Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's x86 server businesses, completed today, comes complete with a promise from regional bosses to pump AU$5 million into the ANZ market, and claims the move will be good for the New Zealand channel.

Matt Codrington, Lenovo ANZ managing director, says while tying down an exact investment figure for New Zealand is hard, he expects around 20% of that $5 million to be pumped into the New Zealand market.

That investment will take the form of incremental investment in the company's partner programmes, branding and marketing, as well as improved offices in Wellington, with improved demo capabilities and proof of concept facilities for both the PC and server businesses.

Globally, the company is investing $5 billion and has stated a goal of having its enterprise business more profitable than the PC business, within one year.

“We've never shied away from aspirational targets and this is achievable in our eyes.”

He says the targets allocated to ANZ are 'a stretch' but 'we will hit our fair share of that target'.

Nick Reynolds, Lenovo Asia-Pacific mature markets chief marketing officer, says Lenovo will be keeping the x86 brands, including System X, BladeCenter and Flex System.

“We have a great record of keeping brands and growing them, and Think is a good example of that.

“When we acquired Think a lot of ThinkCenter and ThinkPad users were concerned about what we would do but we have improved them and we're now number one in computer notebooks globally and number two in computer desktops globally.

“It will be the same with these brands. We're looking at building our marketshare.”

 Services opportunity

Codrington says the closure of the deal makes Lenovo the third largest player in the global x86 server market and 'number two or three in New Zealand, depending on the quarter'.

He says Lenovo's track record with the channel 'speaks for itself' and local feedback on the acquisition has been 'very positive'.

“There is now going to be a broad base of offerings for our partners to sell and new business opportunities for them.”

Codrington says Lenovo doesn't have a heavy investment in services, providing a 'real opportunity' for resellers to capitalise by adding value to counter the increasingly tight hardware margins.

“There's a great opportunity for partners to expand their capabilities and add value through services, especially in this [enterprise] space.

“It allows them to add value and build broader and deeper relationships and gain services revenue.”