Lenovo to target SMEs in tier-2 and 3 cities

BANGALORE, INDIA: Lenovo's all-in-one PC is already a hit in the Indian SME market which accounts for 5.1 per cent of its sales. Ranked No.4 in the SME segment, the company's major chunk of revenues come from the SMEs in the tier-1 cities. It is now turning its focus on tier-2 and 3 cities and is planning to increase its channel penetration to exploit the market.

In an exclusive interaction with CIOL,

Rajiv Rao, director SME - Lenovo India

, talked about its Indian business and its future plans for the SME market in India. Excerpts:

How do you see the future of Indian SME market?

: SMEs are considered the growth engines of emerging market economies and a key business segment for Lenovo too. The SME segment is the backbone of any economy.

SMEs form close to 99 per cent of all business entities, which translates into a mammoth size of 8 million. The SME sector offers enormous opportunities and is considered an essential employment-generating sector in any country.

IDC forecasts the SME laptop market to grow by over 20 per cent annually from 2010-2014. There are around eight million SMEs in India and out of these 1.7 million are using PCs.

As per analysts and industry experts, the SME market has been growing at a rapid speed, resulting in an increased demand for PCs. We witness a great demand from the SMEs across the regions and hope to see aggressive growth in future.

The technology adoption rate among Indian SMEs is still low. How will Lenovo address this challenge?

: There are various reasons for slow adoption of technology by SMEs, ranging from high initial cost of the shift to low awareness of the benefits. Also the reasons for slow adoption is different for SOHOs (Small office/Home office), SBs (Small Businesses) and MBs (Medium Businesses).

Also read: Lenovo launches new products for SMEs

SOHOs are highly flexible and able to change to automation much faster. At the other end of the SME spectrum, MBs behave more like large enterprises making their decisions from a long term point of time. Though IT penetration is still low among SMEs, the scenario is changing slowly. SMEs are now beginning to realize the long term benefits of technology and are now investing in IT infrastructure.

Lenovo has outlined a 360° approach to market to make a decisive impact in the high-growth SME segment. We have outlined a specific strategy to address multiple market segments within SMEs with our wide range of solutions.

We intend to cater to the addressable SME market with focused approach to SOHOs, SBs, MBs so that we cater to their specific needs and not address them all as one homogeneous SME segment. While at one level we are increasing our retail presence to over 300 exclusive stores spread across the country, at another level, we are significantly expanding our channel partner base of distributors, resellers and VARs.

Sitting on top of this strategy will be our extensive range of SME specific products named ThinkPad EDGE. We recently launched an entire range of new ThinkPad Edge Series which are the ultimate business laptops for SMEs to specifically address the needs of SME customers.

We are bullish on the Indian SME market and wish to develop dedicated product line, tailor made to suit the requirements of SMEs.

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