Lenovo promises to shake up the market

Trade

Lenovo is relatively unknown outside of its Chinese base, where it’s the biggest player employing 10,000 people.

Nevertheless, the push has already begun to create brand recognition and trust to the millions of IBM’s existing and potential customers.

Milko Van Duijil, general manager Lenovo, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the company was number three in the computing market and that it didn’t intend to stay there very long.

Fiona O’Brien, Lenovo Ireland general manager backed up these sentiments. “We are on an aggressive growth path, I have very aggressive targets to meet – we’re meeting them and we will continue to drive the business aggressively. Business partners that can step up and work with us will share in that success.”

This seems to be good news for IBM’s channel partners as Lenovo not only brings PCs to the table but an array of other product such as PDAs and printing devices.

“The most change over time with Lenovo will be as we expand the product face. We now have the ability to look at those products and decide is there a market in Ireland and have we the partners to exploit that market and pick and choose what’s appropriate,” said O’Brien. “Over time we will be looking at the Lenovo product range as to how we can supplement our brand here in Ireland.”

O’Brien said the company’s channel strategy would remain more or less the same as IBM’s. “We probably deal with about 200 partners across the board In Ireland. And we deal with those people under a programme called ‘Topseller’ which effectively brings together IBM – now branded Lenovo products – and ThinkPad products and all of the accessories at an attractive price point.”

Lenovo will continue IBM’s practice of selling direct, though it has no plans to ramp up this side of its business. “I probably sell about five per cent of the business direct. They tend to be corporate accounts at a worldwide level that are driven by worldwide agreements,” explained O’Brien.

Lenovo has also acquired the rights to use the IBM brand name on its products for a period of five years. “The IBM logo and the ThinkPad branding will stay for the foreseeable future,” said O’Brien. “We have an agreement with IBM for five years that we’ll co–market with them to push the Lenovo brand. We will probably work towards co-branding at some point in the future.”

Once again reiterating its commitment to the channel and introducing new product sets for them, O’Brien said: “The channel will evolve with us. But absolutely, categorically they are the core of what we do in Ireland – and that has not changed in the move from IBM to Lenovo.” <p>

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