How does this compare to some of our other online video ads like sumo or troll?

I am surprised, and quite impressed with the unanticipated level of interest and uptake on the new IdeaPad S10 products.   Less than a handful had shipped, when a devoted fan built out his own discussion forum dedicated to the IdeaPad S10.   Now shipment volumes are ramping and reviews are starting to appear. Already, YouTube videos abound, and this one I found exemplary - a quick guide to some potential upgrades and user customization.  Others have already installed SSD media and shared their findings in the performance boost and extended battery life benefits.

This enthusiasm reminds me of my early days with personal computers - the days in grade school with students crowding around an Apple II system to write basic or logo programs or play “Oregon Trail”.  Later, it was a Commodore 64 hooked to my parent’s TV, typing in line after line of basic or ML code published in enthusiast magazines, and then saving them on Audio cassettes.

When I was fifteen or sixteen years old, the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST arrived on the scene - the first home computers to feature hi-resolution screens, 32 bit processors, and GUI interfaces for around $1200.  Computer enthusiasts would drive miles to a nearby city to join a user group and trade free software, and jabber on about what new computers were rumored to be on the horizon. Those who were fortunate enough to have the latest system were all to happy to pack it along to show off.   We would pass the time between meetings, posting and reading text messages on BBS systems via dial up modems.

That was the personal computer community experience circa the late 1980’s.   Fast forward 20 years, and the personal computer has grown exponentially in power, while imploding in size, cost, and weight.   The web, and social media have supplanted the old BBS systems, and geographically bounded user groups.

Share your enthusiasm and expertise in building the IdeaPad community … What’s your favorite site or source for IdeaPad S10 discussion ?

As the ParaOlympic Games draw to a close in Beijing, I wanted to talk about the real action behind Lenovo’s sponsorship of the Olympics: the deployment of our technology behind the scenes, in the venues, and throughout the Olympic infrastructure. Since I used to write this sort of case study for a living at PC Week in the 1980s (we called them Focus On Technologies), I guess I’m as good as any guest blogger to talk about what Lenovo did in Beijing to power the world’s biggest idea, the Olympics.

Some sponsors get to be the official sugar water or fast food of the Games. Others get the sole credit card rights for people buying souvenirs. Lenovo? We literally powered the Games with our PCs, putting some 30,000 notebooks and desktops throughout the Olympic complex across seven cities and more than 300 medal events. The stakes were huge, the opportunities immense, and failure was never an option. Why did we do this? The message to the world is if we can do this; imagine what we can do for your company.

Here are the details on what we rolled out and maintained – without a single hiccup – through the months and days leading up to the Games.

• 24,000 desktop PCs: primarily M55e
• 10,000 17” TFT flat-panel displays
• 2,000 15” touch-screen displays
• 2,000 desktop printers: LJ7800Ns and LJ3500s
• 800 notebook computers; primarily T60s
• 700 servers: SureServe T350, R630, and R520s
• 5,000 showcase models across multiple athlete iLounges, hospitality centers, hotels, media centers ….

The deployment was a challenge simply because there is no legacy system to inherit, transport and build upon in the unique world of Olympic IT. The infrastructure for one Olympiad is not rolled up, stored in a closet, and redeployed two years later. It’s all dismantled and, in the case of the 2008 Summer Olympics, given to the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to dispose of as they see fit to charities and other causes. Given that reality – our engineers had to start from scratch, beginning in 2004, when they started planning not only for Beijing but for the Winter Games in Torino in 2006. As Leon Xie, the man tasked with the project, puts it, this was more than two years of work for two weeks of operations by 600 engineers and support staff. And there was no legacy system to build upon. Every Olympics see its IT infrastructure left behind.

The challenge was spread across seven even sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Hong Kong, and Qingdao in 32 venues and 17 data centers. To insure no glitches four levels of redundancy were built in by the engineering teams.

1. Technicians are staffed at every venue.
2. Periodic venue checks by senior engineers
3. Central 24/7 support at the Technology Operations Center
4. Pre-Games support from Lenovo R&D centers.

The question begged is what did these systems actually do? From accreditation desks when athletes checked into the Athlete Olympic Village and journalists into the media center to the results captured when Michael Phelps’ finger tips hit the Omega timing pad in the Water Cube and then were shared with those journalists with unwavering accuracy …. Lenovo systems processed, communicated, and shared the digital stream of these Olympics with 100% uptime and accuracy.

The big test came during the first set of rains in mid-August. Dozens of ThinkPads were soaked during the downpours; all came through beautifully thanks to their self-draining keyboards.

It has been awhile since my last post, but today I wanted to share some good news from Lenovo Hong Kong.

An event called Lenovo Blogger Meet-up was held in the wonderland, Hong Kong, Friday, Aug 15th and the blogger attendance rate really amazed me. The turnout rate was 100%! The event was the first Lenovo event in the region organized specifically for bloggers. It is certainly a good start for Lenovo to engage the bloggers in sharing information and awareness of Lenovo.

The 20 plus bloggers were very excited to met each other in person in this first ever held Lenovo blogger meet-up. During the event some new Lenovo products were presented to the bloggers, for instance the IdeaPad S9 and S10. The audience considered themselves lucky to be given the opportunity to view and test the new products before they were available for public.

Models paraded the netbooks for everyone, each individual representing a unique identity to cater to contrasting styles and preferences.

As an appreciation of the bloggers who attended the event, a drawing was conducted and the gifts were unique and well received. There were Ideapad S9 and S10 notebooks and a USB Pendrive with Olympic Torch design given away to the lucky winners. The winners were very happy to walk away with the prizes and some were thrilled to own the new Lenovo netbook.

Throughout the event, demo machines were available for the audience to get a hands-on experience on the newly launched netbooks. The staff was overwhelmed by the response as the bloggers were so enthusiastic to try out the new IdeaPad.

We appreciate all the bloggers and were delighted to see they have blogged their own impressions of the event. See what Tinyau, Daisy, Sammy thought. We hope to hear from more from them, and other top bloggers in the Lenovo community.

The blogger community is important - their opinions of our products and their influence should not be ignored in this contemporary world. There is no national boundary for bloggers; their voice should be heard regardless where they are from; as Lenovo says, “New World. New Thinking.”

联想与博友的聚会

自上一次的文章，已经好久没动笔了。然而，今天为博友们带来了好消息！

上两周的星期五，八月十五日，香港联想举办了有史以来第一场与博友们会面的聚会。现场百分百出席率令人鼓舞，毕竟这是联想首次与博友近距离接触，意义非凡！这场活动，无疑是个好的开始。通过此次活动，我们更能有效地将联想新产品的讯息传达予博友。除了让在场的博友们参与发表意见，以从中了解他们对联想的期待之外，与此同时，我们亦希望能籍博友们的“神手”，与众网友分享联想的最新资讯和进展。

现场20多名博友在相互认识了“同行”后， 像是一见如故，交言甚欢。大会当晚，万众期待的一幕也隆重登场。联想首次介绍了即将面市的笔记本电脑Ideapad S9 与 S10，让博友们大饱眼福，惊叹不已。

除此之外，现场也有五位专业模特儿为新产品Ideapad走秀。各式装扮的模特儿手持不同色彩的Ideapad，巧妙地展现了Ideapad可用于各种场合的灵活性。

为了感谢博友们的热烈支持，香港联想增加了幸运抽奖环节。主办当局还准备了Ideapad S9 、 S10以及祥雲火炬USB优盘，大派丰富礼品，让现场观众大呼惊喜！尤其是获得Ideapad的幸运儿，非常雀跃，迫不及待地想亲身验试赠品。

当晚，大会也提供了一本Ideapad样品，让博友们“亲手”体验；现场的反应，可是无比热烈！这样的场合，当然少不了问答环节。出席者皆积极参与反馈，气氛很是不错。对于此次活动，多位博友给予了赞赏。尽管如此，有者亦表示联想在此类活动仍有进步的空间。

更令人惊喜的是活动结束以后，一群博友便第一时间上网，着手描写了有关此次活动。不仅述说当晚情景，有者还上载展示自己的收获品，速度快得让人赞佩。其中，极为热情的博友有天佑、Daisy和Sammy等人。

如今，在这科技极度发达的世界里，网络上的博客社区犹如产品同等重要；任何一方都不能漠视。博友是不分国界的，无论他/她身在何处，大家都来自“同一个世界”；即使语言不同，但亦不会因此而产生隔阂。我们重视博友们的声音, 因为这正是联想一直所秉承的“New World. New Thinking”.

Be sure to check out the bonus video just added (8/22) at the bottom.

Tim Supples

Edit: Got a special behind the scenes look on the set of the Sumo commercial for our loyal blog readers. Enjoy

It was in 1992 that my father gave me his old 386 PC which promptly got converted to a machine without a 5.25” floppy, but instead a Phillips 2x CD-RW (which cost me a week’s wages), a new motherboard, and a 200 MMX CPU (another week’s wages gone). I had some limited exposure to computers before, but this was the start of my hobby PC “expert” phase which with my sales and customer service experience gained over the years (in the motorcycle trade) landed me a job in a Notebook Studio in Düsseldorf towards the end of 2000. This is when I really learned about hobby PC “experts” and found out that I really knew not a lot. I was duly issued an IBM 600 as my work machine, truly introduced to the ThinkPad and, yes, I caught the “Bug”. At about this same time IBM had started a new concept: the ThinkPad Centre. A scheme which would enable business and private customers to seek out a more knowledgeable and informed partner to answer their questions regarding products and solutions, including the then evolving, to be named later, ThinkVantage Technologies.

And so the shop became a ThinkPad Centre. At this time the ability for customers to order direct from IBM online was also ended. It was increasingly noticeable that more and more people were turning to Notebooks instead of PCs; they were becoming a lot more affordable and so the market was opening up to more and more potential customers. A Notebook was no longer a luxury product; they were being sold in the home electrical stores, and not to mention the ever increasing number of Internet shops.

There was some uncertainty, amongst other things, about how the future looked when the IBM / Lenovo deal was first announced. The question arose as to whether or not they would be equally committed to their partners and products, as Lenovo was seen more as a consumer market orientated company than a business market. Hindsight, yes that perfect science, has shown these concerns were unfounded and I can honestly say that I don’t know on which day the deal actually happened; it seems to have gone unnoticed except for the name change on the letter head we were receiving, and the ThinkPad Centres eventually became Lenovo Stores.

Although the notebook market was rapidly growing, for the specialized shop without a web-front it was shrinking. Price was becoming the major factor, the electrical stores were competing with each other and of course all the web-shops were doing the same which pushed down profit margins. Everyday we were seeing the web-shops offering more and more of the same products at our cost price, obviously working on the high turnover minimum profit principle. What I call minimalistic labour unintensive selling; let the customer make his or her choice and carry the box to, or click on, the checkout. How many of these customers have over the years purchased an unsuitable product because they basically didn’t know what they were buying and the salesperson didn’t always know what they were selling? Added to this the Notebook manufacturers were competing with their own special offer programs such as those for students and educational institutions, thus almost completely denying that portion of the market to the specialists.

With hindsight (there it is again) our company didn’t take the correct fork in the road and 2 years ago closed. I decided to try and carry on the business alone with Lenovo allowing me to retain the Store status. My decision to do this was based on the fact that no matter where a system is purchased, there will always be a need for accessories and, more importantly, service and support outside the warranty. The customers who lay value on buying from a person who can advise and inform them will always be my mainstay. I have even learned to bite my tongue a bit now and then as the students and internet buyers call by and ask their questions or just want to look at what they plan to purchase elsewhere before taking the final decision, sometimes getting nervous when I start asking about making them an offer. Some more obviously have a copy of the web site offer printed out in their hand and ask your opinion about the offer.

I see this as an opportunity and a challenge; I can stress the advantages of having a person, whom the buyer has got to know and trust and who is in a position to draw on his knowledge to offer advice and assistance as the first contact should service or support be required, instead of the alternative unknown voice on the other end of the telephone. As Lenovo’s market share increases, its ThinkPad product range extends with the new SL-Series and it also enters the consumer market with the Idea product range (not yet launched in Germany), there will be an increasing demand for advice, assistance and support.

The consumer market they are destined for is a much faster-changing market than the ThinkPad business market. With product lifecycle being the main factor, consistency of product compatibility is important in the business market. It will be several months before a major component or feature change on ThinkPads takes place as a large portion of the market requires consistency, companies can roll out systems throughout the year without having to repeatedly update their corporate software images. This is also why it’s still possible to download ThinkPad drivers for Windows 2000. This consistency of hardware and image compatibility is not a factor in the consumer market, probably not achievable, it’s in fact entirely the opposite situation; the manufacturer who doesn’t have the latest CPU, GPU or gadget in their product is risking getting left behind and I don’t see that Lenovo, or any manufacturer come to that, can allow this to happen. Resources will be spent on hardware updates and getting it working on a specific platform rather than multiple platforms.

As long as people buy whatever product they need, the need for advice, assistance and support will be ever present and I plan to be there - who knows maybe even one day, Lenovo permitting, offering the complete package as a warranty service partner.

All along these years I have been a bit of a layman about computers, a person who would use the usual software or tools without any choice. Why do I find opensource so amazing? My reason is that it provides a very good competition to large scale software companies because the rise of a formidable competitor in opensource will leave other companies with no choice but to provide better products. I have been using GNU/Linux for 6 years and it was this platform that presented various questions and queries. Remember Linux was not so user friendly once as it is today!

Due to my interest in computers and GNU/LINUX , I was inclined to try every single distro I could get my hands on, exploring the various characteristics of them though the web and social media. It is these kind of platforms which provide increased know-how to persons who are interested in these kind of areas. For example, Linux is being used as a tool for developing the rudimentary knowledge of computers for school children in the state of Kerala, which has India’s highest literacy rate. The state government chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be deployed not only in state run schools but also for its administrative purposes. In the IT policy of the federal government, the use of opensource software has provided many advantages such as the localization of important platforms like Mozilla Firefox and open office.org into our regional languages. I wonder whether that could have been possible, or as easily accomplished with proprietary software makers?

It is also Linux which powers India’s first locally made hand held computer called the “Simputer.”

Used under Creative Commons license (by-sa) from http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/wos_3/presse/pressebilder.html

More on the simputer…

Innovative mechanisms like these and much more have given Indian people the power to utilize their synergies in a good manner. For a country such as India where any initiative in IT sector should be started in a big manner due to its huge population,(1.1 billion) a viable and economical solution is the adaption of opensource systems as a whole.

Vijay Saradhi

Today, we hear from Steve, who volunteers his time to moderate on both the Lenovo and ThinkPads.com forum. Taking a look at his private collection of ThinkPads, which I hear has nearly doubled since these pictures were taken, it’s hard to imagine anyone who better personifies the moniker of ThinkPad enthusiast… 
 

Hi, my name is Steve and I have an addiction that apparently many other people have. I love ThinkPads…everything ThinkPads! Call me a geek; it’s okay, I don’t mind. I fell in love with ThinkPads after working on my first one, a 600. It had a simple Pentium II 266MHz processor with a 6GB hard drive, but it was so easy to work on and IBM had everything documented in the form of Hardware Maintenance Manuals. The 600 series, including the 600E which I started working on next, had the best keyboard I had ever seen on a laptop. To this day, I still feel that it is the best keyboard ever made. The 600 series was just so sturdy, plain and simple. I continued to work on this series for a number of years, until it seemed to be considered antiquated by the general masses. Since then I have moved on to as many models as I can get my hands on, up to and including my T61. Along the way, I have been buying and selling ThinkPads, creating just enough extra cash flow to allow me to back up and purchase quite a few of the older models to begin building my own shrine to the ThinkPad name. Here are some pictures that I took last year, when I only had about 20 Thinkpads (I now have over 40 working ThinkPad systems):

Some might ask, why the ThinkPad? It looks so plain and simple. Well, I’ll take plain and simple any day, when they are as durable as ThinkPads have proven themselves to me. Besides, I look at it this way, if I were sitting at a coffee shop using my ThinkPad across from someone using a nice and shiny Mac or Dell, and we both turned our backs for a moment…who’s laptop is likely to disappear first? Mr. Flashy, or Mr. Plain and Simple? I rest my case…

During my years of working on ThinkPads, I stumbled across an incredibly informative and professional forum: forum.thinkpads.com. I found myself on that forum EVERY day, reading and learning more about ThinkPads. After about 6 months of surfing that forum, I was asked to become a moderator. Wow, talk about an exciting honor. Then a year and a half later I was honored again, this time by the Lenovo staff, when I was asked to become a moderator on Lenovo’s own forum, as they were getting ready to launch it.

Just for fun and more proof that I am addicted to ThinkPads, here’s one of two videos I created regarding the arrival of my T61 last year. I posted them on YouTube and at the time of this writing, they have over 58,000 views combined!!

From there, I went on to use my original Youtube channel to create ThinkPad repair videos, which I didn’t get very far with due to lack of time. I am hoping to begin posting more videos under that account over the summer. You can check out that channel here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Steve aka tfflivemb2 (Moderator at forum.lenovo.com and forum.thinkpads.com)T61,T42(x2)T41,T40(x2),R40,T30(x2),T23(x3),T21,T20,X20,A31,A21M,600/E/X(multiples of each),770X,i1400(x2),760XL,760ED(x2 w/base),380XD,755CD,750P,360P,365X,560X,701C/CS,730T,PS/Note

And, if we aren’t doing that, how do our customers know we are truly listening?

Mark

You may remember when Chris Askew highlighted Lenovo’s focus on Customer Delight and a new service survey that we launched to gauge our performance. Boy did you guys take notice! We have received over 42,000 responses to date in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil since starting on July 9^th, 2007!

It has been so successful that we are now expanding the program and are very close to launching the Customer Delight survey process worldwide. You should start seeing the new surveys everywhere in August.But don’t think that we are stopping there. Getting good feedback is only one part of the performance picture! Feedback without action is apathy and there is no place in Lenovo for that. One of the first things we did when we started the new survey is to assemble teams across all of our service channels (Depot, Onsite, CRU , Helpcenter) to review the surveys and develop actions to resolve the issues identified. Some of the results of this work have been showing up in our service channels over the past six months, and I thought I’d highlight a few of those actions here today.

If you have ever phoned a call center you have definitely heard it: “Thank you for calling…” The VRU, otherwise known as a Voice Response Unit, is scornfully referred to as a four letter word by many. You told us that our call center VRU was an extremely long thing that was confusing and hard to navigate. Well we heard you loud and clear! After receiving your surveys about our VRU we worked with our service partner, IBM, and completely revamped the VRU from scratch. The US call center receives thousands of calls per day so this was something that had an impact for many customers. Our VRU team identified several rather compelling facts which surprised us:

• 30% of our customers were spending over two minutes listening to the VRU before they even got connected to a technician.
• If they listened to each message completely it could take as long as five minutes!
• Because our support number was so complex we also found that some 19% of our calls were mis-routed due to the wrong option being selected .

On the weekend of June 15^th, 2008 all of that changed when we went live with a completely revamped VRU: it’s not only shorter but it’s also less complex. Since the new options have gone in place errors resulting in a transfer been reduced from 19% to 2%. Even better, 90% of all calls are now through the VRU and connected within 30-60 seconds. We also made it easier for you to identify which option to choose for Lenovo support.

(See figure below - this is the simplified version, the original was too large and complex to be viewed on a single screen )

Larger image

Another thing we heard was that our pixel policy on ThinkPads was too complex - with thresholds for replacement varying by screen size, resolution, and in certain combinations of stuck on or off pixels. We agree. As of this week, there is a new, simplified policy in place that we believe is close to being an industry best. If you have more than 2 defective pixels on any in-warranty ThinkPad purchased Jan 1, 2008 or later, Lenovo will replace your LCD. Here is the new policy.

You also told us that our returns and replacement process was too much of a hassle. While our return policy mirrored the industry standard, we have taken steps to ensure that any hardware defects or failures encountered during the first 21 days of ownership are addressed quickly and easily. We won’t require you to service your system before you can return or replace it, if it is defective. If you would like to give us a chance to repair it, we can extend a free one time upgrade to Onsite repair to get it fixed quickly. If you still wish a refund or replacement, we will now conference you with our Sales team and stay with you. If you bought your system as part of our employee, friends, and family purchase program you’re now accommodated with the same options as a regular sale. (In the past, due to the deep discounts, additional limitations applied)

The improvements don’t end there, and many more are underway. Please continue to provide feedback through these post service surveys. If our service didn’t exceed you expectations let us know so we can make sure we change that. If we did a good job then let us know that as well. We reward performance and would love to include your comments in our service awards for high performers.

Soon after launching this blog,  we launched our customer community forum, and I’ve been fully immersed in that ever since.   The forum is a human network, each member acting as an originator,  transmitter, or receiver of information.   Members often participate in other forums, some even span languages.  Through contributing new ideas, raising issues, offering solutions, and propagating the information flow through linking and reposting, a vast and very global human network is operating on top of the physical internet.

Whether we twitter, blog, or participate in communities - forums, facebook, Orkut, etc - our online activities within all social networks, parallel the same kind of operations being carried out by the internet itself, and the bridges, routers, and servers which comprise it. All courtesy of these “Web 2.0″ apps. 

But unlike the internet, the human network is volitional - people choose where they link, where they participate , how they contribute, and perhaps most interestingly, to what end.    Where is this heading?

*Joe Cothrel, VP of Lithium’s Community management had this to say on the company’s blog..

“..Where does enterprise social media go from here?  Contrary to conventional wisdom, we aren’t really at the beginning of anything: we’re halfway through a generation-long business transformation that began with the advent of the commercial web more than a dozen years ago.  In the first phase, we learned how to create environments in which customers would find value in interaction.  In the second phase, which we’re now in, we’re learning how to listen.   Before the transformation is complete, we’ll see a new kind of business organization, one that creates and perfects its products and processes in an ongoing dialogue with its customers.  I don’t see any company completing this cycle today.  But I think we’ll see it soon…”

So with the plumbing of the blogs and forums in place, and a growing customer community participating actively with us, I’m very excited to see how the global human network - social media, transforms the way in which Lenovo and it’s customers interact. 

 What do you see as a possible future?

*Disclosure:  Lenovo uses Lithium technologies in it’s forum community.