Chris Frey, Lenovo NA Channel Chief
By Chris Frey, Channel Chief, Lenovo North America Quarterly earnings are a time for us to announce our successes and business updates – we recorded our highest ever worldwide market share of 14.0 percent, and have continued to focus on balanced growth across all geographies, customer segments and product lines. We continue to grow and for the ninth quarter in a row we grew faster than any of the top four PC manufacturers. We know this growth is made possible in part by the strong relationships we have maintained with our channel partners and the hard work of many people. After every quarter we like to take the time to reflect on our activity in the channel and part of this is asking for feedback from our channel partners to understand your priorities and what you see as potential opportunities for revenue growth. So we asked you what you thought and below are some of the key takeaways and information on how Lenovo plans to align our channel strategy with what our partners are looking for: 1. Many of our channel partners view penetration within specific verticals as the most direct path to unlocking new revenue streams. Clearly our partners share our belief that the vertical markets are a key growth opportunity. In 2012, we at Lenovo intend to continue our focus on activating our channel partners in key verticals, including healthcare, education and SMBs. We...
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Intel SSD
Ann Mahdy is a Communicatons and Public Relations Manager for Lenovo A few years ago, Solid State Drives started appearing in laptops. Costs were high and capacity was low, and most of the industry stuck with good old-fashioned Hard Disk Drives. Now that it’s 2012, it’s time to rethink the drives you and your customers are using. After all, HDD has been around for a long time (since 1956) so it is not surprising that there is a new drive on the block. So what is the difference between the two drives? To assist in sorting this out we posed a number of questions to Annabelle Thuan, Lenovo SMB Marketing Manager. AM: What is the difference between SSD and HDD? AT: The main difference in the technology is that solid state is a flash-based storage and has no moving parts, while hard disk drives are electromechanical and have a moving component called a spinning platter. As you might expect, with no moving pieces, SDD is more reliable and durable because it can better absorb shock from laptops’ bumps and drops. The other big difference is speed. SSD is much faster because it is NAND memory. This means that data can be located instantaneously by address. HDD, on the other hand, has a two-step process to access the information. The first is that it needs to “seek” the right track on the disk, and the second is that it needs to spin to the right part of the track. This causes a slight delay compared to solid states. Side by Side...
Continue reading “Solid State Drive Upgrade!”
Ever walked into a doctor’s office and seen rows and rows of filing cabinets behind the reception desk? Ever stand in line with a runny nose and fever waiting for a pharmacist to fill your prescription? Ever been thankful for the crystal clear image on a monitor that has just helped your doctor save a loved one’s life? As technology and government requirements, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) continue to embed themselves into doctors’ offices and beyond, the way patients receive care will evolve. Think about it, those cabinets contain sensitive information on every patient’s medical history. Moving these onto rugged, dependable, secure computers will eliminate the need for all those filing cabinets. It will also allow healthcare providers – like a specialist and a family doctor – share key medical information securely so they can provide the care you and your family need. Time spent standing in line for a prescription can be reduced as doctors start to use the stylus on a ThinkPad Tablet to write their prescriptions then, with a click of a button send it directly to the pharmacist before you have left their office. More importantly, reviewing medical images will become faster, easier and more accurate as workstations become even more powerful and crystal clear images will become even sharper leading to more life saving decisions. These are just a few examples of...
Continue reading “Lenovo + Healthcare = Good Medicine!”
Paul Scaini is a Canadian working in Beijing China as the Global Portfolio Manager for Lenovo’s Commercial Desktop Business Unit. His responsibilities include planning traditional desktops and All-in-Ones for both large enterprises and small and medium business. As a product manager I love to get chances to speak to customers big and small, especially to get feedback on ThinkCentre All-in-Ones. I am still amazed how many customers have no idea what an All-in-One (AIO) is. I’ve just recently spoken to decision makers at a Global NGO (Non Profit Organization) and a Federal Government, shown them an AIO for the first time explaining the benefits and now both have added AIO to their purchase lists. There is a MASSIVE opportunity out there for you to talk to your customers about All-in-One. Even if they’re not desktop customers it’s a great way to get your foot in the door. “Hey, have you ever seen one of these before?” and even if they aren’t 100% convinced then it gives you a chance for other selling opportunities. Here’s what you’ll need to know: More Room for Work All-in-One saves about 70% space compared to a traditional tower and monitor, giving a workspace some room to breathe. Education and healthcare customers love AIOs for labs and nursing stations that are often small and cluttered with paperwork. From call centers to start-ups; any customer with...
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As a seasoned professional with over 15 years in selling services, I’m excited to have the opportunity to share my thoughts and best practices for selling Lenovo Services. My name is Nellie Scott, Channel Services Program Manager, and I look forward to bringing information and strategies that will help you leverage Lenovo Services as real-time solutions to real-time challenges. Remember if you don’t talk about services as solutions…..your competition will. Do you know how much your customers’ older systems are worth on the market today? Are you using this information to influence your customer’s decision to refresh their hardware? Good asset management requires your customers to assess what to do with outdated systems? Extend their lifecycle? OR Refresh their install base. It is a decision greatly based on economics and one that you can influence by factoring in the fair market value of their existing systems into the purchase of new systems. First, you need to know what they have, how old are their systems and whether there is any value left. A great way to get started is to USE the most current Lenovo Fair Market Value Grid, which you can obtain through our Services Support Center or Lenovo Partner Portal under Asset Recovery Services Give it to your customers and start engaging in conversations. Bring financial thought leadership to these discussions, remembering that different customers process value propositions...
Continue reading “Leverage Fair Market Value To Drive Hardware Sales”
