International Business Machines Corp on Wednesday launched a service in which small and medium-sized businesses can have IBM manage their personal computers and printers, making it easier for them to avoid viruses.
The service, which is part of the Armonk, New York company's push beyond its traditional, large customers, is priced at $40 per user per month. The program is based on remotely managing through software the technology chores that are typically handled manually.
It is the first time that IBM has offered such managed services to small and medium businesses and it is a lower price than it has charged larger companies. IBM has been targeting the small and medium-sized markets as it looks for more growth in the corporate sector. It is not alone as hardware competitor Hewlett-Packard Co is also interested in a market that was once viewed as too small for such big companies.
IBM said that the service will make it easier for small businesses to keep up with viruses and spam by scanning incoming and outgoing e-mails.