IBM has designed a set of services specifically for
small and medium-sized businesses that need help managing their
desktop PCs and printers.
The suite, called IBM Desktop Management Services, is available
now and is priced starting at $40 a seat per month.
The services are delivered remotely by IBM via the internet
through servers loaded with desktop management software that IBM
places at the clients' sites, said Dale Moegling, manager of
International Desktop Services at IBM Global Services.
The suite of services will enhance and reduce the cost of
companies' desktop management, while freeing up in-house IT
staffers to do more sophisticated work, Moegling said.
He gave the hypothetical example of a hospital, where the
internal IT staffers would be able to devote more time to hospital
applications, while IBM would provide the day-to-day management of
desktops, such as virus-definition updates and network monitoring.
"Our offering is for more traditional, mechanical support
services," he said.
Only PCs running Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP can be
serviced by IBM. Other desktop operating systems, such as those
based on Linux, are not supported.
IBM will deliver a suite of services that includes, among other
things:
- the IBM servers that are remotely managed by IBM over the
internet and that have the necessary desktop management
software;
- automated backup of end-users' desktop PCs, so that in the
event of a hard-disc failure, the PC can be reconstituted by IBM
remotely without intervention from the client's IT staff;
- updating of virus definitions, sometimes before the definitions
become generally available, and virus scanning;
- remote desktop monitoring, including automatic software
distribution and updates.
"This suite of services is interesting because it is fairly
comprehensive and addresses buckets of different areas that are of
concern to SMBs," said Summit Strategies analyst John Madden. "It
hits all the pain points."
The suite shows that IBM effectively adapted services and
methods it has provided to large companies and repackaged them for
SMEs in a way that is affordable and simpler, he said. Now IBM
needs to continue making its case to SMEs, which may not until now
have considered IBM a services provider they could afford, Madden
said.
"These SMB folks may be wondering why IBM would want their
business. IBM needs to convince them that not only does it want
their business, but that it will go out of its way to get it. IBM
needs to keep focused on making itself attractive to them."
IBM's initiative is yet another indication of the rising
importance of SMEs for large IT services providers, which see a
growth area in this segment of the market, Madden said. Other IBM
IT services competitors focusing on catering to SMEs include
Hewlett-Packard, Electronic Data Systems and Dell.
Two factors are fuelling the IT services growth in the SME
segment: one is an increase in demand from SMEs themselves for IT
services, and the other is a new-found interest from large IT
services providers in this traditionally underserved market.
"The growth has to come from somewhere, and large IT services
providers are looking to the midmarket for it," Madden said. "SMB
clients will feel particularly well-catered to in the coming
years."
Juan Carlos Perez writes for IDG News
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