Lenovo Powers Online Entrepreneurs with ThinkPad Tablets

Helping entrepreneurs and SMBs drive their business and social lives

PETALING JAYA – August 7, 2012: Malaysian entrepreneurs and small medium business (SMB) owners are increasingly comfortable with technology and are inclined to be social media savvy, leveraging tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and blogs for their businesses. In Malaysia, e-commerce and Internet-based businesses are booming markets. With over 16 million Internet users, and an Internet penetration rate of 55% of the general population, Malaysia has an ever-growing market of online customers who are also social media savvy.

Social networks and mobile interconnectivity are encouraging a fundamental shift in areas such as how people interact with each other as well as changing the rules of engagement in the business world. Through these entrepreneurs, Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet has provided a key tool for them to meet their business goals, emphasizing the importance of having the right tools for the job.[From left to right] Farah Melissa, co-founder of Raindough, Carie Ho, Marketing Communications Manager of Lenovo Malaysia, and Vijandren Ramadass, CEO and founder of Lowyat.net posing with the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet.

Khoo Hung Chuan, Country General Manager, Lenovo Malaysia said: “SMB owners have their own unique set of computing challenges and needs, requiring the right tools and technology to grow their businesses. This project was a win-win for us – and entrepreneurs like Vijandren and Farah – as a proof of concept on how our Lenovo products can help drive collaboration and productivity for their business, but also play a big part in their increasingly digital social life.”
For a period of two months, May to June 2012, the entrepreneurs put the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet to the test, using it for their business and social lives. During that time, they experienced firsthand the performance, mobility, connectivity and security that the ThinkPad Tablet had to offer and came away impressed. Without hesitation, the entrepreneurs overwhelmingly gave their stamp of approval to the tablet which is designed in mind for
entrepreneurs like them.For the mobile entrepreneur: Vijandren Ramadass, founder and CEO of the popular online portal, Lowyat.net (www.lowyat.net)

Vijandren Ramadass has embraced the Internet and the social aspect of Malaysians, ever since he started the original one-page website Lowyat.net in late 2002. At first providing mere IT product related prices online to interested bargain hunters, the portal has now grown to incorporate “almost everything under the sun.” The online space has always been a big part of Lowyat.net, and the portal has now since grown to include forums, news, a robust classifieds section, and of course – a large social media presence.

“As an online business where the need for reliable machines is of the utmost importance, I have always invested in the Lenovo brand,” said Vijandren. “The ThinkPad Tablet is yet another interesting and innovative product that Lowyat.net will be looking to adopt in the near future as the trend moves from notebooks to tablets.”

As a CEO and from a business standpoint, Vijandren finds the ThinkPad Tablet an invaluable tool in meetings or while on the go. “I was able to do a lot more charts and work flow sketches without the need to redraw when things needed to be changed,” said Vijandren. “Team brainstorming also became much more productive as we could individually update plans on the ThinkPad Tablet that was in turn hooked up to a large screen LCD TV.”Perfect for the social entrepreneur: Farah Melissa, co-owner of Raindough (www.raindough.com.my)

Raindough, an online bake shop, was started by three best friends in Kuala Lumpur (KL) as an online blog that showcases and sells cakes online. Growing in popularity and generating a big following via social media sharing and word of mouth marketing, their mouth watering cupcakes and custom cake creations solidified their reputation as one of the best stores to find delicious cakes in KL – all from the comfort of a computer. After a couple years, the girls of Raindough moved from a Blogspot blog to a domain of their own. On their website or social media networks you can find galleries of their cakes, as well as an option to place email orders for your own dream or custom creations.

“The ThinkPad Tablet has really helped Raindough by enabling us to tweet, Instagram and Facebook images of our products easily! The email feature on the tablet also helped us manage our various orders on our various email accounts,” said Farah.

Keeping up with their followers and orders online is just one part of Raindough’s daily task. “Since our business model is based on online orders and enquiries, the applications that we depend on like email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are always on the ThinkPad Tablet, making it easier for us to manage our orders, marketing or PR activities,” added Farah.
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