Lenovo DCG was spun off as a separate entity on 1st April 2017. Ashish Taneja Channel Lead, Lenovo DCG, says, “We do not have any intention, any direction and no inclination to do direct business. We have an account management model backed by our partners. For any size and shape of business, we are not changing our strategy as some competitors have.”
Channel Strategy This Year
Channel is developing constantly. The way OEMs are addressing the customers, the consumption models, go-to-market strategies, everything is changing. A lot of consolidation is happening in the channel business.
Ashish mentioned, “A decade back, the top line was a big driver but now profitability has become a driving factor. New solutions including security, IoT, Cloud, etc. are coming big way.
Market dynamics are changing along with demographics. Few years ago, BYOD was a big story, but we have gone beyond that. Edge devices are becoming smarter.
Lenovo DCG is aiming at transforming the channel experience with new digital capabilities that include smarter workspace, smarter pricing, smarter co-selling and smarter processes.
Lenovo had launched a server in India called SE350, which is an edge server and available for the partners. It’s compact and can easily be compared to the size of a laptop. The server can be installed on a wall like a router. It comes with WiFi and LTE capabilities and can work in 50 – 55 degree temperature. In a factory environment, where there is no requirement of wires, our server can activate WiFi and provides intranet connection for sharing files and folders. It is secure and scalable. So, in a nutshell, Lenovo is product ready.
Ashish mentioned, “For the size and scale of company that we are, the channel dependence and focus is very high. Our vested interest makes the channel more enabled, more focused, deeply rooted, and more automated, as much possible.”
Digital Campaign Studio “The Power of Zero”
Lenovo DCG’s self-service digital marketing tool empowers our channel partners to create & publish Digital Marketing Campaigns remotely. Our business partners can create co-marketing assets, in a matter of minutes for their marketing efforts with a single sing on to Lenovo Partner Portal (LPP). Together, Lenovo and our partners can create and benefit from the best co-branded lead-generating & CRM campaigns, with an objective to speed up our partner’s go-to-market activities with customers.
Pre-sales and Certification:
The Lenovo Partner Engage Program provides the partners with tools and resources they need, ranging from marketing support to sales tools or product demos, on the Lenovo Partner Portal. Lenovo also has an exclusive Lenovo Expert Achievers Program (LEAP) which is exclusive to Data Center Program Partners; helps them quickly boost their knowledge on Lenovo Data Center solutions while earning points. These professionals help to create a pool of pre-sales professionals in our partner organization. Besides, the portal offers tools about how to train themselves in the language they should use while interacting with the customers and independently make decisions in terms of sizing and pricing of the product while creating BOM for the customers. It also has a deal registration option. So, everything comes within the partner portal tools including rebate and calculation, etc.
Products
Lenovo DCG has two product lines i.e. ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile. While the former are the Data Centre building blocks, the latter is the Software Defined Portfolio that brings in flexibility, scale and ease of management.
In fact, Lenovo DCG is the biggest partner for Nutanix. Ashish Taneja Channel Lead, Lenovo DCG says, “We contribute substantially to Nutanix business in APJ. In Asia, we lead the pack. This is one of the strongest and aggressive partnerships in the world. It is synonymous with HCI for us as a story.”
From a sales point of view, within the channel practice of Lenovo, the company has two motions i.e. volume motion and value motion. We have an in-depth engagement model in both the motions. For the size and stage of that our business is in, we have been very selective with our choice of partners. In the value business, Lenovo has a new structure where Channel and SMB markets fall under one bracket. In the SMB segment, particularly in a non-named account, Lenovo’s Partner Account Manager (PAM) helps the channel to scale their business.
Finally…
In response to the global COVID-19 situation, Lenovo has responded to COVID-19 by empowering local leaders to act with the well-being of our teams as their top priority. In a fast-changing situation, flexibility is important, and we have leveraged our global teams to support one another and maintain consistent business operations. As offices outside China ask employees who can to work remotely, offices and factories in China have reopened. Thus, we’ve been able to minimize the impact on our business as much as possible.
We pride ourselves on our global manufacturing footprint and distribution networks, meaning at a time like this we can leverage the full strength of our 30+ factory operations around the world as we ramp up production. In addition, we are working around the clock with our logistics providers to move freight as fast as possible while adhering to all government regulations. We are still able to move freight across borders, but with the reduction of shipping capacity, transportation times are often taking longer. Our focus continues to be to minimize potential customer impact and you have my commitment that we are doing everything we can within our power to mitigate any potential effect to your business and our valued relationship.
