Pascal Bourguet (Lenovo)
The impending launch of Lenovo 360, the Chinese hardware vendor’s new consolidated global channel partner framework, may have been a long time coming, but its arrival is likely to present partners with a plethora of new options.
First detailed in June this year, the vendor is poised to officially launch Lenovo 360 in January 2022 in a bid to provide partners with easier access to the entire Lenovo portfolio across devices, infrastructure and services and solutions.
The introduction of Lenovo 360 follows the company’s reorganisation earlier this year, resulting in three core business units: the Intelligent Devices Group, the company’s core PC and internet of things (IoT) business; the Infrastructure Solutions Group; and a new Solutions and Services Group focused on verticals and services.
It is under the new Solutions and Services division, led by former Lenovo president Ken Wong, that the company provides its smart verticals, attached services, managed services and ‘as-a-service offerings,’ including Device-as-a-Service.
It is, in part, these ‘as-a-service' offerings that the new channel partner framework aims to better accommodate.
Credit: Lenovo The vendor has claimed, in its own words, that Lenovo 360 works to align partners’ needs to easily expand their sales footprint, with the framework helping partners to expand their Lenovo offerings.
Indeed, the company has pointed out that the new Lenovo 360 framework comes at a time when many small businesses and large enterprises alike are increasingly moving toward the ‘everything-as-a-service' consumption model.
Lenovo 360, which will become globally enabled for partners via the Lenovo Partner Hub in January next year, is expected to help partners capitalise on service-led and solutions-based opportunities with their customers while driving additional revenue streams.
“We recognise that we have partners who would like to diversify their revenue and earnings streams by becoming more service-led or solutions-based,” said Pascal Bourguet, Lenovo’s global channel chief.
“Lenovo 360 unites our portfolio in a way that delivers easier access to our full suite of products and solutions and will allow partners the opportunity to pursue those goals, while still offering our PC and infrastructure-focused partners anything that they demand.”
“Many of Lenovo’s partners are seeking disruption-proof solutions for their customers, considering the lessons learned during the pandemic. Solutions that support such new norms as work-from-anywhere (WFA) and other hybrid working models will be available to the channel under one structure now,” he added.
It is claimed that the framework brings with it more unified global channel team structures and introduces solutions enabling greater workforce productivity and collaboration, infrastructure flexibility, sustainability improvements and industry specific solutions to address common business challenges.
Specifically, Lenovo claims that rebate accelerator programs like the ‘Better Together’ and ‘TruScale Accelerator’ initiatives offer partners the opportunity to increase earnings up to 30 per cent or more on sales across the company’s portfolio of products and solutions, and sales through 'as-a-service'.
In addition to ensuring the simplification of Lenovo’s overall partner process, the Lenovo 360 framework is also intended to offer the company’s channel partners specific activations, such as training, certifications and channel marketing playbooks.
“Through Lenovo 360 we have also created turnkey marketing materials and campaigns that our partners will be able to leverage, ensuring they can go to market as soon as we do, with the most current solution and service information,” said Bourguet.
“Additionally, we are adding more resources in subject matter experts to provide concierge-level of service that guarantees our partners always have access to the products, services, experts and Lenovo talent they need,” he added.
In September, Lenovo dramatically expanded its ‘everything-as-a-service' consumption-based business model, bringing its Lenovo TruScale offering to a wide range of new laptops, tablets, monitors and edge computing and accessory devices.
Announced during the vendor’s seventh annual global technology event Tech World, Lenovo revealed it would expand its TruScale brand beyond infrastructure services, effectively bringing all of its as-a-service offerings under one umbrella to provide, in the company’s own words, “a truly global solution that makes everything, from the pocket to the cloud, accessible via a single contract”
Lenovo rolled out a subscription-based service under the banner of Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure Services in early 2019, taking the offering to channel partners and sales representatives across the Asia Pacific region, as part of a global initiative.
Now, Lenovo claims its TruScale offering gives businesses of all sizes the flexibility they need to stay competitive with a scalable, cloud-like consumption model and predictable payment options for hardware and service inclusions.
Lenovo is not alone in its efforts to broaden its as-a-service offering, with other hardware vendors, including Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and IBM, also offering consumption-based pricing for things like servers, storage and networking resources used for their data centres and edge deployments.
