Interface – A part of the SCH distribution – asserts that they have increased the reseller base for Lenovo by adding more number of resellers. Interface has already started trading with the existing number of resellers. The changes in the vendor’s (Lenovo) channel strategy have been cited as the reason behind this occurrence.

Interface has curbed the distribution related problems by providing easier access to the partners concerning the stocking of products. The resellers will also be provided with optimum support and advice by informed, experienced account management and post-sales teams. This strategy will contribute to the increase in sales.

According to Rob Tomlin, business unit director, Interface aims to work closely with the partners and increase Lenovo’s business. They also hope to increase the number of partners with Lenovo’s new channel strategy. Interface is all set to become Lenovo’s first distribution partner, which will implement Lenovo’s new channel strategy.

Shaune Parsons – reseller ComputerWorld Wales – is optimistic that Lenovo’s products will become more accessible via the changes implemented by Interface. Shaune is also confident that the changes will elevate Lenovo’s position in the market.

The distributor sales information collected by Context shows that PCs, x86 workstations and servers worth £250m were sold from June to the end of August in the UK. On the other hand, unit shipments rose to 685,000 up by 4.4%.

Senior partner at context, Jeremy Davies said MicroScope have bottomed out in the UK. Also, the summer months were not bad at all as the channel expected. Although it was a bumpy ride, it was not a meltdown.

Netbooks and notebooks obviously underpinned the market’s growth, rising 20.3%, 15.9% and 9.3% respectively in June, August and July whereas the desktop, workstation and server sales declined throughout all three months.

Davis also said that the numbers taken from Global Technology Distribution Council distributors indicate that the market is not getting worse but the resellers cannot afford to get complacent as sales might flat line for the remaining year.

Sales and marketing director from Westcoast which is a distributor, Alex Tatham said that Microsoft was becoming particularly aggressive due to the competition it is facing. From the distribution perspective, Microsoft really had its sight on VMware.

He also suggested that this could mean the software company would have to lean a great deal more on its partners to promote Hyper-V in virtualisation projects. He added that later in the year, the focus would most probably be on Office Communications Server.

The commercial director from LAR Softcat, David Simson said that nothing at the bi-annual event surprised any of them. Microsoft was hoping on being a lot more competitive towards its rivals; something that the company said before at the WPC.

One of Microsoft’s partners who wanted to stay anonymous urged the software giant to avoid going overboard. The source said that the company wanted its resellers to be complete Microsoft solution partners. However, as Hyper-V currently has only 5% of the install base, the decision of resellers being 100% Microsoft would be a bad business move.

In addition to these, Sony had earlier initiated several schemes to aid its partners. Sony had founded a lead management system which helped them to generate and maintain leads. It had also provided incentives in the form of internet training to its partners.

Customers can thus enjoy the services of a VAIO notebook thanks to schemes which will allow them to pay in instalments. This will increase the consumer demand for VAIO since it is a popular high-end product.

Sony is also in the process of setting up a partner portal which will help it to generate and maintain leads and track the advertising results.

The importance meted by Sony towards channel incentives can be seen by its move of increasing channel training programs. Sony aims at providing the partners with the required expertise pertaining to the products’ features and specifications.

Sony’s favourable attitude towards channel partners can also be gauged from its decision of adding more partners.

VAIO notebooks are high-end products and thus require more partner expertise to convince the customers to buy the product.

This partnership will not only help Integralis but will also help NetWitness draw new customers from across EMEA to it. NetWitness’s Vice president of sales, Jim Charlton said that in a little over two years, the company has witnessed that government customers and financial services in the US quickly adopted its solutions. This is mainly because they are aware that traditional security measures are not good enough to deal with the advanced threats they face.

He added that the partnership with Integralis will allow the company to keep on expanding its worldwide presence and even provide organisations with the capabilities they need in order to address the complex security challenges of today.

Managing director of Integralis UK, Simon Church said that the company’s partnership with NetWitness will do more than enhance its managed security offerings. The solutions provided by NetWitness addresses an important gap in older security infrastructures. These solutions provide constant awareness of all sensitive data and network security. He expects the company’s strong European clientele to quickly adopt to this next-generation monitoring technology.