1. How important is the SMB space for Lenovo today?
It’s a sizeable part of the overall PC market (18%) and we expect it to grow faster as the economy recovers and the government pushes for SME growth through favorable policies.
2. What are the top priorities for Lenovo within this space?
We have smaller share here relative to our Enterprise and Consumer segments. So opportunity for growth is high. The biggest opportunity for us here is to strengthen our channel coverage and increase participation in all opportunities.
3. What kind of role do channel partners play in terms of targeting the SMB space? What level of support is being provided by Lenovo to the partner community?
Channel partners are the most important link between us and the end-customer. In this segment, they play a very important advisory role as well in the decision making of the end-customer.
We have a very robust and wide portfolio across PC and PC+ devices which can be leveraged by our channel partners to meet their customers needs.
We also have structured channel engagement programs viz Spartan to improve our engagement with the SMB channel partners. This is apart from the other product training and meets that we conduct for our partners.
4. Where are the big growth opportunities in this space?
There is immense headroom for PC growth in SMB space. PC penetration is still low and a lot of the space is still with white box segment. As customers evolve, we feel they’ll see value in paying a little more for better quality and service provided by branded segment.
5. What are some of the challenges faced by Lenovo in this space?
Building reach across the country is a unique challenge in India as it’s a fragmented market spread across the country with low PC penetration. But we now see distribution ramp-up presence for Lenovo increasing on PC+ side and over time we will build presence as a brand in many more smaller towns.
6. Please share details about some of your unique products and solutions specifically targeted towards SMB?
We have one of the widest portfolio across DT, AIOs and NB for SMB customers. We also have the recent acquisition of X86 servers from IBM to offer. This is apart from all the phones and tablets that SMB customers can also choose from the Lenovo stable.
We have ThinkPad Edge as a dedicated SMB brand which combines the best of Enterprise features of Think with some features relevant for light users.
We have unique products like ThinkCenter Tiny which is a 1 litre small form factor of DT. Its great for space and energy saving which is great for SMBs.
7. What kind of policy does Lenovo have for channel and online business?
We have fairly structured and well established programs for our traditional IT channel across consumer & SMB segments (Lenovo Exclusive Stores, Lenovo Preferred Partner etc). We have also launched T3 engagement programs dedicated for SMB (viz Spartan).
Online is a new RTM and we are in the process of creating a pool of Lenovo Authorized Resellers for online. We have also enabled some of our exclusive stores with the omni-channel concept where they can place orders on our exclusive online store (www.thedodstore.com) for their customers without necessarily having to carry stock.
8. In what way does Lenovo protect the channel community looking at the competition faced from online sellers?
We recognize that online buying is a genuine end-customer need across multiple categories. We do not however support any disruptive pricing action from any partner/platform which tends towards predatory pricing.
We are building a differentiated portfolio for online versus our traditional channels to reduce channel conflict
We are also in the process of creating a pool of Lenovo Authorized Resellers for online. We have also enabled some of our exclusive stores with the omni-channel concept where they can place orders on our exclusive online store (www.thedodstore.com) for their customers without necessarily having to carry stock.
While there will be innovations in route to markets, we believe that this will naturally evolve with time. There is a very large opportunity in the market for everyone to build and grow their businesses.