Lenovo has today announced the introduction of a new channel strategy, bringing together PC Group and Enterprise Business Group (EBG) channel programs to provide a unified experience to all Lenovo resellers across Australia and New Zealand.
The new channel program aims to provide greater efficiencies to Lenovo and its business partners, opening doors to new growth opportunities.
Furthermore, the new Lenovo Partner Advantage (LPA) program aims to bring “stability and predictability” to Lenovo business partners' margins and profits in the competitive technology industry with the vendor also bringing in higher rebates under the new program to reward partners that overachieve in their sales results.
With the new LPA program, Lenovo will be paying rebates from $1, which means if a partner doesn’t achieve their target, they will still be able to claim a rebate.
Conversely, if a partner overachieves on their quarterly target, they will be eligible for higher rebates than those offered under the previous program.
Another highlight of the new LPA program is the introduction of a Funded Head program which will see Lenovo provide investment for top channel partners with a headcount of over 25 people to hire new staff dedicated to Lenovo within their businesses.
Since January 1, EBG and PC Group have been managed under one channel team giving resellers one point of contact within Lenovo.
Today, marks an even closer integration of the two through a new channel program for all partners operating under the two groups.
The Lenovo Partner Advantage program (LPA) has served the PC Group channel partners for many years and Lenovo wants to transfer the benefits from LPA to EBG partners as well.
“Lenovo is a channel-centric organisation and we are always striving to improve our channel programs and strategies and empower our partners with the best offerings, rewards, and services,” says Fred Viet, Channel Lead A/NZ, Lenovo.
“We have seen the competitive IT market evolve rapidly in the last few years and it is imperative that we facilitate resellers in doing business in this changing landscape.
“While some other vendors are splitting out their business divisions, we are bringing ours together because it makes sense; customers are confronted with a swathe of choices from different IT providers and with our unification of PC Group and EBG’s channel programs, our partners can offer up end-to-end solutions that make life easy for customers to implement or upgrade their IT environment.
“This is an important differentiator for our channel partners and will give them additional opportunities to become managed service providers as well to increase their revenue stream.”
Viet says that the Lenovo Service Provider (LSP) Program, which was announced on April 1, is also a part of this new channel strategy.
This is the first partner program for cloud and managed service providers (MSPs) from Lenovo in Australia and New Zealand, bringing service providers advantages in forms of competitive prices, unique financing plans, and the ability to choose infrastructure from a large and diverse product portfolio that best meets their needs.
According to Viet Lenovo has made additional investments to the channel to enhance the reseller experience including a new partner portal and the introduction of Lenovo LIVE Roadshows which will be travelling around Australia to provide product training and support for partners.
The company has also increased its channel headcount by 20 percent to ensure partners are supported in transitioning to the new LPA program.
