How’s this for ironic: Lenovo President and COO Rory Read (pictured) spent roughly seven years as a top leader within IBM Global Services. But he somehow kicked the IT services habit when he joined Lenovo. In fact, Read publicly vowed — multiple times today — that Lenovo will never build or buy an IT services organization. In a FastChat Video with The VAR Guy, Read explained why Lenovo will continue to focus on product innovation while leaving IT services to channel partners.

Of the Big Three PC companies, Lenovo is the only one taking such a clear, channel-friendly stance on services. In stark contrast, Hewlett-Packard acquired EDS in in 2008, and Dell acquired Perot Systems in 2009. “Going and buying a services entity? Wrong solution,” crowed Read. “It forces competition [with the channel]. Our competition is clearly moving in a services direction. Do you think they’ll even be in the PC segment in three to five years? Maybe, maybe not.”

Read made the points in this FastChat Video, filmed today at Lenovo Accelerate: Channel Partner Forum in Las Vegas:

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Admittedly, neither the HP-EDS nor Dell-Perot deals targeted the SMB market. But Lenovo’s Read brings up another interesting fact: Channel partners drive roughly 85 percent of Lenovo’s North American sales.

Still, Dell has won over quite a few VARs in recent years — especially in the EqualLogic storage market, where many readers tell The VAR Guy that they profit with Dell. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard continues to work more closely with VARs and MSPs in the SMB channel — focusing on emerging opportunities from Silicon Valley startups.

Still, Lenovo’s Read makes a pretty compelling case for the pure channel model over at Lenovo…

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