CSA 2007: Notebooks

Though desktops are still popular, adoption of notebooks by Indian
enterprises is continually growing northward. And with the increase in adoption,
there are signs of growing maturity and stability in the relationship between
CIOs and the notebook vendors. That is why overall vendor ranking has not seen
much upheaval in CSA 2007; not just have the vendors continued with their good
work, but enterprises too seem to have realized the need to maintain long-term
relations unless something goes drastically wrong. "Don't fix it, if it
ain't broke" seems to be the guiding philosophy. However, a dip in
overall satisfaction score signals that CIOs have become more discerning.

Notebooks: Vendor Ranks Brand Rank '07 Rank '06 Change Lenovo-IBM 1 1 ♦ HP-Compaq 2 3 ^ ACER 3 2 v Toshiba 4 4 ♦ Sony 5 - New Dell 6 5 v ^ Up  v Down   ♦ Unchanged No big upsets in notebooks, with IBM/Lenovo is still at the top, despite a decline of a couple of points-there was an overall drop in satisfaction with all vendors

For notebooks, and to some extent for desktops, the reputation of established MNCs like HP-Compaq and Lenovo-IBM with respect to their product reliability, score with many CIOs

The IT-BPO sector that is witnessing the maximum adoption of notebooks is particularly sore with most vendors on both delivery and post-sales services

Unlike in desktops, the Lenovo-IBM notebooks remain the favorite
of most CIOs; the transformation of the Thinkpad brand from IBM to the Lenovo
stable seems to have been smoother than with desktops and has not resulted in
any negative impact amongst CIOs. Acer is another brand of notebooks to watch
out for; its concerted marketing campaigns seem to have started paying off; CIOs
not just appreciate the clarity of their pricing mechanism, but regard it as
value for money. There are several takers for brands like Dell, Toshiba and Sony
too, but each of them is beset with its own constraints. Pricing is a sore point
with both Sony and Dell, while Toshiba suffers from lack of availability of
spare parts.

Timely availability of spare parts for notebooks seems to be the
Achilles Heel of all notebook vendors; a sad commentary on the inventory
management and planning of all vendors even when the market is booming for
notebooks. Unless problems like spare parts availability or a proper credit
mechanism are sorted out immediately, the growing notebook adoption by India
could very soon hit a roadblock. The IT-BPO sector that is witnessing the
maximum adoption of notebooks is particularly sore with most vendors on both
delivery and post-sales services front; this could seriously spiral into major
trouble for all vendors unless remedial measures are undertaken soon.

'Indian customer service initiatives are a mix-n-match between global practices and local initiatives' -Ravi Krishnamurthy, head, Customer Services, Lenovo

Lenovo has completed 18 months since the deal with IBM. Which are the initiatives that helped the Lenovo-IBM combine bag the top title? The most significant initiative from Lenovo has been the carry-in service locations that we increased from 9 to 20 this year. Besides, we have 15 Pick-up and Drop-in (PUDO) centers and plan to add 7 more in February. Therefore, we have 35 customer touch points including in SEC B towns like Bhopal and Raipur, where we facilitate customer services. While there are increased onsite support activities for large enterprises, all these PUDOs and repair centers combined help us address the entire gamut of Indian enterprises. Naturally, whichever locations we have repair centers in, we are able to deliver more services onsite; by February we expect this number to go up to 27. In addition, we are looking at expanding the PUDO network to reach more customers and have roped in Ingram Micro to operate these notebook centers. How is your relation with IBM in the customer services front? As part of a five year contract, Lenovo works in conjunction with IBM on the customer services front. IBM is actually our services delivery arm. While the customer services program has been designed and devised by Lenovo itself, the actual execution on ground is being done by IBM. The entire support delivery team belongs to IBM and Lenovo interacts with these IBM centers on a daily basis to keep track of customer services activities. How are Indian customer service initiatives from Lenovo different from their global practices? It's really a mix-n-match between global practices and local initiatives; while the customer support call center is driven by global standards and practices, support queries via SMS is a local deviation in the Indian market. Again, guidelines for the repair centers follow the global standards norm, but the PUDOs are part of an India-specific initiative. Then, specifically in India, we engage our large partner community in our entire support ecosystem. These partners are mostly involved in the L1 support activity, while Lenovo/IBM combine explores more complex support operations.