Channel Post speaks with Russell Theron, Regional Manager, Data Center Group (DCG) at Lenovo Middle East and Africa on the launch of Lenovo’s Data Center Group.
What prompted Lenovo to launch the Data Center Group and what does the company expect to achieve?
Lenovo’s ability to transform the data center industry is built on two key foundations. The first is the company’s history in the PC industry, and its journey to become #1 through a culture of learning, innovation and reinvention. The second is our IBM heritage, which represents the highest quality in enterprise systems.
Over the past three decades, we’ve helped our customers by being trusted advisors on how to utilize the trends and disruptions taking place in the data center. We launched the Data Center Group in line with our efforts to look for ways to raise the bar in providing advanced, leading-edge technologies and solutions to benefit customers.
Elaborate on the product mix that DCG is going to carry in Middle East.
With this launch we have also introduced the largest, most comprehensive portfolio of server, storage, networking, software and data center services, in addition to a new set of brands: ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile.
The new redesigned ThinkSystem portfolio, based on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, brings the gold-standard for the industry under a single unified brand spanning servers, storage and networking systems. These new products comprise the building blocks of next-generation IT, redesigned to meet key infrastructure requirements. The portfolio does so by applying innovation where it matters most: to reduce cost, improve operational efficiency, protect customer data, and provide the ultimate in performance for critical workloads.
Thinkagile, our software-defined offering portfolio improves long-standing data center metrics, such as improved utilization rates, simpler and faster deployments, reduced operational costs, and reduced levels of risk. The portfolio spans hybrid cloud, software-defined storage, and hyperconverged infrastructure.
How will Lenovo’s new Data Center Offerings benefit its customers in the Middle East?
Lenovo’s new end-to-end data center portfolio will enable Middle East customers to harness the power of the “intelligence revolution” and create a strong technology foundation that supports transformative capabilities such as data analytics, high-performance computing, hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
These new data center solutions can benefit businesses by allowing decision makers to make the most appropriate decisions in real time, saving them time, money and maybe even a crisis. As an example, in the Banking sector our upgraded data center portfolio can provide detailed and accurate data analytics such as common purchase trends of a customer, monetary transactions and regular deposits. In case of sudden change in a customer’s purchase or monetary habits, the data center can pick up such changes through analytics, providing decision makers in the banking business with information that may allow them to stop a fraud from occurring before any damage is done.
Is Lenovo looking to work with new partners? If yes, why should partners work with you and what tools do you provide to your partners to enable them to drive growth?
Lenovo DCG is a 100 percent channel oriented organization. We deliver all our solutions for customers together with Business Partners, and not by competing with them. Our partners’ growth is our growth. Lenovo is showing double digit growth quarter-on-quarter in the region and our partners have been instrumental in helping us achieve this growth. The Middle East offers many lucrative opportunities and we’re very keen to tap into this with the help of our partners. Hence, we are actively seeking to expand our channel network.
To empower and enable our partners, we recently launched the new Lenovo Partner Engage Program. The program aims to drive growth and success for our Business Partners and offers many enhanced benefits including demand generation, StarSeller incremental bonus program, LEAP (Lenovo Expert Achievers program), Lenovo Bid Portal, and Marketing Development Funds (MDF). We also offer easy sign-up with simplified qualification criteria, excellent rewards through rebates, sales support, demo products and sales representative incentives. We also have an intuitive partner portal for sales, product, marketing and training functionality, live chat support is giving to our current and future partners all the elements differentiate their offering in a market.
What is your roadmap for DCG and where do you see yourself after a year?
Lenovo is committed to continuously provide partners and entities across all sectors with the best end-to-end solutions. Our vision is a data center that helps customers compete better in their markets—better able to take advantage of new technologies and innovations that help them understand their customers better, and allow them to deliver applications and information as new sources of competitive advantage. Being number two in the Gulf region, our aim is to sustain our growth by delivering best-of-breed products, solutions and outstanding service to the market.
