Lenovo to partners: “We can unlock value together in the era of AI-driven convergence”
Lenovo wants to support partners to embrace AI-driven convergence as a path to higher-value opportunities.
Lenovo wants its partners to know that through working together they can unlock value in the era of convergence.
As AI reshapes the channel, partners must take strategic steps to seize the opportunities, according to Kirat Khara, director, distribution and commercial channel at Lenovo.
“AI is real. It's happening, and it's happening at quite a fast speed. Convergence is putting AI in the centre,” Khara said at Accelerate, Lenovo’s flagship event in Sydney.
To achieve true convergence, three pivotal things need to happen for AI to succeed, which relate to hardware, software and services, Khara told CRN Australia.
The hardware needs to be AI-ready, and this is already happening. With software, significant investment is happening with companies like Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft. The third element — services — offers the opportunity for partners to ‘stitch’ the software and hardware elements. Lenovo wants to help them win in this space.
“The channel is not going to start developing hardware, nor are partners going to come up with their own version of software. But the opportunity for partners is to bring it together using the managed services,” he explained.
Partners have an opportunity to move transactional to value-driven
Partners need to set their sights on moving up the value chain by changing their services and the way they deliver solutions for customers.
To do so, partners need to shift away from simply providing devices or services and instead focus on solving business problems and providing outcomes.
While some partners will continue to offer volume sales in certain markets, many others will need to pivot towards value conversations, according to Khara.
“When we have those partner conversations about vertical solutions, for example, it’s no longer a discussion about the number of laptops. It’s about how to solve the pain points and that becomes the value partners offer,” he told CRN Australia.
Lenovo is looking at tactical outcomes with a three-to six-month horizon and longer term joint plans with a 12-to 24-month strategy with partners.
“We’re co-investing. We’re co-developing solutions that we can take to the market with our ‘pocket to cloud’ story that we have, and how we open that to what our partners are offering,” he said.
Lenovo's "pocket to cloud" story is its unique value proposition, providing integrated solutions that span from mobile devices and PCs to data centres and cloud services, enabling end-to-end technology support for customers.
With this in mind, Lenovo is focused on having the right people, roles, incentives and long-term strategies to help partners evolve towards becoming more than transactional businesses.
“When we look at the channel, it’s a strategic imperative for us to have ease of doing business as a competitive advantage,” he explained.
Evolving and simplifying the partner program
The partner program is regularly evolving, with a focus on simplicity, incentives, feedback and collaboration, according to Khara.
Its partner program operates with a worldwide framework with local execution in the way the business operates and drives programs in each country.
“We take feedback from partners, which is very important. We just don't roll out what we think is right,” he said.
The program evolves in response to input from partners and changing market dynamics, including how it’s incentivising offerings for partners.
“Our intent is always to simplify our program, so a partner doesn't need to hire a resource just to understand the program and have the right incentives to drive collective commercial or business outcome with our partners,” Khara told CRN.
Besides incentives, Lenono looks at how it’s co-investing with partners to drive market development funds and channel development funds.
“It's about how do we make sure partners are trained on the Lenovo hardware, which includes the certification process,” he said.
Finally, as the IT industry undergoes yet another wide-spread disruption, this time through AI, Lenovo wants to offer a bridge to existing and potential new partners and bring them into a fold to work with them to create customer outcomes.
“The IT industry is evolving. Lenovo is evolving. The partner landscape is evolving, and we want to be collectively winning in this space,” he ended.