Distribution Watch: A Round Table Discussion with Ingram Micro’s Brain Trust

One of the more fascinating portions of last week’s Ingram Micro ONE fall partner conference in Las Vegas involved a media-only discussion with several of the distributor’s key U.S. leaders.

Assembled around a large conference table inside an intimate meeting room at the Aria Resort & Casino were Paul Bay, group president, Americas; Kirk Robinson, senior vice president of go-to-market; Tim Ament, senior vice president for advanced solutions; Jennifer Anaya, vice president of marketing; Renee Bergeron, senior vice president of global cloud; and Holly Hartman Niedzielski, director of event marketing & partner communications.

During a free-flowing question and answer session with some of the channel’s top journalists, the executives riffed about everything from Ingram Micro’s market strategy to the future of cloud services marketplaces.

Here are a few highlights:

More aggressive investing – The pending closure of the Irvine, Calif.-based distributor’s $6 billion acquisition by Chinese conglomerate Tianjin Tianhai – expected by the end of this year – should result in a much more aggressive investment posture by Ingram Micro.

Paul Bay, group president, Americas

Paul Bay, group president, Americas

“They’ve proven by history that they make further investments (following acquisitions),” Bay, the Americas Group president, said of the prospective owners. “We’ll keep looking to make investments to fill the gaps that our solutions providers are facing.”

Lines blurring between telcos and traditional IT service providers – Ingram Micro is positioning itself to capitalize on the increasing hybridization of telecommunications services providers and traditional IT solution firms.

They cited as an example this year’s acquisition of telco Intelisys Communications by IT solutions provider ScanSource.

Part of the strategy calls for enabling service and solution providers with the tools they need to sell hardware and services, more like traditional vendors.

Ingram Micro is also pushing self-onboarding capabilities and other new technologies to drive cloud and automation marketplaces.

“They’re blending together,” Bay said. “The lines are being blurred and we know that’s the role we can play.”

Playing a role in every cloud transaction – Another key takeaway from the media mini-gaggle was the notion that Ingram Micro’s strategic philosophy is increasingly centered on bringing together various vendors and solution providers in support of a business outcome, rather than trying to jam Ingram Micro products down every customer’s throat.

In that “connection economy,” a vendor should seek to play some role in as many partner deals as possible, as opposed to focusing on sales of its own goods and services. 

Odin cloud automation platform – Toward that end, the Ingram Micro execs spoke glowingly about their expectations for the Odin Service Automation Platform, which enables partners to seamlessly select, add and manage services from the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, with automated provisioning and billing.

The purchase of the Odin technology from Parallel Holdings Ltd., was announced just over a year ago.

Renee Bergeron, senior vice president of global cloud

Of the world’s top 50 telecommunications services providers, roughly half are using Odin. Ingram Micro expects to extend adoption to increasing numbers of traditional IT solution providers.

“The Odin acquisition will dramatically increase cloud enablement among Ingram Micro partners,” said Bergeron, the recently appointed head of global cloud.

Marketing assistance – Ingram Micro is committed to helping partners develop and evolve marketing processes and messages that are appropriately targeted. 

“It’s about really getting the partners to understand who to market to and what the story is,” said Anaya, head of marketing. “It’s understanding that the buyer has changed. We’re not just selling to technology people. We’re selling to everybody.”

Jennifer Anaya, vice president of marketing

Jennifer Anaya, vice president of marketing

Critical to that, is ensuring partners have the right content for an effective digital content marketing strategy. Recently, Ingram Micro helped solution provider Juniper Networks to “crystalize” its marketing message, Anaya said.

“(Customers are) educating themselves long before the first phone call,” she said. “We’ve invested in a lot of digital content marketing for the two-tier (sales model).”

Big data – One question touched on whether big data analytics is a realistic practice area for most solution providers.

Tim Ament, senior vice president for advanced solutions

Tim Ament, senior vice president for advanced solutions

Ament, SVP for advanced solutions, responded that big data, indeed, presents a viable opportunity for partners going forward, but that the specialized offering remains largely aspirational for many solution providers. 

“It is a difficult discipline to get their heads around,” he said.

Investments in CRM result in greater insights – Ingram Micro’s recent investments in CRM technologies have given the distributor access to partner and end-user client data that is providing an 

Kirk Robinson, senior vice president of go-to-market

unprecedentedly clear picture into those relationships, go-to-market SVP Robinson said.

The new level of understanding into the conditions of solution providers and their customers will allow Ingram Micro to develop more appropriately tailored products and services going forward, he said.

Rebranded Trust X Alliance – With a new name and an increasingly proven track record, Ingram Micro’s Trust X Alliance appears to be hitting its stride.

The partner program formerly known as VentureTech Network, or VTN, facilitates collaboration by partners seeking to team up on deals in order to better provide comprehensive solutions to end customers.

Trust X Alliance boasts 367 worldwide partners, about 90 percent of which regularly team with other members to do deals.

During a recent period, Trust X Alliance members generated $1.1 million in business that they likely wouldn’t have brought in on their own, Ingram Micro officials said.

“At the end of the day, they want to go to market as a collective,” said Anaya, the marketing VP. 

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