Lenovo lifts lid on SME demands for more flexibility

Staff at SMEs should be a prime target audience for those resellers that can provide mobility tools to help workers escape the dominance of the desktop.

According to research from Lenovo and Forrester there are high levels of dissatisfaction among workers at SMEs with many feeling that they are missing out on flexible technology.

The solution of course is a fairly easy one for Lenovo's channel to solve and the vendor will be hoping that having highlighted the current issues in the SME market that its partners will look to help solve them.

Some of the stats that could be used in the sales pitch include the 41% of employees that feel they are missing out on the technology tools needed to work flexibly and the 38% of staff that claim their current tech is causing a distraction as a result of slow loading times and performance.

The global survey found that 71% of SME staff continued to use a desktop as their main device and 74% did not have any access to cloud-based tools. Given the Windows 7 support switch off and the increase in adoption of applications like Office 365 there are reasons why resellers should be talking to customers about their future plans.

The Lenovo findings come at time when customer experience is riding high on the corporate agenda and firms of all sizes are having to look in greater detail at the services they provide both internally and externally.

Some of the potential areas where firms could invest is in laptops, smartphones, 2-in-1s as well as some of the next-generation smart devices like augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) and smart office set-ups.

“SMBs pioneered the now widely-held ideas about the mobile workforce. However, this notion is unmatched in SMB organisations’ ability to offer their own employees more flexible technology for a better employee experience,” comments Dilip Bhatia, vice president of global user and customer experience, Lenovo.

“While benefits and financial incentives remain important for attracting and retaining staff, SMB efforts must also be willing to invest in future tools and technology that are mobile, flexible and inclusive," he added.

Earlier this summer Lenovo indicated it was launching a desktop as a service offering to make it easier for partners to provide SMEs with more flexible options around their hardware spending.