Bullish Lenovo adds Arrow to its distribution stable
Distributor joins Tech Data and Ingram Micro as vendor looks for greater footprint in server and storage space
Lenovo has added Arrow as its third UK enterpirse distributor to focus on servers and storage as it continues with its "attack" and "protect" strategy.
The deal will cover Lenovo's entire server and storage portfolio, including its EMC and ThinkServer offerings.
Darren Phelps (pictured), channel director UK and Ireland at Lenovo, told CRN: "It has been another strong year for Lenovo, but there is still plenty of room for us to grow."
He explained the vendor is in "attack" mode in several new areas including the mid-market space; and in terms of product - tablets and servers and storage - where it is eyeing aggressive growth.
But he stressed that protecting the vendor's leading global position on PCs was also high on the agenda.
Speaking of Arrow's appointment, he said the partnership proves Lenovo has a strong offering in the space.
"Arrow is a great expert in the market and we are very excited about the opportunity," he said. "Arrow works with a number of well-known server and storage vendors, and has proven experience in distributing both large-scale and smaller-scale projects directly and through channel programmes - so for us Arrow is an important company to work with."
Nick Thurlow, vice president at Arrow's enterprise computing solutions business in the UK and Ireland, added: "Arrow looks forward to working with Lenovo as it expands its offerings for the next-generation datacentre. Lenovo's innovation and its investment in server and storage products has been welcomed by both the channel and the enterprise market. This collaboration makes complete commercial sense for our company."
Phelps added the partnership with Arrow will also help to fulfil the vendor's plans to expand its channel community.
"At the moment we have around 2,500 resellers in the UK, but we would like to get that number to 3,000. I'm comfortable we can reach that amount with the distribution partners we have in place; Tech Data and Ingram Micro have done a great job so far," he said.
He added that the vendor was taking on extra staff to ensure partners - including its Premium and Gold-tiered partners - received the same standard of service and support, and was constantly looking at its partner programme to keep VARs engaged.
"We have to be careful that we can cover partners of all levels, and remain consistent and focused, so we will be investing in headcount to manage them the right way. We are always listening to our partners and don't make changes for change's sake. We intend to reward partners and ensure they get good returns," Phelps said.
As well as Ingram, Tech Data and Arrow, Lenovo also works with Micro-P and Westcoast for its retail products, the latter of which it only signed last month.