Lenovo chops named account list

Partners profit after PC vendor passes more enterprise accounts to channel

Milko van Duijl: We were not able to spend enough time with [each customer]

Lenovo claims to have cut the number of enterprise accounts it has a face-to-face relationship with.

On a business update call this morning, the PC giant said it has passed more work to partners over fears it was spreading its resources too thinly.

Senior vice president Milko van Duijl, said ownership of the relationship with 60 to 70 per cent of enterprise accounts had been ported from Lenovo to the channel. It previously had around 32,000 enterprise accounts in western Europe.

“We came to the conclusion that we were not able to spend enough time with [each customer]," said van Duijl. "We have handed a lot over to partners.”

Lenovo has enjoyed a renaissance in recent quarters and grew unit shipments by 59 per cent year-on-year in its fiscal fourth quarter to 31 March.

Shipments in Lenovo’s Mature Markets theatre, which includes western Europe, rose by 45 per cent. This enabled it to increase marketshare in those markets by 0.9 points to 4.7 per cent.

Van Duijl said that Lenovo would "defend" its position in its native China, where it holds a whopping 29 per cent marketshare.

But he likened Lenovo to a boxer punching with its right arm, saying it would "attack" markets where it is not currently strong.

“In western Europe we are selling about 250,000 units in retail and are focused on executing on plans to expand significantly in that space,” he said.