Lakeside Software strengthens EMEA channel strategy with new leadership and partner programme. Mark Bowen 29 October, 2026 Lakeside Software has appointed Mark Benson as Channel Director EMEA as it expands its distribution strategy and prepares to introduce a redesigned partner programme, creating new opportunities for channel partners to develop services around Digital Employee Experience, AI adoption and IT optimisation. Lakeside Software is expanding its channel strategy across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), appointing Mark Benson as Channel Director EMEA and preparing to launch a redesigned partner programme early next year. The company, which specialises in Digital Employee Experience (DEX) technology, is seeking to broaden its partner ecosystem beyond established relationships with global systems integrators and major service providers. Benson will work alongside David Whiting, Global Partner Director at Lakeside Software, to develop additional routes to market through distribution and engage a wider range of channel partners. The strategy is intended to help partners develop differentiated services around Lakeside's SysTrack platform, which provides visibility into enterprise IT environments and supports the identification and resolution of technology-related issues affecting employees. The expansion comes as organisations increasingly seek to improve digital workplace performance, reduce IT support costs and understand the impact of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Distribution creates new routes to market A central element of Lakeside Software's strategy is the development of distribution-led partnerships that can simplify procurement and extend the company's reach into new markets. The company highlighted an example involving a major UK telecommunications provider that used an established distribution relationship to avoid a lengthy vendor onboarding process and accelerate its engagement with Lakeside. The approach is intended to make it easier for partners and enterprise customers to access SysTrack through existing commercial relationships. Lakeside is also expanding its international infrastructure and partnerships. Recent developments include the launch of a dedicated SysTrack Cloud region in India, hosted on Microsoft Azure, alongside new agreements in the Middle East. These developments are intended to support regional customer requirements while creating opportunities for partners to deliver DEX services in their respective markets. One of Lakeside's partners in the Middle East is VaporVM, which is working with the company to address growing demand for digital workplace monitoring and proactive IT support. Aqeel Asim, CEO at VaporVM, commented: "VaporVM is pleased to partner with Lakeside Software as demand for digital employee experience grows across the Middle East. Organisations here want to fix problems before they turn into tickets, and SysTrack gives us the data to do that. Combining Lakeside's technology with our in-region expertise, we're well placed to help customers move from reacting to issues to preventing them." The partnership reflects Lakeside's intention to combine its technology with regional expertise to help customers identify and resolve IT problems before they affect employee productivity. Experienced leadership supports channel expansion Benson brings experience in developing technology ecosystems, alliances and distribution partnerships. Before joining Lakeside Software, he served as Head of Modern Datacentre Alliances EMEA & ANZ at Arrow ECS. His previous positions also include Chief Technology Officer at Logicalis UK and Director of Marketing and Alliances at Roc Technologies. Whiting brings more than 15 years of experience in enterprise software and partner leadership, with expertise spanning DEX, end-user computing and enterprise Software-as-a-Service. His previous employers include Nexthink, 1E, Liquidware and RES Software, where he worked on strategic alliances and partner ecosystem development. Together, the two executives will focus on strengthening relationships with existing partners while identifying opportunities to extend Lakeside's presence through additional channel organisations. David Whiting, Global Partner Director at Lakeside Software, 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. "For global systems integrators and major service providers, that means understanding their existing services and identifying where SysTrack can strengthen and differentiate what they take to market. We want SysTrack to become an integral part of those solutions, supported by the expertise and insight Lakeside brings to the partnership." Partner programme redesign planned for 2027 Alongside the leadership expansion, Lakeside Software is redesigning its partner programme and portal. The updated programme is scheduled to launch in early 2027 and will introduce clearer objectives and incentives for participating partners. The company also plans to direct investment and support towards partners developing specialist expertise, generating customer opportunities and creating their own propositions around SysTrack. Rather than concentrating exclusively on increasing partner numbers, Lakeside intends to encourage partners to develop services that address specific customer requirements. These include improving digital workplace performance, supporting AI adoption and reducing the operational costs associated with IT support. Mark Benson, Channel Director EMEA at Lakeside Software, 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. That means identifying where SysTrack can deliver tangible value, whether that is helping customers plan their AI PC strategy, reduce IT support costs or gain greater visibility into how AI is being used across the organisation." AI PCs and Shadow AI create partner opportunities Lakeside Software sees several emerging opportunities for channel partners as organisations assess their digital workplace strategies. One area involves the adoption of AI-capable PCs. As businesses consider upgrading their device estates, SysTrack can provide information about employee workloads, device performance and application usage. Partners can use these insights to help customers determine which employees would benefit from AI-capable hardware and where existing devices remain suitable. This approach is intended to support more targeted investment decisions and reduce unnecessary hardware expenditure. Another opportunity involves IT service management, where SysTrack's diagnostics and automation capabilities can help organisations identify and resolve technical issues more efficiently. By using endpoint telemetry to detect problems before they generate support requests, partners can develop services focused on reducing IT support costs and improving employee productivity. The company is also positioning SysTrack as a tool for helping organisations understand the use of Shadow AI. This includes identifying which AI applications employees are using, assessing potential security and data risks, and measuring the utilisation of enterprise AI investments such as Microsoft Copilot. For channel partners, these capabilities provide opportunities to develop advisory and managed services around AI adoption, workplace optimisation and technology investment planning. Building services around employee experience Lakeside's strategy also focuses on helping major service providers incorporate DEX intelligence into their existing workplace services. SysTrack collects detailed endpoint telemetry that can be used to identify performance issues and understand how employees experience enterprise technology. Partners can combine these insights with their own consulting, support and managed services capabilities to improve customer outcomes. Capgemini is among the organisations using SysTrack as part of its digital workplace services. Komal Verma, Global Portfolio Director, Digital Workplace Products & Strategy at Capgemini, concluded: "At Capgemini, our goal is to transform experience data into meaningful business outcomes. Lakeside Software's SysTrack platform provides the deep endpoint visibility needed to understand what employees are actually experiencing, while our XMO and workplace services teams turn those insights into action. The combination helps customers improve digital employee experience at scale, with some organisations realising more than 50% reductions in MTTR as issues are detected and diagnosed far more quickly." The example highlights how DEX technology can be incorporated into broader service offerings to help customers improve IT performance and reduce incident resolution times. With nearly 30 years of enterprise IT experience, Lakeside Software is seeking to build on its existing technology and partner relationships while expanding its presence across regional markets.

Lakeside Software cited as a Leader in Digital Employee Experience Management by independent research firm. Lakeside receives the highest possible scores in 19 criteria, including Proactive Remediation, Vision and Adoption. BOSTON, Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Lakeside Software, developer of SysTrack, the digital employee experience (DEX) engineering platform, was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its Q4 2026 Forrester Wave(TM) evaluation, "The Forrester Wave(TM): Digital Employee Experience Management Solutions, Q4 2026." In this evaluation, Lakeside was cited as a Leader in Digital Employee Experience Management Solutions. The report evaluated 10 DEX providers across 38 criteria. Lakeside received the highest possible scores in 19 criteria, including 14 criteria within the Current offering category: * Data collection and coverage * Data querying, management, and retention * Integrations and APIs * Proactive remediation * Intelligent service automation * Cross-functional experience operations * Endpoint experience telemetry * Application experience monitoring * Synthetic monitoring * Experience correlation * Persona modeling * Root cause diagnosis * Remediation automation * Compliance validation Lakeside also received the highest possible scores in five criteria within the Strategy category: * Vision * Partner ecosystem * Adoption * Pricing flexibility and transparency * Supporting services and offerings In the report, Forrester states, "Lakeside's differentiated vision centers on site reliability engineering (SRE) principles to make the digital workspace measurable, resilient, and governed by service-level objectives." "We built SysTrack Reliability Engineering to give them that discipline, and we believe this recognition matters because it tells those teams their work..." "The Forrester Wave(TM): Digital Employee Experience Management Solutions, Q4 2026." "Lakeside's differentiated vision centers on site reliability engineering (SRE) principles to make the digital workspace measurable, resilient, and governed..." "I've spent almost 30 years working alongside the people who keep employees' devices running, and they've always known the experience deserved the same..." "I've spent almost 30 years working alongside the people who keep employees' devices running, and they've always known the experience deserved the same discipline as the data center," said Mike Schumacher, CEO, Lakeside Software. "We built SysTrack Reliability Engineering to give them that discipline, and we believe this recognition matters because it tells those teams their work belongs in the same conversation as the rest of IT." The recognition caps a year in which Lakeside was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Digital Employee Experience Management Tools, and a Leader in two categories of ISG's Provider Lens(TM) Evaluations for Digital Employee Experience and AI-Enabled End-User Computing Solutions 2026. In June, the company launched SysTrack Reliability Engineering, which brings site reliability engineering to end-user computing. At its center is the SysTrack Experience Index, which lets organizations define what good performance looks like for their own environment, then measure the employee experience against it and track improvement over time. To read The Forrester Wave(TM): Digital Employee Experience Management Solutions, Q4 2026, visit here. Forrester Disclaimer Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. This report is part of a broader collection of Forrester resources, including interactive models, frameworks, tools, data, and access to analyst guidance. For more information, read about Forrester's objectivity here. About Lakeside Software Lakeside Software is pioneering the future of digital employee experience (DEX) with the industry's first reliability engineering model for end-user computing. Lakeside's SysTrack platform transforms high-resolution, first-party telemetry into insights and automated resolutions for proactive IT operations and autonomous support - empowering enterprises to reduce downtime and deliver exceptional digital experiences across employee endpoints, mobile devices, and OT. Trusted by hundreds of global enterprises and service providers, SysTrack scales to estates with over one million physical and virtual workspaces, reducing IT costs, preventing failures, and driving smarter decisions through unparalleled visibility. Lakeside has a nearly 30-year heritage in enterprise IT software and was named one of TIME's America's Top WorkTech Companies of 2026. Learn more at www.lakesidesoftware.com.