Shifting away from its tradition of serving the mid-size and enterprise markets, Lenovo recently announced the ThinkCentre E Series, PCs built with the needs of small business in mind.
According to Dilip Bhatia, Lenovo’s program director, feedback from small business owners (Lenovo defines small business as companies with one to 99 employees) showed they were looking for specific qualities. “They want systems that are easy-to-use and reliable,” said Bhatia. “They’re looking for good value and technical support they can count on right out of the box.”
As a result, the new series offers a range of configurations in two form factors — the ThinkCentre E50 Small Desktop, designed for small spaces and the E50 Tower, which offers increased expansion options. Between the two form factors, the company offers 12 different models with a range of configuration options.
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Small Business Features
Other features aimed at attracting small business include one of Lenovo’s ThinkVantage technology applications, Rescue and Recovery. This one-button recovery tool is designed to let you recover data, restore your hard drive after system crashes, even if the PC’s operating system won’t boot.
“Rescue and Recovery lets you handle these kinds of problems without having to rely on an IT person,” said Bhatia. “It’s a very handy feature that resonates with small businesses. Most of them don’t have the resources to outsource IT, and this pre-loaded application provides peace of mind.”
The ThinkVantage software also addresses data backup, another issue critical to small business. You can configure Rescue and Recovery to perform automatic data backup to a server to an external storage drive, which provides yet another layer of security.
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There are times, of course, when a small business needs technical help, and Bhatia says customers will receive service and support from IBM.
“The E Series combines reliable technology, good value and top-notch service and support,” said Bhatia, “which will help small businesses spend less time worrying about their technology and more time focused on their core business.”
Details
A partial list of E Series configuration options include Pentium 4 or Celeron D processors, Windows XP (Home or Professional), integrated graphics, 2-or-4GB DDR 400MHz memory, 40-, 80- or 160GB SATA or Parallel ATA hard drives, and a range of DVD or CD drives.
Available now through Lenovo’s site and through business partners such as CDW, Insight, PC Connections , Zones and Tech Depot, the E series pricing starts at $379 and ranges up to $859, depending on the configuration you choose.
Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com
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