Dell targets small firms with new services

Vostro range gives SMEs a helping hand.

Dell has introduced a range of products and services targeting small and medium-sized businesses. 

The Vostro range is touted as a way to help SMEs manage their IT infrastructures with a new line of PCs and notebooks backed by support services. 

Aongus Hegarty, vice president and general manager of home and small business at Dell EMEA, said: "Dell's goal is to offer the guidance necessary for customers to make informed technology decisions that will best benefit their business, as well as offer continuous IT support throughout the life of their infrastructure and beyond."

The Vostro range consists of four notebooks and two desktop PCs, all of which come with one-year business hardware support as standard, giving users next business day onsite support in the event of hardware failure.

Vostro customers also get the option of Dell's DataSafe Online backup repository of 3GB, 20GB or 30GB for between £19 (A$44.75) and £38 (A$89.51) per year, as well as an application to automatically back up and restore data.

Dell's support centre offers online support information and advice, while the Network Assistant tool helps non-technical users to set up, monitor and troubleshoot their network through a series of on-screen wizards.

Dell has also created teams of technical support staff trained specifically to help small businesses.

The new Dell Connect 2.0 service allows technicians to remotely access and control a customer's PC to help resolve issues and to help train users to perform similar functions in the future by watching the actions on screen.

Dell's PC Tune-up will come pre-installed on all Vostro PCs, helping to keep PCs running at their optimum by combining 30 tuning, performance, security and maintenance tasks.

Dell and Intel have teamed up to create a dedicated small business website to help educate small business owners on the best IT configurations for their needs. 

"Many small companies lack in-house IT support staff to provide guidance on technology decisions, and our microsite will ensure that customers choose solutions that will most effectively benefit their businesses," said Hegarty.

The newly launched site is hosting a Small Business IT Makeover Competition worth £10,000 (A$23,556) to fund new hardware, software and technical support.

The site also includes information and advice on topics like setting up and maintaining a wireless network and protecting PCs against viruses and spam.

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