News in the Channel - issue #15

LENOVO

single-site businesses too. “It's really going to go to both extremes, from global accounts to small SMEs,” he says. Sustainability But with edge meaning bigger compute, it can also consume more resources, Ralf notes. “Therefore, sustainability, or ESG, becomes even more important because some of the technology can conflict with ESG goals,” he says. “That's as well an area where Lenovo can differentiate together with its partners.” Lenovo has long been committed to reducing its carbon impact and has committed to being net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The company is innovating to this end too, such as with Lenovo’s Neptune liquid cooling technology to stop systems overheating, which uses liquid to remove heat, which is much more efficient than traditional air cooling. “At the end of the day, as well our corporate responsibility, it is the responsibility of all of us together to ultimately save our planet,” says Ralf. Home comforts It is commitments such as this that helped to bring Ralf back to Lenovo in September 2021. But his history with Lenovo goes right back to when he joined the company after it bought IBM’s PC division back in 2005. During the latter period of his original time at Lenovo, he worked as a GM in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, before leaving to pursue opportunities at competitors. But eventually the pull of Lenovo was too much, and Ralf came back. “The journey that Lenovo is on in terms of expanding and changing the way the company is perceived from a leading PC vendor into something much more than that – addressing infrastructure, services opportunity etc – is a very exciting play,” he says. “It’s is a great opportunity, and my heart is with the channel, my experience is with the channel and that's why I thought it's a great reason to join and be part of that journey with Lenovo.” It is a decision Ralf has not regretted and he is enjoying life back at Lenovo. “When you have a heart for the channel, Lenovo is a very good place to be,” he says. “It's a channel- centric company and the go to market that we have is very exciting, especially with the transformational journey we are on and that makes the job interesting.”

you talk about different physical places and different contacts in the end users. Internally I'm quite often talking about it's like a new sandbox, where you can position yourself. “Lenovo has, I believe, one of the best edge portfolios in the industry and all of them purpose built and secured. Whatever demand is out there in terms of infrastructure, we can help.” Ralf adds that edge is integrated into vertical solutions, which means it requires specialist skills and a deep understanding of the industry. “All of that represents an opportunity for the channel,” he says. “We are not talking about one size fits all, we are not in a world anymore where you have one design and setup, now you have to understand much more a business and what are the important drivers, what workloads need to be considered, how secure it needs to be from a security regulations point of view – we are in a world where regulations are playing an important role and I believe customers quite often don’t know all about that. That's the opportunity that the channel has. “But it may also require the need to work with more vendors than in the past. There is a trend for implementations to be unique to specific industries and customer requirements. To be a good advisor, you need to know your customer, the industry and ultimately where and how the customer can benefit from the new technological possibilities that are out there. “When we talk about specialisation requirements, we are already seeing channel partners are working together to bring a solution to the end user. And I believe the specialisation requirement will emerge even more: it's not that you may be perceived as a one stop shop for everything, but you need to be open to partnering with others to get the required skill sets needed to provide the solution.” Ralf adds that edge isn’t just going to be for large businesses with multiple sites – he believes it will have applications for smaller

Sustainability, or ESG, becomes even more important because some of the technology can conflict with ESG goals... ...At the end of the day, as well our corporate responsibility, it is the responsibility “

of all of us together to ultimately save our planet.

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