LENOVO: Delighting Customers & Partners

What kind of trends do you see in the IT industry, especially in the Indian market when it comes to Consumer and SMB desktops, All-in-Ones and laptops? 

The Indian IT industry is currently witnessing an upswing. The PC industry, in particular, is fuelling growth in the hardware market. Gartner's recent projections have pegged the growth of PC shipments in India at 19.4 per cent in 2010, compared to a not-so-eventful 2009. This is expected to bring some cheer in the Indian PC industry. 

For Lenovo, India is a key growth market and Lenovo is betting big on the Indian consumer and SMB segments. Our market studies indicate that sales of Desktops will continue to be stable for another 1-2 years. We expect All-in-one segment to grow fast, in a short span of time. The consumer Notebooks and Netbooks are growing swiftly owing to a variety of reasons like being extremely portable, able to quickly connect to the Internet and provide a good battery usage of 4-5 hours. In India, Netbooks have evolved into a coveted travel companion for youth as well as matured lifestyle buyers and have witnessed significant acceptance with the first-time buyers in smaller towns. 

What is your consumer and SMB product range to cater to the Indian market? 

Lenovo recently reaffirmed its mantra of innovation through the launch of 12 youthful and zesty products for the consumer segment. These products include the new Z-series Notebooks - Lenovo IdeaPad Z460 and Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 that offer mainstream performance and multimedia features at a very affordable price and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 and Lenovo IdeaPad Y560, which offer an unprecedented array of entertainment features. Our IdeaPad S10-3s “Moon” and “Wind” Netbooks are a perfect blend of style and usability on the move. 

In the All-in-Ones segment, which has been our undisputed forte, our latest offerings include the Lenovo IdeaCentre A300, Lenovo IdeaCentre B500, Lenovo IdeaCentre B300 and Lenovo C200. These All-in-One PCs are sleek, space-efficient and energy-saving machines. Lenovo is a clear leader in the All-in-one space with a market share of 76 per cent. The Lenovo IdeaCentre A600, IdeaCentre B500 and the Lenovo C300 have received widespread acceptance from retail partners as well as consumers. These products are slim, sleek, stylish and affordable and can compete with traditional desktops.

We have made a clear demarcation between our consumer and SMB products. Lenovo has specially taken care to tailor-make innovative products to suit the SMB community owing to our deep knowledge of this segment. Our products for the SMB segment include classic ThinkPad Edge (in 13”, 14” and 15” display) designed for entrepreneurs with great ideas, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e business ultra-portable machines, the Lenovo IdeaPad B460 a splendid business series laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad V460, a high-feature, high-design super-slim machine, and the Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z All-in-one, which has excellent features in a super- cool design, which is ideal for the SMBs. 

What is the partner's role in the deployment of your products and services? 

For the consumer PC segment in India, Lenovo has established a two-tier model with four National Distributors who serve exclusive outlets and retail chains and Regional Distributors operate at a tier-2 level for the upcountry cities. For the SMB segment, we adopt a three-pronged approach. At the Tier 1 level are six national distributors. At the  tier-2 level, we reach out to SRDs (SMB Regional Distributors), SRs (SMB Retailers) and Retail. They, in turn, reach out to our resellers which in turn reach to Small Office Home Office (SOHO)/ Small Business (SB)/ Very Small Business (VSB) customers at the tier-3 level. 

Our channel partners have helped us expand rapidly into our target markets, getting closer to our customers with path-breaking product portfolios. Our revamped channel strategy addresses concerns and facilitates stronger relationship with our partners. Lenovo is aggressively looking at driving market expansion in the key upcountry markets. For customers, Lenovo offers improved levels of service across service centres in the country. 

What kind of opportunities Lenovo offers to its channel partners? 

Lenovo believes channel partners are fundamental to our consumer and SMB business. Lenovo is greatly focussed on building a mutually beneficial and encouraging platform for our channel partners, enabling them to perform optimally and grow as valuable partners to Lenovo. To help achieve the same, we offer attractive rebate programmers and innovative initiatives to our partners. Lenovo’s vision is to be a highly ethical, responsive and the most preferred channel vendor. Lenovo's first all partner initiative, called “Wings2Fly” “Turbojet”, offers them a chance to win a three-night-and-four-day holiday package to Dubai if they meet certain pre-assigned targets. 

We have instituted a clear channel strategy and are focussed on building a robust channel base in India to help us gain rapid inroads into our target markets.   

Which are the most popular consumer and SMB products selling more in the market? 

Lenovo makes exceptionally engineered products which are highly competitive in terms of style, reliability and quality. In India, in the consumer segment, our Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 is sure to make a splash with the chic urban home user. The Lenovo IdeaCentre A600, IdeaCentre B500 and the Lenovo C300 have received widespread acceptance from retail partners as well as consumers. Our All-in-Ones are packed with stunning looks and rich multimedia features which are designed for versatile use. Our ThinkPad Edge designed particularly for the SMBs is the ultimate business machine for entrepreneurs with great ideas and small IT budgets.  Lenovo's SL series are also quite popular. They provide excellent security, recovery and management features. Our ThinkCentre A58 is a well-engineered PC with excellent components. We expect demand for Notebooks and Netbooks to significantly increase in the coming months. Another exciting product is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t, the world’s first Touch Tablet Netbook, powered by the Intel Atom N450 processor and promises a magnificent experience to consumers. 

How important is after-sales service support? How big is your service support network? 

Service and support are an integral part of our offerings. Lenovo focusses on delighting customers by providing quality services and support. We have made investments in one of the largest services and support network coverage in India. The service delivery model includes state-of-the-art contact centre, trained and certified technical support specialists and network of spare stocking centres. We constantly review various key parameters to ensure that we deliver world-class services to our customers. We also have a dedicated toll-free number: 18003002992. Our customer relationship teams regularly monitor customers' AMCs and leave no stone unturned to ensure that our customers are extremely satisfied and enjoy their experience with Lenovo.

We cater to the entire gamut of Lenovo products. In fact, we were the first to sell Lenovo servers in India after it was launched.  The market trend is clearly upbeat in India. The Indian market has got a huge potential. The coming at least 5-6 years are going to be full of potential and it has a huge space for every one who wants to grow. 

Bluecom has been associated with Lenovo right from day one. In fact, Bluecom was born in the same year (2005) when Lenovo came to India. We are GOLD SRD with their HSB model and ROYAL BLUE CLUB MEMBER with their KAB model of business. 

We have grown with Lenovo. We started from scratch and have grown to more than Rs.25 crore annually with manpower strength of more than 100. Lenovo motivated us by giving recognition in the system and in turn we stood to their expectations. 

We are ASP with IBM for servicing the Lenovo products under warranty.  Services definitely play a major role. The better the services of the brand, the more comfortable is the customer going for that brand. The solution products would definitely attract higher service uptime. But the average ratio of Desktops, Laptops, Monitors, etc. against solution products (server, storage, security, etc.) in the IT infrastructure would be 50:1. Hence, the service volume is huge to address. We have a fairly big team to address the services for the Lenovo products. 

It is a fact that the margins have really shrunk. Hence, we have to look at larger volumes. We have a team to address the solution products (server, storage, security, software, etc.) and we cross-sell these products with the volume products.  Lenovo has valued our loyalty and has extended all the support, whenever needed. There are good monthly and quarterly backend schemes which help us secure our bottom-line.  

Everybody in the system of Bluecom is highly convinced about the THINK product which helps them to sell THINK product. Our slogan is: “THINK Lenovo THINK Bluecom”. 

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Since the day Lenovo entered the Indian market, we have been their partners. We deal in Think Series, B&V series notebooks, a complete range of Commercial & Consumer Support Packs and Think Options.  At present, we are PREMIUM Business Partner & SRD-Haryana SMB Business, National Distributor for Consumer & Think Service Pack, National Distributor for Option & CAB Business.

The journey of our association with Lenovo has so far been good. Every relationship has its own challenges, but we are satisfied with the relationship status. Being a Blue partner, we keep on adding new products year on year and it is only because of mutual understanding and mutual benefit, the business has increased multifold in the past years.  

Being a Premium Business Partner, SRD and National Distributor; we play a key role in positioning the products in all the respective areas or verticals. Based on our experience, we can say that ThinkPad is the most popular product selling in the Indian market. 

We believe that services act as one of the major factors to make any product successful. Being a National Distributor, we do promote and sell the Service packs of all Consumer/Commercial products. Our contribution is more than 60 per cent of overall Lenovo India Service Pack sales. 

The benefits or margins in selling Lenovo vary and depend upon Program Letters/Rebate Letters. But, on the whole, we get decent enough benefits to promote the business.

For more contact:
beenish@varindia.com