Rectron has rounded out its solutions portfolio with its cloud and data centre division.
Microsoft, H3C, Lenovo ISG, Bitdefender, Acronis and Synology are among the solutions that the distributor offers to enable its partners to assist their customers on their digital transformation journeys.
Digital transformation has been on organisations’ agendas for some years, but it is more important now than ever.
Indeed, Yugen Naidoo, Country Manager: Southern Africa at Lenovo, believes it is the most significant trend in the IT market now. “Digital transformation used to be a nice to have, but it is now a necessary and matter of survival for organisations.
“Hybrid is here to stay; and customers have more sophisticated infrastructure requirements. So they need a simple and easy way to consume IT. In a world where every business will be digital and product a service, we want to make buying a solution from Lenovo as easy as buying a PC.”
Lenovo has recognised the importance of digital transformation, hybrid working and cloud migration for its customers. “While many other brands are looking to cut costs on research and development (R&D), Lenovo has put a stake in the ground and announced its intention to hire 12 000 new R&D professionals over the next three years,” Naidoo says.
The investment plan will centre around the “Client-Edge-Cloud-Network-Intelligence” architecture, with a focus on short-, medium- and long-term payback.
“We are investing into all of these areas,” Naidoo explains. “And we are going beyond product to solutions that help our customers thrive in the new, hybrid world. R&D is focused on new product and business model innovation. We are incubating technologies from edge computing to technology, helping businesses capitalise on the metaverse as well as emerging and disruptive innovation like next-generation AI and heterogeneous computing to help them prepare for the future.”
Lenovo recently announced its three-year strategy, built on three pillars – Smart and Cloud; Smarter Infrastructure; and Smart Verticals – underpinned by operational excellence that includes a robust and flexible supply chain, innovation, and global/local footprint.
“With these pillars, we are embarking on a future vision to bring the entire ecosystem together,” says Naidoo.
Of course, the products the underpin this strategy are important, but he points out that the services around the products are more important still.
“The world is moving to everything as a service, so we are steering away from a product discussion and instead enabling our partners to deliver a solution rather than tin. Several months ago, we launched TruScale, our consumption-based as-a-service brand across the entire portfolio, from pocket to cloud.”
Key to enabling this strategy is the recent launch of Lenovo’s Services and Solutions Group (SSG), which focuses on bringing together all the Lenovo solutions in practical and useful solutions for customers.
“And it’s been hugely successful,” Naidoo says. “SSG has been growing at 30% every quarter for several quarters now and its margin is much higher than the traditional hardware business.”
In fact, the whole group has been turning in good results. The latest quarter, announced in August, marked the ninth consecutive quarter of outstanding results, with demand moving close pre-pandemic levels despite touch macro and micro market conditions.
In the meantime, supply improvements across Lenovo IDG group and its ongoing commitment to fulfilling the needs of diverse audiences have helped deliver these set of strong results.
“The latest figures from IDC show that Lenovo achieved strong performance across both commercial and consumer business, with consumer tipping 32% in South Africa,” Naidoo says. “It is also worth noting that it is the first time ever Lenovo achieved number in both Notebook/PC and Android Tablet Category in the same quarter, which is a historical achievement.”
Working with the channel
Lenovo is known in the IT market as a 100% channel-led organisation, and Naidoo says this won’t change going forward.
“We believe in our channel,” he stresses. “We do not go direct and we are not planning on changing that.”
Channel partners are an integral part of the Lenovo strategy, he explains. “We need them, their expertise and their skills sets.”
Resellers, in turn, appreciates this fac. “I think it means a lot to our partners, and both resellers and distributors see the benefit of the true channel model.
“And we reward our partners for doing business with us. The Lenovo 360 journey is about being better together, and enabling them to sell solutions and services.
“Our channel takes care of our customers, and we take care of our channel.”
Microsoft solutions
Microsoft and Lenovo are key strategic partners.
Lenovo is an authorised Microsoft re-seller and Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP), offering best-in-class pricing on software purchased with its servers.
The two companies co-engineer their products to ensure the hardware and software are maximally reliable and performant, and work together to optimise and validate innovative infrastructure solutions and develop emerging technologies.
“We work closely with Microsoft to enable different opportunities to clients,” Naidoo explains. “And Rectron is a major part of that.”
Partnering with Rectron
Rectron is a key partner in implementing the Lenovo 360 business model which encompasses the IDG (Intelligent Devices Group) and ISG (Infrastructure Solutions Group), which includes the data centre offerings.
As part of the Mustek group, Rectron has long had access to Lenovo’s consumer and commercial products and last year added the enterprise line-up as well.
“Rectron is a key player in the Lenovo strategy to build channel breadth, ensuring that we offer the right solution regardless of who the customer is.
“Rectron has a very active reseller base, and is very aligned with our own strategic direction,” Naidoo says. “In addition, Rectron has a fantastic sales force that understands tactical and value-add selling.
“We have identified Rectron as a key South African partner.”