Lenovo Preps Education Partners For Mobile Shift

According to Lenovo, the education market is opening its doors to tablets today more than ever. And, as a PC maker that filters nearly 80 percent of its sales through the channel, it wants to be sure its education partners are ready for this shift toward mobility.

That’s why research studies on one-to-one computing models in schools, along with new partner resources to arm its channel for next fall, are topping the company’s to-do list these days.

Michael Schmedlen, worldwide director of education for Lenovo, told CRN that the two hottest selling Lenovo products in the education space right now are the "ruggedized" ThinkPad x130e notebook and ThinkCentre M71z all-in-one desktop. But he also has noticed a growing interest in the company’s ThinkPad 10.1-inch Android tablet as an ultra-portable alternative for students.

"On the mobile side, we see a lot of customers experimenting with tablets, Android tablets," Schmedlen said. "Of course, the ThinkPad tablet includes a digitizer pen that can be enclosed back into the unit, so we’ve seen a lot of schools experiment with that, with installations ranging from 10 up to 2,000, and really looking at how mobility and how a tactile interface can improve learning outcomes."

Cleveland-based solution provider and Lenovo partner MCPc has also noticed an influx of tablets flowing into its education client base. "More tablets are entering the education space and we are seeing a rise in both shared devices and one-on-one learning," said Ira Grossman, Group President of Personal Systems, Lifecycle Management, at MCPc.

As schools' interest in tablets continues to grow, Schmedlen said Lenovo is initiating a number of studies and programs to arm itself and its channel partners with a more robust knowledge of end-customer needs.

Its Education Research Initiative (ERI), for instance, is a joint research program also supported by Intel and Microsoft intended to track one-to-one computing trends in both higher education and K-12 schools. In one study, Lenovo will provide ThinkPad notebooks and tablets to higher education students and faculty members and perform a "quantitative analysis" to determine which device was used more often, and for which tasks. The results of the study, Schmelden said, are due out the end of this semester.

Findings to date suggest that while tablet use is wide-spread in higher-ed institutions, they are used more as secondary rather than primary devices. Schmelden said notebooks are still the primary computing device used in colleges and universities because they are better suited for content creation – something prevalent in higher-ed curriculum – rather than consumption.

Tablets are more poised to become a main computing device in K-12 and especially elementary school because content consumption is more of a focus among younger students, he said.

Schmelden told CRN that most schools are still in the early adoption phase of tablets -- but the interest is definitely growing. "There is still a lot of experiments going on," he said. "There haven’t been these definitive roll outs yet, but we definitely expect them to start in the fall."

Next: What This Means For Partners

To help education partners prepare for this transition, Schmelden said Lenovo’s first goal is to help them more confidently navigate the massive number of mobile devices on the market today and be as vocal as possible when it comes to Lenovo’s mobile roadmap. The number of options for customers can sometimes be overwhelming, he said, so Lenovo partners need to be armed with the knowledge to step in and point them in the right direction.

As a partner, Grossman has found value in this approach. "Lenovo has provided a clear roadmap of their commitment to education and have published use cases that demonstrate the ThinkPad Tablet as a perfect fit for many schools," he told CRN. "The shift away from traditional PCs provides a unique set of challenges, but mostly opportunity."

Tablets or no tablets, Schmelden said solution providers in the education vertical face a unique set of challenges that Lenovo’s partner programs are designed to help them tackle.

"Education has some unique barriers to entry for our partner community. And one of those is being able to speak the language of education and understanding what a 'rubric' is and what 'pedagogy' is," he said. "I think that causes some anxiety with channel partners who are not sort of indoctrinated into the world of education."

What’s more, Schmelden said that competitive pricing and tighter budgets in the education space have made it more difficult for partners to make a high margin on hardware sales. End customers in schools also tend to have very niche or specific sets of needs they are looking to meet, which can sometimes make for a harder sell.

"They [education partners] need to be super responsive, and actually have a product to show. And it needs to be a product that they [end clients] are demanding," he said.

Grossman agreed. "One of the biggest challenges in working with education is continuously demonstrating value, identifying and helping craft a lasting strategic technology roadmap and competing with ever-shrinking budgets," he said.

To help education partners cope with the nuances of the education market, Lenovo has published an education kit on its partner network, where solution providers can go to explore the various roles within a school -- such as superintendents, principals, and teachers -- identify decision-makers, and map various Lenovo products to the wide range of needs expressed by clients.

Education Webinars, along with in-person seminars hosted by members of the Lenovo education team, are also available to partners.

Schmelden said further updates to Lenovo’s education program and product offerings are planned for this summer.