I've not used Lightroom - but it sounds a lot like Bridge, which was included with Photoshop, though I'm guessing it has some extended capabilities.

I use Bridge to open and correct raw files. It has some basic editing - you can adjust color balance and levels, crop and probably some other stuff I've never tried. It allows batching too and is non-destructive. One of my colleagues uses it to make contact sheets and says it's easier than using the batch function in Photoshop.