Single-digit growth in IT spending this year

Single-digit growth in IT spending this year

Lenovo pins its hopes on digital economy

A salesman provides details of a notebook at a recent IT fair in Bangkok. Sales of PCs in the first two months saw flat growth as a result of the weak economy. NARUPON HINSHIRANAN
A salesman provides details of a notebook at a recent IT fair in Bangkok. Sales of PCs in the first two months saw flat growth as a result of the weak economy. NARUPON HINSHIRANAN

Thailand's PC market saw flat growth in the first two months of this year on the back of a lacklustre economy and weak consumer sentiment.

Overall information technology (IT) spending is expected to experience only single-digit growth this year instead of the double-digit performance anticipated earlier.

"The growth of the IT industry is the best possible way we could keep up with the pace of GDP," said Jeerawut Wongpimporn, general manager of Lenovo (Thailand).

The local operating unit of the world's largest computer maker is pinning its hopes on the government's stimulus package to boost IT spending this year.

Mr Jeerawut said the digital economy policy should serve as a wake-up call to businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to adopt more advanced technologies to increase their competitiveness and reduce costs.

The company is promoting its end-to-end product portfolios including PCs, mobiles and tablets for the consumer segment and computer servers and storage for enterprise customers.

Lenovo Group paid US$2.3 billion for IBM's computer server business last year.

Mr Jeerawut said that would enable Lenovo to penetrate the untapped enterprise customer segment.

"We're repositioning ourselves as a global enterprise IT service provider instead of a global PC maker," he said.

To achieve this goal, Lenovo kicked off its "Global Think Forward" programme, in what it says is the biggest campaign since its inception. The campaign is aimed at demonstrating the group's overall IT solutions.

Mr Jeerawut said the company planned to restructure its local sales teams to shift its focus to the manufacturing sector including automotive and export, banking, education, health care and telecommunications.

Manufacturing is a strategic sector, as it accounts for up to 33% of the country's GDP, he said.

Mr Jeerawut said Lenovo expects revenue from the enterprise sector to match that of the consumer segment this year.

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