Ingram Micro Looks To Expand VentureTech Network

Ingram Micro has spent the past 18 months expanding just about every facet of its business, from acquiring point-of-sales (POS) and home-technology distributors to building a stronger presence overseas. Now, the world's largest IT distributor is turning its attention to the growth of its most loyal and best-performing set of customers: the VentureTech Network (VTN), an exclusive group of more than 400 solution providers in the small and midsize business (SMB) market.

After integrating its Canadian and U.S. VTN programs last year to form a larger North American organization, the group now represents approximately $1.5 billion in IT spending, according to Ingram Micro. Earlier this year, the distributor launched a new training and certification organization for VTN members called University of VentureTech (UVT), which offers online and in-person classroom training and certification, as well as business education from leading sales and marketing consultants.

Now, Ingram Micro executives are emphasizing VAR recruitment, as the distributor looks to increase its membership as well as buying power.

"We're going to expand VTN. Recruitment is going to be a huge focus for us in 2006," said Justin Crotty, vice president of North American channel marketing at Ingram Micro, during his general session keynote speech at the recent VTN Fall Invitational event in Austin, Texas.

Several new VTN members were introduced at the event, and executives hope to bring aboard more VARs in the next year. The network is divided into regional chapters, and while some regions, such as the Lone Star chapter, have waiting lists to join, other chapters are working to grow their memberships.

The recruitment isn't just in North America, either. Ingram Micro's new CEO Greg Spierkel, who succeeded Kent Foster in June, told solution providers during the Austin event that the distributor is examining how to form VTN groups overseas.

"I wish we could transport [VTN] over to Europe and Asia. That's part of our challenge as a company over the next few years," he said.

VTN members, in particular, are helping the distributor advance its emerging-technology strategy by developing solutions around POS, consumer electronics and other areas, Spierkel said. In fact, the distributor will introduce technology practice groups throughout 2006 for its VTN and Ingram Micro Service Network members. For example, Nimax, Ingram Micro's POS subsidiary that was acquired last year, will launch a Data Capture practice group in the near future.

Vendor Boost

Vendors have played a key role, too, in expanding VTN. For example, the "Invest in the Best" program from Hewlett-Packard, launched during the VTN Spring Invitational event in Atlanta, has already yielded strong results, according to John Thompson, vice president and general manager of HP's Americas Solution Partners Organization. The program, designed to accelerate SMB sales for VTN members with discounts and other incentives, has helped 15 percent of the VTN membership increase their HP sales by 25 percent or better during the past six months, he says.

In addition, Thompson says another 40 percent of VTN members are tracking toward that same growth rate, and he expects some of those VARs to reach 25 percent before the program expires this fall.

"We're getting good traction in the SMB space with the VTN membership," Thompson says. "Areas like security, mobility and infrastructure-replacement solutions have been key."

Other vendors have driven business within VTN lately with similar efforts. Microsoft, for example, announced a pilot program for Windows Server 2003 Open License sales in which VTN members can earn between $50 and $150 per unit, depending on the version of the server software, if they grow their Windows Server 2003 sales by 10 percent or more. Ingram Micro also launched a separate VTN track for Apple Computer-authorized resellers.

One such Apple-authorized reseller--Webistix of Boynton Beach, Fla.--believes VTN delivers value beyond pricing deals and limited-time offers with vendors. Webistix CEO Vinny DiSpigno says being part of a large, cohesive network of like-minded SMB resellers gives each individual company more clout. Webistix joined VTN a year ago; doing so, DiSpigno says, has made it easier for the company to join Cisco's SMB Select program.

"For a small company like us to get a level of attention from a vendor that we wouldn't normally get is great," DiSpigno says. "It's a sound investment for us, because we save money in the long run."