Summary

• Mark Benson has joined Lakeside Software as Channel Director EMEA, working with Global Partner Director David Whiting.
• The company plans a redesigned partner programme in early 2027, with greater emphasis on building services around SysTrack.
• Lakeside is targeting opportunities involving automated IT support, AI-capable hardware investment, and visibility into enterprise AI usage.

Lakeside Software has appointed Mark Benson as Channel Director EMEA as it broadens its distribution strategy and prepares a redesigned partner programme intended to turn workplace monitoring data into a wider range of managed IT services.

Benson will work alongside David Whiting, Global Partner Director, to establish relationships beyond Lakeside’s existing network of global systems integrators and major service providers. The company wants to engage additional distributors and specialist partners capable of developing their own services around its SysTrack digital employee experience platform.

The revised programme is expected to begin rolling out in early 2027, with changes to the partner portal, incentives, and technical support arrangements. Rather than focusing primarily on partner numbers, Lakeside intends to direct investment towards organisations developing commercial offerings that incorporate its software.

The approach reflects changes in enterprise workplace management, where monitoring device performance is increasingly connected to automation, hardware investment decisions, and the adoption of artificial intelligence tools across corporate systems.

Workplace data becomes a service proposition

SysTrack collects endpoint telemetry that IT teams can use to investigate device performance, application reliability, and the conditions employees experience when using workplace technology. Such information can help identify recurring problems before they generate substantial volumes of support requests.

For managed service providers, the commercial opportunity extends beyond making the software available to customers. Partners can use the information to establish monitoring services, support diagnostic investigations, and help organisations identify which changes are likely to improve the performance of their IT estates.

That requires processes for interpreting the data and acting on it. A monitoring platform may identify excessive application crashes or devices with insufficient resources, but resolving the underlying problem can involve configuration changes, software updates, or decisions about replacing equipment.

Whiting said: “Our focus is not simply on growing the number of partners we work with, but on building relationships that create meaningful opportunities for both our partners and their customers.”

Large systems integrators may incorporate SysTrack into established digital workplace contracts, while specialist providers could develop more focused services around support optimisation, endpoint diagnostics, or technology investment planning.

Such arrangements depend on partners having sufficient technical knowledge to interpret the measurements and distinguish between isolated incidents and problems affecting a wider group of users. The strength of the proposition will also depend on whether customers can connect identified problems with improvements in operational performance or expenditure.

Lakeside has described a UK telecommunications customer that used an established distribution relationship to accelerate engagement with the company rather than completing a separate vendor onboarding process. The customer has not been identified, and neither the value nor the scale of the resulting arrangement has been disclosed.

AI-capable PCs create investment decisions

One area of planned partner development concerns the growing range of PCs incorporating dedicated processors for artificial intelligence workloads. These devices may offer benefits where software can execute suitable functions locally, although their commercial value varies with the applications employees actually use.

Replacing a large device estate without understanding those requirements can create unnecessary costs. Some employees may work primarily with applications that gain little from local AI acceleration, while others could benefit from additional memory, processing capacity, or specialised hardware.

Lakeside wants partners to use SysTrack’s information about existing device performance and application use to support these decisions. Monitoring may help establish whether existing machines remain suitable, which workloads cause performance problems, and where a hardware change could provide measurable benefits.

The data does not establish the value of an AI PC upgrade independently. Customers still need to assess whether relevant software takes advantage of the new capabilities and whether any resulting productivity gain justifies the acquisition and support costs.

Microsoft Copilot and other enterprise AI subscriptions introduce a related concern. Organisations may purchase licences for broad groups of employees without knowing how consistently the tools are used or whether particular users obtain sufficient value from them.

Usage information can help identify inactive accounts and patterns of adoption, but the number of interactions with an AI application is not equivalent to a measured improvement in work. Reviewing investment therefore requires both technical information and evidence about the tasks the software supports.

Shadow AI requires wider controls

Another potential service area involves shadow AI, where employees use tools that have not been formally approved or assessed by their employer. Understanding which applications are accessed can help IT teams investigate possible risks to information governance and identify demand for services not yet provided centrally.

Endpoint telemetry can contribute to that process, although visibility into application use does not necessarily reveal which information has been submitted to an external system. Monitoring therefore needs to be considered alongside identity controls, data protection arrangements, web security, and organisational policies.

Automated diagnostics could also reduce the effort required to resolve common IT incidents. Lakeside is developing AI-assisted capabilities that use endpoint information to support investigation and recommend corrective actions, including integrations with established IT service management processes.

The effectiveness of such automation depends on its permissions and safeguards. A corrective action suitable for one workstation may create problems elsewhere if different applications or security configurations are in use.

Capgemini, an existing partner, has reported reductions of more than 50% in mean time to resolution for some organisations using SysTrack alongside its workplace services. The figure is a partner-reported outcome and should not be interpreted as an independently verified average across Lakeside’s customers.

Performance claims will carry more weight where partners can demonstrate comparable results over time, including the quality of resolved incidents, repeat failures, and changes in the volume of support work.

Distribution broadens across the region

Lakeside’s expansion includes agreements in the Middle East, where partner VaporVM is positioning SysTrack within its regional IT services offering. The company has also introduced a dedicated SysTrack Cloud region in India on Microsoft Azure, according to the supplied information.

Regional arrangements can support local service delivery and address customers’ requirements concerning infrastructure location, although they do not establish that all associated data remains within a particular jurisdiction. The relevant deployment architecture and contractual terms determine those obligations.

Benson previously led modern data centre alliances across EMEA and the Asia-Pacific region at Arrow ECS, and earlier held senior positions including Chief Technology Officer at Logicalis UK and Director of Marketing and Alliances at Roc Technologies.

Whiting’s career includes roles with digital workplace software providers Nexthink, 1E, Liquidware, and RES Software, giving Lakeside a leadership combination spanning distribution and specialist enterprise technology partnerships.

Benson said: “Our goal is to help partners build differentiated propositions around the challenges their customers are facing, rather than simply adding another technology to their portfolio.”

The redesigned programme will need to support partners developing those propositions through technical training, implementation guidance, and commercial incentives. The proposed changes have not yet been accompanied by disclosed partner recruitment targets or investment totals.

With the rollout scheduled for early 2027, Lakeside’s immediate task is to expand distribution without losing the specialist expertise required to make endpoint data useful. Partner adoption will provide an initial measure of progress, while customer retention and demonstrable improvements in IT operations will determine the longer-term value of the strategy.