Lenovo DCG visions to be the Most-Trusted Advisor for Partners

"The traditional on- premise data-center market is on the decline, but it is still a very large part of the overall market. We, at Lenovo, have our business units which focus on these growth areas. We focus on hyper-scale, software-defined data center, HPC, artificial intelligence and also data-center infrastructure. Around this we have our services,” explains Sumir Bhatia, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Data Center Group, Lenovo
 

Lenovo has always been known for its PCs, servers and reliability. But as the market is transitioning, the company is also shifting its focus from PCs and servers to data center solutions. With its solutions like ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem, a dedicated sales team, after-sales service support, Lenovo has positioned itself as a dedicated data center solutions company. With the legacy of reliability, Lenovo in this segment wants to address the pain points of its customers. This, in turn, has broadened the opportunities for its partners as well. 

“We bought IBM business about three years ago. We are one organization where we have PC and enterprise business. We believed that we could have a combined workforce that could actually sell both PCs and servers. Hence, we were known as a PC company. The market transformed, the customer wants more than just a server and we realize it very quickly. In Lenovo, when we do execute something, we realize that maybe this is not the right strategy, we look at it very carefully and we recalibrate and it is about us going dedicated. Today, we have a dedicated organization under Lenovo which just focusses on data center group. This is a very big change. So the data center group has its own sales, support, technical resources. We also wanted to make sure that our people are able to articulate the value propositions of our solutions. We have launched two new brands – ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem,” says Sumir Bhatia, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Data Center Group, Lenovo. 

Lenovo wants to take its pedigree of reliability for servers forward with building solutions, especially for the data center market. 

“The market is transitioning and the data center is transitioning from workload to workload. What it does to us is taking that pedigree and that reliability that our servers are known for and building it specifically for the solution market,” asserts Vivek Sharma, Managing Director, Lenovo Technologies India.   

Talking about the solutions, Sumir adds, “ThinkSystem is our standalone servers and ThinkAgile is our software-defined data centers. This really talks about our entire solutions and with partnership with software vendors, ISVs, this brings a complete solution to our customers. It is all about customer’s pain points and how we can remove them. From the server perspective, we are the number-one company for the last four years from reliability. From the system perspective, it has the lineage that we have in bringing in reliability. It is also about bringing the entire solution whether it is ERP, software-defined, cloud, hybrid solution. It is a big focus and a huge opportunity for our partners.”

Data center market growth
There are good reasons for the data center growth in the Indian market. The factors that are playing a major role as a booster are digitization, data center expansion, smart city projects and also mid-market which is fast adopting it. 

“The market is transitioning and the data center is transitioning from workload to workload. What it does to us is taking that pedigree and that reliability that our servers are known for and building it specifically for the solution market,” asserts Vivek Sharma, Managing Director, Lenovo Technologies India 

“IDC called out India to be the second fastest-growing market from the data center perspective in Asia-Pacific. There are a couple of points that play up to the government’s focus on digitization, data center expansion, smart city projects, etc. There is a vibrant mid-market. From the SAP perspective, SAP HANA is the fastest-growing market and that growth is coming from mid-market. We have seen a lot of uptake for software-defined and hyperconverged infrastructure. From a traditional VDI perspective, if the enterprises are using it whereas in the mid-market we see consolidation of the computing storage. It is playing out fairly well from India perspective,” says Vivek.

Lenovo is observing a pull in the data center market from areas like software-defined data center, hyperconverged, HPC, AI, and also hyper scale. Although traditional on-premise data center is on the decline, it still acquires a large part of the market. Lenovo is focussing and working on the growth areas in this segment.

“There is growth in the data center market, but where the growth we are seeing is in the software-defined data center area, hyperconverged which is part of software-defined data center, HPC, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and also on the hyper scale side. The traditional on- premise data center market is on the decline, but it is still a very large part of the overall market. We, at Lenovo, have our business units which focus on these growth areas. We focus on hyper-scale, software-defined data center, HPC, artificial intelligence and also data center infrastructure. Around this we have our services,” explains Sumir. 

Addressing hyperconverged infrastructure demand 
There is a growing need for hyperconverged infrastructure in the market and Lenovo is addressing this need with its broad portfolio of products and trained teams who work with customers. To address this need in the market, working with the right partner is also very important, who understands the solutions to offer to the customers. 

“With the fantastic and best in the industry portfolio, we have teams that are trained and work with our customers. We have a lot of partnership because hyperconverged is not just about infrastructure but also about the application on the top. Another one is working with the right partners that want to take advantage of this broad portfolio that can also bring in solutions or applications that they are strong in, join together and take it to the customers. We are one of the fastest-growing hyperconverged infrastructure organizations globally. We are adding new customers and for us this is a big focus area,” states Sumir. 
Go-to-market strategy (DCG)

The major focus of the company is to become the most-trusted advisor in the data center market which includes software-defined data center, hyperconverged, traditional data center infrastructure along with HPC.  

“Primarily for us, it is to become the most-trusted advisor from the data center perspective. This could be on the transition and transformation of data center and also software-defined, hyperconverged to a large extent because that stands both mid-market and enterprise. The other thing would be the traditional data center infrastructure. Those two areas combined with HPC are the focus. HPC is moving from traditional university domain to enterprise. It depends from vertical to vertical but we have seen a very clear shift in the market,” says Vivek. 

As the major part of Lenovo’s revenue comes from the partners, the go-to-market strategy for the company is with partners. It is about collaborating with the right partners and offering the relevant solutions to relevant customers.  

“95% of our business is through partners. So very clearly, our go-to-market is with our partners. Again, we want to make sure that we are very close to our customers. There is a huge transformation in the market – digital transformation, cloud, etc.  The go-to-market is primarily partners, but it is about developing and working out with right partners, offering the right solution for the right segment. So we are trying to segmentize whether its enterprise, government, SMB, mid-market and also looking at what are the right sort of solutions that these partners can work with to go bring it out,” describes Sumir. 

Game-changer Verticals
Lenovo is focussed on providing solutions around cloud, software-defined data center with the advantage of Nutanix HX series as these solutions are being adopted by various verticals like government, BFSI, etc. Mid-market is becoming one of the leading segments, which is adopting these solutions and services and leveraging it. 

“Our focus is looking at a lot of horizontal solutions like cloud, software-defined data center leveraging Nutanix HX series, software-defined storage, etc. We take these solutions horizontally into various verticals. A lot of verticals are adopting these compared to others. We are seeing BFSIs which have to adopt change as customers are demanding it. We are also seeing a lot of mid-market leapfrogging and taking a lot of solutions and services around the software-defined data center and leveraging it. We are also finding government organizations looking at consolidation. We are working with some partners to see that government is consolidating their data using hyperconverged infrastructure, software-defined. We see government is bringing efficiency which is very helpful,” highlights Sumir. 

Service support
Customer requirements and service support are most important elements for Lenovo. To make things easier for its customers, the company has only one helpline number for its hyperconverged infrastructure. Also, it is introducing premier support for its latest offering ThinkAgile. Lenovo is committed to enhance the customer’s service support experience.  

“For hyperconverged, software like Nutanix , we have one number for service support. We are also launching a premier support for our ThinkAgile solutions. Customer requirements and support is very critical for Lenovo. So all this is available here in the country and we continue to enhance it,” Sumir

Further explaining it, Vivek puts forward, “Primarily, one is, of course, the call comes to us but we also have service partners. So there are specific community who would actually go and execute on the ground. The partnership is not only from the sale perspective but also from service.”

Vision and Roadmap
Lenovo visions to be the most-trusted partner for customers. So the company will continue to come up with innovative solutions to remove the pain points of the customers. The company is optimistic with the new partner programme that it has introduced which addresses three areas so that partners can be productive. 
“Our vision is to be the number-one trusted partner for our customers. We are going to make sure that we are providing the right solution for our customers and not sell something that they do not want as we do not have any legacy.

We have recently launched 14 new servers, seven new storage devices, five new networking solutions with our new transition. Our portfolio has 142 new record benchmarks. From the solution perspective, we will continue to come up with new solutions based on our partnerships to resolve the customer pain points. We are very excited about the opportunities and the new partner programme that we have launched. It is very simple. It covers three areas where partners can earn. It is very simplistic as partners want to sell simple solutions. We have a global dedicated DCG partner programme. The three areas where a partner can earn – growth (revenue target), acquisition (acquiring new customers) and the last is solution set. If the partner sells any solution that Lenovo has identified, then the partner can get incremental incentives,” mentions Sumir. 

He further adds, “We have realigned our DCG business around five segments that target several of the largest and fastest-growing market opportunities to strengthen our ability to be an end-to-end, customer-centric organization – Data Center Infrastructure, High-performance 
Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Hyperscale, Software-defined Data Center and Services.”

In conclusion, Vivek adds, “We are the fastest-growing supercomputing company in the world and we intend to be the number one by 2020.” 

Aparna Mullick
aparna@varindia.com