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Lenovo to pick VAR A-Team for public sector push

Vendor looks to add 200 SMB VARs while assembling band of vertical specialists

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Lenovo will look to identify a select band of top resellers to help its quest to feature more regularly on major public sector frameworks.

Neil Berville (pictured), the vendor's executive director for UK, IrelandNeil Berville and Benelux, said priority number one this year will be deepening Lenovo's reach into the public sector.

"We need to be very focused on which sectors we want to go for," he added. "Education and NHS will have a really big focus from us. We want to get ourselves on frameworks."

In these markets, as well as in horizontals such as mid-market and SMB, Lenovo will look to handpick about 10 partners to lead its charge to market. Work on identifying appropriate resellers will begin later this year and the vendor's 50-strong high-touch sales team will also be split along vertical market lines.

"We want to actually go and, not precluding other resellers, focus on some core resellers with specialisms," explained Berville. "We will look to leverage sales resources to the maximum."

Another key focus for the China-based PC maker this year will be boosting SMB partner ranks. Currently about 800 UK VARs transact regularly with Lenovo, said Berville. The vendor wants to bring in a further 200 in the next nine months.

Berville added that he was not interested in "jukebox resellers who will buy one month and disappear for six".

"They need to actively participate in the partner programme. It is not massively onerous, but it is about getting at least a good level of understanding about who we are," he added.

"Our clarity is really resounding with partners, at a time when some of the competition is not being as clear. For a long time, a lot of them have been looking for Lenovo to step up, and we have to do a bit more of that going forward."

One "nearer-term target" the firm is aiming for is to nigh-on double its share of the UK PC market to 10 per cent.

Its goal is to reach at least 10 per cent in every territory in which it operates, and its standing in Japan was boosted today by news of a joint venture with NEC to sell PCs in the country. Lenovo takes a 51 per cent stake of the partnership.

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