 20,000 while it is Rs 18,000 of a competitor's. Today, a salesperson sells the machine saying ‘we cost Rs 20,000 but we will help you save Rs 4,000 through the all-in-one machines, which save three to four units of power every day. “A customer today is worried about the high cost of ownership, including power and rental. When I sell our story on saving, they listen,” he said.

For the first time in 10-12 years, there is a major shift towards the all-in-ones, which comes with CPU and monitor rolled into the device, from the traditional desktops. The all-in-ones saves power, is sleek and can even be mounted in the wall. This is attractive for SMBs who have shortage of space. The device cost ranges Rs 20,000-Rs 45,000, he said.

>raja@thehindu.co.in

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