Lenovo to focus on enterprise market

Chinese PC maker Lenovo is preparing the ground to occupy the top position in the enterprise PC market in India. The company, which is yet to catch up in the overall PC market in India with its competitors — Dell, HP and Acer — is eyeing the top slot in the enterprise space (Lenovo clubs enterprise business along with government as key account businesses) this calendar year.

IDC’s latest India Quarterly PC Tracker (JFM Q1 2010) reveals that HP was the top player in the overall PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market in India followed by Dell with 13.6 per cent and Acer with 13 per cent. Lenovo had a share of 7.25 per cent in the overall PC market during this period.

The gap, however, is not as wide as in the enterprise segment. Lenovo India’s marketshare in the enterprise and government space is about 14 per cent. According to the company, the market share of the top three players — Dell, HP and Lenovo — ranges from 14 to 20 per cent.

“The distance between the top three players in the enterprise and government space is very thin and is narrowing further. We surely want to be the number one player in the enterprise space in India, at least, for one quarter this calendar year,” says Rahul Agarwal, executive director, Key Accounts Business and Think Product, Lenovo India. He, however, admits that it might not be possible to become the number player for the entire calendar year, due to the seasonality of the demand.

To penetrate this market segment further, Lenovo has introduced a ‘Stock and Sale’ business model. This will ensure that the products are available across the country much before the placing of orders by its enterprise customers which will reduce the turnaround time. “We have a huge base of retention account owing to our global alliances with enterprises, and we are very comfortable working with them. We are trying to go outside that comfort zone and are aggressively pursuing the large customers where our market share is lower than what we would like it to be. We feel we can increase our share in the segment by introducing the ‘Stock and Sale’ model,” says Agarwal.

The PC market in the enterprise segment is now hotting up as the organisation which earlier deferred plans to refresh their old computers are now being seen replacing them with newer ones. Besides, more organisations are seen adopting Windows 7 and their requirements for hard disks and new applications are changing fast, forcing them to refresh their systems. The other factor which is driving the key account business, is the government space with the computerisation of more government departments and offices. Besides, the government’s thrust on universal education programme (Sarva Siksha Abhyaan) is also creating a huge demand in this space.

This is the reason why Dell which was earlier focussed on the enterprise space, is being slowly marking its presence felt in government segment. Acer, world’s number two PC manufacturer is seeing going more aggressive in the government and education space. “Because of our strong presence in the education segment, we have been able to do well in the desktops’ market. The education segment has been more insulated against the recessionary effects as compared to other segments and hence that has played out well for us,” said S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India.