Ingram Micro Seeks To Enhance Public Sector Program

The distributor made the announcement last week during its annual Partnership America conference in Anaheim, Calif. Nearly 300 solution providers from all over the United States attended the three-day event.

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Collins sees clear value to channel in government and education market.

"I'm very excited. We're going to take Partnership America to the next level," said Bob Stegner, vice president of channel development at Ingram Micro. One of the main goals is to transform Partnership America into "more of a reseller community" and tie in more with the group's Web site, www.partnershipamerica.com, he said.

The revamped program will help address "unmet needs" of government solution providers, generate and invigorate sales opportunities, and enable solution providers to effectively manage their day-to-day operations, according to the distributor.

While 2001 was a slow year for Ingram Micro and the rest of the industry, the distributor experienced 4.2 percent year-over-year growth last year in the government and education market, and expectations point to it as "a growing segment in 2002," said Ingram Micro executives.

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Revenue in the government and education market has nearly doubled since 1995, Ingram Micro said.

"[Government and education is the primary growth segment we had in 2001," said Pat Collins, senior vice president of sales at Ingram Micro. "It's a segment where the value to the channel is very clear." The entire government and education segment in North America represents about $100 billion a year, added Collins.

Gigi Canlas, inside sales manager at Los Angeles-based solution provider CorpInfo, sees value in Partnership America, especially in a slow economy. "It's educational and informative. With the economy bad, the only people that have money [to spend on IT are in the government," Canlas said.