LANDesk To Incent VARs For Joint Lenovo Sales

LANDesk, which offers software to manage desktops and servers, will integrate the newly upgraded version of its Management Suite software with Lenovo&s ThinkVantage Technology, said Dave Taylor, vice president of world wide marketing at LANDesk, South Jordan, Utah.

ThinkVantage is Lenovo&s version of the “Access IBM” button, a self-help feature relaunched after Lenovo&s purchase of IBM&s PC division that enables users to set connectivity policies and create backup-and-recovery safeguards. The deal gives network administrators running the new LANDesk Management Suite 8.6 “an easier way to exploit ThinkVantage Technology,” said Tom Tobul, director of marketing at ThinkVantage, Raleigh, N.C.

Version 8.6, launched this week, offers enhanced end-point security, upgraded server management capabilities, and support for Intel&s Active Management Technology, which enables out-of-band system management and device recovery, Taylor said.

Gene Kim, vice president of worldwide sales at VAR NetworkD, Newport Beach, Calif., said the deal could help Lenovo gain a foothold in the U.S. market. “As Lenovo gains market share in the United States, passing the existing IBM install base, they will be a force to be reckoned with against Dell and [Hewlett-Packard].”

Mike Clarke, vice president of sales at Creek Pointe Solutions, a Lenovo and LANDesk solution provider in Greenville, S.C., said the deal could become even more beneficial to LANDesk VARs when customers upgrade to the new Microsoft Vista operating system.

And what does the relationship mean to Lenovo? “We&ve taken the relationship with LANDesk one step further,” Tobul said. “We&ve put hooks in ThinkVantage Technology for LANDesk.”

The deal with LANDesk is not exclusive, he said.

“If this is successful, what&s to stop them from working with Altiris, Remedy and others?” said Bob Venero, CEO of Future Tech Enterprises, a solution provider in Holbrook, N.Y.

And don&t expect Lenovo to offer incentives to its partners for selling LANDesk over competing offerings, a Lenovo spokesman said.

LANDesk, however, will offer incentives to its VARs as well as to Lenovo partners by giving volume discounts to providers that sell the combination of Lenovo clients and LANDesk software, Taylor said.