Lenovo APAC director of channel, SMB and alliances,Ashwini Bhatnagar
Lenovo’s new global Partner Hub has officially launched in the Asia Pacific region providing real-time sales and quoting tools while enabling closer collaboration between Lenovo and its channel partners.
The Hub will cater for Lenovo’s entire partner ecosystem from distributors through to Platinum, Gold, Silver and Authorised partners, providing a single access point to tools and resources that are relevant to partner needs, geographic markets and past history.
Billed as a ‘one stop shop’ the Hub will be powered by an advanced analytics engine that will span across both Lenovo sales teams in the PC and Smart Devices (PCSD) and the Data Centre Group (DCG), offering partners access to leads, product catalogues, deal registration, deal protection, new customer bonus and discount codes.
Specifically, the Hub contains intelligent pricing across an integrated pricing engine with deal registration, new customer and acquisition bonus; digital co-selling featuring digital marketing assets, partner-ready services, specialist programs and rewards; and digital processes from customer opportunity, quotation, order through to rewards.
The Hub also features a personalised portal across different business functions to see materials and information relevant to their business unit, such as a personalised sales performance dashboard and summaries.
The Hub itself marks an important step in Lenovo’s own multi-year digital transformation program for business partners, and was initially launched in select geographical markets from July 27.
Asia Pacific (APAC) partners did get the opportunity to test the Hub and explore its features prior to the official launch.
Lenovo APAC director of SMB, channel and alliances Ashwini Bhatnagar told ARN the vendor has been working on the Partner Hub for the past year.
“This is such an important initiative for us, especially in this environment. We listened to what partners wanted and so far, we’ve incorporated a lot of the changes,” he said.
Previously tools such as quotes and deal registration existed in different formats but didn’t always integrate well with each other, Bhatnagar said.
“With Partner Hub, they get a seamless integrated experience where a partner can go from identifying a customer to fulfilling their requirements,” he said. “It’s a next generation tool for our partners," he added.
Lenovo Australia Data Centre Group head of channel, distribution and SMB Frank Eagleton added it caters for every partner with deep insights and easy access into partner sales performance, configuration and pricing, smart finds for peripherals and services driven logistics, and automation.
“It’s important for businesses to have the right partner, understand their current challenges and be able to provide a choice of technology that addresses their needs,” he said.
Bhatnagar said during the current economic climate it was helping guide partners through rapid response, offering customised technical and financial solutions and committed to guaranteeing certain delivery time frames for its supply chain.
In July, Lenovo rolled out a tailored SMB Channel Bounce Back program to help partners and distributors navigate the tough business climate.
The new initiatives aimed to help stimulate market demand and involve competitively priced bundles and offers, partner enablement, demand generation, webinars and marketing support. Financial support packages were also on the table.
