Dicker Data has taken out Lenovo's Australian Distributor of the Year award, with Staples, Computer Alliance, Virtunet and Meridian IT all claiming key awards at this year's Lenovo ANZ Business Partner Awards.

Staples was named the vendor's Australian Partner of the Year, while Queensland-head quartered Computer Merchants was named Innovative Partner of the Year.

Brisbane retailer Computer Alliance took out the award for New Partner of the Year, with IT solutions provider Virtunet scooping up the Growth Partner of the Year trophy.

Meridian IT took out Lenovo's Data Center Group Partner of the Year at the annual awards which saw the winners honoured at a gala dinner in Sydney last week.

Lenovo says the winners were selected based on their ability to deliver innovative services, excellence in delivery and enablement of customers to realise cost efficiencies through best practice, increased turnover and improved productivity.

Margrith Appleby, Lenovo ANZ channel sales director, says the vendor's partner community is a critical part of the company's success in ensuring customers receive the best solutions and advice for their IT plans.

“These awards recognise our key partners for their excellence in the channel and are a way for us to reward our committed colleagues for their dedication in triumphing our products and services over the course of the year,” Appleby says.

Lenovo has been upping its data center play locally in recent months, following the signing of deal with Nutanix and Datacore, with Appleby telling ChannelLife recently that the data center market provides ‘a great opportunity' for the vendor and its partners.

She says the company wants to ‘own' the data center with its partners, something it plans to do by utilising partnerships with the likes of Nutanix, Datacore and SAP.

The company renamed its Enterprise Business Group to Data Center Group in March, highlighting its intent to increase its focus on the high-growth, high potential market.